Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,27

his huge hand to my scalp and said, “You will come to my side, through your bond to this man, Jenny.”

Nothing happened.

“Maybe the bond isn’t as strong as you thought,” the demon said.

Jenny…please come to me. I need to see you again. I swear I’ll protect you. I tried to reach across the realms and connect with her. I refused to believe this was the end of us.

A different name entered my mind in response.

“Celeste,” I said softly. “Celeste!”

“Ah!” Jenny suddenly appeared in my hands, in her toad form. She looked at me, and then she looked at the demon, and then she cowered. “Bevan? Bevan, what’s happening?”

The demon, meanwhile, had jumped back several feet and was staring at her. “What the hell is that!?” he said. “You said a girl! And that’s—that’s—”

It sort of seemed like he was afraid of toads.

Chapter Twelve

Jenny

There are a few dozen true wizard communities in North America, defined by the thin veil between worlds that allows magic to work properly. Several are parallels—towns inhabited by ordinary humans, but where belief in magic remains strong enough that a magical person in the know can slip through a gateway and find an almost duplicate version of the town, populated entirely by witches. While many people think Salem is the oldest, it was actually my small hometown on the northeastern coast of Florida.

Familiars were very important in St. Augustine, and the town was even guarded by two rare clan familiars in the forms of lions who watched over the bridge between the mainland and the island, but there were also extensive rules forbidding familiars from joining in any part of wizard life. We weren’t allowed to eat a bite in restaurants or address other wizards besides our own. All this was due to a huge scandal in the 1800s where a witch fell in love with her familiar and they committed a murder together. Their love was blamed for their crime, but I had some sympathy for them. St. Augustine was run by a handful of powerful families who were quick to spurn lesser witches who didn’t kiss up to them. Ernestine Franch, Bernard’s mother, was already on their bad side when Mr. Franch and Jenny died, but it only got worse after that. Because the town elite already hated the Franches, they seemed to take some glee in his death, and Mrs. Franch withdrew from the friends she still had.

All this made it so hard for me to hate them for all these years, but this was the first time I had anyone else to care about.

“Never do that again!” Bernard was screaming at me. “Do you hear me, Jenny? Mom needs you!” His voice lowered. “You are Jenny to her now. If you’re not here to take care of her, she’s just going to be all alone in the world and she’ll probably die of despair. Is that what you want?”

“Bernard…why doesn’t she leave St. Augustine, then?”

He grabbed my arm roughly. “Where is she supposed to goddamn go, huh?”

“You’re hurting me!”

“I know I’m hurting you,” he growled, with a look in his eyes like he actually hated me. It made my stomach wrench.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, but I didn’t feel at all better for saying it. “If I was the real Jenny, would she keep me locked up and make me clean the house and have no other life at all?”

“Of course not,” he said.

“But…”

“You don’t need all those things. You’re a toad.” Still holding my arm, he dragged me up the stairs and physically threw me into my bedroom—Jenny’s bedroom. He slammed the door and locked it with the old skeleton key. “I don’t know what to do with you,” he said, and I heard his fist hit the door. “But if you leave again and go to the magical realm, I’ll…I’ll curse you.”

I sat on the bed choking back tears.

Bevan…will you still come for me here?

I couldn’t imagine he would go that far for me. He would be in danger here.

After a few moments of struggling with a terrible mixture of grief, anger and guilt, I swallowed heavily and realized there was a gathering outside with a lot of increasingly loud voices.

I looked out of the crack between the curtains.

A group of wizards was bunched together in the middle of the street. A few more joined the group every moment. Then I saw Madame Solano approach. She was carrying a parasol, her pristine white hair coiled up under a decorative hat with a