by Jenny McKane
Servants passed food to the diners and people were already sipping on the silver stuff, though Gideon and the rest of Azrael’s family were not. Sunny had a glass of silver in front of her, so every once in a while, she had to fake sip and even poured a little out by her shoe to change the glass’s level.
Her chance came when a demon servant bumped the table, causing all of the glasses to wobble. The space between herself and Gideon was gloriously empty for the moment, so she placed a hand on her goblet and another on Gideon’s, who had not noticed that his glass was close to falling over. Sunny had positioned the dropper with the rubber gasket between her knuckles and the cylinder of the dropper pointing down. When her hand gripped the top of the rim on Gideon’s glass, she squeezed her fingers together and hoped for the best.
“Sorry,” she said weakly, sounding very human and awkward. She recovered as best she could. “Didn’t want a mess all over my dress. It’s designer.”
Gideon stared at her for a long moment before turning back to a one-sided conversation an older demon was having with him, shutting Sunny out.
Once she had retaken her seat and placed her hands in her lap, a quick glance down at the dropper verified it’d been a successful venture.
Her heart soared and it nearly leapt from her chest when she saw Gideon quickly drain the contents of his goblet.
Plaxo had warned her that the effects would take time to build--that the doses were so small that they needed to be compounded, but that didn’t stop her from watching him out of the corner of her eye in hopes that he had some miracle breakthrough.
He didn’t, though. He didn’t even give his glass a second glance like there’d been some funny new taste in his drink.
Nothing.
Anti-climactic, which was funny, given they were in the demon realm and boring was not something she associated with the place.
Consoling herself that she’d at least started the process, Sunny excused herself from table and went into the foyer where she found her usual hidden spot to dump the silver poison.
Looking down, she marveled at the withered roots before her. While the rest of the tree was still vital and even growing in size, the spot where Sunny had been dumping the silver champagne at least three times a day was dead.
Interesting.
She gave a quick glance around, half expecting the majordomo to materialize out of nowhere and catch her in the act. Given the recent developments, Sunny was more determined than ever to keep poisoning the tree, even if it was on to her in some way.
She’d just have to find a new spot to dump her trash.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The problem with everything that was happening in the shadow realm was that nothing was really happening in the shadow realm. Had Sunny know she was going to do a whole lot of nothing all the time--a whole lot of sitting and eating and pretending to drink, she might have demanded that Gabriel, Eli and herself make a new plan.
Living, dining, and pretending in Azrael’s sick little castle was getting old and by the end of her third week, Sunny was ready to rip her own skin off. Or Selah’s.
Her Royal Highness the Princess of Hell had pushed Sunny too far with the liberties the demon was taking.
Suddenly, it was imperative that Sunny stay close to Selah at every meal.
“You need to be ready,” she’d simply said when Sunny asked for an explanation.
“Ready for what?”
Selah gave her a little shrug that said nothing and continued walking down the hall.
Later that night, as Sunny was waiting to go downstairs to another dinner, Selah appeared from her room.
“What’s going on lately?” Sunny demanded, suddenly desperate for a sense that she wasn’t just wasting time in the demon realm not being eaten by the demon tree. “You’re not telling me everything and I feel like you’re setting me up for something.”
She stopped then, turning to face Sunny with fire burning in her eyes. And her voice--it’d gone dangerously demon.
“You are a mere human,” the voice practically roared. Sunny panicked, thinking Nesta was around close enough to hear. Selah didn’t seem to care and clutched Sunny around the arms with her talon-like nails. “You are here under my mercies, doing as I bid, do you understand me?”
Confused, Sunny shook her head.
“No,” she argued. “I’m not here to do your bidding--”
Selah reached back and slapped Sunny across the face with one hand while her other was still painfully clutching Sunny’s arm, her strength making it impossible for Sunny to move.
