Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,21
my warlock. He was Helena’s familiar, and we were both helpless in the face of those ties.
“You’re hurt. Jenny!” he screamed. He wasn’t giving up. Bevan refused to accept it. “You can fight it. You just need to have the will. Concentrate on me. Damn it!”
But it didn’t matter. My body tumbled back and fell back into my old world, where I hit the floor and pain shot through me. I was in our living room in our house in St. Augustine and Bernard and his mother were both looking down at me.
“Get up,” Bernard growled. “Get up, you stupid toad. Why did you leave Mom alone, huh? Answer me, Jenny!” I struggled to my feet like I was a marionette and he was tugging my strings up. I wobbled, brushing my hair out of my eyes, and he hit me.
“Don’t hit her,” Mrs. Franch said behind me, in a small voice.
“She needs to understand that she can’t just leave you like that!” he shouted.
A lump rose in my throat. I wanted to cry. I felt so wretched. My hand was stinging from the oath I gave to Bevan, and I clenched my hand into a fist so he wouldn’t see the cut.
“I’m sorry I struck you,” Bernard huffed. “But you understand that it’s your fault for abandoning the family. What kind of girl would do something like that? You would just leave my mother all alone? Answer me. You got anything to say for yourself? No?”
“Don’t hurt Jenny,” his mother said.
“She isn’t Jenny!” he screamed at me. “Jenny would never hurt you like that. She’s a selfish little brat.”
Now his mother started to cry.
“Look, you made her cry,” he growled.
“Bernard, please…I’m sorry,” I said.
Then I hung my head in shame, as it all felt like before, only worse. I had ruined what little I had, and when I was faced with my warlock, I still felt a pressing desire to please him. But Bevan sounded so sure when he said I didn’t have to give him anything, and I wished I felt that was true, but what did I have of my own? If I didn’t give my love and attention to the Franches as I had done all these years, they would just take it from me. This, I now understood.
Chapter Nine
Bevan
“Jenny!” I screamed.
But she was gone. So no use screaming her name.
“Fuck,” I said instead, and kicked the wall. I didn’t usually curse like that, as I had a little streak of old-fashionedness, but it seemed like a good time to try it out. Feels about right.
My shoe dented the plaster. I sat on my bed, still warm from her body, and felt the covers with my hands, trying to hold onto that last bit of her.
I looked at the cut on my palm and then made a fist. I had never felt helpless like this, and it wasn’t a good feeling. I was very proud of my place in the world, but that feeling was slipping away from me now. I was starting to question that place. Helena and I were a good team, but she also didn’t need me that much, and I wondered how she would feel if I broke away from her.
I did make a promise to Jenny…
I sprung to my feet and started looking around, trying to think. Jenny said she lived in St. Augustine. That was an old witch town, but famously hostile to familiars, because of a taboo relationship that occurred there many generations ago. So if I went there…hmm. I really should pose as a warlock. I didn’t like the deception, but it was their fault for being assholes, wasn’t it? I was getting pretty worked up.
I still needed to ask Helena, though. I couldn’t just go. And when I thought of that, I wondered if I was asking as a friend or as a servant. I felt like a friend, but I had to ask her. She had to release me. So I was actually a servant, really, even if I had the respect and kindness of the person I served. I was realizing how messed up this was.
Of course, Helena was not to blame.
“I think I’m in love with Jenny.” I just told her. Actually, I wasn’t sure I knew what I would say until I was there asking if I could go after her, and I saw the look in my witch’s eyes, reflecting my feelings back at me.