Page 67 of Demons of Eden

“He tried to make me feel fucking sorry for him,” I quickly blurt, finding I’m unable to stop the rest of the words tumbling out now I’ve begun. My emotions are swinging wildly between anger and distress. “He abducted me, then he had the audacity to try and gainmysympathy!”

“He wanted your sympathy?” Daion sounds surprised at that, though I hardly blame him. It had dumbfounded me too. He’d already been the one in control, so what did he have to gain from the manipulation?

“Obviously, he denied it, but why else would he have told me his sob story? He must have thought if I empathised with him, I’d be easier to manipulate or something. It was horrible.”

I try not to cringe at my abject failure to keep the whole experience nicely tucked away in its designated box. The one I’m picturing hiding somewhere, way in the back of my mind. At least I didn’t let the allusions Paimon had made towards using me to create more hybrid children slip out. I have a strong feeling none of the guys would take that information very well.

“Did it work? I can’t imagine you feeling bad for that bastard.”

“It didn't make me feel badfor him.There’s no excuse or justifiable reason for the fucked-up shit he’s done. I wouldn’t forgive anyone for trying to steal my child and risking their life by putting me in that…that thing. It was just awful in general,what he said. If it is true, it’s probably one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. It feels that way to me right now, anyway.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“But you want to know,” I reply, surmising as much from his tone.

“It might be useful. Whether he’s lying or not, everything we know about him could help in our understanding of him, and that could help us protect you. Still, you don’t have to repeat it if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine. I can say it. He said…he said he’d had a hybrid child before, but that the mother killed them,” I explain hesitantly. I place a hand over my stomach and mentally will the unborn baby inside of me to understand what I’m saying will never happen to them. “It was the implication that I'd do it, that I’d hurt my child if he wasn’t there to stop it. I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—but I just kept thinking about how bad it must have been for her to think there wasn’t another choice. I still can’t get my head around it.”

Daion is silent for a long moment before quietly asking, “Did he give any details?”

“None that I can be sure are true. All of it was pretty terrible.”

It had sounded like he believed what he told me, but evil people can sometimes truly buy into their own bullshit narratives. So maybe the same goes for evil demons too?

“Tell me anyway?” he prompts, and I only half notice it’s hardly louder than a whisper this time.

“Well, he said she killed her son because she hated him, and that she rubbed it in basically. She was apparently repulsed by him being half-demon, and how it changed her too, but also that she waited until he was five to do it. The idea of her killing her newborn was awful enough, but how could you end the life of a child you’ve already raised for five years? It doesn’t make sense. Why would she have tried to raise the kid for so long ifshe truly hated them?” I pause, letting myself think over some of the things I considered about his story while trapped in the cell. The search for a better answer, one to stop me from feeling entirely cold. “I can imagine a world in which she’d have done it to protect them. Maybe she didn’t hate her child but thought that being taken by Paimon would be worse than death for him.”

“She didn’t.”

“Didn’t what? Hate them or think being taken by Lord Piehole would be worse than dying? Because trust me, I think the second really has—” My words cut off as I look back at him, seeing the tense way he’s now sitting and how his dark eyes look almost unfocused. Concern floods my emotions despite my confusion. I rest a hand on his shoulder, trying to bring him back into the moment from wherever it is he’s gone. “Daion?”

“She didn’t kill them.”

It’s said absolutely, without a shadow of doubt.

How could he…?

“She didn’t kill me,” he amends, and I feel like a bus slams into me at the reveal. “I also like to think she didn’t hate me. Though she did hate the demon powers I inadvertently gave her. That much is true.”

“You—but he said he felt the child’s death,” I argue, not wanting to believe it. I rack my brain for more evidence, only puzzling myself further as the points stack up on both sides of the argument. “You can’t…you’re a witch. Your little crystal detector thing would be going off all of the time if you were half-demon!”

“What he felt was likely the result of her sealing off my abilities before they could fully develop. It’s also what stops the detector from flagging my presence; there’s no demonic energy for it to pick up on when it’s shut off.”

“I don’t—” I cut off, falling silent. Everything I know about Daion, every memory and moment we’ve shared, it all flashesthrough my head. How we met, the way he helped far beyond any expectation I had, and all the things he’s told me. Some of it, a lot of it, seems to take on an entirely new meaning now I know his secret. “The witch you told me about, the one who accidentally drained her family while pregnant…” I trail off, unable to finish voicing the question.

If I can’t bring myself to ask the first question, how am I supposed to get through all of the others I now have?

“She was my mother,” he confirms after a moment, his voice unnaturally flat. “Her name was Althea.”

“Have you always known what you are?” I force myself to continue with the questions, knowing this isn’t something that can be set down for another time. It’s too important and has too much of a potential butterfly effect on the rest of our interactions, both the ones before now and onto our future.

“For most of my life,” he answers, still just as flat. “It wasn’t fully explained at first. I was just told I was different and that we had to be careful because of it. After she died and the Fletchers took me in, they explained more and told me what I was…that I was half-demon. I don’t think I really grasped the full depth of the situation until I was a teenager, though.”

I nod, accepting the answer and mentally switching tracks to ask some of the more tense questions. Well, the ones that could possibly change how I see him, anyway. “Did you know who Paimon was this whole time?”

“You mean, did I know he was the fucking monster who killed my mother and provided half of my DNA? No, I didn’t.” Daion pauses to take a deep breath in and out, seeming to release some of the anger this has brought up for him with an ease I can’t help but envy. That level of emotional control is beyond me, especially while under the influence of all these insane hormones. “I just knew they were a powerful iracae.Everything you said, though, all of the details line up with my own life. It also feels like the truth now I’m saying it.”

---