The Demon’s Queen (A Deal With A Demon)

I’m not surprised when Sol arrives in my castle three days later. To be fully truthful, I’m relieved. Eve’s been spending every free moment with Briar, and with each hour that passes, I can feel the space between us growing. While I understand that fixing the problem with Briar and Sol won’t fix the one between Eve and me, it can’t hurt. Right?

I stare at the exhausted dragon standing in my office and resign myself to a stressful day. “Shut the door.” I glare before he has a chance to speak. “If you start roaring, I will kick you out of here so fast, you might not survive the portal out.”

Historically, Sol has been the most even-tempered of the other territory leaders. There’s none of that present. He has to visibly wrestle his anger and worry under control before he can speak. “Is Briar okay?”

As if I would ever hurt her. But I decide to throw him a small kindness, no matter how little he deserves it after that stunt with her birth control pendant. “That little hellcat nearly took my face off.”

He freezes. He doesn’t seem to even breathe. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“I did, but . . .” I understand his confusion. I suspect Briar has never come at him the way she came at me that first day back in the castle. He shakes his head sharply. “You’ve made a mistake.”

“That’s what she keeps saying.” I press my claws to my temples, suddenly tired of it all. I just want to see Eve. I just want to figure out how to fix what I’ve broken. “Sit down.”

Sol shifts a little, then finally sinks into the chair in front of my desk. When he speaks, he’s managed to moderate his tone to sound more like himself. “When I signed my particular contract with you, I thought then that it made perfect sense. You wanted to expand the bargainer demon territory.” The words are slow. His dark eyes see far too much.

Ah well. They were going to figure it out eventually. “You have something to say. Say it.”

“I had some time to think while traveling. Several years ago, you said you wanted peace between the territories. I didn’t believe you. None of us did.”

He’s almost there. I give him a long look. “I fail to see what influence your belief—or lack thereof—has to do with me or our current circumstances.”

“It made sense that you’d set up a spiderweb with four neat little traps that will put you in charge of the entire realm. I didn’t question it.” He leans forward. “But you don’t want my territory, do you? You don’t want any of ours.”

There it is. Took you long enough. “You wouldn’t believe the gift without the strings attached. So I made them hefty ones.” I shrug. “Even if I took all four territories, I wouldn’t hold them indefinitely. Your respective peoples are too powerful and too stubborn. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

Sol isn’t particularly young, but he looks it right now. He’s absolutely crestfallen. “Then why take Briar?”

“That, I was not fucking around with. I realize the rest of you think we keep the humans here as our playthings and see them as little more than toys to be used and discarded when the deals are up. That’s not how it works. A contract is sacred.”

He hesitates, then finally huffs out a breath. “I owe you an apology.”

“I truly couldn’t care less what you think of me.” It’s mostly true. “But you harmed one of mine, and that I will not forgive.”

“Briar is not yours. She’s my wife.”

“Your wife by my leave.”

The door swings open behind him, and he leaps out of my chair, fully expecting an attack. It’s not one of mine slipping through the door. It’s Briar, her hair pulled back into a complicated twist, wearing a deep-gray dress that looks absolutely devastating on her. I narrow my eyes. No doubt Eve is to credit for this timely appearance.

She catches sight of her husband and stops short. “Sol?”

“Briar.” Gods, he’s so in love with her that it makes me feel like a voyeur being in the same room as them.

She starts to move toward me, but I fling out a hand. “I swear to the gods, if you throw yourself into his arms right now, I will send you back to the human realm.”

Briar spins on me and gives a truly impressive snarl. “You’re so high-handed, it’s no wonder Eve doesn’t want you!”

I flinch. I can’t help it. She’s speaking words I know for truth, with such conviction that they would convince me even if I had doubts. I’m suddenly exhausted. It’s clear these two love each other, and equally clear that Sol committed no harm against Briar. It takes a little while to get them out of my office and on their way home. It passes in a blur. All I can think of are Briar’s words.

No wonder Eve doesn’t want you.

I sit in my office for a long time after they leave, thinking of nothing at all. I love Eve. I’ve loved her for years, even as I resigned myself to always occupying a specific space in her life. Manipulating her into signing a contract was shitty. I could have explained the situation. Or I could have gone over her head to Pope and explained what they needed to know of the danger. They could have sent her into hiding.

I’ve been selfish and just as much an overbearing asshole as she’s claimed.

I push to my feet with a sigh and go in search of my woman. Except she’s not mine. She never will be. No matter what she feels for me—and I know Eve well enough at this point to understand that she does have feelings for me in some capacity—my deception will always stand between us and any future we could attempt.

