FAUSTINE (Bonfire Chronicles Book One)

by Rose, Imogen

  “Half demon,” I corrected. “And I’m a demon princess, which means that I don’t go around creating havoc. That would be very unprincessy of me.”

  “What about your demon temper?” he asked.

  “It used to be a problem. That’s why I was sent to the Academy. But I have it under control now.”

  “Come here,” he said, and pulled me down to rest my head on his shoulder. “I really like you,” he whispered, and turned to brush his lips against mine. I wasn’t sure how to respond; this had never happened to me before. I moved my lips gently across his. I could feel myself warming up, starting to feel hot. He parted my lips slightly with his and kissed me. I moved against him, feeling more and more drawn to him, like I was falling into him. And I was on fire–literally. My skin was burning. This was beyond embarrassing; I pulled back.

  “What’s wrong?” Ryker whispered, and then opened his eyes. “Wow! You’re glowing!”

  Awkward. My skin was glowing like a fire was illuminating it from the inside. We sat in silence, watching my glowing skin. The glow started to subside after a few minutes, then disappeared entirely.

  “That was... amazing,” Ryker muttered. “How did that happen?” Then he smirked. “Never mind. Did it hurt?”

  I shook my head. “It burned a bit, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. This is so embarrassing. I’m sorry. I guess you want to go?”

  “Go? Why? You mean ‘cause your skin starts glowing when I kiss you? Don’t be silly. We’ll just have to take it easy. Just to make sure you don’t explode or anything,” he laughed.

  I grabbed a pillow and thumped him with it. And kept hitting him. This wasn’t funny; tears were streaming down my face. Why couldn’t I just be normal? Like Mom.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” he said, grabbing my wrists and pulling me into his chest tightly. “It’s going to be fine. I’m sorry for teasing you.”

  I lay back against him, recomposing myself.

  A sharp tap on the door made me pull away from Ryker. I motioned for him to get into my closet. With Ryker safely stashed away, I opened the door.

  “Hey,” Luke said, walking in with Neave and the twins. “Your mom told us to come straight in after we explained what happened at the party.”

  “Wassup?” Ryker asked, walking out of my closet.

  “It was just like we thought; the cops questioned us. Obvious stuff, mostly, about what we’d heard or seen. Who else had been at the party? Etcetera, etcetera. They took down our names and contact information, then just let us go. There’s more, though,” Luke added cryptically. “Audrey will tell you. It’s not good, so prepare yourself.”

  “Faustine, as you know, I can hear human thoughts, the same as you. In addition, I can also visualize them, if those thoughts are strong enough. The cop who was questioning us had been in the men’s restroom. He was obviously traumatized by what he had seen, and his thoughts were preoccupied with visuals from the restroom. I could see them quite clearly. I won’t describe the gory state of the body, but I want to draw your attention to something else.” She paused.

  “What?”

  She chewed on her upper lip. “Brace yourself. On the far end of the restroom, just above the sink, written in red on the mirror was a note.” She stopped again.

  “Oh come on, out with it,” I said impatiently.

  She nodded. “It said, Eat That, Demon Princess.”

  Awakened by sunlight streaming through my window, I turned to the giant pink bunny on my bed and sighed. Playtime was over. One thing was clear: I would need to take this demon-sovereign thing seriously. Very seriously. Whoever had left that bloody note for me clearly meant it as a warning. But, a warning about what? Maybe it was a warning not to try to govern London in my dad’s absence. Like I had a choice. It was pretty clear that I didn’t. Given the option, I’d much rather spend my time being a normal teen and concentrating all my efforts on becoming queen bee at school. Sheesh, it was going to take an enormous amount of effort to navigate the complicated politics of high school. I really didn’t need this extra load added to my daily routine.

  From out of nowhere, I felt a sudden breeze across my face, just before Ryker appeared.

  “Oh my gosh! You scared me!” I said, sitting up.

  “Sorry! I thought you’d want some company after what happened last night.”

  “I do, but I want to get dressed first. Can you meet me in half an hour? Just ring the front doorbell, and I’ll invite you in for breakfast.”

  “Okay. Parting kiss?”

  I smiled and kissed his nose before he disappeared again. I’d have to get used to his wandering. Poof, he was here. Poof, he was gone. Weird stuff. And, we’d have to make some rules. No appearing just whenever! That could lead to all kinds of embarrassing moments. I sighed. He did make me feel pretty wonderful, but I would have to learn to rein in my emotions. I closed my eyes and relived the sensations I’d felt when he’d kissed me last night. I felt the same burning sensation start up again in my hands, and I tried holding my breath to temper it. It seemed to work, but I would need to practice some more. Now wasn’t the time, though.

