Daemon: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Airshan Chronicles Book 2)

by Nhys Glover

  Though my comforter had never promised me anything. Never required anything of me other than to exist.

  So I could be sucked dry by the hag!

  Tears were coursing down my cheeks before I became aware of it. All this time I had clung to sanity for him. I had come out of hiding to help defeat the Devourers for him. So he wouldn’t die when the world ended.

  No! He had tried to shield me from the hag. And he’d comforted me after every horrifying visit.

  Because that was the only way to keep me fuelling the hag’s visions. I had lasted so much longer than all the others because he had sustained me somehow. For his own purpose! Not because he cared about me! Not because he loved me! He had awaited me for millennia because I would aid in his release from his dark prison. So he could return to the surface to rape and fulfil his malign purpose. Why else did he have fangs and claws like that? I had never even considered their purpose. They were simply part of him.

  My comforter.

  An arm was around my shoulder. I did not even need to look up to know that it was Redin who held me. Why was he now being kind to me when moments before he rejected me so forcefully?

  I needed to sleep. I was so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open. Everything I believed to be truth was lie. Lost... I was truly lost.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I was storming into the common room, Landor on my heels, when Lady Shardra was leaving the room looking more sapped of energy than any time since I first saw her in that cave. Landor had told me on awakening that someone had come to help her. Someone had come to also help us find the ring. But clearly no one had helped Shardra.

  They should have woken me. I was not as badly hurt as all that. I didn’t need the healing sleep. There were far more important things for me to be dealing with than healing the last of a few burns.

  As we entered the room a low hum of voices had begun. No one seemed happy. I sat down between Zem and Prior, ready for Prior’s rejection. Instead, he did the opposite, moving in close as soon as I sat down, as if he needing to confirm I was recovered by touching me.

  I looked up at him and smiled my reassurance. The smiled he sent me in return was oddly light. Frowning, I looked to Zem for answers. His mind was open and overflowing with information that he was busily trying to sift through—to make sense of. I had missed so much.

  Two things stood out. There was a way to save me from Prior’s fire, and Shardra was free of the hag but not of a daemon.

  A daemon? I could remember Dah telling me tales of evil daemons that flew the skies, causing calamity everywhere they went. The Goddess condemned them to the fiery depth of the underworld where they belonged. Their element was fire, after all.

  How could a human girl have anything to do with one of those frightening beasts?

  “Her comforter,” Prior informed me. He was in my head too? Was I open to them all, all the time now?

  “You are to me,” he answered.

  Laric grinned toothily at me, and I knew he was agreeing with Prior.

  I made a heated demand for them to get out of my head. I doubted it worked, but as no one commented aloud I wasn’t sure. I checked in with Zem, and he’d closed himself off to me.

  Just like the others!

  With lightning speed I returned to the other piece of information I’d gleaned from Zem’s mind. They had a way to get around Prior’s fire problem? What? How did Zem feel about that? He seemed to like Prior, but that was largely because he didn’t see the black man as a threat because I couldn’t get close to him. Therefore I remained his and Landor’s.

  But if there was a way to be with Prior without igniting, I would take it. I was past caring what Zem thought, what Zem wanted. Prior was mine, as surely as Laric was mine. And the time for tiptoeing around Zem’s pride was over.

  But maybe there was still a way it could happen without rubbing Zem’s face in it. For one thing, if I was going to experiment with this cure, I wasn’t going to do it while risking my other husbands. We’d do it alone, where no one else could get hurt.

  What were my chances of getting Zem to agree to that?

  Little to none. He was as stubborn as I was when he wanted to be.

  What was this magical cure? How could we be sure it would work? Did we offer some poor unsuspecting girl up in my place to test it out? I shuddered at that idea. Not only didn’t I want someone else dying in my place, but I didn’t like the idea of Prior with another girl. He was mine now. Somehow, in the last few days—since he kissed me the first time, maybe—he’d become mine.

  A conversation between the stranger and Darkin had begun, and I was keen to hear it. Thoughts of Prior would have to wait until later. I hated being left out when there were important matters that concerned me being discussed.

  “Do you think this creature has been using her? That it is with The Jayger?” Darkin was demanding.

  “I cannot say. What I saw was them together as lovers. Though I am not sure if they had actually consummated their relationship. I could only see it from her point of view, obviously, and she is remarkably innocent. She veered away from such intimate details, even in her own mind. Living in a cave, largely alone for most of her life, has contributed to that innocence. She has never even seen loving adults together, no less knows what goes on between a man and woman.

  “What kind of parents would do that to their child? The conditions she lived in. If that hag had not drained her, she would have died of starvation soon enough.” The stranger sounded angry and protective of Shardra. Did they know each other?

  No, as he said, she lived alone in a cave. They couldn’t have known each other. Then why was he so protective of a stranger?

  “But she is free now? You have taken her place with the hag?” Darkin continued.

  “Yes. When she draws on an essence to fuel her visions it will be me who goes to her now. I will do what I can to block any attempts she makes to know who I am on the Physical Plane. It may well be that she will not even know there has been a change. I was part of Lady Shardra’s essence when I attracted the parasite. She may simply believe she has tapped into an as yet unexploited source of inner strength within Shardra.”