For once, the castle is feeling kind. I only have to climb a single set of stairs before it spills me out into what I’ve come to consider Eve’s Garden. She’s here, knitting away at a blue garment. She’s fast, needles clacking steadily even as her gaze is on something a million miles away. It’s clearly a sweater, the fabric spilling over her lap. This mundane act of creation is a beautiful kind of magic as far as I’m concerned. I can’t wait to see it finished.

If I do right by her, it never will be.

“Briar went home with Sol.” When she doesn’t immediately respond, I clear my throat. “I, uh, might have acted too hastily in that situation.”

Her gaze flicks to my face, finally focusing on me, and there’s such deep sadness there that I nearly hit my knees and beg for forgiveness. It won’t make a difference. I’ve apologized, and she’s rightly called me on the truth that I wouldn’t do anything differently. She won’t believe that my regret has taken hold enough for this apology to be true. I’ve given her no reason to.

Even so, I can’t stop myself from moving closer. “I’ll make things right.”

Her lips twist. “Some things you can’t make right, Azazel. No matter how hard you try.” She finishes a row and carefully sets her knitting aside. “But I’m glad you saw reason when it comes to Briar and Sol. I think I’d like to meet him properly at some point. After hearing about him for the last few days, I feel like I know him.”

My throat is so tight, I can barely get the words out. “I think Briar would welcome any chance to see you again.” And then I do fall to my knees, because how can I not? “I’m sorry, Eve. Truly sorry.”

She reaches out and cups my cheek. I would welcome her fury, her spite. Instead, she just smiles sadly. “I know you are.” It feels like she’s saying goodbye. She’s touching me, but she’s retreating all the same.

It makes me want to clasp her to me all the more, to hold her so tightly, she wouldn’t dream of leaving. Which just proves I’m exactly the monster she believes me to be. I close my eyes. “With Ramanu back, we’re closing in on Brosh.”

“Azazel.” She waits until I open my eyes to continue. “What difference does it make? I understand the situation well enough. If you kill or imprison him, it will just start a blood feud within your family. I won’t be any safer then.” She drops her hand and sits back. “You know, if you’d come to me with honesty, I probably would have signed the contract.”

I stare. “No, you wouldn’t have. You were happy in your life.”

Her smile dims. “Not happy.”

“Content, then. You’ve said before that you liked your job. You have Pope. You . . .”

Eve clears her throat. “You know I grew up in foster care.” She continues before I have a chance to respond. “I was one of the privileged ones. Nothing bad ever happened to me.” Her eyes shine in the fading light streaking through the trees around us. “But no one ever chose me.”

I choose you.

I know better than to say it aloud. It’s not the right time. She won’t welcome it.

“That’s part of what I like about the sex work. My clients choose me. They do more than choose me. They go out of their way to have me. They pay extravagant amounts of money, they beg Pope for the privilege, they do their best to ensure I never have cause to turn them away.”

“Eve.”

“So, yes, I like my job. I like the challenge of providing their perfect fantasy. I like the money—gods, I like the money. I love the freedom my life allows me. Or what it allowed me.” Her lower lip quivers. “But what I really like—what I crave—is being chosen.”

Gods, she’s tearing my heart right out of my chest. “I’ll make it right. I swear I will.”

It’s like she doesn’t hear me. “You were my favorite. Did you know that? All those years ago, you picked me out of a lineup, and then afterward, you only wanted me.” A single tear slips free. “I asked Pope, you know. If you were contracting any of the others. I was jealous.” Her laugh is a little wet. “But you never did. You chose me that night and then you kept choosing me.”

“I only ever wanted you,” I whisper. I remember that first night. Pope is particular about their clientele and their people, and so they hosted an event. A trial run for both new clients and new sex workers on their staff. I had gone, sure that I saw my opportunity to make a deal with Eve slipping away. That’s all that was supposed to happen that night. An offer.

Instead, I saw her standing in that line of people, proud and beautiful and a tiny bit unsure but trying not to show it. And I knew I wouldn’t be offering a contract. I knew she was beyond me, but I wanted her in whatever way she’d allow. Becoming her client was the simplest and most honest way forward. Until I lied and ruined everything.

“I know.” She wipes away her tear and visibly pulls herself together. “That’s a heady thing, Azazel. So, yeah, if you’d come to me with a contract and an explanation . . . I might not have believed you at first, but I can’t pretend I would have turned you away entirely.”

“I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say. Bargainers may be able to jump realms, may be able to manipulate the timing of such jumps, but we can’t actually time travel. I can’t go back and do things differently. I can’t fix anything.

“Me too.”