by Jenny McKane
And the second? Gideon began to make more appearances at the festivities.
Since arriving at the palace Sunny had seen him exactly once--as he was being moved between floors and when his eyes had landed on her, which had given her a tiny glimmer of hope despite her demon glamour. But, no. He’d hardly registered that there was another being in the hallway with him and before she knew it, the guards had whisked him away.
The new twist was interesting, however.
It seemed whatever was happening with the tree and the power stores that Azrael was building was making him bolder or advancing his master plan that much faster, so on the same night, both Selah and Gideon appeared at the head table.
Sunny, naturally, hadn’t dealt with the shock very well and had nearly choked on the small potato she had taken a bite of. She’d just been lamenting the fact that she was working on the end of her second week in the demon realm and, really, all she could manage to hold down were a few vegetables that resembled either potatoes or cabbage in the mortal realm. She didn’t dare touch any of the meats and the majority of liquids looked like poison, so, yeah--default vegan for the time being.
It also meant she wasn’t taking in as many calories as she needed, and she was losing weight. Now, in the demon realm, surrounded by sweets and meats and carbs that she had unlimited access to, this might actually be a good thing--but the truth of the matter was that Sunny was slowly starving a little day by day. She was malnourished and weak and her hair was starting to get brittle and break off. Her eyes were lackluster and bloodshot, thanks to the fact that she spent inordinate amounts of time awake because she was afraid of Azrael’s demon pet tree, and her skin was looking yellow and sickly. The dual suns in the shadow realm didn’t seem to be providing any Vitamin D, not that Sunny was spending much time outdoors.
The demons in the castle slept much of the day and to be outside soaking in the double rays would have probably looked ridiculous. And weird. And human. As far as anybody who glanced her way saw, Sunny was a normal colored, grey-tinged demoness.
Sunny the human was sallow and sickly, as evidenced the few times she dared take the ring off when she was locked away in the bathroom. But after learning about the tree and its hive mind capabilities, even those little moments stopped altogether.
Selah had made her return to evening society first, and unlike the first two times she’d been to dinner when they first arrived, she no longer sat next to Sunny. She sat at Azrael’s table, on the other side of Vitaly. In fact, Selah didn’t so much as acknowledge Sunny and had somehow managed to avoid passing her in their shared sitting room altogether. It wasn’t that Sunny necessarily missed the company, but she could tell when she was being avoided and she was certainly being avoided. Selah was doing everything she could not to interact with Sunny.
And it made Sunny nervous. No, just like the tree, it scared the crap out her and had Sunny looking over her shoulder every turn she took in that stupid castle.
On the second night of Selah’s grand return, Sunny had been seated in her usual spot along the side wall while she and the rest of the still-sober demon guests waited for the arrival of the royal family. An extra seat had been placed at the main table and Sunny couldn’t help but wonder if there as going to be another introduction of a missing sibling or other family member tonight--she worried there would only be so much she could take at this point and if there was another hands-y brother to deal with, she might just freak out. A little.
But no, tonight, the royal family filed in and took their seats and at the back of their little entourage was Gideon.
He was no longer Gideon the prisoner, the shell of a man she’d seen in the hallway days earlier. This night, he was dressed just as splendidly as Azrael and his sons and there was a different tone to his skin now. Less sickly, more artificial. His skin was not the golden, sun-kissed tone she remembered. It was still much paler than normal, but it seemed so unblemished. Like he was wearing a coat of shellac to look good under the house lights or something.
And he was smiling.
That struck her like a physical blow. Gideon was smiling and enjoying himself from where she was seated and could tell. The effects on Sunny were instant and she deflated, watching him have a pleasant conversation with Victor, Selah’s other brother.
Where Vitaly was a seducer and gross in a man-handling sort of way, Victor was younger and a hot head. He had a temper and was prone to rage-filled shows of his temper, which seemed to happen more frequently in the last three days. The previous night in the foyer, as Sunny had been trying to return unnoticed to her second-floor hallway, some poor demon (no, Sunny never imagined herself uttering those words strung together) bumped into the younger prince and was rewarded by having his skull dashed against the stone floor repeatedly until there was no recognizable face left.
Sunny had to pretend not to be horrified, but couldn’t control the fact that her legs carried her even faster up the stairs to the safety of the bedroom.
Vitaly was scary, but Victor was terrifying. And now, she watched in horror as Gideon laughed over a joke with the younger sibling. They were both laughing, with their heads tipped back and their eyes thin.
The urge to stand up and throw her glass at them nearly consumed Sunny’s mind and she tamped down on the urge, feeling the stupid tree’s influence on her stronger than ever. The tree, Plaxo still had not learned its name, had zeroed in on Sunny as a target because no matter how hard she tried to blend in, she was sticking out.
She was not like the others and the tree was going to corrupt her until she was. She hoped to be gone from the realm long before that, though.
Lost in thought as she mulled over everything running through her head at a rapid pace, she didn’t notice Selah’s approach.
“Lady Layla,” she said, her smile too snide and her tone too friendly. “There is somebody I would like you to meet.”
Frowning, Sunny pushed herself from her seat and stood, facing Selah.
