Rowanne reciprocated his smile and leaned forward. His eyes widened in surprise, this was not what he expected... but, oh well. She picked up the sandwich and took a huge bite of it, and laughed gleefully at Alexander, as she could almost hear him lament. Well, it served him right. Keep out of my head! she thought.
He sat back resignedly, taking a bite out of his sandwich, and thoughts of Rowanne slowly faded as he began to tuck in with gusto. I can’t believe how hungry I am. I have not overexerted myself beyond what I am normally capable of, or, have I?
Rowanne studied him; he was a man that didn’t do things by halves, but really went for it. She took a sip of tea, identifying it as rose. ‘It’s the human side of you, opening the portal drained you more than you thought.’
Alexander waved her explanation away as he mournfully started his second sandwich. That’s most likely the case. She inherits demon powers, becoming stronger, whereas, I on the other hand, gain old age and become weaker, he shuddered.
‘So, when are you going to answer my questions, old man?’ she asked helpfully.
‘Really?’ asked Alexander, raising an eyebrow. ‘Do not test my patience, Rowanne...’ he said menacingly.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll have Kieran bring in your walking stick,’ said Rowanne considerately.
‘Rowanne, you will regret those words. I will prove to you that I am in no way frail, just wait until this is all over...’ promised Alexander, as he looked at her wickedly.
‘Uh-huh...’ replied Rowanne sarcastically. ‘But only if you don’t use up all of your energy before then, dealing with this mess,’ she added sweetly. She dared not smile, it would only encourage him.
They finished the rest of the meal in companionable silence. Rowanne’s thoughts ran in different directions, each vying for her attention; uppermost was Lillian.
‘Lillian?’ Rowanne waited a heartbeat but there was no reply. She turned to Alexander, ‘I thought it was worth a try, anyway. She’s powerful, and has been through worse. I thought there might still be a way for her to reach us.’
He patted her hand and looked at her solemnly. ‘I feel that her energy is waning, but she has done remarkably well to hold on for this long. However, she’s used up too much of her life force. It regenerated before but now it’s slowing down to the point at which it will eventually cease, especially if she carries on at the rate at which she is going. Every time she uses extreme amounts of power, she loses more of herself, and there’s no one to anchor her anymore... The other matter is that she could be held at this very moment by a higher level demon. If she is, then we are all in danger.’
Rowanne felt a tear slide down her cheek, she could not help it. She felt an incredibly strong connection to Lillian, but could not put a name to it. She didn’t want to lose her, despite knowing that she had passed long ago, but her spirit was still here. Was she selfish in not wanting to let Lillian go…?
CHAPTER 27
Lillian found herself materialising outside of Lady Enid’s room. What’s happening? she thought, alarmed. Was she losing her ability to maintain her powers? If so, then this was not a good sign. There had been so much more that she had wanted to tell Rowanne before she had been ripped away from them.
It felt strange to be back here. She had not told Rowanne that she felt that this was really the last time for her. Deep down, she felt that time was running out.
She sensed danger, the very air was permeated with it.
She could hear her mother’s heartbeat beyond the door. Maybe it was a good thing that she had ended up here after all, as she really needed to face her mother. She listened in, and her senses confirmed that she was alone in there. When had she come back? she wondered. She had not expected her to be back so soon, this didn’t make any sense.
Lillian drifted through the door, and saw her mother, Lady Enid, resting in a chair, her eyes closed. She was about to walk towards her when someone stepped out of the shadows, blocking her path.
Lillian looked at her best friend, who stood tall and regal with her long hair framing her delicate features. Her blue eyes shone brightly as her mouth curved into a smile; it was more of a grimace, really, as if she’d seen something distasteful.
‘Evelyn,’ said Lillian wonderingly. ‘It’s me, Lillian. You remember, don’t you?’
Evelyn’s eye’s blazed green as her magic saturated the room, cocooning Lillian within it. ‘I was expecting you, old friend,’ she replied sneeringly. ‘I knew you’d show up one of these days. I just had to make sure that I was here to intercept- I mean welcome you.’
