“Through brute swine, firstly, who far more deserve acorns for food than any human dish, it points the channel of its meagre path.”
―Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
I quickly moved unconscious Arthur behind the bins, franticly searching for my mobile phone. My heart was speeding away, and with shaky hands I finally managed to dial Zach’s number.
“What? I have been trying—”
“Zach, shut your mouth for a second and listen to me carefully. I had to knock Arthur unconscious. He knows everything. I need you here now,” I said, cutting him off. First Zach asked me to calm down, then asked for my location.
A moment later I sensed Watchers outside and hung up the phone, praying that Zach would hurry. I quickly whispered the formula that masked my abilities. My heart raced like crazy. The smell of burning coal was wafting through the air and those bastards most likely already knew that someone had opened the gates of hell. Berith’s energy was strong, but he wasn’t around anymore and that must have stirred their suspicion. My spell worked only for a minute or so, and I waited for them to walk away; otherwise I was going to be very screwed.
“The boss was here, but I haven’t seen him coming back upstairs. Should I alert his partner?” asked one with a deep raspy voice. Arthur was slowly stirring back to consciousness, so I covered his mouth with my palm. A bead of sweat ran down my face as I kept the masking spell active. They were hesitating and in about thirty seconds they would discover that I was hiding behind these bins. They would easily recognise Arthur—the man’s face was plastered all over the media in the city. Rodriguez would rip me to shreds this time around.
“That mongrel girl at the party. She was watching Berith. Maybe she is still upstairs,” suggested the other. My spell stopped working a couple of seconds before they vanished behind the back doors. I rubbed my face and exhaled with relief.
Arthur started to move and I had no idea what else to do, so I treated him with another spell. He had witnessed everything and called me a monster. Well, that was to be expected. I kept lying to him, thinking that he could understand that my options had always been limited. Now I realised that this would never happen.
I needed to transport him outside the building unnoticed. Zach assured me that he was going to get here in half an hour. After my outburst with Berith I began to understand that I was much more powerful than the whole bunch of demons upstairs.
Zach indeed showed up within forty minutes. He had to play around with the lock at the back gate before he found me. My stomach was in knots, and my fingertips were sparkling like crazy when I saw him approaching. This wasn’t going to end well, unless we got the hell out of here right away.
The issue was that Arthur was immune to any memory spell that I’d tried to cast on him in the past. Now he knew the whole truth and he was going to be problematic. I had no idea how I was going to fix this.
“What the fuck happened to him?” Zach asked, when he approached staring down at the unconscious prince. The party upstairs was slowly coming to the end. Some demons were leaving and Watchers were probably still searching for Berith. Part of me didn’t believe that I summoned the gates again, tossing Berith down. He was one of the greatest demons in hell and I was just a mongrel girl.
“I had to knock him out with magic. He was going crazy. He saw me when I threw a demon down to the pits. It all happened so fast and I kind of lost it,” I explained as quickly as I could, conscious of the fact that we had to transport Arthur to the car without being noticed.
Zach dragged his hand through his hair. There was no time to ask question. We had to move.
“What do you want me to do?”
“We can’t carry him outside. Too many humans could recognise him. Can you bring your car around?”
“Fine, but we have to do this swiftly, this place is riddled with bouncers,” Zach pointed out and I nodded, pulling my hair in a ponytail. Ten minutes later I splashed some black potion over Arthur’s face, so he looked like he’d been in a serious fight. Then we carried the poor bugger to the car. Luckily no one on the street paid attention to us. I started to breathe again when Zach put his foot down on the accelerator and we were moving through the stream of traffic. My heart was still pounding uncontrollably in my chest.
“What the hell were you doing here in the first place? I have been calling you for the past several hours. It would have been nice to know that you were still alive,” Zach said shaking his head, glaring at me from the front mirror.
“I was doing my own thing tonight, but nothing went according to plan. Arthur must have followed me all the way here. He saw me sending someone down to hell. And as you can see, he freaked out,” I said, not even knowing how I didn’t sense him earlier on. I was in so much trouble. Arthur had heard me talking about Summer. He realised that I had been lying to him.
“Someone? Who?”
“Berith, one of the most powerful demons in hell. I thought that he could help me, but in the end he laughed at me. I went crazy and accidentally opened the pits.”
Zach shook his head, barely comprehending what I said. Part of him was glad that I was still alive. Arthur was not going to stay calm once he woke up. Things were never going to go back to how they were in the past.
“So have you figured out where we are going to take him?” he asked, after a moment.
“Ricky’s apartment. I have to be there when he wakes up,” I said, not really sure if Arthur would be willing to listen. I had to reveal to him that Summer was locked up somewhere out there with Alexis. I didn’t want to think what that stupid bitch had done to Matilda.
“I’m disappointed, Flower. We were supposed to be a team,” Zach said, after some time.
I rubbed my hands over my thighs aware that I had made a mistake. I should have realised that no one at that party would take me seriously. I caused too much damage to even consider applying for a relief license. Besides, no demon in the right state of mind would grant it to a royal anyway.