  “What will that mean to us?” Jaron asked thoughtfully, his usual playful demeanour gone.

  “We cannot stop her but we can monitor her now. We can know what she knows. And as long as she doesn’t realise we know, we can outwit her and those bastard priests,” Zem said thoughtfully.

  The stranger nodded in agreement. “I am happy to serve you as long as necessary. I do not know how long my essence will sustain her. I have magic, but whether it is the kind she can use, and for how long...”

  “We will kill the bitch and that will break your connection. Do not fear!” Prior said, his fury closer to the surface than usual.

  I edged a little away from him. It was an unconscious action. Though I knew burning me hadn’t been his fault, I now feared being close to him.

  “You said that Shardra knows where the ring is. Do you think this daemon knows, and she can find out from him?” Airsha asked thoughtfully.

  “Possibly. I know she does not currently know where the ring is. I saw that when we were one.”

  “What was that like? Being one with her?” Zem asked curiously. Of all the questions I would have expected him to ask, this was the oddest.

  “I have done it before with others. Gone into their droplet of essence and into their memories, their being. But this time it was different because she was doing the same to me. It is hard to explain and very... intimate. I have not had many sexual partners. But I could imagine it is like becoming one with someone you love, not just lust after. I hurt her by the way I acted over the daemon, and I must beg her forgiveness for it. But seeing him there... It fired my jealousy. Foolishly, it feels like she is mine now. Which is not the case.”

  “I like your description of water droplets blending, and how some that are the same colour can stay blended,” Airsha admitted. “Calun has lon
g described his bond with his brothers in such a way, and that is how it feels for me with them. We are one larger drop, not so much individual droplets anymore.”

  “I feel that is the case with us too,” Landor agreed after checking with me first before saying anything. “Or it will be. Already it is starting with Flame, Zem and me.”

  I remembered his description of us being one soul separated at birth, and only circumstance determining if we came back together in any lifetime. So I was happy enough for him to share this with the others.

  “You are overly optimistic, my friend. Some of us will never get the chance to bond as you have done with our Flame,” Laric said licentiously, but I could hear the hollowness in his voice.

  “The Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. Remember that, Zem. And you are first and foremost here to do Her Will,” Airsha intoned.

  Zem scowled and looked away, unwilling to accept the gentle reprimand. I looked at Rama, wondering how he was taking Zem’s stubbornness. He seemed impatient and a little disgusted by the younger man he’d so carefully tutored. I knew the feeling.

  There was no good reason why he was holding on to his antagonism to Laric. The man had done nothing to him. And he’d saved my life! Surely he had won his place with us as surely as the others had done.

  “What is the cure for Prior’s fire?” I asked into the uncomfortable silence.

  “I am giving you my lightning. If you use a little of it when you two come together, his fire will be neutralised,” Airsha told me, seemingly as relieved as I to be changing the topic.

  I stared at her in amazement. I knew that one element could not defend against the same element, that was why the Goddess had used only non-water elemental mages in the Five. But that we could somehow use the same principal to quell Prior’s fire... Interesting!

  Then it dawned on me what that might mean. No one but Airsha had more than one element, or even one expression of that element, and that was because she was the Goddess Incarnate. I was just an ordinary human. So either it would kill me or it would knock my own air magic out of its place inside me. I would no longer be able to read minds.

  Hadn’t that been the case with my men a lot of the time lately anyway? Would losing it entirely be so bad if I could have lightning to fight with?

  But how could I use lightning against Prior during bedplay? I’d kill him.

  “I think we need to talk about this,” Zem argued. “We don’t know if you can give her your magic, as she already has her own magic. Even if you can, it might not work as you use it. Flame is a very... emotional person. Controlling magic like lightning during something as intense as sex could go very wrong. May I remind everyone that she still hasn’t learned how to block her thoughts from us. She constantly complains about it, but she makes no effort to fix what she sees as a significant problem.”

  I felt betrayed. Zem thought me incapable of the control and discipline this exercise would require. How dare he dismiss me so easily. I’d show him!

  Prior’s hand was on my arm, stopping me from stomping out yet again. I had to stop behaving like a spoiled child if I had any chance of winning the respect of the people I cared about. My tantrums were getting ridiculous. Yet there was terrible internal pressure being exerted on me, pushing me to act, pushing me to do things my rational mind knew I shouldn’t.

  I forcibly calmed down and sent a thank you glance Prior’s way.

  Landor was thinking hard at me. “He’s worried what it might do to you. It wasn’t meant to insult you.”

  I sort of knew this, but it still stung that he thought me so incapable of discipline. I had learned to fight, hadn’t I? I’d learned to work with airlings, which had required a massive shift in thinking and behaving. If I set my mind to something I could do it. I wasn’t as unpredictable and out of control as he thought me.

  Although kissing Prior at the arena until he set me alight was probably good evidence Zem could use to make his point. But he didn’t understand. The need to draw Laric and Prior in was becoming an ache so deep it hurt all the time. It was no longer a matter of if, it was a matter of when it would happen, and it had to be soon.

