Chapter 6
VI.
We freeze, our eyes glued to the door.
“Your Highness!” Attero’s voice is muffled through the wood. “Can you open the door? We’re tracking an escaped shadeling, and we think he came this way.”
I exhale slowly. It’s only Atty.
Nathan grabs my hand, eyes pleading. “Please, Devica. Don’t let them take me back there.”
I hesitate. Attero is my out. He won’t ask questions. I can hand Nathan Reynolds over and say he threatened me, and Father will make sure I never see him again.
But I analyze my time in his head, the minutes I’ve stared at his photograph. How connected I felt to him when we touched. And how his hand grips mine, no longer concerned about my paternity.
The door blows open.
Nathan Reynolds flies forward and I’m thrown onto my bed, my pillow sinking to the floor. He collapses on top of me. Heat builds through my body as his legs entwine with mine. We pant in tandem, his breath tickling my face.
“Your Highness!”
Attero’s eyes are as wide as saucers.
Not that I blame him. It’s not every day the devil’s daughter is caught half-naked with a shadeling on top of her.
Actually, this is the first.
Atty blinks rapidly, then wrenches Nathan Reynolds off me and slams a sword to his chest. “Are you all right, Your Highness?”
I push myself off the bed and lower my friend’s arm with my hand. “I’m fine, Atty. This shadeling just wanted to talk. We fell when you came charging in.”
Attero narrows his eyes as he drags a pleading Nathan Reynolds to the door. “I’m sorry he bothered you. Don’t worry, he’ll be severely reprimanded.”
I chew the bottom of my lip. If Atty takes him to Father, Nathan Reynolds doesn’t stand a chance. He’s already bruised and bleeding.
“Wait.” The word is out of my mouth before I can stop it. “Please don’t say anything to Father. This human made a mistake, but he didn’t hurt me. He’s already in Lot Thirteen. That’s punishment enough, don’t you think?”
“Your Highness—”
“Devica.”
Attero slaps handcuffs around Nathan Reynolds’s wrists before studying my face. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I place one hand on my hip, swearing that from now on, I’m wearing more than a flimsy nightgown to bed. Either that, or I’m getting a lock for my door. “He’s going to pay for what he did on Earth for an eternity. No need to add to that.”
Attero blows out a stream of air. “Fine. I won’t say anything. I’ll tell them he was concussed and wandered out of his lot by accident.”
I relax against the wall. “Thanks, Atty. I appreciate it.”
“Thank you,” Nathan Reynolds echoes.
Attero snarls at him. “I wasn’t talking to you.” He pushes the shadeling to the door, then turns back to me. “I’m going to hand him over, but I’ll be back to check on you.”
Warmth blossoms in my chest, and I send him the first genuine smile I’ve given in months. It may have taken him thinking I was in danger to come back around, but I’ll take my friend back however it happens.
Nathan Reynolds winces as he’s dragged out of my room.
He utters, “Devica, please,” before he disappears around the corner, and the smile dies in my throat.
I wrap my robe around me and hug it close. Tossing the pillow back onto the bed, I prop myself against it, tracing lines across my bedspread as I await Attero’s return.
I had no choice but to send Nathan Reynolds back to his lot. I know that. He deserves to be here, even if I can’t see it.
And at least I spared him further torture from Father. I did the right thing.
When he knocks on my door twenty minutes later, Attero’s carrying a tray with two drinks.
“Here.” He hands me a clear glass filled with bloodwine, a popular carbonated strawberry drink down here. “I felt bad about the other night. Figured it’s the least I can do.”
A smile tugs at my lips. This is the Atty I know.
“Thanks.” There aren’t any chairs in my room, so I sit cross-legged on my bed, shuffling over to make room for him. I take a sip of the sweet drink, the bubbles tingling my tongue.
We sip our drinks in silence—or as silent as my room can be, with the faraway screams that permeate the walls. I listen for Nathan Reynolds’s wail among them, but they’re a chorus making up the worst choir in the universe. I have no way to pluck him from the crowd.
I lift my head and study my best friend. Atty’s always been someone I can trust, the one person to have my back. And despite everything that’s changed between us, our history is something that never will.
I take a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.” He turns on my bed to face me, resting one foot under his knee.
I run my finger along the rim of the glass. Bubbles of scarlet float to the surface of my drink and burst open, perfuming the air with strawberry. “Do you think Father’s ever wrong? Like, when he’s judging, I mean. Do you think it’s possible for him to judge someone incorrectly?”
He scrunches his face. “Your dad’s been doing this for-literal-ever. He could judge people in his sleep.”
“That’s just it,” I say. “He’s been doing this so long. He’s bored. So much so he’s retiring. Maybe he’s not trying as hard as he used to because he doesn’t care anymore. Do you think it’s clouding his judgments?”
Attero gives a small shrug. “Maybe? But if you’re having questions, you should talk to him.”
I down the last of my drink and place the empty glass on my end table with a clink and frown. “You really think he’d listen?”
“I think if you explained that you aren’t questioning him, but that you want to know so you can do his job well, he’d be stoked you’ve come around. He’ll probably even do a couple of judgments with you so you can see how it’s done.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” My shoulders loosen for the first time since Nathan Reynolds burst into my room.
If Father shows me how he judges, maybe I can slip Nathan Reynolds’s photo in and he can have a second look.
Then I can finally move on from handsome Joke Boy.
No, not handsome. Not anything. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow. Thanks, Atty. You’re a great friend.”
I lean forward to hug him, and this time he hugs me back. The pillow I’d been sitting on slides out from under my butt, but I don’t break the connection. I’ve missed him too much. I close my eyes, and Attero’s body goes rigid.
He bolts to his feet so fast I fly backward and hit my head against the wall. “I have to go. Souldier stuff to attend to. You understand.”
“Oh, sure.” I frown as I rub the bump starting to form on the back of my skull.
His sudden change in demeanor also caused him to lose track of his human disguise.
Atty wears his costume so often, I’ve almost forgotten the demon that exists beneath.
His scaly baby-blue skin, lined with indigo edging.
Those black eyes that pool into an endless void.
The jagged teeth sharp enough to tear me apart.
And the forked tail, beating against my floor so violently that my nail polish bottles vibrate on my dresser.
I take a shaky breath. “Is everything okay?”
Attero blinks at me, and his human form reappears. “Yup. Just gotta get somewhere.” He clucks his tongue against his teeth. “Good night, Your Highness.”
“Atty?” I reach for him, but he pulls out of my grip. He doesn’t meet my eyes.
I drum my fingers on my thigh.
How did we go from a hug to this?
Attero doesn’t even take our tray of empty glasses. He half bows before sprinting out of my room, a small piece of paper clutched in his hand.
When I make out what he’s holding, all the blood rushes from my feet to my head.
It can’t be.
“No, no, no!”
I toss my pillow off the bed and rip the duvet from the mattress. I search the sheets, the box spring, the floor. I tear my room apart, praying I’m wrong. But there’s no doubt about it.
Nathan Reynolds’s photograph is gone.