Chapter 44 #2
Her countenance could not be more different from his shy Elizabeth.
He wondered how the two had ever become friends.
But Fiza and Iago seemed certain that Lady Charlotte was her closest confidante.
“Are those truly real?” she asked, poking Asmodeus’ wing.
The woman actually touched him, smiling all the while as if this were some amusing prank.
She prodded his wing again, as though she had to check twice to be sure that it was real.
“Excuse me, darling?” Asmodeus spluttered.
Lady Charlotte giggled and covered her mouth with her hand.
“My apologies. I didn’t think she was telling the truth that you actually existed. Why hello, gentlemen. What can I do for you?”
Caspian took a moment to formulate his thoughts.
“You were looking for little old me?” Charlotte prompted with a wry smile and a hand on her hip, prompting them to state their business.
Asmodeus started first, “Yes. We were.” She smiled prettily and waited, looking from one demon to the other.
“My name is Caspian, and this is Asmodeus.”
“You’re looking for her,” Charlotte said.
“Yes,” said Caspian with a touch of his usual relaxed confidence. “Where is she?”
“As if I would tell a demon where my friend is hiding,” Charlotte said amusedly.
“It would be wise not to insult me.”
Charlotte stepped closer, bringing herself near enough that he could smell her rose-scented perfume.
She laughed, loudly and with feeling. “Or what? You want my friend? Then you may not touch my family or me. That is one thing she will never forgive you for.” Her eyes glittered.
“And despite whatever sick games you are playing, you want to find her and have her not hate you. So, your threats are meaningless to me, and we both know it.” She leaned in, bringing her face close to his. “So do your worst.”
She had a foolish level of confidence for a woman staring down a demon. He cursed inwardly, though, for she was right. Hurting Elizabeth’s closest friend would not endear her to him.
“You have big balls for a woman,” Asmodeus mused. Caspian shot his friend a warning look.
Charlotte’s smile turned wicked. “Bigger than yours, I’d wager. Or are you still hiding under Caspian’s coattails, Asmodeus?”
“Why don’t you make a deal with me?” Asmodeus offered, a sly grin stretching across his lips. “Tell me what you want most in the world. Demons can grant wishes, you know, and—”
“You want to give me my wish with a plot twist where I wake up with three heads? No, thanks. I’ve read about you.”
Asmodeus started. “And? What did you find out?” he asked, sounding curious.
“That you are called the Lord of Sin and Lust and once blessed a man to make him rich beyond all reckoning, and then cursed him to have warts sprout all over his favourite part.”
Asmodeus grinned. “Yes, it was quite funny actually, watching him squawk about it. He tried to hire another demon to curse me back. I can tell you about it, er, perhaps another time.” He paused, shrinking slightly under the withering look Caspian sent in his direction.
“But Lord of Sin and Lust. I do like that,” Asmodeus repeated, looking smug like a cat. “The women give me the best titles. Sounds a bit conceited if you ask me, but I won’t complain.”
Charlotte stood tall and unimpressed before a demon who had slaughtered hundreds. Not a lick of fear rolled off her. “How such a man was painted as frightening is beyond me.”
She turned to face Caspian fully, ignoring Asmodeus, to his dismay.
“So. The reason you have come,” she said, surveying him. “What do you want from me, exactly? Unless Asmodeus here just wanted to pop in for a friendly chat over his escapades.”
“I need to find her,” he said.
“You will have to ask for something else. I will not hand her over to you.”
“May we come in? I don’t want to give your neighbours a fright,” Caspian suggested, hoping to ease some of the tension with a change in location.
“I don’t think I want you in my house, actually,” Charlotte said, an amused expression still plastered on her face. “No, in fact, I can think of several other things I’d rather do than play host to demons. Let’s make this quick, if you please, gentlemen.”
“Didn’t your mother teach you manners?” Asmodeus asked, seemingly unable to stop needling her.
Charlotte grinned broadly. “Oh, she did. She also taught me not to open the door for strangers and not to trust strange men.”
“And you.” She strode up to Caspian and pointed at his chest. “Shame on you.”
Shocked, he stepped back as the mortal woman jabbed at him with a manicured finger.
“She deserves a man. A human man. Who can make her happy and give her healthy, human babies. Someone who loves her, or is at least capable of that emotion.”
