Bat Out of Hell (Promised to the Demons #2) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,35

how it felt.

Bevan finally came down the stairs and looked at me from the edge of the stage. He looked so very gallant in the faery suit that was tailor-made for his tall grace. His eyes were supportive, and showed that he didn't think it was very fair to put me in this position.

I wonder what Variel will do, where he can go. I wanted to say something to him as he was leaving, but I didn’t know what it could possibly be, and he just swept off the stage, sending faeries rushing out of his way. He won't be able to build another cabin now. And the faeries seem just as suspicious of him as the Ethereals, but he’s still barred from Sinistral, so he has to find somewhere to live…

"Piers Nicolescu, please come forward," Queen Morgana said.

I had to do this again?

Piers knew what was coming now, and so did I. He had a very different air from Variel. Variel was defiant to the last moment, insisting that he was only doing what a demon should. Piers knew he had messed up. He walked right down the steps, unhesitating but stoic.

"Do your worst to me, Jenny," he said. Almost like he wanted me to turn him into a monster.

I wondered what sort of monster my mind would conjure for Piers. I didn't know what was coming for Variel until it happened. Now the audience was looking curious, and I didn't like that this was turning into entertainment for the faeries.

"Piers, it is your turn to look into the mirror now," Queen Morgana said.

Piers looked into the glass and the first vision was of his childhood self, a skinny blond boy holding a sugar glider in his hands, screaming at him. His face was red, tears pouring down his eyes. He had his back against a brick wall.

The sugar glider disappeared as if punished. The boy smeared his tears away and braced himself against the wall until he was composed. Then he walked back to a group of boys playing with a ball.

From there, the mirror showed more flashes of Piers yelling at his familiar, in both animal form and boy form. Maybe to the rest of the audience, Variel’s whippings would be worse than this, but as a familiar myself, I felt the scene as if it ripped into my soul. There was no worse feeling than one’s warlock screaming at you.

Piers was usually at school in the scenes that flashed by, joining in on bullying of other children, first as a follower and later as a ringleader.

Piers' memories hit me in a different way than Variel's. Piers had no excuse; he wasn't a demon. But I saw so much of Bernard in him; Bernard, losing half his family, left out of other children's parties, withdrawing into himself until he went away to a magical university and made new friends. Friends that led him to the council guard, where with every year, he became more wrapped up in his work, more willing to do anything to protect the wizard way of life. He even turned to Sinistral, so he could learn darker magic.

I didn't understand any of the choices he was making. I couldn't believe it when he abandoned Etherium. But I knew he was in pain; I kept telling myself that deep down, he was still my wizard. I could save him. Someday, he would come home, taste my cake and see the fire crackling in the hearth. Maybe when Mrs. Franch died. Maybe when we were alone there. When I was all he had left.

Now, in Piers' memory, he was striking down a familiar. A hawk. The blond boy he left mourning her absence was obviously his cousin, Helena's brother. When a familiar died, if they were tied to a wizard, their body vanished. Nothing was left behind. The young man grasped at the air.

Piers always seemed to be lashing out at his own family. Daisy. Helena. I didn't recognize the others, but I could see that he was hurting them, relishing his power in a way that Variel never did in his memories.

Watching him hurt familiars stabbed me deep inside. I knew he had done it; he and Bevan both said it. Seeing it was another matter. Seeing how easily he killed the hawk. Seeing how he learned to shove away his own familiar, the meek boy who reminded me too much of myself.

"Seeing it all now..." Piers dropped to one knee in front of