‘I don’t understand, how could you possibly know? What’s wrong with you?’ asked Lillian, clearly perplexed by the whole situation. This could not be the same girl that she had grown up with.
Lillian remembered a gentle girl who was good hearted and always ready to help. The cold calculated look that had come into the pitiless woman before her shook her to the core. She had a bad feeling about this; if she was not careful, then the situation could go completely out of her hands.
‘I’m perfectly fine, Lillian. Everything is just as it should be now. It’s all going to plan rather wonderfully. Though, I’ll admit, you nearly ruined my plans with your meddling: helping that half breed of a girl, setting her up to stand in my way!’ said Evelyn viciously.
‘What happened to you, Evelyn? What’s made you go against us? We were friends once.’ She tried to buy herself time to come up with a plan. This was worse than she had thought: she had to try and warn her mother and Rowanne before it was too late.
She felt foolish for not seeing it before, but she was a trusting fool, apparently even in death. She’d inadvertently led them all into a trap.
‘How did you manage to get me here?’ asked Lillian, shocked by the strength of her friend.
‘Why do you keep referring to me as your ‘friend,’ how naive can you be?! We belong to the First Families, but what does friendship have to do with it? My mother rightly pushed me into your circle because of your status. I had everything to gain. You were ever a means to an end for me. But really, in the end you brought this all on yourself. If you had just stayed within protocol and married a demon of a First Family, you would have been safe. I would not have been able to lay a finger on your credibility, had you not chosen to cavort with a human, thereby placing him above your duty. Don’t look at me like that. You can’t judge me for simply doing my duty, anybody else of high rank and nobility wouldn’t have hesitated to do the same,’ finished Evelyn, as if she were lecturing an unruly child.
You cold manipulative Noble, thought Lillian. She was seething, her anger spreading through her making her blood boil. She had never wanted to kill a demon before, but now... Oh, wait there was also Driskell. Her list seemed to have grown exponentially and where it would end, was anyone’s guess. ‘I thought I could trust you,’ she said, her voice dripping with rage. ‘Never in my wildest imagination would I have expected this from you. It was you, I now see, who reported Elisedd and I to the Noble Court,’ said Lillian.
‘Elisedd... I haven’t heard that name mentioned in forever. That fool of a human who dared think he was good enough to court a princess, let alone have the presumption of thinking that demons would let him rule over them. Never!’
‘You misjudged him, he didn’t have any sort of intention. And do not say his name. You have no right to even utter it! Your problem is that you don’t even know what goodness is, let alone recognise it, even if it were right before you. You think that the whole world is there for your taking, and that everyone has a plan and desire to get to the top regardless of the consequences,’ said Lillian.
‘I love that word consequences,’ Evelyn mimicked Lillian, enraging her. ‘What good,’ she spat, ‘came from joining hands with that pathetic human? He could not protect you in the end, or...’ she smiled calculatingly.
Lillian felt as if the rug had been pulled from beneath her. She couldn’t possibly know... Could she? Panic set in as her heart pounded
in her ears.
Lillian decided to shift the focus, as they were heading into dangerous territory. ‘I suppose Driskell must have been your accomplice in this?’ asked Lillian in a disgusted tone.
‘That must hardly have come as a surprise. Did you think that you had enthralled him completely? It was sickening, the way he always fawned over you, always ready to fulfil your every whim, Princess,’ said Evelyn tauntingly.
‘I was under the dual mistaken belief that he was my friend, and that he respected Elisedd. It appears I have been wrong on numerous levels, especially when it came to my inner sanctum,’ said Lillian.
‘I find it amusing that even with you belonging to the most powerful family in Demon World, you are still so susceptible to being manipulated by those around you. It sickens me. You disgust me. You did not even deserve to be born into that noble clan, it would have been better had I been born in place of you,’ said Evelyn acerbically.
