Page 40 of Nope, No Regrets
Dakarys
Rajack and I probably both would have preferred knocking Wren over the head with one of the jade statues that were littered all over the palace, then stealing her place in the shower with Rei. We were patient, though, and Wren would kill us in our sleep if we tried that. Wren needed that just as much as we did, and we had our own unfinished business with the Aether Circle.
We said nothing to Rei, because there wasn’t much we could do about it. It just seemed like a lot to dump on her, even if it was something we could have bonded over. The truth was, we liked Rei, and would have done it anyway, but keeping the Aether Circle from killing her seemed like the only way we could stick it to them until we ended up in Hell.
I could wait to ravage Rei and feel those sharp little fox teeth biting into me until I settled some old scores with the Egyptian branch of the Aether Circle. Rajack felt the same. Neither of us should have been thrown in Scorchwood to rot until an inmate overpowered us or killed us in our sleep. We should have been given our freedom, instead of transferred to Silverhold.
The Aether Circle might be an unforgiving bunch, but sphinxes could hold a grudgeforever, and gargoyles could also wait for ages to get their revenge. Yeah, Rajack and I didn’t just want out of prison. We didn’t know how, but once we were free, we would have found a way to stick it to them.
I know Rei didn’tmeanto get caught at the museum, but sphinxes were a little like witches in that we believed everything happened for a reason. I didn’t have that particular gift, but a lot of sphinxes were powerful seers. One of my wives was one. She’d tried to warn me about getting that medicine to the hospital, and I didn’t listen because people were dying.
I enjoyed a long hot shower without an audience of rat shifters and got dressed. I’d say this for Sota, he was new to our group, and he’d never been in jail. He was pretty damn close to demon royalty here. He was still one of us though, so I wasn’t upset her parents chose him as Rei’s husband and that I’d have to share her with him.
Sota hadn’t just been supportive of anything Rei wanted. When Faust and Rei spent the night alone, Sota met with each of us to ensure we had everything we needed. He had someone measure us for clothing, and asked what our favorite foods were. He even let me know I wasn’t the only sphinx in Hell, and that there were gargoyles here too, for Rajack.
I’d missed being around my kind, but I liked the family I had now. I was given my freedom, but I hadn’t forgotten the centuries of horrific torment I’d endured in Scorchwood. I was there with plenty of people who deserved to be there, but there were also people like Rajack and me there, and there was the whole thing where they were framing Elementals. Rajack and I became killers to survive, but we couldn’t protect everyone. Some of those people got eaten alive… literally.
I was itching to get my revenge… finally, and I knew Rajack was, too. We’d spent too much time in prison, and watched too many people die. I had my freedom now, and I had Rei, but it wasn’t enough. Still, maybe I could have let it go and forgotten everything, but the Aether Circle couldn’t. They followed us here, and I had a feeling it was for more than just that grimoire.
We all met back in one of the few places we all knew where to get to in this massive place. We’d eventually be moving in with Rei, once they built the new, ultra wide bed, but right now, we were all staying in the various guest rooms. This entire palace was full of art, and I think we were all scared of breaking something and getting tortured.
Sota showed us to a room that totally didn’t fit with the rest of the décor in the palace. I think we were all much more comfortable in there than anywhere else. A massive television took up an entire wall, and there was a couch that could fit all of us with room for more.
They didn’t even remotely have this level of comfort at Silverhold, and it was new to some of us, but Rei’s dad was really into video games. This was his playroom. Sota liked them too, and bonded with her dad over shooting zombies. At least, that was what he told us. It could be fun.
I think all of us wanted to enjoy the fact that we could shower without wondering who was staring at our bits and filing it away for later, but we made it quick this time because it wasn’t over. Sota was already showered and waiting. How did he do that? He always looked immaculate, even after what went down at Scorchwood.
He opened a portal, and we were back at Bael’s, before I knew it. The king of Hell seemed totally chill, but he also scared the crap out of me. First of all, I didn’t even remotely know what kind of demon he was, but I imagined it was a terrifying sort if he was running things. He treated the Aether Circle invading his domain like an inconvenience he knew would be dealt with, but I really didn’t want to see him when he got pissed.
