The Demon's Deal

by H. D. Gordon

  She gripped me gently by the shoulders, studying me with the expression of a concerned mother, though she looked not a day over twenty. “You’re not okay,” she said, brushing some of the hair off my forehead with silky soft fingers.

  These words broke me.

  Well, I was already broken, but they knocked the pieces I’d been holding so carefully right out of my grip.

  The tears came in gasps and sobs, and I was powerless to stop them for several moments. Surah pulled me close and rubbed my back, whispering sweet words in my ear. When I opened my eyes again, we were no longer standing in my apartment.

  I gasped as I took in the new scene around me.

  “Where are we?” I asked, taking the handkerchief Surah offered and clearing away my tears.

  One side of Surah’s mouth pulled up as she glanced around in reverence and spoke in muted tones. “These are the Temples of Mahlea…. It’s where I come when I need to find peace.”

  I wandered down the path of dark stone, as if my feet were acting on their own intentions. The path sloped downward, going on in a straight line for as far as the eye could see. On either side of the walkway were structures made of the same dark stone and crafted with infinite attention to detail. There were all sizes, some towering over my head while others crouched near my feet, shaped like stacked rectangular prisms, every inch carved with symbols I didn’t know.

  Statues of Firedrakes and Harpies, Great Cats and Sirens sat among the temples. At their bases were all manner of things; jewels and coins, flowers, food, and burning incense. I leaned down to get a closer look, then glanced curiously back at Surah.

  She still had that small smile on her face. “They’re offerings,” she said. “To the Gods.”

  I glanced around, wondering who had left them. It was then I took note of the various other people who were here. I call them people, but a human would have called them creatures, as none of them were human. From their auras, I spotted shifters and magic users, pixies and trolls, and every other manner of supernatural being. They all moved with reverent silence, placing offerings at the bases of the temples and slipping away silently into the night.

  The night. I tipped my head back and looked up at the sky. The stars were so brilliant that I could see whole pictures in them.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered.

  Surah nodded once, that tiny movement more regal than I’d ever be.

  “Come,” she said, and took a seat on the steps that led up to one of the temples. She spread her cloak out so there was a spot beside her for me to sit, too.

  I sat on the soft fabric and melted when she closed the cloak around us, wrapping me up in magic and warmth.

  “Now tell me what’s going on,” the Sorceress Queen said.

  And so I did.

  Surah sat in silence for long enough to confirm what I already knew: the situation was rather hopeless.

  The Sorceress Queen was a pragmatist, though, and I could practically see the wheels turning in her lavender head as she searched for a solution.

  I was busy studying the intricate swirls on a statue beside me, trying not to cry again, when I saw inspiration spark in her aura, and turned to her with raised brows.

  “You have an idea,” I said.

  Surah nodded, beautiful smile spreading over her face.

  “Why do I have a feeling I won’t like it?”

  She shrugged. “It’s dangerous.”

  I waited for her to continue.

  “You need to see a Seer,” she said, as if the matter were only so simple.

  I scoffed. “Dangerous?” I said. “More like eternally damning.”

  Seers were some of the most feared and respected creatures in all the realms, and for good reason. They were believed to be the Keepers of the Universe, and had an intimate connection with the Fates. If one could even find a Seer, one could then ask a question of them. But that question had a price, and that price was usually one’s soul.

  “That ship has sailed, anyway,” Surah said. “Your soul already has a claim, so what have you got to lose?”

  “So maybe they won’t answer my question at all then,” I said. “Or maybe they do, and then my soul is not mine again, anyway.”

  Another shrug. “Only one way to find out, and owing your soul to a Seer is better than owing it to a Demon.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Is anyone ever sure about anything?”

  I considered. It wasn’t like I had any other options.

  “How do I find one?” I asked.

  “Actually, there’s one in the human realm,” Surah answered.

  I nodded. “Can we stay here for a while longer? This place is so beautiful and peaceful.”

  “We can stay as long as you want,” Surah said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “So how are things with you and that handsome neighbor of yours?”

  Blushing, I couldn’t help a smile. “He’s amazing. So thoughtful and considerate. I love him…. That’s part of the reason all of this sucks so much.”

  Surah nodded. “I know the feeling. Loving someone like that, it’s hard. It means you have something to lose.”

  With all that was going on, I forgot that it wasn’t that long ago that Surah had been caught in a situation as precarious as my own. She’d lost everyone she loved; her parents and siblings, and was the last in line to the Sorcerer’s throne. Shortly after, her kingdom had come under attack by a dark Sorcerer, and things had spiraled out of control from there.

  I’d come along at the end of that journey, and liked to think I’d done my part to help, but I couldn’t begin to imagine the amount of stress the queen must have been under.

  “How about you and Charlie?” I asked.

  The expression that came over Surah’s face was one reserved for the Sorcerer she’d fallen in love with, the male she’d risked everything for. I leaned into her when her aura filled with love, absorbing some of the good feeling.

  “He’s well,” she said. “Just being Charlie.”

  “And the kingdom? Everything is running smoothly?”

