Bat Out of Hell (Promised to the Demons Book 2)

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “He tried to hold it in,” Daisy said.

  “Our Orson is rubbing off on you,” Larkin said, laughing.

  “Having a baby that spits up on me and poops all the time is rubbing off on me,” she said, but with a slightly fond sigh.

  “That’s true. A gruagach who ate too much cheese is tame compared to taking a nap with a sweet naked baby on your chest and waking up covered in…”

  “Yeah, that was one of our more stupid moments,” Daisy muttered. “I thought we all looked so hot together.”

  “Anyway, I’m sure the theatricals will perk everyone up. Your friend there was riveting in the rehearsals.” Larkin slipped a hand around Daisy’s waist, and I was still jarred every time I saw her sharing affection with a different mate, but they made it look easy and even…sort of nice. Daisy’s mates seemed to like each other as much as they liked her.

  "Jameson?" Jenny asked. "I can't wait to see him!"

  "Who is he playing?" Daisy asked.

  "Ariel. I think he really identifies with the role. So cheer up, my love. I think it'll be a very interesting evening, either way…,” Larkin said.

  "Do you know what the Tempest is about?" Daisy asked me as soon as he left. “For a hot minute I thought your boy was playing the Little Mermaid.”

  "Me? No. Shakespeare is...not my thing,” I said. “Maybe I sound uncultured, but I like to understand things without thinking about it.” Which was why I could never have found out all that information about familiars without Piers…

  "Oh god. Thank you! It's so boring."

  I saw Variel across the room with his own large glass of wine, standing alone. He stood out even from a distance with his demonic appearance, and all the faeries gave him a wide berth. Jenny noticed him and pulled her fur over her breasts again.

  "We found some very interesting information in the library today," I told her, trying to get her mind off of him. "A theory about our origins. I'm sorry I've been spending so much time there during the day."

  "I don't mind! I've never been happier than to explore the city all by myself. It's nice not to have to answer to anyone."

  "You don't answer to me."

  "Well, technically I do!"

  "Yes, I could be making better use of that vow to do what I say, couldn't I?"

  “Oh, I hope I didn’t sound like I don’t want your company. I do! I’ve just never wandered around alone before.”

  "I like being alone. Someday when we're married, maybe, we'll both still have times when we want to be alone, and if this moment is any indication, I'll be even more excited to see you because of that."

  "Yes, although I don't want to be alone like before. All alone. I like it here because I meet friendly people everywhere."

  "Celeste, is that you?" Kerra strolled over, transformed from her brassy chef persona into a surprisingly glamorous woman in a dress with draping white sleeves and a floral print bodice and skirt over that. Her hair was twisted up with vines and frosted grapes.

  "Oh--oh--yes. Thank you for the desserts! They were all...almost impossibly ethereal and delicious."

  "Are you the one who has received all those magical desserts that were ordered this week?" Kerra asked her, with an odd look on her face.

  “The queen had them sent to me…didn’t she?” Jenny looked around the room just as the queen was making her entrance and the entire court fell silent into bows and curtseys and Kerra got swept away in all of the pomp and circumstance.

  Queen Morgana took the garlanded chair on the dais above the musicians, with her female attendant and two guards surrounding her. I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to this, as we all had to bow and curtsey again until she raised a hand.

  "Good evening to you all. I am well pleased to see so many fine scholars of magic and warriors gathered here tonight. As you know, there is reason for it...for both celebration and preparation. Most of you have heard by now that the gates between all the worlds are down. The only defense we have against invasion now is our numbers and the strength of our people."

  Some of the older fae, clad in black, who clustered just behind us, started murmuring with concern.

  "I do not wish you to fear," Queen Morgana said. "But we are the weakest of the realms. And who can we rely on to help? I have already been curious about the role of the wizard's familiars. They have some characteristics of the fae, and when Lady Daisy released her own familiar from his bond, it showed to me that familiars have not been free. If they are free, they need a realm to call home. I would suggest it should be ours. What say you?”

