“Your cock isn’t hanging out.”
“Well, that’s a miracle. You have a washroom adjoining through that heavy drape thing there. We obviously don’t have running water anymore—fucking curse—but there is a chamber pot, and tomorrow we can get you a bath and everything. It’s a bit late tonight for all that. The lady’s maid is a bit tied up. Literally. Anyway, fuck off. I’m going to go shame-come. Then either pass out or cry myself to sleep.”
“Why choose? Do both.”
He opened the door and nodded. “Yes, good point. Why not? Oh!” He placed his hand on the empty keyhole inside the door. Then looked on the other side. He plucked the key from the lock and held it up. “I’d keep this, if I were you. Demons are wily fuckers. They sneak into all the crevices.” He raised his voice to yelling. “Ask me how I know!”
He rolled his shoulders, like he was shaking it off.
“It’s fine to leave your door open during the day; just make sure you or your lady’s maid has the key. Keep your door locked at night, though, even when you’re not here. You don’t want to return to one of those fuckers lying in your bed. Their magic… Well. It’s hard to resist, and they like to push limits. There is one skeleton key in this whole castle, and that is guarded by the master. As long as you keep your door locked, you’re safe.”
Safe from the demons, maybe, but it was already clear I wasn’t at all safe from the beast.
6
A soft rap sounded at my door. “Milady…”
I frowned. It was a woman’s voice.
My eyes were swollen from the crying I’d done last night. I’d tried to go to bed, like Hadriel ordered, but thoughts of what I’d lost kept barging into my brain. For the first time, I was alone. Sable wasn’t beside me. Hannon and Dash weren’t just down the hall. Father wasn’t in the next room.
Worse, they were mourning me right now. That or wondering if I’d somehow saved myself. I couldn’t leave them in suspense. I couldn’t kill their sunshine just because the beast wanted to play mind games with me. I needed to get to them and at least assure them that I was okay. It would be impossible to stay, of course—the last thing I wanted was the beast coming for me and taking his anger out on the village—but I could at least tell them not to worry…and make some of the incubus-be-gone draught. I did not want to get caught in some sort of fuzzy purple costume at the back of a train.
The problem was getting through the wood, of course. Hadriel had scared me off from venturing outside at night, so I might have to escape during the day.
Before I tried anything, though, I needed to get the lay of the land.
“Milady?”
Who in the world would be calling a commoner “milady”?
I sat up and stretched before slipping on what I was wearing yesterday and unlocking the door.
A woman in her late twenties stood on the other side of the door with large blue eyes, curly blond hair, and deep red marks across her throat.
“Are you okay?” I asked, pointing.
“Oh!” She waved her hand and blushed. “Yes, don’t worry about me. That was asked for.”
It looked like someone had tried to strangle her— Oh.
So she wasn’t into fuzzy beast costumes; she was into the harder stuff. Noted.
“I’m Leala, your lady’s maid. How are you this morning, milady?”
“Lady’s maid? Um… I think there must be some misunderstanding. I’m not noble or anything.”
She smiled pleasantly. “You’re the master’s guest in the castle, and therefore you need a lady’s maid.” She bustled into the room, heading first for the curtains. Bright sunlight streamed in, and I put up my hand to block it from my face.
“Right. I think that’s the misunderstanding. I’m not actually a guest. More like…a prisoner.”
“Well. We’re all prisoners in some respects, aren’t we?” She gave me a comforting smile. “If anyone asks, though, we’re going to say that you’re waiting to be executed for stealing. That’s in case anyone gets chatty with the demons. The demons are…not kind to new people. They might go babble to their king, and we don’t want him coming around. He is not pleasant.”
“How often does the demon king come around here?”
She picked up the dresses Hadriel had dropped and opened the wardrobe. After stuffing his rejects away, she leafed through a few of the others. “Goodness me, these are…old.” Her face colored a little. She shut the doors. “He comes around every so often—time is hard to keep track of here. Everything is the same. Day in and day out, it’s all more of the same. He comes to harass the master, essentially, and make sure our lives are ruled by his demons. It’s not a nice time when he visits.”