12. Doppelseers
CHAPTER 12
DOPPELSEERS
BILLIE
“ T he doppelseers,” he breathes out.
Dopp-ul-see-ers? It must be a Sombra word without a direct translation in English because, when Glaine just about whispers it, there’s a harsh edge to each of the four syllables that mark it as another foreign one. Like when a fluent speaker of a foreign language just slips a word in their own tongue into a conversation because it’s easier than trying to explain it in mine.
Context clues, Billie. Come on. You travel all over the world and have to broker contracts and meetings in dozens of languages. Sure, I have Charlotte’s help, but Sierra’s lawyer is back in New York. I have to parse these situations out on my own.
Doppel … Double, maybe? If a doppelganger is like a twin, what can a doppelseer be? Someone who sees double?
Maybe. Let’s go with that.
I don’t know how I didn’t see their house before. It melds into the shadows, no windows reflecting the moonlight, and only a single door. Built like an old-fashioned cabin, it’s squat and wide, but the moment I glanced in that direction, it was there like it has always been.
But I know it wasn’t. Before Glaine knocked me momentarily senseless with that fantastic tongue of his, I was looking around, keeping an eye out for any other rogue demons who might catch on to the fact that I was so aroused, I could just about hear my thighs squeak while we were walking.
It was bad. Like, taking an aphrodisiac bad. If Glaine had solemnly told me that the only way to stop the empty ache in my pussy, plus the fever and the sweats, I might’ve actually gone ahead and bent over for the growly demon. My body was telling me that’s what it needed, this strange feeling in my chest was tugging me toward Glaine, and my pussy was screaming, “Go, Billie, go.”
I got what I needed by clinging to his horns for dear life as I rode his face. It’s probably going to be a lot harder to convince him that I’m not my mate after that, I was actually a little relieved to have a distraction once he set me back down on my feet.
Then I catch a glimpse of Glaine’s strained expression out of the corner of my eye, add that to the sudden explicable appearance of a cabin I know wasn’t there before, and I’m beginning to think this might not be the sort of distraction I need.
Glaine is seven feet tall, can wield a sword when the chains aren’t dulling his shadow magic, and is strong as hell. He’s also a trained soldier who didn’t blink at ordering me to stab the rogue. If he’s alarmed by this cabin, what the hell’s inside?
Doppelseers. Okay. Let’s go with that.
Keeping my voice low, just in case, I murmur, “What are the doppelseers?”
“The doppelseers are the voice of the gods here on Sombra.”
So they’re a ‘who’. I think I understand. “Like priests?”
Glaine mulls it over for a moment. “Priests serve the gods in your world. The gods need none of that in Sombra so Lucian and Damien serve the duke like the rest of us.”
Why am I not surprised to hear that? “Okay. So we have to worry about them turning us in?”
“Not necessarily.”
I glance back at the cabin. “Do we have to worry about the fact that their cabin seems to have just popped out of nowhere?”
When he doesn’t deny that, I know we’re in trouble.
And then he says, “Duke Haures is a bondmaster. He has very unique magic.”
I nod.
“But the doppelseers have magic unlike any other demons in our realm, including Duke Haures. His palace stays put in Mavro. Lucian and Damien… they go wherever they’re needed.”
I… don’t think I like the way he said that.
“Do we need them?”
Glance takes a deep breath. “They are diviners. Many clans have seers, but the doppelseers are the most respected visionaries in Sombra.” He lowers his voice even deeper, sounding almost reverential as he does. “They’re supposed to be the longest living demons left on Sombra, older than even Duke Haures.”
Supposed to be … “You don’t know for sure?”
“No one knows except the doppelseers.”
I’ll admit, this is actually really interesting to me. Not only because Glaine seems so cock-sure about everything that it’s new for him to admit there’s something he doesn’t know, but because I’m looking at the most ancient of demon immortals who have their own traveling house.
I loved Howl’s Moving Castle as a kid. Is this like that?
“Do we get to meet them?” I ask.
Glaine sighs. “They appeared to us. Trust me, Billie. That is an invitation we would be foolish to refuse.”
As if they doppelseers have been able to listen in on our conversation, the door to the cabin creaks open.
Glaine sets his shoulders. “Come, Billie. And whatever you do? Don’t ask about their eyes.”
That’s not the only whispered warning Glaine gives me as we trudge over to the open cabin door, but it’s the one I’m repeating in my had as I’m led into a cozy interior awash with orange light.
Like at the palace, the doppelseers have floating orbs that illuminate their space. And, like at the palace, they’re in their shadow forms like so many of the other demons I’ve met have been. That doesn’t make it any less obvious that they’re identical twins… well, almost identical.
One demon has a bright white eye for the left one and a glowing purple one for the right. His brother? Has the opposite.
It’s freaky. Sorry. Maybe it’s my experience with the rogue and how Glaine explained you can tell when a Sombra demon has gone fully demonic by the whites of his eyes. In Sombra, their eyes are like mood rings, only they tell you what kind of demon you’re dealing with. Only the duke has blue eyes, while mages are purple, soldiers are green, and hunters are blue.
And seers… they have that .
“Glaine.” That’s the demon with the right eye that’s purple. “It’s good to see you again after all these centuries.”
Huh? Okay. That explains how he recognized the cabin. Could also explain why he’s on his guard around the demon twins. I can’t wait to ask him about it. Something tells me there’s definitely history here.
It’s especially obvious in the respectful way he bows his head. “Lucian.”
Lucian’s twin nods a greeting. He has the left eye that’s purple, and to make it worse, I don’t think he ever blinks.
Glaine addresses him next. “Damien. Anything for me?”
Damien shakes his head. I guess that’s a no.
Glaine almost looks relieved to hear it—and that’s when Lucian gestures toward the stairs behind him.
Wait. What?
There were no stairs. One hundred percent, they were not there two seconds ago. More magic, huh?
“We have seen that the demon guard and his mortal mate are in need of shadows since they don’t have any of their own. You are safe with us. The duke will not be able to see you until we allow him to.”
Glaine looks surprised. “You’re concealing us?”
Lucian’s purple eye flares. Only the purple one. “We have been. We will be. There is something… we have seen your mortal before. She is known to us.”
I am. Oh, great. Demon soothsayers. I can only imagine what they’ve seen.
Glaine kicks his chin up. “You have seen that she is my mate.”
Damie shakes his head again.
“My twin is right. When it comes to your prophecy, I do not think anything has changed. But we will see. Come. Rest. You will spend two full moons as our guest. When it is done, journey on to Nuit. That should be all the time we need to read the female.”
”Um. Read me?”
Damien turns his purple eye on me, but all he says is, “Out of the spotlight, it’s time you rely on a heart barely used.”
My mouth falls open even as the demon at my side grows puzzled.
I’m not.
Glaine warned me. One twin spoke in riddles when he spoke at all, the other made it as clear as he possibly could when giving his visions. I’d say it was easy to figure out who was who, but that wasn’t a riddle.
That’s an altered line from Whiskey Rose’s most famous song, ‘Heart Barely Used’. The real one is: in the spotlight, I'll shine with a heart barely used , but it’s close enough that I can’t not recognize it.
Lucian smiles at me. “Don’t give up hope. Now rest. We have food for our guests, and the bathtub is running.”
Honestly? He had me at ‘bathtub’. If that’s all he did to read me, plucking my relationship to Sierra out of my head through one of her most well-known hits, I can deal.
Because, well, bathtub .