  A chorus of ayes and yeses came from the crowd.

  "Is this really happening?" Jenny whispered. "The fae queen will let us stay?"

  "That's what it sounds like to me. But..." I knew there would be trouble before we could just settle in to new lives.

  "I have long heard it said that there is a place at the farthest edge of the Lost Isles with an ancient temple said to be a sacred place for the fae shifters now thought to be extinct. Are they extinct, or did they evolve? The area is dangerous for travelers and so has not been explored in our known records. I believe it might be worth looking at. If we could find a way to free familiars from their tie to wizards, I believe they could be strong allies,” the queen said.

  "The temple," I breathed. I stepped up onto the edge of a column in the hall, looking for Piers among the candlelit faces.

  He was standing off to the side, trying not to attract attention. I motioned him toward us. He waved me on. You go tell the queen what we found.

  I hesitated. We found it together, really.

  "Bevan?" Jenny prompted me.

  I stepped down. “I mean, he’s right. This is our business. Our people. He just helped me with the translating."

  Some men had approached the queen and were sounding pretty cagey as they said, "That is really a dangerous area to sail, Your Majesty. The farthest edge of the Lost Isles!? It’s more than likely a death sentence."

  "Indeed, the region has been slipping into the dead zone outside of magic over the centuries, as you know. We can no longer manipulate the water as our ancestors did, but some magic still functions.”

  "If you get close enough that I could fly there...I'll go," I said. "We just found mention of a temple of familiars in the library today! It said something about a skin being kept in the temple. Like the legends of men who stole selkie skins, it sounds like early familiars might have been forced into a union that way."

  "I wouldn't get within fifty miles of that part of the sea," a grizzled man with a wind-beaten face and a gray cloak pinned at his shoulder said.

  I looked at Jenny. Maybe this was getting kind of crazy and impulsive. "I just can't help but think that it's important enough to try."

  "I bet Cash would try it," Daisy said. "My familiar. Because...you know...it would be personal to him too. He's been off sailing the fae lands."

  "If Cash can get to that island and aid in this alliance, he will be given a title and an estate in La Serenissima," Queen Morgana said. "This is no small matter to dismiss. I called my bravest men and women here for a reason. Our lands are very vulnerable now with the gates down--though perhaps no vulnerable than they were before! We need these allies. This is not a mere whim. This might save the realm."

  Now several of the men started jumping to volunteer. "Well, now that you've made it clear--"

  "That you will be given a title and an estate?" Queen Morgana snapped her hand at them to back away. "Lady Daisy, please contact your Cash and present the offer to him and his associates. If he refuses, I will look elsewhere."

  Daisy looked like she was cursing herself out for a second, but then she curtseyed and said, "I will. Thank you." She grabbed Larkin's arm and he seemed to be comforting her that Cash would survive.

  I looked at Jenny. "I volunteered without discussing it with you. I just went for it. It would be a really inconvenient time to die...but I want to know what's in that temple."

  "If we die, at least let it b
e together," she said. "But we won't. You told me you never get hurt."

  "That's true, but you only have to die once." I swept an arm around her and she folded against my chest. "This might be the key to all of our ancestors, and it might be our last chance to find it, if it's slipping away."

  "Let's go for it," Jenny said.

  "Hopefully, this matter is settled for now," Queen Morgana said. "It is right and good that the familiars would seek the truth of their own existence. And when your tie to wizard-kind is broken, you will have a home here, each and every one of you. The fae will protect you as we would our own. I decree it so."

  Besides the disgruntled sailors, the court cheered the news and started lining up to wish us well on our adventure, until the moment it was broken up because the evening theatricals were about to begin and Jenny wanted to rush to a seat to see Jameson.

  I was just thinking that Variel had been unusually quiet when a huge clawed hand snagged me as I was hustling down the hall after Jenny in the crowd.

  Jenny felt my arm slip out of hers and she whirled. "Variel!"