“I need to find her,” Caspian insisted, allowing desperation to surface for the briefest moment. He was worried that if he didn’t find her soon, she might get hurt—or worse, meet another man who would take her from him forever.
“Want. Not need. And why do you want to find her?” Charlotte asked. At least she wasn’t throwing them out on their asses yet. “Why does it even matter? Find someone else for your games.”
“Because … I can’t put it into words, but I think she is meant to be mine,” he said, hating the vulnerability in his voice. This was the only person on the face of the Earth who knew where Elizabeth was. And if she didn’t help him, he didn’t know what he would do.
Charlotte laughed harshly. “Meant to be your mistress, but not your wife? And what about what she wants? What she deserves? You sicken me.”
Elizabeth, brave-hearted and stubborn as she was, had had a normal human response to his presence: to run. Charlotte was a law unto herself. Wrath and rage laced every word she uttered in blind loyalty to her friend. Frankly, he would have admired her resolve if it hadn’t hindered his goal.
An awkward silence stretched. They were at an impasse. Charlotte would not utter a word that would be helpful, and he had no way to coerce her without endangering his reunion with Elizabeth.
Charlotte edged towards her door. “She is in the last place you will ever think to look,” she said softly. “And by the grace of the gods, you will NEVER find her.”
Charlotte backed away, not giving them her back. “Tell your friend his game is over, Asmodeus. The girl left because she doesn’t want him.”
She gave them a final little wave before closing the door completely.
***
Caspian and Asmodeus flew back in stony silence.
“Cas, maybe she is right—”
He silenced him with a look.
He would decide if pursuing her was worthwhile or not. Asmodeus had placed his life and his household under him, and as such, had no right to question his actions.
Caspian flew hard and fast, letting the currents eat up his energy reserves. He wanted to be exhausted enough to fall into bed without dreaming.
He slept fitfully. That crushing weight was back in his chest, making him feel almost ill.
Guilt. He had not felt guilt for an age. For the first time in his long, wicked life, he felt unsure of how to proceed.
He sent Maud and Finnigan to hunt for her in Rhodea, but they returned after a week empty-handed. He had Iago send discreet messages to contacts in other kingdoms, but heard nothing. His search was fruitless, and he had nothing to go on.
There was no crumb left to follow.
Obsessing over every interaction they had shared yielded nothing but a headache. She had mentioned her interest in seeing the City of Scholars, so he sent a servant there, but no woman fitting her description had arrived.
When he went to bed one night, he resigned himself to the idea that he might never find her. It might be madness to continue to expend resources to find a woman who clearly did not want to be found.
The fact she had outsmarted him and outsmarted Finnigan, who had never failed before, made him even more obsessed with finding her.
Defeat gripped him.
***
A few weeks later, he jerked awake in bed, breathing hard.
She is in the last place you’ll ever look.
His heart hammered against his ribs. The last place … not another kingdom, not with her parents.
The first place he would look would have been Rhodea. Other than her home kingdom, she could be anywhere from the Winterlands to Israr. Faina was out, as he doubted she wanted to visit the war-torn country. The last place he would ever check would be ... here.
***
“Fiza,” Caspian whispered in the dark.
She woke with a gasp, instinctively snarling and shifting to her demon form before recognizing him. The flames against his fingers cast dancing shadows in the cramped room she shared with Maud.
“Master! I’m sorry, I did not see you.”
“What city did you and Elizabeth visit the most often?” Each word was measured, dangerous. “And I command you to answer honestly.”
The flames gathered brighter at his palm.
Fiza swallowed, her eyes darting from his hand to his face.
“M—master?”
“Answer me,” he commanded.
***
Veridas. She was in Veridas.
He searched Elizabeth’s chambers for something with her scent, but found nothing. He would have to hunt from memory alone.
Her scent was soft—honey and lavender. He remembered the smell of her hair when she slept in his arms. He sat for a moment, centring himself on that memory, trying to pin her scent in his mind.
He took Icefire and hid his wings in a flash of smoke.
He dug his heels into his horse’s flank and thundered down the road towards her, his heart hammering with the certainty that he would find her.
Even if it meant wandering every street until he caught her scent on the wind.