15. Syneca
Syneca
Salt thrown over the left shoulder blinds what follows you. Salt thrown over the right feeds what walks beside you. Know the difference before you reach for the jar.
The manor felt bigger when you were avoiding someone.
I’d spent the morning wandering corridors I hadn’t noticed before, finding rooms that seemed like they were preserved in time.
And at the end of one hall, I found a single locked door.
Dragons had been carved into the wood, two of them, rearing up to meet in the center.
Their wings flung wide across the top so the span of them stretched corner to corner.
Whoever had carved them wanted anyone standing here to feel small. It worked.
The rest of the manor was silent, except for my footsteps, the distant hum of magic that lived in the walls and the little silver music box that I could always hear no matter where I was in the manor. Even impossibly far away, it was still present.
I found Pip in the study, perched on Dez’s shoulder while he hunched over a game board covered in tiny gargoyles that kept trying to fly away.
“No, no, no. Get back here.” Dez snatched one out of the air and planted it firmly on a black square. “You’re a battleship. Act like it.”
The gargoyle hissed at him.
Pip giggled. “I think it wants to be a knave.”
“It can want all it likes. I didn’t make the rules.” Dez moved another piece. This one stayed put, as the demon glanced up at me. “Morning. I see we’re wearing yellow again. Beautiful color. Want to play?”
“I don’t know the rules.”
“Neither do the gargoyles. That’s half the fun. The other half is watching them cheat. I gave this one bubble gum and he hasn’t stopped singing about it.”
I moved closer, studying the board as he pointed to the little winged creature. The pieces were carved from stone, each one different. Some had wings. Some had horns. One looked suspiciously like it was giving Dez the middle finger.
“What happens when you win?” I asked.
“I’ve never won, so no idea. I was hoping they danced.” He leaned back, stretching. “Though honestly, I’m just killing time until Silas decides to torture you again.”
“He’s not torturing me.”
“Right. My mistake. He’s teaching you.”
Pip flew down to land on the table, side-eyeing the gargoyles. “Dez has been explaining more of the Underworld to me. Did you know people don’t actually come here when they die?”
I blinked. “What?”
“That’s what I thought too!” She bounced slightly, wings fluttering. “But he says it’s different. Tell her, Dezzie.”
Dez captured a gargoyle that was trying to escape. “When someone dies, they get a choice. They can reincarnate into one of the hundreds of realms across the universe. Start over. New life, clean slate.”
“Unless they have to pay penance,” Pip added solemnly.
“Right. If you’ve got debts to settle, wrongs to answer for, you wind up in purgatory first. Eventually you pay your dues.
Some turn into demons and get chained to the Underworld permanently.
As far as I know, a dead person from your world doesn’t come haunt this one.
” He shrugged. “Seems odd the Furies would tell you that. But then, I’ve never been to the prince’s courts, so I wouldn’t know what they have hiding in there.
Maybe Darius is hoarding the spirits of all your ancestors in some kind of creepy lake.
That fits the bastard well enough. And the princes do like their secrets. ”
I sank into the chair across from him. “So the Underworld isn’t an afterlife…”
“It’s home for demons. Prison for some. Just another realm for the rest of us.
” He moved a piece that immediately tried to flee by biting his finger.
“I use the term ‘home’ loosely. I chose loyalty to myself and my friends over pledging to a court. Lore and Silas did the same. It’s rare.
Makes us a target sometimes. But it’s worth it. ”
Pip nodded enthusiastically. “That’s why they stick together. Like us.”
I watched Dez gently redirect one of Pip’s gargoyles back to the correct square, his touch careful despite his casual tone.
There was kindness there. Real kindness.
I could see it in his easy devotion to Pip Willowbend.
Even though it seemed like everyone would drop to their knees to protect her, I knew that wasn’t true.
Only the people with hearts determined to protect the pure, to seek the good amongst the disturbed would bend for her.
And those were the people worth trusting.
Those were the ones I could depend on. Calder was the first example of that.
Dez was the newest. But Silas fell somewhere on that scale also.
Even when he was only a griffin, only my familiar, he still catered to Pip, giving her comfort the only way he could without giving himself away.
A grimmie flew in from the open window and landed on the table between us. The tiny black puffball wearing a blue bow tie, held a folded piece of paper.
Pip gasped and launched herself at it.
The grimmie dropped the note and fled, zipping away from the table with Pip in hot pursuit.