“Listen to me now or I will rip the very throat from your body,” Selah’s true demon form was absolutely terrifying and Sunny sucked in a breath, realizing she had gone too far in pushing Selah for information. The demon nature had taken hold and now Sunny was screwed. “You are here to see me ascend the throne with my consort. None of your other missions matter--you will fulfill your obligation to me or you will die.”
Die.
The word reverberated around the room and Sunny went slack. Not necessarily out of fear, though she was plenty afraid, but out of a forced submission. Selah’s demon nature needed to see Sunny submit. So, she pretended to. Meanwhile, thoughts of shoving an obsidian blade between her ribs played out in her mind and she was tempted to grab at the familiar handle and end the idiotic demon stupid enough to slap her across the face like that.
“Do you understand me, slave?”
Sunny’s spine tightened and her eyes widened. The voice wasn’t Selah’s. The words weren’t necessarily Selah’s, either. Had her body been inhabited by some sort of spirit? The tree?
“Cross me, Sunshine,” Selah continued, going full psycho now, “and I’ll blow your cover wide open. I’ll tell my father everything I know about Gabriel and Eli--where they live, where they eat. They’ll both be dead within days and you’ll have yourself to thank.”
Sunny knew she had no counter to the threat.
“Was it a set up the whole time?” She managed to squeak out, emotions and a healthy dose of hatred making her voice unreliable.
“A set up? No,” Selah said, letting go of Sunny so that she could shake out the pain in her arm. “I just realize that my plans don’t need months to marinate. They can happen much faster and without your interference. At this point, you simply serve as a safety net that will keep the archangels out of my business for a few more weeks.”
Rage. Sunny saw red and wanted to rip the traitor’s face off. Instead, she tried to keep a level head and keep Selah engaged.
“This place changed you,” Sunny said, trying to sound non-accusatory. “It’s making you think you’re strong enough to take on your family before you’re ready.”
The logic was lost on Selah, who wasn’t paying much attention anymore.
“Don’t get in my way, human,” she said as she stood to leave. “Stay out of my way and you might live to see another day.”
*****
The encounter had left Sunny shaken to the core.
What the hell had happened and how did she get the mission back on track?
She later told Plaxo about the encounter when they were alone that night. She’d had to spend the day following behind Selah as she entertained demon dignitaries from around the entire demon realm. Gideon wasn’t with them and Sunny spent the entire time trying to stay awake and learn as much as she could about what was going on. But mostly she wanted to know where Gideon was and what they were doing to him.
She hadn’t been close enough to him at the first meal of the day, but at lunch, she’d been able to walk past his table, set her goblet down and squeeze a few drops into his glass as she reached over his to grab hers again.
It was painstaking and slow and it drove Sunny crazy to free Gideon drop by drop, but if this is what it took, and Plaxo had to remind her night after night that it was this slow and painful, then she’d do her best to endure.
But damn, it all sucked, and it was starting to suck more
each second that passed.
“Much of it is the personality of the princess,” Plaxo said when they talked that night. “But much of it is her father’s doing.”
She figured it might have something to do with the drastic change that came so quickly, but it still didn’t make it right.
“You know her ultimate plan, don’t you? Do you remember what she wanted to ultimately do?”
She was trying not to say it aloud and Plaxo nodded, indicating that he did remember that Selah wanted to depose her father and take over the rule of the shadow realm. She had mentioned a brother, who Sunny had figured was Vitaly, but there was also Victor that Selah would have to consider now, along with Barba and her children that would want a shot at the throne, as well as the servant, Alder, who looked like he’d probably take a bullet dipped in holy water for his master.
She truly hadn’t thought the plan through and maybe upon arriving here, Selah had decided to change course to save her own skin? She wouldn’t put it past the demon.
*****
Vitaly had caught her unaware.
She was nowhere near a dining room, there was no silver liquid being shoved down anyone’s throats, so Sunny hadn’t been on the lookout for ham hands and his grabby paws.