  "I have been silent," he said. “But you are not taking my future wife into danger."

  "I'm taking my future wife where we both want to go."

  "Variel, please—this is not your business!” Jenny said, with more firmness than I’d ever seen from her. “This is something we familiars need to do on our own. You will not stop us. The way you feel about your castle, we feel even more strongly about finding out where we came from.”

  Her anger was still adorable, but she made me proud. I didn’t know she could be so fiery.

  "I will go with you,” Variel said.

  "Like hell you are,” I said.

  "Like the wrath of hell, I am indeed!"

  "You really pissed her off," I said. I leaned a little closer to him. "I bet I could even take a little more of your power right now if I wanted."

  Variel struck me back with the back of his hand. “You have taken enough from me!”

  I zapped him in return. “Hitting me? Do you think that will help?”

  "Bevan, don't fight him. It’s not worth it anymore.” Jenny grabbed my arms in hers. “Let’s just watch the play and forget him.”

  Uram came up behind Variel, and Jenny turned her head away from him. She grabbed my hand again and I let her lead me in the doors.

  The best seat we could get was the fifth row now. She flounced into her chair, biting her lip.

  "I'm sorry I upset you, ginger snap, but you were perfect, telling him off."

  "You think so?"

  "I know so. He didn't even look at your breasts."

  She smacked me, and then she laughed a little, and then she took my hand as the lights dimmed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jenny

  I had read Shakespeare and other plays in Mrs. Franch's library; sooner or later, I had read every last book in that library twice over, in fact. But I had never seen a play.

  Wow, Shakespeare is a lot better when you can actually watch it! I was enraptured with the sumptuous costumes and the stage lit with candles and powerful lanterns that cast eerie shadows across the painted sets. Jameson was like a completely different person. I almost forgot I knew him before this, even though the role of Ariel, Prospero's servant, did certainly have a lot he could take from personal experience.

  “Is there more toil?” Ariel reminded his master. “Since thou dost give me pains, let me remind thee what thou has promised, which is not yet performed me!”

  I'll bet Variel is absolutely hating this play... I couldn't spot him in the audience. It was way too dark.

  The guests, who had seemed so serious until now, applauded the play long and loud. Jameson looked about to burst into tears when he took his final bow. I was itching to congratulate him, but as soon as the curtain lowered, Queen Morgana walked out.

  "As on the stage, so do we all play our parts. Some the heroes, others the oppressors. But it is not always as simple as it first appears. While I lay ill here last year, some of my court took it upon themselves to judge Lord Cyrus for sins he did not commit. In the courts of my ancestors, of Mab, of Finvarra, it was believed that many of our enemies held the key to their own punishments within their sins, and thus could they be led to look within themselves. I am holding a trial this evening in the old way, in the hopes that Lord Variel the Devourer and Piers Nicolescu the Warlock will not have to walk the Bridge of Sighs and spend their days in useless isolation. I do not like this punishment, and now that I am well, we will punish our criminals in the way of our world, not the black and white ways of Etherium and Sinistral!"

  I was getting very nervous. "Bevan, do you know what she means?"

  "I think we just stepped into something," Bevan said. "Apparently Queen Morgana wants to assert herself, and she's going to use Variel and Piers as an example."

  "But she said I was going to judge them! I don't want to have to judge them in front of all these people! What if I choose some sentence the faeries don't like?"

  "I'm sure she won't--"

  Queen Morgana looked right at me. "Jenny the Familiar...please come to me."

  "Yikes." I grabbed Bevan's arm. "What do I do?"

  "You'd better go. She is our benefactor, at this point. Do you want me to come with you?"

  “No…I’ll go alone.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I took a deep breath as more people were looking at me. “Yes.” I picked up a corner of my dress and walked down the steps, and then up the steps at stage left. Lord Cyrus had also joined Queen Morgana on the stage while I was making this ponderous walk, with hundreds of eyes watching me.

