Chapter 13

Three sharp knocks on my door make me drop my book onto my bed. I pull my door open to see Jinks standing there in a red suit this time, too polished and perfect. His hair is curlier than usual and a little damp, but he smells incredible. Jinks leans a shoulder on the doorframe. His eyes trace over my face, fixing on my lip piercing for a second, before he looks at my short, dead straight black hair. It’s grown longer, now just touching my shoulders, and I need to cut it. He is a slender man/demon/cat, but the way the tight suit clings to him shows off so many muscles. “Livia, I hope I didn’t disturb you. The princess has called us both for a meeting.”

“How nice of you to offer to fetch me. Isn’t that a dog trick?” I smirk at him and he only grins before laughing. Nothing I say or do stops this man from being forever in my shadow.

He grins at me, glancing down at my outfit. “Are you always dressed like you’re going into battle?”

“Have you always been a Mr. Know-It-All?” I sarcastically question. I pick two daggers up off the side, sliding them into the holders on my thighs before going out of my room, shutting the door behind me. Jinks tries to make some more conversation continuously all the way through the castle, leading me into a room next door to the throne room, which again, I had no idea it was here.

I don’t know how, but the castle is definitely happier that Elle is back. I can feel it in the way it’s warm now, where it was a tad cold all the time before. I can see in the food that the castle brings me. It was bland, almost tasteless before, and now it’s vibrant, full of spices and decorated with tiny black flowers, which Elle’s mum told me were her favourite.

I follow Jinks into the room, where it’s empty other than a massive oval table in the centre, with a map spread across the middle. The map is almost 3D, raised slightly and very colourful. It shows the entirety of the courts and the west far to the side, which is all yellow, likely for the sand. Elle and her mates are spread around the table. Lysander and Emrys are close together on the other side, far away from anyone else, and after what was explained to me, I understand. But Arden and Grayson are looking over the maps with her, touching her hip and arm with theirs like they just need to be that close. It’s cute. Her mum is at the back of the room, writing on a chalkboard, listing their enemies, which is a pretty extensive list. She began with the tsar in the West and ended with the biggest threat of all, Aphrodite. Elle looks up with her blue eyes. “Ah, you’re here, Liv. Shut the door.”

Her mum looks right at Jinks, assessing him. He patiently waits. “Ellelin, can we trust him? The cat.”

Jinks bows his head and I’m tempted to the do the same. I’m still not used to being an actual princess and heir to the Spirit Court. “I’ve protected your daughter for years, your highness. Even in cat form, I’ve warned off very many enemies.”

Elle chuckles. “What, mice?” She arches an eyebrow, but she is playful.

He hisses at her, but she only grins back. “You can trust him. He’s kept all of our secrets for years. Jinks is loyal, and he has his own secrets now that are worth protecting, too.” They look at each other for a second, and I swear something unspoken hovers there. “He’s a part of my…court.” She pauses on the word court, like she’s testing the word. “Along with Hope, Xandry and Arty. They have all made it clear we are fighting for the Spirit Court.” Her eyes settle on me. We haven’t had a chance to really speak about everything. “As is Livia, I hope.”

Her mum huffs. “Well, I expect so, as Livia can never leave this island. She is the Spirit Court guardian.”

“What?” Elle questions, looking at us.

I clear my throat. “A title I’m proud to have. Someone had to put the wards up, and to do so meant binding myself to the Spirit Court, to this castle, to the land. I can never leave the shoreline, never go back to Earth. I was very happy to do so. When you want the wards dropped, I will drop them. If anyone enters the wards, I will know about it and can choose whether to let them in or not.”

Arden hums in agreement. “We have one in every court. Usually it’s family, but I had an older friend of my father’s who proudly offered.”

Elle crosses her arms. “Do you all have one?” She looks round. They all nod. She comes back to me, her eyes softening. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to make that decision. What about your family? You wanted to go home.”

“I made it home and realised my home was back here. My family will understand and possibly could come and see me here.” I mean every word and I’ve never felt surer of anything. “The border’s not been tested since I put the wards up. No one’s come. No one’s even attempted to, except for you guys, obviously. If our enemies wanted to attack, I’m confused why they have waited.”

“No one’s tested our borders, either. We’ve sent messages back and forth. All of us are in agreement that it’s like they don’t exist on the court islands anymore,” Grayson muses. “She’s got to be waiting, picking a perfect time to attack. Along with the West.”

“Let them try,” Lysander snarls, and shivers drift down my spine. I would not like to be his enemy. He is downright the most terrifying of the bunch.

