Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,25
once, and…
The other demon smiled at me the moment I lost my firm hold on him.
“Bang,” he whispered through his strained throat. “I got you.”
Something came over me, a feeling as if my insides were being twisted outward, and my entire world was going upside down. I took a step back, quickly letting go of him. I wasn’t in any actual pain, I realized, but this feeling was even worse than pain.
“What are you doing to me?” I yelled.
“I moved your soul into Etherium and blocked off your routes to Sinistral,” the demon said. “Permanently. You’ll either have to learn some angelic habits or I don’t think you’ll enjoy yourself.”
What?
I could not believe these words of insanity. Moved…to Etherium?
“Who ever heard of a devil being banished upward?” I spat the words.
I refused. I could not go to Etherium, that land of order and platitudes and high-and-mighty angels. In a fury, I turned on the warlock who summoned me. “You brought me here. You didn’t tell me I would have to deal with…”
“Lord Abiron the Gatekeeper,” the other demon introduced himself. “I know it doesn’t sound quite as menacing as Lord Variel the Devourer; however…”
“You can serve me in the next world on your hands and knees!” I snarled at the warlock. I grabbed his arm and bit his hand off. Hands were rather crunchy with all those little bones, but it was certainly better than stone, and it was an easy target. Once I ate a piece of his body, I could suck out his soul in one go. It came out in a sad, gray plume like the smoke of a dying fire. This was all his fault. If I had to go to Etherium, at least I would use these men. They were both Ethereals, after all, so they would be right at home, and they could make me a home, guard me and serve me. I would make them all pay, and I would be a blight on the land of Etherium. I grabbed their bodies and left in a huff.
Despite all this, I still expected to return to my home, to see my own castle, and my horse, and my fen.
Instead, I found myself standing in a sunlit field that stretched for miles to a distant forest and hills, surrounded by wildflowers and butterflies and singing birds. Not a screeching crow in sight.
I dropped the two unconscious bodies on the ground.
“Fuck.”
Chapter Eleven
Bevan
“Urgh…” I returned to life as if I had died. I felt like shit. I was staring at some daisies, and a bumblebee, and tilting my eyes a little, a blue sky with puffy clouds. I heard furious muttering behind me.
Oh, crud…it’s starting to come back. The demon, and the covenant, and…
Where the hell am I?
I stood up, shaking it off. An absolutely vicious looking demon was pacing around, cursing up a storm under his breath, swinging a stick back and forth and whacking flowers from their stems. When he saw me he immediately stopped and pointed at me.
“You,” he said. “You are now bound to me, and must serve me for the rest of your days. I am in need of shelter. This is your world, isn’t it? I would like you to seek out a place to stay the night. If there is night, in a place so glaringly bright as this.”
“Of course there is night,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to say to the rest.
I felt an immediate connection drawn between me and this demon, much like I had with Helena. I was afraid I might have lost my connection to Helena forever. She let me go so I could help Jenny, but now…
Something unplanned and horrifying had happened. I now understood that I was bound to Helena because of the covenant, written in stone. Somehow or other, hundreds of years ago, my ancestors had become bound to wizards. Now this demon had devoured my covenant and I was bound to him instead. I wasn’t sure what became of Jenny.
With Helena, I felt not so much bound as connected. There was always a balance to magic. This could work both ways. No way was I just going to do whatever this demon wanted for the rest of my life.
Still, he seemed very powerful. The ability to consume souls was some arcane gift. This demon must be an ancient power, from a time when humans whispered horrible stories of magic to each other and believed them.