  Surah let out a puff of breath, fanning some of her lavender bangs off her forehead. “There are always issues, but for the most part, yes, all is well.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” I said.

  “Aria?”

  “Mm?”

  “Why have you given up so quickly, so easily? The girl I knew a couple years ago, the one who defied her superiors to avenge her mother’s death, she wouldn’t have rolled over the way you have.”

  The words were spoken in the queen’s smooth and gentle tone, but they were no less potent for it. I didn’t know what to say to them, so I only shrugged and shook my head, because we both knew she was right.

  “To those I love,” the queen continued, “I try to speak truthfully, so I hope you’re not offended when I say I expect more of you. I expect you to fight harder, not to lose all hope before the game’s been called…. Am I wrong?”

  I shook my head again, afraid that my voice would break on any words I attempted.

  “So then snap out of it,” Surah told me, turning my face toward hers so that I had to meet her violet eyes. “Stop waving the white flag in surrender. Let me ask you, if the situation were reversed, and it was someone you love whose soul was on the line, would you be saying to yourself that it’s pointless to try and break the deal? Or would you be fighting to move the heavens and hells to make it right?”

  This was so close to what Thomas had said to me—I’ll move the heavens and hells if I have to—that I felt stupid tears welling again and blinked them away. If it were him on the line, or Sam, or Matt, or any of the others, I would be saying the same thing. I just hadn’t thought of it that way.

  “You’re right,” I said.

  Surah grinned. “Of course I am.” She took my hands, giving my fingers a squeeze. “So fight, Aria. Stop acting like all is lost and fight to stay with your loved ones, fight for the life you’ve built. You’ve done so mu
ch for other people. You more than deserve a win for yourself.”

  I stared at her, trying to summon the courage I’d lost at some point along the way, though I wasn’t sure exactly where.

  Then it hit me. The reason I was so resigned.

  “I’ve taken a life,” I told her. “I killed a human by snapping his neck with my bare hands. I took the power I’ve been given, and I used it to snuff out another…. I’m not sure I do deserve a win. In fact, maybe I deserve to get what’s coming to me. Maybe it’s the universe balancing things out.”

  Whatever response I was expecting, it wasn’t a peel of laughter.

  I raised a brow at the Sorceress as she continued laughing when she saw my confusion.

  “Is that what it is?” she said once she’d finally gained control over herself. “You think you deserve to die?”

  “Well…yeah.”

  “Aria, do you know how many people I’ve killed?”

  I shook my head.

  “Neither do I, because it’s too many to count. Do you think I deserve to have my soul enslaved to a Demon?”

  “Well, you had a kingdom to protect. You took lives to save lives. It’s not like you went around murdering people.”

  “And you did?”

  “Well…no.”

  “What would have happened if you hadn’t killed that human that night?”

  “There would have been more death,” I mumbled.

  “So there you go again, affording other people considerations that you don’t afford yourself. Like I said, snap out of it. You’re going to need your head in the game for this. If you don’t have hope, you’ve lost already, and if you can’t find it within yourself, then take some from me. Take it from those friends of yours and that handsome man who loves you. They’d want you to, trust me.”

  “I do,” I said. “I do trust you.”

  “Then trust me on this; all magic can be reversed. I don’t care what old tomes and bats say, all magic can be reversed. So take your hope and get on the way to reversing it already.”

  Surah released her hold on my shoulder and removed one of her velvet gloves. Then she offered me her hand.

  I watched the hope swirling in her aura as I took her hand, and pulled some of the feeling into myself. I felt better instantly. Normally, I had a rule against taking good emotions from others, as it was a commodity that was always in short supply in the human world, but the queen was no human, and she had offered.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Much better,” I said.

  “Then you’ll fight? As hard as you’d fight for anyone else?”

  “Yes, I’ll fight.”

  Surah Stormsong studied me through dark lashes. “You know, one of my gifts is the ability to tell when others are lying.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  The Sorceress Queen grinned. “I know.”

  Chapter Ten

  Back in my apartment, we said our goodbyes.

  “Thank you,” I said. “For always coming when I need you… How did you know, by the way?”

  “A Halfling friend of yours sent a bottle saying you needed help. Nick, I think his name was.”

  I nodded slowly. Leave it to Nick to insist everything is hopeless and then try to fix things, anyway.

  “He loves you, you know,” Surah added.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Surah glanced at the door, as if she could see through the walls to Thomas’s apartment. “There are worse problems to have,” she said.

  “I’ve got those, too.”

  The Queen’s smile was brilliant. “Indeed…. By the way, I paid up the rent on this place for another year. I would have put you some place nicer, but something told me you’d want to stay.”

  “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you. And, yes, I like it here.”

  Surah pulled me into one last hug, and another swirling portal opened up behind her, tugging at the edges of her long cloak. She handed me a transparent orb about the size of my fist.

  “So you can get a hold of me if you need to,” she said. “I meant to leave one the last time I visited.”

  “I love you,” I blurted out, and felt foolish as my cheeks heated up.

