Chapter 7
It’d been several days since Onyx dragged me from Iris’s room back to his, only to leave and not come back. The first two nights I slept with his dagger clutched to my chest. But like promised, the female demon came by every mealtime.
She insisted the grumbling asshole guarding the door, Boris, find something else to do while she was there.
They’d always share a long look before he left.
Having learned how to read body language from a young age—thievery at its finest—I sensed he wanted to argue, but had no actual power to do so. Something I took note of.
Iris outranked him.
Worse, she was kind and clever and kept every promise she made to me.
It was unfathomable based on everything I knew about demons.
Everything I was taught burned in my mouth when she came day after day, worrying about how I slept, concerned if I had eaten enough, angry that Onyx left me alone in his room—though I’d taken full advantage by reading through every document kept on his desk.
Most were in a language I couldn’t translate, but some I could.
As the days went on, I found less reason to hold onto the dagger I was given. It sat by the bed, untouched since day three.
I’d softened to her. Funny, considering it was her I hoped to soften. But for some reason, Iris reminded me of my sister.
Every time she spoke, it was Luna’s voice I heard, and an emotion I’d been convinced I killed a long time ago came bubbling to the surface.
I’d been prepared for pain, violence, and grief, but not this.
Not this unfathomable kindness. Not this female who was infinitely affectionate and loving, who wanted to end the slavery of humans.
Iris was a rebel like me.
It hurt more to know that what I’d do in the future would put her in danger.
For the first time since I became a Rebel, I wondered if we’d gotten it wrong, if what I was here to do was right.
Would I come to regret the choices I made in the name of justice?
But I smothered the thought. I couldn’t let emotion guide my actions.
I was here for more than myself.
No matter how kind Iris was, she couldn’t replace the hundreds of years of brutality and hardship my people had suffered. That they still suffered.
The gorgeous dragon brought several outfits each time she visited, but today she brought a large, beautifully carved trunk, insisting that I needed a place to store my things.
I’d never owned anything. Everything I received as a Rebel we shared.
It felt odd when she insisted it was mine after I argued it wasn’t necessary.
She’d put the chest near the bed, filled with more outfits, shoes, and jewelry than I knew what to do with. But no one said no to Iris, certainly not me, and I was starting to see that the persistent female always got her way.
She’d taken me for several strolls around the castle, unafraid of what I might learn on them. She described the systems in place, explained each room, and identified the dragons she considered friendly and the ones I’d do well to avoid.
She’d never know the ones she claimed enemies to women everywhere were the ones I noted the most—the potential victims of my assassination, but only if I couldn’t kill the monster who tortured that poor man on my first day here.
I’d learned more than I ever thought I would in the first week.
The technology they used was beyond imagination.
I’d need to be very careful with how I carried out my mission.
Dragon technology was far superior to anything I’d ever read about before the Fall, and their abilities were just as formidable.
I hadn’t found any other Rebels from my group, so communication was at a standstill until I did.
My other suspicion was confirmed on day four.
The faction was at war with itself. The newer demons against the old.
Dragons like Iris wanted to eradicate human enslavement, but powerful families—long lineages from the time before the Fall—wanted to retain their slaves, their world order, and would do just about anything to make sure they could.
The only person standing in their way was Onyx.
He made all the final decisions for the Sky Demons.
The leader among leaders, one had muttered.
Based on conversations I’d overheard and Iris’s own accounting of how things were, while they ruled together, Onyx was considered the true ruler over the other two. His decisions held more weight. If he were to decide human enslavement was antiquated and barbaric, he could end it. Yet he hadn’t.
Another mark against him.
Still, one thing I hadn’t expected was the number of humans who were protective of their demons and vice versa. I’d seen it firsthand when an argument broke out in the gardens on one of our strolls.
An old family dragon against a new age one.
It was a fight over the “unleashed vermin” permitted to wander around him.
The demons fought, the human all but clinging to the one I quickly realized was her captor.