“This is a friend of my father’s, a guest here since earlier this year,” she said as she stepped out of the way. “Gideon Lafayette.”
Whoosh.
It was the sound the air made as it left her body.
Gideon was tense, though trying to smile politely and it was only at the last second before she spoke did she remember that he wouldn’t recognize her whatsoever.
“I need a favor from you,” Selah continued. “Will you keep my father’s friend entertained while my brothers and I accompany him to a short introduction on the third floor? It’s quite sudden and can’t be put off.”
She nodded mutely, still shocked that he was standing in front of her, regardless of the fact he had no idea who she was.
Gideon sat where Selah told him to sit and Sunny all but raised her eyebrow at that. Gideon wasn’t a good boy who sat where he was told and waited until he was collected. But for now, this wasn’t Gideon and she wasn’t Sunny.
She cleared her throat as Gideon took his seat and she stared at her plate.
“Her Highness said you are from the north,” his voice was emotionless and his gaze empty. He was making small talk because it was expected of him.
“Something like that,” she replied, being obtuse on purpose, praying against all odds that he’d pick up on that noncommittal answer with the intelligence that she knew was on fire within him and question her. But he didn’t. He didn’t even look interested in her response or that he’d heard it in the first place. He was just--blank.
“What about you? Are you from the shadow realm?”
A dark look crossed his face and his eyes danced across the room as he focused on nothing in particular. Was he trying to remember where he was from?
“No,” was all he said. “I don’t think so.”
The second part of the response was nearly whispered and Sunny had to wonder if she’d heard him correctly. But she had.
At that moment, she wanted to rip her chest open and spill all to him, to tell her that sh
e was here to get him out, to tell him that she’d fix whatever they’d been doing to him, but she knew in her heart that it wouldn’t matter. That he wouldn’t hear her. Whatever part of Gideon had belonged to Sunny wasn’t in this version in front of her.
She wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel and accept defeat, but now wasn’t the time to do anything stupid, either.
“How interesting,” she replied as dryly as she could. “Have you known Princess Selah long?”
Sunny assured herself that she was asking the question for valid reasons, but part of her accepted the fact that she was morbidly curious as to what he would say. What sort of backstory was he being fed?
His eyes found hers at that moment and he hesitated to speak, the words catching on his tongue. For the briefest flash in time, she witnessed a war going on in his mind and as he didn’t answer.
“We’ve never met before, have we?”
The question sliced through her like a hot blade. The truth was on the tip of her tongue, but the thought that maybe they were both being set up somehow was nagging at her. It would be too easy to get Gideon back like this--something that wouldn’t happen in the demon realm.
“In the demon realm? No,” she said. Again, she was trying to leave a puzzle piece to see if he’d pick it up, but again, he didn’t. He merely nodded and looked around for Azrael and his family.
“Are you enjoying your stay so far?” She pressed him again. There was no way the truth could come out--he still looked horrible and like he hadn’t had any real sleep in months. But his brain was obviously being messed with along with his body. She needed to pry just a few more holes in his memory before Selah or one of her brothers came back for him.
“He is an excellent host,” Gideon replied too quickly.
Sunny nodded. “That he is,” she said, wanting to add if pain, torture and violence are your sort of thing under her breath, but she refrained.
Selah was back in no time and her eyes were a little wider than before and her smile tighter against her teeth. What the hell had Sunny missed? It must not have gone well upstairs, and by the way her fingers dug into Gideon’s shoulder like he was some toy her parents would take away, it must have gone poorly.
What ambassador had she gone upstairs to meet?
“Are you okay?” Sunny asked without thinking. It was a stupid thing to do, and she silently cursed herself as soon as the words were out. Instead of a cutting response, Selah simply nodded and Sunny didn’t believe her one bit.
But she also couldn’t pry, so she nodded and did nothing while she dragged Gideon away.
Gideon cast one more glance over his shoulder at Sunny, and while it wasn’t a warm look, he still looked like he was trying to work something out--whether she was friend or foe, maybe?
But it was something, she assured herself.
It was something.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Seeing Gideon did little to help Sunny sleep. Or eat. Or do much productive. It was the way of things from that point on--he’d be led around by Selah like some puppy and he’d willingly go wherever she took him. They’d talk up some important looking demon in a military uniform or in a fancy debutante-worthy dress, and Gideon would stand behind Selah, nodding blankly and looking utterly lost.
It was how Sunny knew there was still hope. He didn’t look convinced of his new identity yet--and that was a good thing.
But even knowing that didn’t help. The loneliness was sharp and brutal and made her stomach clench most nights.
She’d been in the demon realm for exactly three weeks when she came up with an idea. Plaxo had visited her after being gone for a few short days. Apparently, the dream demons were on the move again, their last hideout having been discovered by a seeker demon sent out by Azrael.
“The dream demons killed the seeker, naturally,” Plaxo had boasted. “But they are tricky and could have gotten our hiding spot back to their boss before he died.”
The dream demon population was also part of whatever giant scheme Azrael was cooking up, and while they were light on details, they knew they couldn’t be captured by the archduke. He was after their dream manipulation and that ability alone would spell disaster for humans if a crazy fallen angel-turned-demon got ahold of it.