  “Do it. I want the lightning now. Then you can train me in how to use it during sex,” I told Airsha stiffly, ignoring Zem.

  Airsha looked from me to Zem and back again. “You understand the dangers?”

  “Of course. This quest the Goddess put me on has always been dangerous. I’ve already had my spine severed and been caught in a Devourer’s nightmare world. This can’t be as bad as either of those.”

  I saw Zem preparing to argue again, but Landor placed a hand on his shoulder, a firm one. He subsided.

  “All right then,” Airsha announced, rising gracefully from her cross-legged position on the floor. “I think we have done all we can here. Redin, I would appreciate it if you took accommodation here in the old palace so we can be informed immediately the hag draws on you. Can I ask the rest of you to find other things to do while Flame, Landor, Calun and I attempt this gifting. Anxious onlookers will not help us.”

  Dismissed, the others had no opportunity to do more than obey. I felt a little satisfaction as Zem stormed out, followed more slowly by Laric and Prior. Prior looked worried, as if he was preparing to take the blame for this going wrong. Which was obviously not his responsibility. He hardly gave himself this fire problem. And he’d spent his life trying to gain the control he needed to master it. But some things can’t be mastered, they had to be accepted and worked with. This was one of them.

  I had watched Airsha gift Julz with her air magic. I knew how it happened. The assistants were simply there to pull either Airsha or me out if things started going wrong. Landor was a good choice for me. His quiet, solid presence was reassuring. I could trust him to do whatever was necessary in a crisis, but he wouldn’t jump in early from panic.

  Calun was the same. He shared a unique bond with his wife that allowed him to blend completely with her. He’d pulled her out of the nightmare Laric had given her. My brother could therefore save her if this gifting went wrong.

  “Zem isn’t mistaken, you know. You will have to learn discipline. This is wild magic, erratic and unpredictable. My little trick with Moyna yesterday took me an age to master. You won’t have that sort of time to master it. Because time as we know it is running out. I can feel it. So can you.”

  I nodded. “I have to bond us. The need to complete the bond is almost more than I can bear now. And I’m starting to hate Zem because he’s standing in the way of it. I never thought I’d feel like that about him.”

  “The Goddess’ Will is hard to ignore. Zem is holding out only because he’s incredibly strong-willed too. And he fears for you. He’d spit in the face of the Goddess Herself for you.”

  I nodded, knowing it was true. But there was also a strong element of self-interest in his dogged refusal to accept the others. He had come to accept that Landor only added to our bond, not took from it. He had no such belief where the other two were concerned.

  It was a matter of trust. And he didn’t trust me, no matter what he’d said the other day.

  “This will happen whether he likes it or not,” I said stubbornly.

  “The bond can’t be just between you and each man. It must be formed between each of the men as well,” Airsha reminded me.

  I didn’t need reminding, but I couldn’t do it all. I was hard-pressed doing my own part. And I was getting desperate.

  Landor placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll help. I will make more of an effort to bond with the others so that Zem realises it is achievable. And I will teach Laric ways he can win Zem over. If he is determined to make this work he will do what he can to build bridges between himself and Zem.”

  “At the moment he feels threatened by Zem. Jealous of his position, his bond with me. I know he wants me and wants to be part of The Five, but he’s ambitious. He is not someone who can accept coming second to anyone else.”

  “Can we sort Laric out later. We h
ave magic to transfer,” Airsha reminded me impatiently.

  I nodded, contrite, and sat cross-legged in front of her, Landor behind me. Calun took up a similar position behind Airsha.

  For a moment I had trouble calming my thoughts. Worries over Zem had them circling in my head like a groundling chasing its tail. When Landor stepped in and worked his calming magic on me, I was finally ready. Finally at peace.

  I remembered Julz saying he felt something when the transfer occurred, but nothing much. It wasn’t like that for me. I felt something, and it wasn’t nothing much. It felt like an intense force was pressing down on me, not from the outside, but from deep inside. And then, after what felt like forever, something gave way—almost tore away—from inside me.

  Suddenly I was terrified my air magic had been stripped from me. It was me! I would cease to be if I lost it. If the lightning had forced it out. Torn it out. I would no longer be me!

  Before I could panic, Landor’s steady presence was back, soothing me, calming me, and making it all right.

  Airsha opened her eyes at the same moment I did, and we stared at each other for a long moment. “You’ve never been easy, my dear friend. How do you feel?”

  I grimaced. “I don’t know. As if I’ve been pulverized on the inside so something could be torn away, leaving a great, gaping hole inside me.”

  Airsha laughed. “Not so bad then. As long as it was no worse than having your spine severed.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “Aye, better than that. But not by much. The only good thing was it didn’t last long.”

  “It was a quarter turn. A very long quarter turn,” Landor told us. Airsha’s eyes opened wide in surprise. I knew what she felt. It had seemed no more than moments. Mayhap he was including the time it took to calm me down first.

  “I think we need to go outside and practise. See that you have it. What about your mind-reading?”