Elle nods in agreement. “So, you know I saw my father’s ghost?” She looks at her mum softly, and her mum touches her chest, like she needs to hold her heart. “He left a bit of his soul inside the sword, like a message, waiting for me. There was more to it than that. He told me about the darkness below the castle and how I must go in there.”

“No!” her mum bursts out. “That dark magic ruined your father! It destroyed his soul bit by bit over time, and I will not have the same fate on your shoulders.”

“Mum.” Elle turns to her. “The darkness gave him enough power to save all of his people and me. I’m not just a Spirit Court heir, I’m a granddaughter of a goddess, and I am more powerful.” Her mum is still shaking her head. “It’s the only way to break the magic around our people. But he warned that going down there alone would not be a great idea, but if I went with my soul bound to powerful mates, then it’s possible that I—we—could survive it.”

Her mum’s shoulders drop. Arden places his hand on the small of Elle’s back, and she looks up at him. “You’d never go down there alone. I’ll happily choose to come with you into any darkness, princess. I’m your flame in the night.”

“As will I, spirit witch,” Lysander offers. “In case the flame needs dousing.”

Arden growls at Lysander.

“I’ve decided that I’d follow you anywhere,” Grayson counters. “And, the pair of you, stop it.”

All of us look at Emrys. He only nods once. “It won’t be safe for me to be close to you, but of course I will be at your side.”

Elle looks nervous. “That’s the other thing. Emrys.” She pauses. “Your soul is bound to Ares.”

If he didn’t already look pale, he does now. “What?”

Elle quickly carries on. “When you killed him, his soul sort of attached to you like a parasite. It’s in your system, completely destroying you from the inside. It’s why you don’t look well. That time that I was attacked, that was him possessing you. I thought I recognised the look in your eyes…his eyes, the magic, all of it, it’s him, it’s Ares. I found a way that I can make sure he doesn’t kill you.”

Emrys looks too shocked to say anything. Grayson strokes Elle’s arm to make her look away from Emrys. I can see she is shaking, desperate to just run to him and comfort him, but she can’t. “How?” I think Emrys looks relieved that it wasn’t him that actually hurt his mate.

Her voice is quiet. “You need to share your soul with all of us. A true binding, like magic, binding of our souls. It would mean that there’s not enough of your soul for Ares to actually destroy and take over because you will be anchored to us. My father warned it won’t be a great life for you, but you’ll be alive. You’ll still be able to live a normal long life.”

Emrys looks like it’s all too much. “I want to think about it. Alone.”

Lysander touches his shoulder, but he pushes him away, stalking to the door and leaving. Grayson kisses the side of Elle’s head. “I’ll go with him.”

Jinks and I glance at each other. The room suddenly became far too tense for my liking. “We’ll leave you alone.”

“As will I,” Elle’s mum agrees, hugging her daughter before leaving the room with us. She stops outside, looking at me with a sigh. “You are a good friend, as is that Hope and Artemis. The mighty dragon gods did well making sure you began your journey together.”

I know Hope and Xandry are still sleeping, otherwise they’d be here with us. They were pretty exhausted when they got back earlier. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the Spirit Court and Elle, and you, too.”

“That is your job now, guardian.” She smiles at me. “Now, have you seen the matron?” She looks around like saying her name might conjure her. “I have questions for her, regarding Terrin in particular. My mate would simply say her name, and she would appear for him, but she never gave me the same respect.”

I shrug a shoulder. “We saw her once when she told me about the wards, showing me how to go in there and set them up. Sometimes I feel like I see her in the shadows around the castle, but she appears when she wants to.”

She doesn’t look impressed. “I’ll find her myself. Have a good evening.”

Jinks and I are left in the quietness of the castle, and I have to ask. “Do you know anything about the darkness under the castle?”

His lips twitch in amusement. “If you come with me, and promise me fifteen minutes of your time, I’ll tell you.”

“A bargain with someone that claims to be a demon. I’m pretty sure I was warned not to do that by my very religious upbringing.” I can’t help but smile a little.

He grins at me, a flash of white teeth. “Not a bargain, then. Perhaps just an agreement. We don’t have to swear in blood or anything like that…unless you want to.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Fine.”

He smiles like a cat who just caught five big fish in the river. “Come on, then.”

I follow his lead through the castle, and I glance up at the warm, almost romantic lights hovering around above. They look like fairies trapped in this place of darkness, and they match the stars nestled in the dark skies outside. Jinks knows his way well, and he leads me up one long staircase to a hatch door to the roof. He opens it and I climb out, gazing at the quiet night.