  Surah smiled. “I love you, too, Aria Fae,” she said, and stepped into the portal.

  A few heartbeats later, I was knocking on Thomas’s door.

  He answered quickly, as if he had been waiting for me.

  “Want to go on a mission?” I asked.

  His smile stole my breath away. “I’d thought you’d never ask. Where are we going?”

  “To see a Seer.”

  A handful of minutes later, we were on Thomas’s motorcycle, roaring down the interstate, leaving Grant City behind. It would take a few hours to reach the destination Surah had given me, but I didn’t mind the reprieve, and holding tightly to Thomas was an added bonus.

  When we finally came to a stop, Thomas shut off the engine and twisted around in the seat. “This is it?” he asked.

  I studied the line of dark trees, the gnarled branches, the utter lack of civilization, and said, “I guess so.”

  Thomas grunted. “Does the Seer live in a house made of candy and have an oven large enough to fit children inside?”

  I paused, and then bursted into laughter. “Did you just make a joke?” I asked.

  Thomas raised a brow. “I make jokes.”

  “Yeah, and I’m a monkey’s uncle.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. You ready?”

  Thomas swung off the bike, and I followed suit. He held a hand out to me before we ventured into the trees. I took it and swallowed hard.

  We started down a barely-there path that led to what I could only hope would be a Seer with an answer.

  The deeper we went into the forest, the more my unease grew. This was strange, because as a half Fae, I usually felt the most at home within trees. Thomas looked at me when I slipped my staff out of the back of my waistband and whispered the incantation that made it grow to its full size.

  “This forest is full of spirits,” he said quietly, as if afraid the dead might overhear him.

  Thomas talked about it so rarely that sometimes I forgot about his special ability.

  “Well, that’s not creepy,” I mumbled.

  “Don’t worry,” Thomas said. “I’ll protect you.”

  I gave him a small nudge. That was what I usually said to him when he acknowledged danger. “Very funny,” I said.

  Thomas opened his mouth to respond, but didn’t get a chance before I knocked him out of the way. He stumbled to the side, and I swung my staff in an arc, batting at the creature that had come flying out of the trees.

  As my staff made contact, the creature let out a squawk, massive wings stirring the air, claws stretching toward me. I prepared for another attack as the birdlike creature reared back. But rather than attacking, it began to twist and change.

  In the next blink, there was a person standing in the place where the bird had been.

  Short and hairy, it took me longer than it should have to realize what it was. The Gnome rubbed at his side. “Ow,” he said in a strange accent. “Why’d you do that?”

  “Um…You came flying at us like a bat out of hell,” I said. “Sorry?”

  The Gnome’s blue eyes narrowed. “What are you doing in my forest?”

  “Your forest?” Thomas said.

  The Gnome ignored him, gaze locked on me. He sniffed in my direction. “Fae Halfling,” he said. “Curious…. You look human.”

  “We’ve come to see the Seer who lives in these woods,” I said. “Do you know where to find him?”

  “What makes you think it’s a him?”

  I suppressed a sigh. “Okay, do you know where to find her, then?”

  The Gnome folded his stubby arms over his chest. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. I don’t see any reason why I should help you.”

  As he started to turn away, I flipped through my knowledge of Gnome
s, trying to remember something that might be of use. As a Peace Broker, my schooling had consisted of several courses regarding all the various creatures of the realms, exactly for reasons such as this. On a mission, one never knew what kind of beings one might encounter.

  “I’ll tell you a secret,” I said quickly, the knowledge surfacing at last. When the Gnome turned back slowly, curiosity lighting up his pinched face, I knew I was right. “Take us to the Seer, and I’ll tell you a secret.”

  The Gnome pretended to consider, but I was reading his aura signature, and knew that it was just for show. Gnomes could no more resist an offering of a secret than Leprechauns could resist an offering of gold.

  “Okay, child of Immortals and men,” the Gnome said, and a shiver raced up my spine. Where had I heard those words before?

  I didn’t have time to think about it, because the Gnome grinned broadly, blue gaze still holding mine. “But I don’t want your secrets,” he said, and jerked his head toward Thomas. “I want one of his.”

  Thomas’s aura spiked with apprehension, and I shifted to put myself in front of him

  “Why him?” I asked the smug little bastard.

  “Because you give up your secrets willingly,” the Gnome said. “Your secrets are hardly secrets at all. You’re an open book, Halfling. But him?” His blue eyes glittered with mischief as he scanned Thomas. “He’s a mystery, always keeping himself closed off, even to you.”

  I swallowed, trying not to let the impact of these words show on my face.

  Instead, I turned to Thomas. “You don’t have to,” I whispered. “We can just go.”

  Thomas shook his head. “This is the only lead we have,” he said, and stepped past me to address the Gnome, towering over him with his impressive form. “What do you want to know?”

  The Gnome clapped his hands and stomped his feet in excitement. “All around the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel!” he sang. He stopped dancing and tapped at his chin—another gesture that was just for show. His aura told me he knew exactly what he was going to ask. “Do you want her to be present when you give your answer?” the Gnome asked.