Not out of fear of him, but out of fear for him.
As if he were hers. As if she cared about him.
But I couldn’t risk asking about the odd exchange. I always encouraged short strolls, never venturing for longer than a half hour outside the room. I was afraid of Onyx stalking back to find us gone, then punishing me for it. Or worse, punishing her.
So far he hadn’t.
The Sky Demons leader hadn’t returned in nearly seven days, the citrus scent having all but disappeared by the second day, confirming it was him and not the room that summoned it. It was odd, though. I missed it for some reason.
There was a tug on my chest, a calling, that grew every day he was gone.
I’d never felt anything like it. It was easier to ignore the first few days, but by the sixth, it was a throbbing ache in my chest that never went away.
Food didn’t ease it. Sleep was nearly impossible to catch.
I’d grown uncomfortable for some reason, and the only way to confirm if it was caused by his absence was to wait for him to return.
Fingering through my long platinum hair, Iris braided it around a beautiful circlet she brought with her. She’d affixed several braids around my head with decorative beads she called lapilli.
It was something her mother used to do for her when she was younger.
She didn’t explain their importance, only that it was what females who cared for one another did for each other.
A bonding ceremony of sorts, if I understood her correctly.
I’d learn it so I could, in turn, do it for her and strengthen our bond.
I’d worn the dress she brought for me. The scarlet red fabric hugged my waist and dipped into a deep V, baring the valley of my breasts all the way to the top of my belly-button.
It was layered with semi-translucent fabric but not see-through like my first dress, and it fell all around me in a flutter.
A long slit ran the length of my right leg to my thigh, showing off well-trained muscles.
When I first put it on, Iris mentioned that I was stronger than most of the women she’d dressed from the sectors, and I had to spit excuses—my body type, my affinity for survival, my natural ability to tone with minimal exercise.
I couldn’t be sure if she bought it, but she did make a little joke about me being more dragon than human and moved away from the topic.
Swirling a braid around the golden circlet circling my head, Iris asked, “Should we meet a few of my friends today? Are you open to talking with a few of my kind and their humans for a short while? I really want you to feel at home here. You deserve to make friends and feel like a person.”
Iris was rather insistent that I be at ease and “find myself” in the Sky Demons despite being sequestered to their leader’s room for the foreseeable future.
She was on a war path to make it happen, and I didn’t see any reason to argue.
The more I tied myself to the demons here, the easier I could make moves.
The trouble was that the more I got to know Iris, the less I wanted to hurt anyone she might protect. Starting a war between the factions was sure to put them all in danger no matter how I went about stoking it.
I blinked before turning to look at her. “Their humans?”
Her smile was gentle and warm, but it had an edge of envy to it. “Yes, Maze. Their humans. Maybe it’s time I shared some dragon secrets with you.”
My shoulder blades pulled together, a ripple of fear, confusion, and excitement zinging down my spine. “Secrets?”
“You’re so careful not to ask questions, I’ve noticed,” she said, her fingers weaving my hair into gorgeous braids to frame my face like she’d been born to do it.
“You still have your guard up around me, and I don’t blame you.
I know what humans in your sector are told about us.
It’s one of the few sectors I’ve begged Onyx to let us intervene on, but he insists it's not our place to meddle in human affairs.”
Human affairs? Meddle?
“My sector?” I probed. I really shouldn’t. “You know about my sector?”
Iris huffed, her expression souring as she kneeled in front of me, dazzling me with her beauty.
“Maze, tell me something. Did you know that every sector under Sky Demons rule receives an allotment for honoring their side of the treaty? More than protection, but food, materials, and access to trade. Your sector, among a few others, refuses to receive any dragon intervention. Meaning, very little protection and trade. They do, however, take the food and supplies offered with the allotment, and yet I’ve never seen it distributed among your people. Not the way it is in other sectors.”
Confusion crept into my expression. “An allotment? I thought Tributes were merely in exchange for dem—uh, dragons not killing us.”