Page 75 of The Demon's Delight
“Hailon, listen.” Sal put her hands up as though surrendering.
“I’m not done!” I shouted.
Sal jerked and scooted back, my hand now a claw around her throat, her pulse thrumming against my palm like a hummingbird. The lines in her face suddenly seemed more noticeable, her gray hair more pronounced. The glow I’d admired in her face had faded to sallow gray.
“I was so desperate to escape my situation that I pickpocketed a spell book from one of my captors. If he’d noticed, I could have been killed, but I had no other choice. Those pages held instructions for how to summon a demon. Turns out, that was the best risk I ever took.” I felt Seir’s hand on my shoulder, his tail slowly winding around my leg. “He got meback here as quickly as possible. Foryou.” I laughed then, the sound wild, unhinged. The inside of my body felt too light, too free. I was worried that I was very much not okay, but the notion was slippery, sliding away from my grasp as quickly as it came.
Finally, I released her throat. Sal coughed, looking as though she’d aged ten years since we arrived. “I guess you were right about one thing, though. We came back here for nothing.” I turned to Seir. “We could have stayed in that lovely little cabin for the rest of our lives. Lingered in the hot springs another day, wandered around those quaint towns in the Valley for a week. It wouldn’t have made any difference.” The concerned frown on his face made my head hurt. I sagged, all the strength I’d gotten from the anger gone.
Sal held her head up, meeting my eye. “For what it’s worth, I’m proud of the strong, capable woman you’ve become. I knew you’d be okay no matter what happened to you.”
For some reason, that hurt worse than anything else she’d said.
I roared, a feral sound of rage and agony that originated from somewhere beyond my physical body. Seir stood at my back, every muscle tensed, waiting for the slightest signal that I wanted him to act.
“Where are my things?” I asked when I could coherently form words again.
“Your room.”
“Do. Not. Move.”
I met Seir’s eye and communicated with a slight nod that I wanted him to guard her before moving through the house to the small room that used to be mine.
Dust motes filtered through the slant of orange afternoon light coming through the tattered curtain. The walls were bare. My bed was right where it had always been, but it was covered in a plain white cloth. There were no pillows, no blankets. Ithad been dressed for long-term storage, to keep the dust off, not for use. I supposed I should be grateful that she hadn’t moved in someone else yet. In the far corner of the room was a trunk and a couple of crates. It seemed a pitiful collection to represent someone’s whole life.
I went over to the pile of things, pulling out a book, a dress. My eyes were wet again, and my heart squeezed so hard I could hardly breathe.
After having survived out of a pack for so long, I was surprised and disappointed that none of it brought me any sentimental feelings at all. It was mostly useless garbage.
I dug around in the trunk for the few items of clothing I knew I’d regret leaving. My old boots had been taken from me by my kidnappers, and the knife I always used for plants had ended up somewhere in the woods, which still made me sad.
I went through the crates, taking out my books, a small jewelry box. I looked through the piles once more before deciding I had everything of value. It was a sad little collection, but all the other things could be replaced. I wrapped everything in my wall tapestry and looked around one last time.
“I owe you no kindness,” Seir snarled at Aunt Sal as I came back into the room. “You’re lucky to still be breathing.”
“I took everything I want,” I said, putting the bundle inside my pack. “Burn the rest or sell it. Makes no difference to me.” I turned to Seir. “What did she ask you?”
“The secret to demon summoning,” he answered, crossing his arms. “If we happened to still have that little spell book.”
“I’ve just been trying for so many years,” she lamented, appealing to my pity. Unfortunately for her, I no longer had any. “I made myself crazy trying any method I could find. None of the books or pamphlets had it right. Nothing worked. But you managed it! You!” She scoffed, as though I were some inept fool for whom such a thing should have been impossible. “If I’d beenable to do that, been able to bring your mother back, I wouldn’t have been so desperate. Things could have been different! I wouldn’t have been driven to do such a thing?—”
“Are you saying my mother”—my vision narrowed, the overwhelming emotions of the visit rising again from where they’d finally settled—“was a demon?”
“Not full-blooded, no. Her mother was a demon, or that’s what she was told. But I always hoped it would work, if I could have managed to figure out the right way.”
Sal rose and retrieved a small notebook from her bookcase. “This is what she left for me, when I took Hailon in,” she said, showing us both a worn piece of parchment. “For all the good it did me.” The whole page was written in a language I couldn’t read, signed with what looked like a sigil. Seir reached out and took the paper, scanning it with a frown before putting it in his pocket. He just stared Sal down when she opened her mouth to protest. Sal accepted the loss. “Her name was Wyn. I loved her. And I did my best to honor the promise I made her.” She nodded, convincing herself that there was truth in those words.
I turned for the door.
“Moonflower?” Seir asked, a perplexed look on his face.
“I traveled all this way, terrified I’d get here to find her gravely ill or already dead. The reality is honestly so much worse.” I laughed again, the sound humorless and edged with anger. “This kind of betrayal… I don’t even have words for it. But I won’t do to her what she did to me. I’m better than that.”
“I’m not,” my demon was quick to respond.
“I need you to be. For now. She lives. For now.”
He huffed a breath, showing her his teeth one more time before turning to grab our packs. “I will honor this command because you gave it. And because it is onlyfor now.”