The fact that Azrael had been cast from heaven was another part of the puzzle that Sunny couldn’t quite fathom.
“But his children are demons?” she’d asked Plaxo, who nodded.
“There are stories that when he was cast out, he came straight to the demon realm and assumed the powers he has now. It changed his DNA,” Plaxo explained. “All of the children he produces with demon women are pure demon.”
“But what did that make Azrael? What did one kill him with? Obsidian or serendibite?”
“Plaxo does not know,” he said. “No one does.”
It was a shame she hadn’t brought Gideon’s serendibite blade with her. Maybe one crazy suicide mission of an attack could stop this entire thing. Sunny snickered at the very thought, though. There was no way she’d make it within two feet of Azrael with a blade before any number of his guards, children, or even his majordomo plastered the walls with her guts. The demon had serious protection around him at all times and that didn’t even take into account how much power he had himself.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Sunny sank back against the bed and concentrated on Gideon. She had a feeling in her gut that the silver madness drink Azrael was plying his guests with wasn’t his only foray into demon poison. Something told Sunny that poisoning with magic was Azrael’s M.O. and was used to manipulate what he wanted from someone instead of forcibly taking it.
“How versed are you in demon antivenoms and anti poisons?” she asked Plaxo suddenly and the dream demon perked his head up. He’d been reliving his battle with the seeker, telling Sunny every gory detail of how the thing had ended up disemboweled by a pack of raging dream demons.
“Plaxo knows plenty,” he said, a little tentatively. “Why does Lady Hunter ask?”
“I know there are antidotes for specific venoms and poisons, but is there such thing as an all-in-one for demons? Do you guys have a run-of-the-mill penicillin for maladies?”
Plaxo scrunched up his face, obviously having no idea what she was talking about.
“Penicillin?”
Sunny laughed at that. “When humans get sick, infections usually, and the doctor might not know which exact bug they have, they’ll often give us a medicine that is good for a lot of different illnesses. Does the demon realm have something like that?”
Plaxo considered her question for a moment. “Maybe,” he said, slowly standing. “Does Lady Hunter feel sick? We should not stay if Lady Hunter is feeling sick.”
Plaxo began a little mini-freakout on her, but she held up her hand.
“Not me, silly,” she said as the dream demon quieted down. “For Gideon. I think they’re giving him something to dull his mind or take his memories away. There’s no way for us to know exactly, but what if there’s something we can give him to at least give Gideon a chance at fighting back against the poison?”
Plaxo was staring at his little cement hands, flicking a nail while he thought.
“There is something that could work, but it would take Plaxo a few days to find it, assuming it still exists in this realm,” he was talking to himself now, his gaze unfocused on the wall opposite him. “Would Lady Hunter be safe while Plaxo finds it?”
Would she be safe? Not likely. But would it be worth the risk? Definitely.
“I’ll stay alive long enough for you to come back,” she said, the best she could do.
Plaxo gave her a quick nod. “Plaxo will return as quickly as possible,” he whispered before disappearing.
*****
Her miracle-working dream demon was back within 12 hours. Sunny hadn’t been expecting him, so when she walked out of her shower after washing away the specks of demon blood that had landed on her in the row that happened in the foyer, she l
et out a yelp.
“Shh,” the dream demon chastised. “Lady Hunter will raise suspicions more than she already does yelling like that.”
Sunny recovered and pulled the towel off her head that held her hair, shaking her wet locks out.
“Did you find it? You’re back way sooner that I thought you’d be,” she said quickly.
Plaxo walked to the table that sat near the window and pulled out three vials that were a few inches tall. There was a bright red liquid in all three of them and when Plaxo turned around with a look of pride on his face, she knew he’d been successful.
“Nino knew of a dream demon with a few extra supplies,” he said proudly. “Plaxo didn’t have to venture far.”
“That’s wonderful,” Sunny replied excitedly. “How does it work?”
Plaxo explained that Gideon would need three or four drops in his food or his drink as often as she could manage it.
“No more than that each time, though,” he warned. “Or the opposite could happen and you could kill Half-Breed.”
The dream demon also held out a small dropper with a rubber suction at the end.
“The perfect dose and small enough for Lady Hunter to hide it,” he said as he dropped it in her palm. “Plaxo is only sorry that he did not think of it earlier. Lady Hunter is truly a tactical genius.”
No, Sunny thought. Lady Hunter is simply a woman in love who wants to save the man who has her heart in his hand. Selfish? Probably.
The first time she dosed Gideon’s drink with the red liquid, which Plaxo had called sangre noctem, or night blood, had been nearly accidental.
Selah had kept her distance the first night that Sunny had the red vial on hand, so she eventually had to admit defeat and sidestep a fistfight between to flame demons to return to her room, crestfallen. What good was having an antidote if you couldn’t administer it to the victim?
But the following morning, she found herself close enough to Gideon at a large breakfast table, that the bottle of night blood was practically burning a hole in her hand. It was all she could do to not force his head back and manually pour the stuff down his throat.