  I got ready fast. It was going to be a busy day. I threw on a blue cotton dress after a quick shower, then blow dried my hair. A dab of lip gloss and I was ready. The doorbell sounded as I walked into the dining room. Mom was already sitting at the table, leafing through a newspaper, so I waved at her to indicate that I would get the door.

  “Mom, this is Ryker. He’s a friend from Bonfire Academy,” I introduced, as they shook hands.

  “Nice to meet you, Ryker,” Mom said, pointing him to a chair. “Sit down and have some breakfast with us. Are you allowed to tell me what you are, being from the Academy?” she queried.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Lady Annabel. Sure, I can share that with you. I’m a Wanderer.”

  “Oh, lovely. Sigma?”

  “Mom? You know about Wanderers?” I asked, surprised. “I’d never heard of them before I went to the Academy.”

  “I’ve picked up on a few things since I met your father,” she smiled. “Have you heard from him, by the way? He was going to pop in for dinner last night but didn’t show.”

  “Nope. But I wasn’t really expecting to hear from him,” I said. No point in worrying her. Mom had been told very little about the emergency, which had caused her to be sequestered temporarily at the Waldorf. Thankfully, over the years, Mom had learned not to meddle or ask too many questions about the paranormal activities surrounding my dad. The secrecy must irk her, though, along with all of those unexplained dinner no-shows.

  “So, did you have a good time at the party last night? I gathered from Neave–and your other friends who came by last night–that there was some drama. There’s a story in this morning’s newspaper about a murder at a club in the village. Was that the same club you were at last night? Do you know anything about it?” she asked, looking at me intently.

  “Yes, we were there at the time of the murder,” I admitted.

  “Thank goodness you weren’t harmed! Why didn’t you tell me? Were you there, Ryker?”

  “Yes.” He proceeded to bring her up to date, describing the scream and the ensuing scramble for the exit, but omitting the part about the vision Audrey had described to us. “So, I brought her home,” he finished.

  “Thank you, Ryker. I appreciate that. The article doesn’t go into any details. While it mentions that the body was found in the men’s room, it doesn’t say anything more. I’m just relieved that you–all of you–are okay,” she said, looking from me to Ryker. “Do you have any plans today, Faustine? You can hang out with me, if you want. I’m going to Marylin’s this afternoon for tea. She would be delighted to see you.”

  Did I ever have plans! “Mom, thanks, but I’m going to hang with Ryker and Neave today, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Of course it is. But remember that you have school tomorrow; you’ll need to get organized for that.”

  “Which reminds me, Mom. I invited some gir
ls from school to come over for breakfast tomorrow. That’s okay, right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  It would’ve been nice to have had the day just to hang with Ryker. No such luck. After breakfast, I went down to the basement for a debriefing. Alone, because that’s what Luke had instructed.

  When I arrived, I was surprised to see that Luke had company. Dorian was sitting on the couch looking grim. Awesome–not.

  They both stood up when I entered. “Princess, let’s go to the conference room,” Dorian said, as he led the way. Once we were seated, he glared at me. “Princess, I can’t begin to tell you how unhappy I am with your decision not to go back to London, especially after last night’s events.”

  “What do you think is going on?” I asked. “Who wrote the note on the wall and why?”

  “We can hypothesize, but we have no real information.”

  “Hypothesize away,” I encouraged.

  “It could be whoever has your dad, if he has indeed been captured or killed. The potential candidates for that are too numerous to mention. Another possibility is that it’s one of your half siblings, annoyed that you are the chosen heir.”

  “Just perfect. So now what? Do we know who the victim was?”

  “Yes, sort of, but no name. The police report indicates that it was a male student from Columbia University. I’m guessing he was an innocent bystander who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Can you tell from Audrey’s description of the victim’s body what kind of being may have been involved?”

  “No. Audrey’s description of mangled is too vague. It could be anyone–vampire, shifter, demon, even another human. However, we are pretty certain it wasn’t another human based on the note.”

  “So, what now?” I asked, looking at them both.

  “Are you still refusing to travel to London, or even move in here, until we figure out what’s going on?”

  “Yes. I’m going to school tomorrow.”

  “We’ll do our best to keep you safe. We’ve asked Ryker to keep an eye on you as well, since you seem to have become attached to him.”

  “About that... um, how do I, um, control bouts of, you know, burning...?” O-M-G, that was so embarrassing to ask!

  Luke collapsed into a heap of chuckles while his dad raised his brows in confusion.

  “Luke?” his father queried.

  “Never mind, Dad. I’ll help the Princess with that later,” he said, winking at me. Sigh.

  “Okay. Let’s talk about this afternoon’s meeting.” Dorian continued. He proceeded to give me a breakdown of the various leaders who would be attending.

  “What do you think they’ll want from me?” I asked once he was done.