He was sitting at the head of this long table, which was filled with food, and was enjoying dining with everyone we had been in prison with. Solron was absent, and I imagined Sabrina wasn’t having a good go of things right now. Everyone was eating and laughing like the halls of Scorchwood weren’t full of blood and bodies.
“Ah, Sota,” Bael said, raising his glass. “Pull up a chair, enjoy the feast! Sabrina has spent her entire life avoiding proper torture, and now she’s alone with the best. We have been feasting and placing bets on how long she’ll go before she confesses her sins to Solron.”
We all sat down and started fixing a plate. This seemed like such a fucked up conversation to be having. Prison had turned me into something else entirely, but I wasn’t fully aboard the torture train just yet. The idea made me a little sick, even if Sabrina deserved some pain.
How did they even know she was telling Solron the truth? Wouldn’t she say anything just to make it stop? She wouldn’t betray her entire coven, surely… she probably thought they were on their way to rescue her. The Aether Circle was cunning, and they had gathered this power from all around the world.
“Sabrina wouldn’t have come here without a backup plan in place,” I said. “The Aether Circle is everywhere. They caused a plague in Egypt, and used their connections to block the hospitals from treating it. I used my black-market connections to get medication to the hospitals. They caught me then, and had enough power to throw me in Scorchwood for life.”
“They were in France, too,” Rajack said. “I came across one of them doing things you never do to a child. I tore him apart. The Aether Circle knew what he was doing, and they were actually trying to hide his deviancy. They came by to make sure the child didn’t talk right when I was trying to figure out how to hide the body.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Faust said. “Rei wasn’t the first time the Aether Circle tried to hire me to kill for them… they don’t leave loose ends. They don’t like anyone who stands up to them. You both should be dead.”
Yeah, we should be, but the Aether Circle doesn’t always like to get their hands dirty, and they definitely didn’t want my death or Rajack’s tied to them. I was mad about my Scorchwood sentence, but it was still poetic in a way.
“By the time I got caught, everyone in Egypt knew it was me that got the medication to the hospitals. Many people survived because of what I did. It wasn’t common knowledge that it was the Aether Circle that started that plague, because it didn’t present itself as a magical problem. If I disappeared or died, people would have looked harder into things. The Aether Circle members in the Egyptian government made sure I was in Scorchwood for life, and made it seem like they were cracking down on the black market. Really, they were just hoping I fucking died in there. Scorchwood prison records are pretty shitty. They probably didn’t care I got transferred to Silverhold, because they’d make damn sure none of my appeals went through.”
“The Aether Circle couldn’t kill me because of my family,” Rajack said. “Even now, they run one of the biggest import-export companies in the entire world! If they cut you off, no one will sell to you. You also never want to offend a gargoyle. When we are shifted, we are immune to magic and weapons. Gargoyles are endlessly patient when it comes to revenge. Humans carve our likenesses of us as sentinels to protect things for a reason. Honestly though, we don’t give a shit about their churches or houses, but we are fiercely protective of our families.
“The Aether Circle has been in power this long by knowing their enemies, intimately. It would have been easier for them to paint me as a madman who snapped one day, and never give me a chance to say what really happened than go against the gargoyles. You can’t communicate with anyone in Scorchwood. It wasn’t like my story had any way of getting out of that prison. Plenty of people tried to kill me, but it wasn’t like they could report back that they’d succeeded. Who is going to believe me now?”
“I do,” Faust growled, shoving a huge piece of meat in his mouth. “I hated you two shitheads for spending so much time with my mate at first, until I found out you had this entire criminal empire right under my nose and then I respected you a bit, even if I still wanted Rei as far away from you as possible. I would have killed you in your sleep if she wouldn’t have spoken to me again.
“You two have grown on me. I didn’t read your files when you got transferred, because you weren’t my responsibility, and I fucking hated all the paperwork that got thrown at me. You two dickheads never deserved prison. They should have thrown you a party and given you a medal. Wren is still an annoying psychopath… but we’re cool now.”
In Faust speak, that really meant we might as well be best friends now. That was also how Wren showed affection. I read between the lines of all that hostility and bravado. Faust and Wren liked each other, and they enjoyed flinging verbal barbs.
We were interrupted when Solron strolled in, covered in blood and twirling a nasty looking dagger she hadn’t cleaned. She kissed Bael on the cheek and got blood all over his face. He shot her this adoring look, then wiped his face with a cloth napkin.