Selah had forced her to attend another meet and greet and instead of being introduced as her own free, personage, Sunny found that Layla had somehow been reduced to “one of my attendants” by Selah.
Staff.
Sunny was now part of the staff, she had realized with a humiliating burn of her cheeks.
Son of a bitch.
She was pretty certain the day wasn’t going to get much worse when Vitaly sauntered in the room and changed the entire vibe.
Selah was markedly uncomfortable with him around and quickly made an excuse to beat a hasty retreat. Sunny did her best to follow but was on the opposite side of the room when she tried to follow. By the time she got out of the sitting room they were in and into the hallway, it had miraculously emptied.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Sunny knew the instant the demon was in the hallway--the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she felt colder. Less at ease.
“Why are you always scurrying off, little demon?”
His voice was smooth and charismatic and probably had demon panties dropping all over the place. But Sunny wasn’t impressed. She wanted nothing more than to put distance between herself and this psychopath and she had a niggling feeling that Selah had allowed this to happen. Had purposely allowed Vitaly to come between Sunny and the exit when she’d left and scurried away so she wouldn’t have to “rescue” Sunny from her brother’s advances.
Anger coiled in her gut, tight and hot.
“No scurrying,” Sunny managed, her voice sounding tight even to her. “Just following the princess, as ordered.”
Without invitation, without so much as a friendly look or any sort of encouragement, Vitaly moved faster than Sunny could track and had her pushed against the far wall. He pressed his elbows against the wall, trapping her head and he slid his lower body against hers, making sure she had no room to escape.
“Would you like to be reassigned?” His breath was hot on her face and smelled a bit like alcohol. Interesting. “I could put you on my personal detail. Keep you out of trouble. Locked in my bedroom, perhaps?”
One of his arms slid from the wall and palmed one of her breasts. The urge to vomit all over his tailored shirt was strong and Sunny nearly gave in just to spite the bastard.
“No, thank you,” she gritted through her teeth, clawing at the hand that was painfully squeezing her chest. With a move straight from Eli, one she didn’t necessarily want to use, Sunny gripped Vitaly’s hand and turned it in on itself. The move didn’t necessarily hurt Vitaly, but he was shocked enough to be distracted while Sunny used her fancy footwork to leave through the opening his arm had left. She was backing up before Vitaly could recover.
“Forgive me,” she said, her hands up in mock-surrender. “I must find your sister.”
Vitaly’s face was hard, but it wasn’t anger in the expression. No, what Sunny saw was a look of hard determination and that was much, much scarier than anger.
“I’ll see you soon, little rabbit,” he said, the words a promise. “Very soon.”
Like hell, Sunny thought to herself as she picked up speed and took the stairs two at a time. On the top floor, instead of heading toward the suite she shared with Selah, she went to the foyer. Other than the creepy demon tree, nobody really bothered her on the second floor, and with Vitaly not behind her, Sunny could take a deep breath.
Gideon was on the floor below, in the foyer, with Victor nearby. He was silent as Victor was animatedly talking to a demon in what looked like military regalia. Victor kept motioning to Gideon, though Gideon wouldn’t meet either of their eyes. The more Victor grew animated, the more shut down Gideon became, looking uncomfortable and all but ready to bolt given the chance.
Interesting, Sunny thought.
Gideon was very clearly being put on display for the VIPs. He was being allowed to mingle with the partygoers and nod and smile when he was told to. He wasn’t saying much and wasn’t really interacting. He just sort of was.
And yet Azrael and his family still kept all the attention on him.
Yet another piece of the puzzle. Sunny began to feel like she and Plaxo were close to gathering all the pieces--the trick now was to put them together in the right way.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The end of it all, at least the beginning of the end of it all, was pretty anti-climactic to Sunny.
Like a bullet point in a budget meeting in some Podunk city council meeting, the biggest news since Sunny arrived in hell was rattled off as part of a list of things to talk about.
