Jasmine
“Sorry, sorry,” I say, running past Katrina. I’m two minutes late. “I barely slept.”
After Jake texted me about the attack, I tossed and turned all night. Something had to have happened last night. He would have asked for me otherwise, right?
“Did you have your man over?” Katrina follows me to the back room.
“My what?” I ask, shoving my backpack into a locker.
“Your hot man, Jasmine. The one you were supposed to text me back about since you dodge my questions when we’re at work.”
“Shit, I’m sorry, Kat.” I slam the locker shut, then throw my hair up in a messy bun. “I do want to get coffee together soon.”
“I’m only giving you a hard time. You can catch me up today, considering we’ll be here all day.”
I groan, pressing my thumb and pointer finger to my forehead. My head is pounding from the numerous nightmares that kept me up all night. I’m used to nightmares, but when they consisted of Jake dying at the hands of multiple demons, it was clear I wasn’t going to get much rest.
“Gotta love low-cost vax day,” I say, looping the stethoscope around my neck. “You’ll be here for the full day?”
Katrina nods. “All ten hours.”
We head to the front and within ten minutes, the first family enters the front door. It’s a constant stream after that.
As soon as she’s able, Katrina begins asking me questions.
How did you meet him? Wait, he’s not local? You slept over on the first date?
I entertain her interrogation. It keeps my brain ninety percent occupied.
My brain won’t turn off between needing to think of a bargain to approach my father with and worrying about how I’m going to tell Jake about my past, so it helps to never have a dull moment between treating the animals and playing twenty questions with Katrina.
“Was that the last one?” I ask, slumping against the front desk.
Katrina types on the computer, nodding. “We’re all done, thankfully. I think we saw thirty more animals than last year.” She swivels in her chair to face me.
“Feels like double.” I stand up straight. “You going to be okay if I head home?”
“Yeah, I’m done, too. Are you doing anything next week for the annual shut down?”
I shake my head. “Never do.” We won’t be back in the office for a week. “I’m on call, though, just in case someone needs help.”
“Do they ever?”
“Nope. People know better than to bother us on our vacation unless it’s an emergency.”
We both laugh, then hug. Katrina lets me know she’ll be down south for most of the week off, so we decide to touch base about coffee when she gets back.
I walk upstairs, grabbing leftovers from the fridge before settling on the couch to crack open one of the books that was delivered to my house.
Sometimes I wonder if I were to simply tell Jake about the bargain I need to make, whether he’d know exactly what I need to offer.
And even though I can tell myself time and time again that he wouldn’t care about my position as princess, there’s a tiny part of me that doesn’t believe it.
We’re meant to be enemies, after all. Maybe if he was a lower-level shifter, it wouldn’t matter as much.
If he was someone who didn’t report to the alpha, our lives could look different, and no one would bat an eye at our relationship.
Okay, maybe they would a tiny bit because it’s not every day you see a demon-shifter pairing, but that wouldn’t bother me.
How can I heal the demons’ relationship with the other species? I’m only one person, and I’m trying to think of ways to solve a multidimensional problem. No one in this realm cares about the Underworld, even though the Underworld feeds the magic of this realm.
Wait. I stop abruptly, nearly running into the corner of my kitchen island.
“That’s it. That’s part of my leverage.”
The hard part about doing research is that unless you know what you want to find, it’s hard to know where to begin. It’s why the books I’ve been getting are about a wide range of topics. All the information is making my head spin, and I realize I have yet to order dinner.
But of course, instead of doing the smart thing and pausing to eat, I keep reading. And since I make that irrational decision, sleep finds me sooner than I’d like.
At least I’m greeted with a familiar face when my eyes open next.
“Jasmine, wake up.” Marisole pushes at my shoulder and I find a ruby sky above me.
“Why does my dream look like the Underworld?”
Marisole shakes her head. “Does it matter? I could be pulled out any minute. Dad knows.”
I sit up abruptly, finding myself on a direct replica of Marisole’s giant bed from childhood, which I suppose is likely still where she sleeps. It’s a four-poster bed, large enough for three people, with a black quilt on top. If it’s not a direct replica, it’s a close mock.
“Yes, it matters,” I huff. “Why would I want to be reminded of the worst time in my life?”
Marisole blinks at me, her silence telling me she couldn’t care less.
“Never mind the location, Jaz. Come on. I’d like to see you live to fulfill your end of the bargain.”
I’m tempted to poke fun at our bargain, say something about her only caring about me so she gets a soul, but I know when to not push her. Now? When she’s dream walked even though she’s probably being watched by every important person in the Underworld? Yeah, not the time.
“Okay, what do you mean Dad knows?”