Lillian felt each of those words burn into her skin. She had not known that her friend was capable of such anger and resentment. Was it the fact that she had been born third in line? Had her family pushed her too far, or had she always been this perverse?
‘Driskell, for all his faults, proved a valuable ally for me, and it didn’t take much to persuade him to my way of thinking. The right way, I might add. He hates the Nobles; they treated him with distaste, even as they feared him once he became Enforcer. Oh, how quickly they outwardly showed deference to him. He agreed with me that it was not right that his beloved Lillian had aligned herself with a human. He could forgive many things but not this. It was only natural that he helped me to gather information over the two years, so that he could present his findings before the Noble Court,’ said Evelyn gleefully, as she remembered the hard work she had put in to get rid of the abhorrent woman before her.
Lillian wanted to get her hands on Evelyn and Driskell. She took a menacing step towards her but stopped as she raised a hand pointing to her mother, who was frozen in place.
‘Don’t you lay a finger on her!’ Lillian warned.
‘On the contrary, I have no such intention. What, do I look stupid to you? You think I’d risk Prima Stella? No, Lillian. I am more subtle... I follow the rules. I don’t break them so heedlessly, and there is no trail that leads from me to your pathetic demise. I have loved your mother more than my own. What, you don’t believe me?’ she asked at Lillian’s look of incredulity. ‘I naturally love the woman who treats me like her own daughter,’ she twisted the words like a knife straight into Lillian’s heart. ‘Especially as I have now successfully supplanted you. I’ll have you know, I diligently attend to her every need. I’m quite conscientious in my work, and there’s never been a need for her, since the day you left, to seek help elsewhere,’ Evelyn smiled evilly.
I’m sure you are, thought Lillian, and wondered what else Evelyn had managed to accomplish during her absence.
‘Don’t look so shocked, time didn’t stop with your passing. Did you think everything would be frozen, that nobody would move forward with their lives, just because you’d gone? Lady Enid worked damn hard to rebuild her life and reputation afterwards, or what there was left of it, thanks to you and your selfish ways,’ Evelyn wagged her finger at Lillian, looking at her ashamed. ‘I’ve had more than seventy years to earn your mother’s trust, she would be nowhere without me. I made sure to defend her good name when those Nobles came like vultures to pick at her in the hopes of destroying her. I was quite vocal in the Noble Court, you can ask anyone, they’ll tell you how I stood by your mother, incidentally where you should have been, instead of in the arms of that pathetic mortal. Your father has taken quite the shine to me, especially since I am against half breeds, we talk of how things should be. Demons hate the idea of them, it’s repugnant. A half demon tainted with mortality — that’s the price you pay with your offspring,’ there was a zealous light to her.
Incredible, she actually believes the nonsense she’s spouting, thought Lillian. Evelyn had completely lost the plot, but then again, half of Demon World probably agreed with her. No matter which realm you were in, you’d always find those that spread hatred; there would always be something a person could find that they disliked. Are we incapable of peace? Maybe the very idea of it frightens us, so that we subconsciously sabotage it for ourselves.
Of course, my father would listen to her. He’d always been a conservative demon, upholding the ‘old ways’ as they were known; these ancient traditions passed down without anyone ever daring to question them, for fear of the unknown, or Prima Stella. Maybe I was born in the wrong era, she thought mirthlessly.
Lady Enid did not always agree with everything her husband believed. There was the outward show for the rest of the clans, but her mother had stood by her to the end, despite not being fully aware of the truth. It made her sick to think that this revolting woman was anywhere near her mother, poisoning her day in and out with her insidious talk of how the realm should be run.
‘For your information, I have never influenced your mother, one way or the other. I have stood by her like her shadow. It’s not long now till the day I am rewarded, and your mother feels it’s the right time to step aside and let another take her place.’
‘You mean Alexander, I suppose?’ asked Lillian.
‘Well, naturally, one step at a time. But... now that won’t work, will it, Lillian? Alexander can no longer be the next in line,’ she smiled craftily at her.