Azrael had convened a meeting, which, in and of itself, wasn't such big news. All Azrael had been doing the entire time that Sunny was in his castle was bringing demons together. Of course, he was also siphoning off energy from their pain and violence, and even their deaths in the worst circumstances, but he was still bringing people together, ever the consummate entertainer.
She should not have been surprised to be summoned that day. Nesta, with all her dirty looks and nasty mutterings under her breath, had knocked on Sunny's door. Sunny had been dressed for hours, but after the run-in with Vitaly, she had not wanted to chance another one. She had restricted herself to the suite and had been eating there as much as she could.
“My Lord has called a meeting in the grand hall,” Nesta said as she pushed open Sunny's door. She hadn't knocked, which Sunny thought was strange. But she brushed the thought aside and concentrated on the message.
“And what does that have to do with me? He's been calling a lot of those lately,” Sunny replied, trying to appear uninterested. It was all part of the ruse she was trying to maintain that she was Layla of the North.
“All guests are required to attend,” Nesta snapped back at her. “Especially you.”
Before Sunny could question her about the especially part, she slammed the door and was gone.
“Cow,” Sunny muttered at Nesta who was already gone.
Selah was not around either. Double interesting. It was almost as though Sunny could put the pieces together and realize that nothing good was going to come out of this mandatory gathering.
Sunny had not been inside the meeting hall yet. All of the dinners and the breakfasts and all of the other merrymaking had taken place in the ballroom, which was just as grand but more suited to the entertainment that Azrael had provided.
The meeting hall looked like a lecture hall from Sunny's community college days. There were rows of benches on either side of an aisle that led straight to a raised platform where there was a podium. Or was it a lectern? Sunny had never known the difference. Behind the podium, a row of chairs sat waiting.
Plenty of demons had already taken seats in the very front rows, which is just as well and good for Sunny, who chose an inconspicuous s
pot somewhere towards the back. Not that she was planning on darting out of the meeting for any reason, but she had chosen an aisle seat that had a direct access to the doors, just in case she needed to make a run for it. Sunny never knew what to expect in circumstances like these, and with the tensions around the keep ratcheting up more and more every single day, she was going to keep her options open.
While the hall filled with attendees, the platform ahead of them stayed empty.
She waited. The demons around her waited. Nobody made much small talk, and only a few whispers could be heard amongst the tense demons gathered. Nobody knew what the gathering was for, only that they had no choice but to attend. This had everybody nervous.
A few demons walked past Sunny's legs, eying her warily as they were forced to sit in the aisle next to her. Now that they weren't full of silver champagne, they probably noticed that Sunny was not behaving like them, not even a little bit. They were bound to notice eventually.
Doing her best to ignore the odd looks she was getting, Sunny kept her gaze locked on the stage ahead of them. At last, Azrael marched from a door off to the left side and went to stand at the lectern. Behind him, both his sons and his daughter followed him and took the seats that were behind him.
Azrael gave a dramatic pause, his eyes roaming over the entire assembled audience and Sunny swore his eyes rested on hers a few seconds too long. There was no way that he could make eye contact with her from so far away, but that didn't stop her from feeling like he was looking through every part of her disguise and seeing her for who she truly was beneath her glamour.
Still, he did not speak.
From behind her, she heard footsteps in unison and turned to watch as a small retinue of Azrael’s guards filed in and positioned themselves along the back wall and around the sides. They didn't look particularly aggressive, and most did not seem to have weapons at the ready or even on them, but their appearance made the demons twitter with anxiety. The whispers grew louder, the tension in the air tightened and Sunny was suddenly uncomfortable. She didn't like being surrounded by demon guards, especially when she had no idea which direction this little gathering was going to take. She scanned the sides of the hall for any exits and saw none. And because they were inside an interior room of the keep, there weren't even any windows. There was simply the door in the back that everyone had come through, and the door at the front that Azrael and his family had walked through.