The land around the castle is filled with black dragons, some wrapped around black eggs and others silver, curled up in much smaller groups. The air is frosty but not bitter as I step outside, looking up at the surrounding stars, with millions of them spread in every single direction. This high up, it’s almost like I’m standing in the stars. There’s a bench right in the middle of the roof, and Jinks sits on it, patting the space next to him before spreading his arm across the spare seat. I sit down next to him, purposely making sure no part of us touches. It only seems to amuse him though, by the looks of it. He doesn’t make me wait.

“The darkness under the castle is an extension of hell, from what I gather. I sensed it the moment I came here. It’s powerful, probably the most powerful magic in Ayiolyn, and I believe it’s spread throughout the walls of the castle, giving the building life. It might have been here before Ayiolyn ever existed, before this world existed. It definitely came from hell, but not all darkness is evil.”

I know that—I see Elle’s powers, and she is anything but evil. “Take the rulers of hell, my original king and queen. They are gods of the dark, of hell and beyond, but they are good.”

“Hades and Persephone, by any chance?”

“Yes.” He looks at the stars. “They rule everything down in hell, including us demons. I was never like my family. They lived on cruelty, and they were happy to be that way. I wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong; I like to kill people that get in my way as much as the next person, but innocents?” He shakes his head. “No. I wasn’t born to kill innocents. Hades spotted this quite soon, and he took me on as one of his personal guards. I stayed with his side for a millennium, even when his soul was split in four and spread into another world, even when Persephone’s soul herself was lost too. I was there. That’s when everything went wrong.” I can almost feel the heavy weight of this truth in his voice. “In the absence of his power, his full power, hell was taken over. Not by us, but archdemons. They were slaughtering souls, eating them, and making sure they could not rest. So, I slaughtered all of them.”

I blink. “But how can you…”

“Like I said, I was born different. Smart.” He winks at me, but through the playfulness, I can see the sad. “Demons, they’re cruel, vicious. But not a lot of them were born with much intelligence. Especially not the archdemons. They lived on power, thrived on it, but pure power is rarely enough to win a fight, not when you’re against someone that’s far smarter than you. In my mistake, I killed more than I should have. Not just the archdemons, but the innocents that I was trying to save, too. There were thousands of souls that are now dead because of me. Their souls lost forever. I’m not a good person.”

I’m not sure I agree with that. “Phobos came next. When Hades found out, he sent me to Phobos, to the god of nightmares, to teach me a punishment. Phobos was sympathetic to my story. He didn’t feel like torturing me, so he cursed me into a cat form and made me live with Hera. She could speak into my mind whenever she wished and remind me to behave.” He looks at me. “I felt more at peace on Earth than I did in hell. I thought maybe something, or someone, called me there. As a demon, I always looked up at the entrance to hell above and dreamed what was beyond.”

He looks at me so intently that my heart pounds. I desperately change the subject. “So, you watched Elle grow up?”

“Yes, I watched as the princess turned up, reeking of death and shadows. That little girl with long dark hair and so ridiculously pale.” I smile at that. “With such magic around her. She doesn’t know it, but she was threatened a lot as a child. People wanted her power, wanted who she was. Protecting her was an honour. She was kind too. She fed me plenty of fresh chicken.” I smile at him. He stands up. “Dance with me, Livia. I still have five minutes left of the fifteen you promised, and I used to dance in the balls held by the gods. I haven’t danced in so many years, and I want to.”

“I never agreed to dancing.” I arch an eyebrow, but I feel myself caving.

He waits, patiently holding out his hand. “Try something new, Livia.” Something about him, about how safe he makes me stupidly feel, lets me take his hand. He tightens his grip on my hand, tugging me to him until our bodies are flush, along with my cheeks. There is no music, save the wind, but we don’t need it as he easily leads me in circles, effortlessly controlling the dance as he hums under his breath, a tune I’ve never heard. “Now I told you my story. Tell me yours. Tell me about the person you lost in this castle.”

Her face flashes into my mind, and I tense. “No. I don’t want to talk about her.”

“I want to learn about her because she was important to you.” He runs his hand across my cheek into my hair, and his features change rapidly. He’s still Jinks, but he’s a girl.

I’m shocked. “You can change your sex?”

He/she grins all the same. “Of course I can. I’m a shape-shifting demon. I can take any form I want to. So, whatever you wish, whatever your heart’s desire is, it is mine. You can trust me with anything.” Jinks smiles at me. “I know, maybe not yet, but I’m always on your side, Livia, now until the end of my time.”

I’m completely confused why Jinks is promising me such things. But for a moment, I rest my head on their shoulder, and we dance under the stars like the world itself is not soon going to be ripped apart.