Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,30

me now.”

I was well pleased by the way the color drained from her face and left her skin with a cast that was almost green, and she trembled, glancing toward Bevan through her pale brown eyelashes, but without quite meeting his eyes. She was angry at him, perhaps, for putting her in this position, and anger was a tasty emotion in my poor, bound souls.

Then she turned to me and met my eyes directly, planting her feet, suddenly looking like she was shaking it all off. The color even rushed back into her cheeks. “Well, then,” she said. “Maybe this isn’t so bad. I didn’t think Sinistral would be so pretty.”

“We’re not in Sinistral,” Bevan said, verging dangerously close to amused. “This demon got himself banished to Etherium. He can’t go home. So I’m taking him to my place.”

“Oh!” Jenny said. “Even better!”

“It will be short lived,” I said. “I will find the path back home, and you will both be dragged there to spend the rest of your days, never to see the sun again through the mists that shroud the fen…” As I spoke, I was struck by a pang of homesickness.

Bevan glanced at Jenny, and they seemed to communicate wordlessly, as if he somehow told her not to be afraid of me with one neutral glance. I wasn’t sure how this was done, and it enraged me. She was not his toad. She was mine, but I would never marry her, not a creature so beneath me. They would be my slaves long after I found my way home.

Chapter Fourteen

Bevan

We walked for an hour or so through the forest before we reached my cottage.

“Oh, we were so close!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Everything in Etherium is close, if you want it to be,” I said. “You don’t know that?”

“Hmm…you mean, it was only close because it’s your house? It never gets too far away from you?” Her eyes were lit with curiosity. I couldn’t believe a familiar didn’t know the way her own world worked, but she looked too delighted for me to feel sorry for her.

“Exactly. So you do understand,” I said. “Home is never far away, unless you think it ought to be. In the magical world, our minds have control over a lot more of the rules.”

“Ohh…does that work for other things too?”

“Of course. And the fact that you don’t already know this…makes me hope I meet your warlock again someday so I can tell him what I think of how he’s taken care of you.” I had only briefly laid eyes on Bernard, but now I wanted to have it out with him.

I was thinking about this quite a lot myself, knowing that if I didn’t want Lord Variel to rule me, I would have to maintain a strong will, to keep a balance between us. I had a goal now, to rescue my fellow familiars and set them free. If Lord Variel had a goal, it seemed to be just returning to his home. If my will to achieve my goal was stronger than his, I would have a better chance of drawing power from him.

Throughout the walk, Lord Variel kept striding ahead, but he had to keep me in sight. He would have to force himself to slow down and match pace with our normal-sized legs. I could tell he was now itching to show his dominance of my house, and the house hardly seemed prepared for a power struggle. It was only ever meant for me, just a little postage stamp of a house in the corner of the enveloping forest.

“This is your house?” he said. “A peasant’s hut?”

“You’re free to keep walking,” I said. “See if you can find something better.”

He tried the doorknob, rattling it.

“It’s locked,” I said, arching a brow. “I’m not sure it likes you.”

“Then open it,” he said through his sharp teeth.

I flicked a hand at the door. It popped open. He had to duck to get inside. “It has but one room?” he said.

“It’s really two,” I said. “I just don’t need doors when it’s only me.”

I came up behind him. His horns scratched the ceiling. His body looked oversized for the house, which I had to admit, made me feel scrawny even though I was a very respectable six feet (or five foot eleven and a quarter) myself. No matter how small he made me feel, or how irritated I was that he was invading my house like he owned it, I had to keep my