“I panicked when things didn’t go to plan after Langston,” I admitted, not knowing how to apologise to him. Zach glanced at me again, but didn’t say anything else. He was angry that I dismissed him so easily. We were stuck in traffic for a bit and I kept wondering how was I going to explain to Arthur that his beloved daughter was unreachable, that he may never see her. Earlier on I made him a promise that according to him I never intended to keep.
Zach drove inside Ricky’s underground car park. Arthur was heavy, and we had to carry him to the lift aware that humans would ask questions. Arthur’s entourage was going to look for him. He rarely got out without them.
“I need a drink. Please tell me that Ricky has some alcohol in his place,” Zach said, once we were in the apartment. Luckily Ricky’s neighbours weren’t in and no one had seen us. We placed Arthur on the bed. We were both breathing heavily, staring down at the unconscious prince.
“There is a small bottle of whiskey in the kitchen,” I said, trying to keep it together. Arthur was waking up.
“What are you going to do with him?” Zach asked still standing by the door and not moving.
“I have to tell him everything. I have been lying to him for too long,” I said, feeling on edge.
Zach disappeared in the kitchen to get a drink and I was left alone with Arthur. My hair was getting in the way and I was sweaty. Arthur opened his eyes after a few minutes and noticed me. His thoughts were murky, and his pulse was racing away. There was no point pretending that he didn’t see me using my abilities. It was time to reveal the whole truth to him. He was going to be the first royal to learn the truth about the demonic world.
“Arthur, are you all right?” I asked. Zach came back, holding a glass, he gestured for me to take a sip, but I refused.
“You.” He pointed and moved to the other side of the bed, as far away as he could. “I remember everything. Where the hell did you take me?”
“We had to bring you to Ricky’s place. I have been staying here for a bit,” I mumbled, releasing some calming vibes, although I had no idea if that could help at all.
“What are you? Some kind of witch?” he asked, widening his eyes, moving slowly to the other side of the room.
I took a deep breath, wanting to share with him everything that happened in the past several months. That could save us time, but Arthur refused to touch me. Zach was watching both of us in silence.
In the end I had no other choice and started telling him about the world beyond the one that he knew so well for over twenty-six years. He kept interrupting me through the story, and when Zach added his five cents he was ready to punch him. I had a feeling that it was going to be a long night.
Both Zach and I knew that Arthur couldn’t just leave. His new knowledge came with responsibilities.
“Unbelievable. So this demon has our daughter?” Arthur asked. “How could you let her kidnap her in the first place?”
“Hey, pretty boy, be careful. Maxine did everything she could to protect her. That crazy bitch kidnapped your brother too. Thanks to Maxine, he’s still alive,” Zach said, and came closer, like he wanted to shield me with his body.
“And you knew about her? You knew that these demons are controlling us?” Arthur shouted towards Zach. Now after seeing what Arthur was going through I suspected that Zach was glad that he found out the way he had. Our relationship had taken a turn, but then we came back stronger. I was glad that he was willing to protect me, but this was my own battle.
“Trust me, man, I was in shock too. My sister had run away from home with a demon. I haven’t seen her in six years. You need to understand that Maxine has a soul and she is trying hard to save her child,” Zach shouted, and the vein on his neck pulsated dangerously fast.
Arthur looked away, clenching his fists, not saying anything for a while. I was done with my part of the story.
“Lies, so many lies. I loved you … so much that you can’t even imagine,” Arthur said finally with that bitter and sad tone of voice. My heart was shattered, because I understood how much I hurt him. “And then I read that damn letter and discovered that I was a parent, that I had a daughter.”
“Arthur, I made many mistakes, but I had good intentions. Summer was precious and I made these decisions to keep her happy,” I said, pushing the tears away. “Alexis has her, but I’ll find her. This isn’t over.”
Arthur laughed, and he sounded like he still didn’t believe me.
“So that demon Alexis, she’s dying and she thinks that our daughter can help save her?”
“Yes, that’s pretty much it. She is fixated on royal blood and believes that Summer could heal her. That’s why she kidnapped your brother,” I explained.
“And you think you can stop her, Maxine? Have you got a plan?” he demanded, taking a step towards me. I swallowed hard, knowing that I couldn’t keep lying to him any longer. Everything that I had done in the past weeks failed, and I didn’t know what else to do.
“I’m working on a new plan, Arthur,” I whispered, not believing in myself anymore. Arthur had heard me outside the club, when I was begging Berith to help me. We both knew that I didn’t know what else to do, that I was lost.
The silence stretched for minutes.
“I need to go. I can’t be here pretending that you will get our daughter back. I’m planning to find her myself,” Arthur finally said.
I blocked his way, worried that he was going to go out with this new knowledge and do something very stupid. He didn’t realise that he couldn’t trust anyone anymore.
“Please, Arthur, I’m begging you, leave it to me. Alexis is dangerous. You will get yourself killed,” I said, not wanting to use violence against him, but maybe this was the only way. He smiled, but it was a dark smile, one that I had never seen before.
“You’re a demon that has supernatural powers and you don’t know what to do. That speaks for itself, Maxine. I’m leaving, so don’t try to stop me,” he stated, and he passed through the door.
We were done. I couldn’t keep him here against his will. He was right—I was a demon that kept failing every step of the way. I learnt that there was always a price for magic and now I was paying mine.