Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,9

that were just the right length for a man. “I don’t know if anyone has ever laid it out for you, Jenny, but your job is to teach your warlock magic and protect him from magic. That’s it. You don’t owe him anything else, and if you’re being kept from learning and using magic and forced to be a maid, then you should walk out. This is not cool. I had no idea there were wizards who forced their familiars into servitude, and now that I know—I’m going to help you. So just stay here. I’m going to go tell my witch what havoc she’s been wreaking, and you try to relax.”

“O—okay,” I said, almost breathless as he vanished.

Bevan was just an ordinary familiar like me, I guessed. But he seemed more like a hero from a story. I just stumbled into his yard and in five minutes he made me feel like I could do anything. Like I could leave that house, and study magic, and have a life of my own, and that he would protect me from the Franches. I never realized how much I wanted to be protected from the Franches until that moment.

Besides that, he left me practically swooning. A girl as isolated as me can’t handle this much beautiful man all at once, I thought.

I hopped around the counter, which in my toad form was like its own world, looking at all the work he had left behind. All the kitchen and garden tools and half-chopped herbs and vegetables made me think about his hands capably doing all this work.

A chipmunk familiar peered in the door, which he had left open. “Did Mr. Bevan leave?”

“Yes, he said he’d be back.”

“What a wonderful little house!” the chipmunk said. “Did you have a house in Sinistral?”

“No. I didn’t know that I could. I never spent much time in the magical realms…”

“Me neither! My warlock would get so angry if I did.”

I nodded. Wow. She understands, too. I thought she sounded a lot older than me, like she might be in her forties or fifties, and that seemed especially strange. I never imagined myself still being a caretaker to Mrs. Franch in thirty years, but she probably would still be alive. So what did I think was going to happen?

“I just hope I don’t have to go back,” the chipmunk said, clutching her tiny paws together. “That would be very bad. I’ve been gone a whole day.”

“Yeah…”

The skink poked his head in behind the chipmunk. “You don’t think—we would have to go back…do you? Master Bevan seemed to think we could stay here as long as we needed to.”

“I don’t really know what’s going on,” I said. “But…” I tried not to sound too dreamy, not to succumb entirely to this feeling that I could be free, that someone would take care of me and stand up for me for once, and show me the way. “I trust him.”

Chapter Four

Jenny

When Bevan came back, he gathered us all together in the yard.

“Here’s the deal,” he said. “My witch is named Helena. She’s a very nice, fair witch, but she’s not tremendously powerful. And it looks like she stepped in it. You’re all here because of her. She stumbled across the Way of Paths. It’s a magical artifact that controls the barriers between the three magical realms, and it seems like you might be the first magical beings to notice that the barriers came down. Once your wizards realize that you’ve escaped, and that the entire magical world has open borders, the powers that be are probably going to try and attack my witch. So I’m asking you now, will you help me to protect her?”

“We’re not very powerful,” said Henrietta the chipmunk.

“I’ve hardly learned any magic at all,” the weasel said.

“In fact, I’m the most useless familiar who ever lived,” the skink said dejectedly.

I found myself nodding. Bernard never summoned me to help him with magic on his illustrious magical council job. I didn’t think it would help to bake a cake if we were attacked.

“What is she trying to do?” I asked.

“All you need to do is buy a few seconds for Helena to call for help,” Bevan said. “Now that she knows what happened, she can call allies to help her protect the Way of Paths. Plenty of wizards will have a reason for wanting those gates open—but of course, many others will feel the opposite, so that’s a mess. Just whip out some guard spells.