Page 81 of Chained to the Devil's Daughter

“And I was hoping to ask, would you take another look in the garden to see if any remain?” Her voice trailed off as she searched my face. “If I can replicate it and use it in a serum, I could inject seed spots all along the rings. With this!”

She pulled a sword from her back. Well, part sword, part surgical needle, with an empty canister as a hilt. I cringed.

“Your creations are getting morbid, my friend.”

“There’s nothing macabre about growing crops.” Her bright smile shone with pride. “So, do you mind?”

“I’ll take another look.”

She grinned. “Well. Would you care to see how it works?”

“Even without the pines?”

“Well, how itwillwork. As soon as you get me the ingredients.”

I harrumphed and followed her lead. At the sight of the short, mad scientist stabbing Hell in the dirt with a sword-slash-needle thing, I bit my tongue to keep from howling with laughter.

“There’s something else,” she said after a while, wiping sweat from her brow. She unsheathed a dagger made of bones of the Forgotten Ones, handing it to me for inspection. It was plainly crafted, with a tiny bone at the upper crossguard. “Give this to Searra. I mixed the pheromones of a very special beetle species with your void magic, and filled the bone marrow cavities with it! If she turns that little bone clockwise, it’ll give offa sickly sweet scent you’ll be able to smell from great distances. And it’s dusted with poison, obviously.”

“Wow, Geysis,” I breathed, twirling the dagger between us. She’d taken my comment about a dagger never being just a dagger as a challenge. “Beetles?”

“These beetles, to be precise. Oh! Take this,” she thrust a vial with a vividly colored beetle crawling around into my free hand. “I call it the tooty booty. Take it in case things get ugly. Don’t let it loose unless you want heads to roll.”

43

Ash’ren

On my treasure hunt for Geysis’ pine needles, I fucking trotted through the garden with an easy smile. I loved my Firefly freely, out in the open. We shared common friends under sunlight, no longer a hushed three-way between us and the starry sky.

In the first few months of my freedom, I’d settled into my role by sorting my mind into boxes. I’d feared being too broken to help Searra take her throne. Or worse, breakingherin her time of need. I thought she needed me strong. Unbreakable. I was afraid that the tumbling bricks of my fortress would bury her under their pressure. With every brick she crumbled, both of our flames grew stronger.

Now, here I was, waltzing through the gardens of Hell, the dust-free sky as clear as the metaphorical one behind my eyelids. I watched thoughts float by and knew we could survive them, together.

The universe was determined to test that theory. The condition of our beloved dragoncherry tree had worsened. A tiny vine with little specks of purple had coiled around the base. Between the vines were dozens of blisters.

“No, no,” I mumbled and approached the tree as one would a dying friend. I touched the lowest branches gently, ducking under its leaves to reach the trunk. The rot stuck to my finger like sap, but goopier and hot as Hell’s asshole.

I traced the vine around the trunk, my fingers snagging over each pimple-like bump. Near the bottom, the raised bumps turned a darker shade of purple. At the spot where the root of the tree sank into the soil, the vine continued across the ground like a snake. I followed it under a bench until something pricked my finger.

“Ouch!”

I recoiled. A purple pine stuck out from my skin. I squinted and plucked it from my finger. They weren’t pine needles at all. They were long, sharp as fuck thorns. To my knowledge, there were no thorned plants here than the roses.

Tripping to stand, I hastened to the place where Searra had buried the flame raven’s seed. A tiny, unopened white flower bulb the size of my fingertip grew from the soil. Black tendrils snaked away from it, grasping nearby plants in a vicelike grip. They all had little boils of rot on them. Purple thorns grew along the vines. Where the vines were strongly formed, the thorns were pricklier than the strong-willed cacti that survived the barren desert, as opposed to those further down the line, where they were weak and perfectly resembled pine needles.

“What the fuck?”

Before I could evaluate further, I heard a muffled cry deeper in the maze-like gardens, followed by the scuffling of boots in dirt. I didn’t have to hear the rumbling sound of a deep, angry voice to know what I would find. Light on my feet, I stalked my prey.

“You stupid little bitch,” Fuegis spat at a cowering Fara. “Not that it matters anymore. Devil knows where to find you andyour family. He’s coming. Nothing I can do to stop him now. You should have kept your end of the bargain.”

“I did, Fuegis! You know I did!” the woman sobbed desperately. “Please, don’t let him hurt them.”

Fuegis laughed, low and evil. “Like I could stop him even if I tried.”

“Fuegis, please. Please! You know I did as you asked!”

“Your pathetic tries don’t count. You accomplished nothing.” Fuegis batted her hands away as they grasped for him, his right hand closing around her throat. “Pathetic, useless female.”

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