‘What are you implying?’ asked Lillian innocently, her heart rate accelerated. She was being played for a fool. How stupid could she have been not to know how far this went back... Evelyn’s eyes shone triumphantly as she looked into the eyes of her childhood friend and realised that Lillian had begun to work it out.
‘Now, Lillian. Don’t play dumb with me. I see that I have to spell it out for you...’
CHAPTER 28
Amanda looked down from the window as she tapped an agitated rhythm against the wooden frame. She didn’t have a very clear view, though, as the snow had become heavier in the past couple of hours. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms in a futile attempt to get warm.
She turned away and pointedly glared at the man sitting on the chaise lounge, his long legs crossed in front of him, one arm carefully draped over his eyes. I can’t believe he’s so relaxed about this that he’s actually gone to sleep!
She strode towards him and confronted him. ‘Hey, wake up! You’re the one that convinced me that I had to come here for Rowanne’s sake. Now you have the audacity to sleep?!’
Driskell slowly moved his arm, causing his shocking red hair to fall carelessly about him, as he lazily opened one eye that fixed on her with a keen piercing look. He had a ridiculous smile on his face, and yawning, he stretched.
Amanda could not help but notice his physique; he was almost cat-like with his lithe muscular body, especially evident when he stretched. So he works out... So what...
Driskell raised a quizzical brow.
This only served to fluster her. ‘What?’ she asked impatiently, and hated that stupid knowing look on his face. He smiled broadly.
Driskell raised his hands in a gesture of peace, while he wondered what had come over her. But of course, he knew... He was a wicked man.
‘I thought you might have bored a hole in the window. How long have you been sitting there?’ He sat up straighter. ‘Please, sit. You looking down at me like a mannequin isn’t likely to bring them here any quicker.’ He watched her huff and sit on the seat opposite to him with her arms crossed.
‘Are you sure that they’re heading here? This plan seems foolhardy to me. Why the hell would someone walk directly into a spider web? It’s naive to think that the spider won’t see you,’ stated Amanda matter-of-factly.
Driskell laughed silently at her quirky way of phrasing things. I don’t think I’ll ever be bored for a minute - not in her company, he thought.
She didn’t like the weird look that had come into his eyes. God! The man
made her nervous, sometimes. Nervous? Really? taunted her mind. ‘Well?’ asked Amanda abruptly, hoping he’d hurry up and answer her questions.
‘I was just thinking, we’d make a good team: my brains and your brawn,’ he looked deadly serious.
‘Shut up, you idiot!’ Amanda could not help it, she burst out laughing rather loudly in an undignified manner. She should be offended, but the amorous fool had her spot on; her family could sadly attest to this fact.
Driskell looked at her suspiciously, his eyes widening in shock. Was she mentally stable? One look at him and she laughed harder. He gave up the facade and joined her; it was a nice feeling. He had not had a carefree moment like this ever since Lillian...
Amanda held her sides suddenly sobering. What am I doing exchanging jokes with Driskell of all people? She watched as sadness flitted through his eyes too fast to catch, even as he laughed. She’d never really seen him like this before; it was a bit of a revelation, to say the least.
What could he be thinking of to cause such raw pain to surface? She studied him, and smiled kindly.
Driskell caught Amanda’s thoughtful expression. Damn, he had let himself become vulnerable. His eyes became a glacier green, that of nature gripped in the torrent of an eternal winter.
Amanda was no coward: she may not particularly like the man before her, but there was definitely more to him than he let people see. Building her courage, she went to him. He stiffened at her approach and sat back as if trying to maintain a distance between them. He reminded her of a wounded wild animal, one that had seen too much, experienced too much, to be able to trust anyone, let alone let anyone get close to them.
Amanda sat down slowly and turned to him, deciding to drop her own act just for the moment. ‘Do you know that this is my first time here? It’s laughable, right? A demon who’s never been to the world she came from. To be fair, and this is strictly between the two of us, I’m finding it slightly overwhelming.’
Demon World Page 48