  “They’ll expect you to fulfill the obligations of the demon sovereign,” he said.

  “Which are?”

  He pushed a heavy, leather-bound book toward me. “This is it. It’s all in there.”

  “Give me the short version. I really don’t have time to go through that before this afternoon,” I sighed, running my hand over the rough leather of the book.

  Dorian nodded. “Faustine, they are coming to look you over, to evaluate whether you can perform your duties, which I can assure you that you can’t.”

  “Nice! Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “You are a young girl! A half demon. There’s no way you could be expected to jump in and take over right away. Keeping track of and controlling the demon population of London is an enormous task. Even your father struggles with it at times.”

  “So what am I supposed to do?”

  “You will need to reassure them that you are aware of the enormity of the task and have taken appropriate measures to manage the situation. I will be at your side, as I was at your father’s, throughout. They know and respect me and will be reassured by my support of you.”

  “Just out of curiosity, what would happen if I decide to blow it off?”

  “Blow it off? I don’t understand,” Dorian asked.

  “As in, what if I don’t go to the meeting? What if I choose to forget all about demons and other paranormals and just go to school tomorrow like a regular teenager?”

  “Mayhem would erupt in London. The demons would be out of control. London–the world–could be destroyed,” he said, exasperated. “Surely you understand the gravity of this situation?”

  I did now. I spent some time with the book while I waited for the afternoon to come around. I sat in Dorian’s study by myself. It was hard to concentrate on the old fashioned wording on the hand-written pages. The stilted English was tedious to read and hard to comprehend at times, and there was a lot of legal jargon. I found myself nodding off. As I began to drift, I imagined the feel of Ryker’s lips against mine and felt myself getting warm again.

  “Need some help with that?” Luke laughed, coming into the study and plunking himself into an overstuffed chair.

  I wanted to kill him, but I needed the help. So, I just scowled at him, instead. “Yeah. Duh!”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you. It is kind of funny, though. Is this the first time you’ve experienced this?”

  “Yeah. And how come they didn’t mention this at the Academy?”

  He shrugged. “I guess they assumed that you’d been through this stage already.”

  “Well, with Ryker... it was my first kiss, and it was embarrassing!”

  “I can imagine,” he agreed.

  “So, what am I supposed to do? Never kiss?”

  “No, that would be a bit extreme. You have to learn to control it.”

  “How?”

  “Rule Three of the Academy usually helps a lot.”

  “I should feed before I kiss? That’s not always going to be possible. Hold on, Ryker, while I down a steak. Moment killer!”

  Luke guffawed. “Yeah, you can’t very well carry a spare piece of steak around, just in case. I just said that it helps, that’s all. The more hungry you are, the less effective other forms of control become.”

  “What other forms of control?”

  “The most effective one is what you were doing when I came in. Visualization. Visualize the situation, then visualize controlling it. This technique takes time to master but it’s totally achievable. I can do it, no problem. But then, I’ve had years of practice.”

  “You’re the same age as me, so you couldn’t possibly have years of practice!” I said, irritated.

  He just raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Oh.”

  “Indeed. Now, we must go to the conference room. The dignitaries are all here. Are you ready?”

  “I guess.”

  The previously spacious-looking conference room looked much smaller filled with our guests. Thankfully, everyone had arrived in their human forms. They all stood and bowed as I entered with Luke. Dorian had already taken his seat at the other end of the table. Luke walked me to my seat and sat down next to me. I grabbed his hand under the table. I could feel the plethora of different energies in the room fighting for space. It sent a chill through my body.

  Dorian stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, Sebastian has not been seen since Friday; thus his daughter, Faustine, will be governing in his absence. We hope that he returns soon, but in the meantime, we have arranged a coronation for Faustine next weekend in London.”

  Thanks for telling me, Dorian.

  He continued. “I know you have a lot of questions and concerns, but before we address them, allow me to introduce you to our distinguished guests, Princess Faustine.”

  They all looked in my direction and nodded. I smiled back at them.

  “Princess, next to Luke is Cassandra, the governing witch of London.”

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” I said, getting up to shake her hand. I would never have guessed that she was a witch. Not that I had a preconceived notion of what a witch should look like. Neither Tessa nor Neave looked like any of those fairytale witches from Disney movi
es. Cassandra looked like a harassed Italian-American, New Jersey housewife. Her big, dark do was actually tied back with a scrunchie. When she opened her mouth, she totally confirmed her Jersey roots. I wondered how she had ended up in London.

  “Nice to meet you. I understand you know Tessa and Neave?” she queried.

  “I do! How do you know them?”

  “I don’t. Not really. It’s just interesting that you are close to two witches. How did that come about?”

  I gave her a brief explanation, which seemed to satisfy her.