  I tried to tug the fur over my breasts again. I saw Daisy in the front row waving her hands at me and mouthing, Work it, girl!

  I felt like a ridiculous, humble nobody all fancied up, while more people than I had ever seen in my life stared down at me. But I stood straight and kept my feet quick and steady as I tried to ‘work it’.

  I knew I would never be able to choose a suitable punishment for Variel or Piers. I was shaking all over while the queen barely seemed to notice my nerves. She might have been a nice queen, but she was still very much a queen. Cyrus did give my shoulder a quick pat. He looked concerned about me, which certainly made sense if he could read my thoughts.

  He gave me a pointed nod and I realized maybe I needed to curtsey. I managed to do that. I was too scared to say a word.

  "Come, Lord Variel," the queen said. She looked up, knowing just where he was in the crowd.

  Meanwhile, now a large mirror was rolled onto the stage, and a woman with long silver hair and a black gown with lavender petticoats underneath joined Lord Cyrus.

  "Lady Ceres," he said, nodding at her.

  "Lord Cyrus." She laughed softly. "Our names are quite similar." She nodded at me too. "Mistress Jenny. I will execute your judgments to the best of my ability."

  "I'm afraid she might faint," Cyrus said, as I was feeling very dizzy and everything seemed to blur together. I couldn't believe this was happening. Execute my judgments? What if I didn't have any judgments? If Queen Morgana didn't want to send Piers and Variel to prison, what did she think was fair? Piers had already lost a hand. Maybe she meant for me to order his other hand chopped off as well? Put out an eye? Gods, I wasn't going to do anything even close to that! Was she going to give me any guidance or did I just have to make something up?

  Lord Variel was being watched by guards, as usual, but he came of his own accord, and he didn't look scared. He held his head proudly, and some of the faeries hissed at each other, already judging him in loud whispers, as his red eyes swept over them.

  "Do as you will," he said defiantly. "I am well aware that my grandfather murdered one of your ancestors, and a blood price must be paid."

  "Your grandfather?" Queen Morgana said. “Is that what you think this is about? He is dead, is he not?"

  "Yes. But his blood flows through my veins."

  "And what do you
carry on your own soul?" Morgana asked.

  Variel was quiet for a moment, his eyes looking inward, not at the crowd.

  He was certainly very handsome, so tall and strong, his presence taking over the whole stage so that even the queen was in his shadow. I wished I could trust him.

  He grimaced slightly, muscles in his forearms flexing as he clenched his fists so tight that his own claws must be hurting his palms. "I am a high demon," he said. "I'm sure I have done everything you might accuse me of, and more."

  "Look in the mirror," Queen Morgana said.

  Variel turned, and images flashed by of Variel whipping servants. Women, boys barely in their teens, an old man who fainted in the middle of the lashings.

  Variel's grayish skin turned a sickly shade of bluish-white. "I do not want Jenny to have to watch this!"

  "Jenny should know what you really are."

  My stomach turned and turned again. I no longer knew at all what the queen wanted. She was a little scary as she watched the visions without flinching the way I did.

  "The mirror is just reflecting back to you things that you're thinking of," Morgana said. "Moments that weigh on your soul."

  Variel ordered people dragged out of his throne room and even his bedroom. He shot a pile of animals and left them in a pile to rot. He strapped someone to a rack. He was throwing books in a fire. I wondered if they were a servant's treasured possessions.

  Now I saw a vision of Jameson bowing on the floor to Variel as he sat on his throne of skulls. When Jameson rose, he was lifting his wings, clearly pleading for the human body that Variel had finally given him. Variel just laughed and threw some bread on the floor, making Jameson peck it like a bird.

  Finally, there was Variel watching me. Me and Bevan. Our bodies were silhouettes in the flames of the fireplace, but it was still all too clear what was happening.

  I let out a little squeak of horror and buried my face in the fur capelet.

  Variel growled and rushed to the mirror with an arm raised. Cyrus smoothly drew his sword. "Sir, calm yourself," he said.