“He knows you’re trying to find a way to survive. You know Dad doesn’t take well to people besting him.”
“Don’t freak, but I’ve been researching a ton since we last talked. I think I found a way for demons to enter the realm, but it’s a long shot.”
Marisole’s jaw drops. Then, she says with no humor in her tone, “Yep. You’re going to die. Did you hear when I said that Dad knows? You need to come to the Underworld to fix your problem. How do you expect to do that?” She stands up from the bed as I hold out my hands in a What? fashion.
“You asked, and that’s my solution. Well, kind of. I haven’t gotten further than that.”
“Kind of?” she screeches. “Jasmine, you’re not dealing with just any normal demon. It’s not a child you’re having to convince to save your head.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Dad will not save you because you give him puppy-dog eyes and tell him you don’t want to give up your life. You’ll be killed the moment you enter this realm.”
“I know.” I repeat, my tone harsh. “I never thought I’d be in this position. Why not send all his scouts after me?”
Marisole shrugs. “He probably doesn’t want a multi-realm war. None of us do.” She sits next to me on the bed. “Tell me about your ideas. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Okay, so we have to leverage this realm, right?”
“How so?” she asks.
“I remembered the Underworld provides magic to the soil of this realm, giving witches more power to pull from. This is forgotten knowledge. I haven’t seen it in any texts from the library.
They don’t know this is happening, but without the magic from our realm, this realm would cease to have magic over time unless a different god blessed their land. ”
“Okay, that’s true. The Underworld has fed this realm’s magic for a long time. Is that your leverage?”
I nod. “If we’re somehow able to let the demons come to this realm to gather souls and heal that relationship so no one is at risk of dying, then this realm continues to keep its magic. But if we continue as is, it’s only going to get harder for demons to jump to this realm.”
“Okay, so how are you going to fix this relationship?” Marisole’s tone is full of sass, but I’m not going to hold that against her.
“I don’t know. That’s the missing piece.”
She furrows her brows, and I’m not surprised to see confusion etched on her face. I’d be the same way, but when I haven’t been working, this is all I’ve been thinking about. It’s only today that I’ve had this epiphany and realized I might have a bargain to offer my dad to save my head.
“You need to figure it out.” Marisole deadpans. “You remember what almost happened with our bargain?”
Memories flood my mind of when I almost lost my entire soul instead of tying half of its fate to Marisole, and I shudder. That memory has been sealed for a very long time. I glare at Marisole. “Thanks for that.”
“What about…” Marisole trails off, bouncing her leg up and down as she thinks. Then, a minute later, it’s like a light bulb goes off in her head because her leg pauses and she sits up straight with a large grin. “How does this realm do government since they don’t have a god in charge?”
“The Council,” I answer, and at first, I think nothing of it. I haven’t thought nothing of it because there isn’t a demon representative on the Council. We’ve been banned from it for hundreds of years and haven’t had a chance to get a spot again.
Marisole extends her hands in a there you go action and I toss my arms around her. I pull her into a hug, not surprised when she groans and tries to push me off her.
“Let me hug you,” I say.
“Gross,” she replies, but eventually gives in and squeezes me back.
“That’s it, though, Mar. The Council. I can bargain with my life for a seat on the Council where demons would have a say in the rules and regulations for traveling here and taking souls.”
Marisole slaps her hand on my knee. “Now, you just need to figure out how to convince the Council you’re worth saving.”
“Oh, fuck,” I groan and throw my back against the mattress. “Why does one problem always have to lead to another?”
I glance at Marisole to see her shrug, then stand from the bed.
“I have to go. I won’t be able to visit you again, but I’ll do what I can from my side to monitor you. I’m going to assume you’ll plan to bargain in person?”
The thought of traveling to the Underworld when I’ve spent so many years running from it makes me want to curl into a ball and get swallowed by this mattress. Unfortunately, there aren’t many other ways to get in touch with our father. He’s not going to magically come to me.
“Yes. I have my key. I’ll find a way. As long as you’re at or near home, I’ll try to convince the portal to send me to you.”
It catches me off guard when she wraps me in another hug. “Don’t say anything,” she says, her tone stern. “This hug is only in case you die.”
I laugh. “I’d rather this be a ‘good luck’ hug. Or a ‘you got this’ hug.”
She pulls away and smiles. “It’s all of the above.” Then, she disappears, and everything around me goes black.
The last thing I remember thinking before I fall into a deep sleep is that I’m glad we’ve found a bargain to help me survive, but it’s going to be near impossible to do it alone.
I’ll start with finding out more about Jake’s feelings about the Council and go from there, leaving the fact that I’m a princess for last.