“Come back! I just want to pet you!”
The note had my name in script across the front. I unfolded it.
There’s a door beside the kitchen that will open if you stroke the feather carved into the front. Follow the stairs and meet us for your next round of training. Tell Pip the grimmie is for her to pet. Not to keep. And Dez better get his ass down here too.
I stared at the words.
“He went out of his way to hire a grimmie just for Pip,” I said.
Dez leaned forward to read over my shoulder before I could stop him. “Dammit. I wish I’d thought of that. Look how happy she is.”
One of her buns had come loose, a button clattering to the floor as she darted across the room and hid behind the couch. Her eyes were wide as she peeked her head up, clearly plotting her ambush.
“Thank you for being good to her,” I said quietly, leaving off the part about him being a demon and how his kindness didn’t fit the warnings of demons. Because he was right. The Furies had shaped our opinions from a time before memories and maybe they couldn’t be trusted either.
“She’s easy to be good to.” He smiled at Pip. “Unlike some people who shall remain nameless but definitely include Silas.”
Pip cornered the grimmie under a chair. The tiny creature looked terrified, but Pip was cooing at it like it was the most precious thing she’d ever seen. I thought about her power and presence in this world that had absolutely nothing to do with magic, or spells, or betrayal or attempted murder.
She trusted people. Believed them when they said they’d keep her safe. Let herself be vulnerable without armor. I used to be like that. Before I learned that trust was a weapon people used against you. Before training sessions felt like battles I’d already lost.
I couldn’t do it again today. Couldn’t let Silas strip away what little control I had left while Pip watched from the sidelines, still believing in goodness I wasn’t sure existed anymore.
I tore the note into pieces and let them fall to the table. “I’m not training today.”
“Syn—”
“Where is Aureth?” I looked at Dez refusing to argue. “Go back to the dead people for a second. If she orchestrated all of this to return to her sister, and don’t tell me that’s not why I was her pawn, where is she?”
Something shifted in his expression. Not quite evasion but careful consideration of what to say. “I’d imagine she’s paying her dues. When she’s done, she’ll choose to come to the Underworld, if she wants.”
I moved to the shelf of books on the opposite side of the room, needing to do anything other than think about the Oracle suffering or Silas demanding I learn to command magic that wouldn’t come in a controlled way no matter how late I stayed up at night trying.
“You know Silas is going to keep making you train,” Dez said. “Avoiding it won’t solve the problem.”
“I am not avoiding training. I’m avoiding him.”
“Well, if you’re shopping around, I’m a pretty decent trainer.”
“Also no.”
“It’s this handsome face, isn’t it?” He sat back on the couch, resting both of his arms along the back as he narrowed his eyes on me, his horns seeming to grow with that demonic grin. “You’re afraid to mess it up. I get that all the time.”
“We talked about this,” Pip called from under the chair. “I’m not sure that’s going to win you any favors with Syn, Dezzie.”
“I’m not training with you,” I said. “And I’m certainly not training with fucking Silas.”
“Yes, you are.” Dez stood, stretching. “Because he won’t give you a choice. But also, you’re smart enough to know it will only benefit you to learn how to wield your own magic.”
“I don’t need—”
“Save your breath. I’ve heard women argue before.” He started toward the door. “You’ll resist. He’ll push. You’ll get angry. He’ll get colder. And in the end, hopefully you’ll do what he wants because you’re too proud to die.”
I sighed. “I swear every male demon is insufferable.”
Dez laughed.
Fucker.
“Lore tells me that all the time, so it must be true.”
He paused in the doorway, looking back. “We can all agree Silas is an ass. Probably the most frustrating person you’ll ever meet. But he will die before he lets anything happen to you.” The smile vanished. “Whatever else he is... He’s loyal to those he’s claimed. Remember that.”
Then he was gone.
I stood there trying to decide if I was more angry or trapped.
Pip flew over, the grimmie momentarily forgotten. “Are you going?”
“I don’t want to.”
“But you’re going anyway?”
I rolled my eyes. “Apparently.”
She settled on my shoulder, wings tucking close as she watched the grimmie shoot out of the window. “I’ll come with you. For support.”
We followed Dez’s path. Down the hall. Past the kitchen where something was cooking that smelled like honey and burned sugar and toward a door I’d never noticed before. This hadn’t been here… It had to be the house. Weird.