Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,20
that I fixed my eyes on sometimes. I always wanted to touch that lock of hair for some reason.
I love him, I thought. I don’t know if I should, but it doesn’t matter. I just do. I love him in a way I’ve never ever loved Bernard. I wish he was my wizard instead.
He was talking to me about the spell, just saying practical words in his everyday tone, and it was so simple and felt so right and I loved every moment of it. He was saying something offhand about Helena. She had saved my life, Helena…but when he mentioned her it spoiled the moment.
“You must really love this witch of yours.”
He paused. “I do love Helena…but she also loves me. She trusts me, but she doesn’t lean on me when she can get things done herself.” He added, “I’m usually alone. I like it that way.”
“I see.”
“Well,” he amended. “I don’t mean…I like being alone all the time. Just that Hel and I don’t really need each other that much. We’re adults.”
“I always thought Bernard needed me,” I said. “But…I’m starting to think it was different than I thought it was. That needing someone…has to go both ways, to some extent. Do you think?”
“Absolutely,” Bevan said without hesitation. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a familiar or a wizard. You can’t just demand that you need someone without giving something in return.”
Bevan let me know, in those simple words, that he would never expect me to return to Bernard. He didn’t see me as a servant, or think I had any duty to him. His words freed me as much as any spell could.
I was swept by a need for this man that I didn’t want to deny. I reached for his hands. I wanted to touch his skin and feel how warm he was. When he took them, I went farther. I put my arms around his waist and embraced him, because I wanted to stay here with him. “I’m scared that I might be forced to go back.”
He moved his hands to my shoulders. “If you are forced back…I’ll come and get you.”
That was when I knew—it wasn’t just me. He felt something too, and he wasn’t just being nice. Warmth flooded my skin down to my soul at his touch. So this is how it feels when someone wants to protect you…
“We can enter into an official apprenticeship so I can teach you how to cast spells. And we’ll make it a blood agreement. But then you have to do as I say for seven years,” he said, trying to look a little more aloof, almost teasing.
I hoped he wasn’t teasing.
I couldn’t imagine Bevan would ever ask me to do anything that I didn’t very much want to do.
“I will!”
He grabbed a knife from the counter and made a thin cut in his palm, then handed it to me. We clasped hands to make a blood oath, and my body felt like a flame, hot and trembling. “You’re my apprentice now,” he said. “I’ll teach you Ethereal magic, and because we have this bond, I’ll be able to find you and have at least some claim to you. If the worst should happen.”
People often marvel at coincidences and strange moments of timing, but there’s a reason they happen. The world is full of patterns, of little winks and tricks and gifts that come from the universe; at least, I think so. This was one of them, but it felt more like an awful trick than a gift.
I suddenly felt Bernard calling me across the worlds, and the call was so strong that it seized up my body and threatened to pull me away from Bevan, no matter how hard I fought. I tried to fight, of course. I started thrashing like I was working against a tide, trying to hang onto Bevan, but the call grew stronger. I heard his furious voice.
Jenny! Jenny, come home to me now!
I screamed, digging my fingers into Bevan’s rolled up shirtsleeves. “I’m being called back!”
“Shit. Shit! Jenny, look at me. You have to resist. We have a bond now so focus on that. Just in the nick of time.”
Our bond was nothing compared to the warlock whose life had always been bound with mine. “You know I can’t refuse his call…Bevan, I’m sorry…I’m sorry…you’re sweet but you’re still just a familiar…,” I sobbed, because right now I did feel like a useless toad. I was just a familiar too. Bevan wasn’t