It is pleasant to be attractive. Humans are so attached to the idea of one physical form.Damaris gave the impression of shrugging in Archie’s mind. It made Archie giggle a little at the idea of the Earl of Lymond turning up at court each day looking completely different each time.
You don’t have just one form in the demon world?It felt as though Archie was probing a lot, but Damaris had never been so open before and he wanted to take advantage for as long as it lasted. He was getting better at able to differentiate between thoughts that were merely for himself and thoughts he wanted to turn into sentences and project them at Damaris, too.
Everything in the demon world is changeable. We recognize each other by our magical auras even if we appear different, though many have a preferred form or preferred features.Damaris’s words were coming slower now, more languid.
Would you show me what it’s like? The demon realm?Archie asked cautiously.
Cold. Barren.Damaris sent another image, moving, and Archie got the sense that it was a memory. Everything was dark, the landscape constantly shifting as it was molded and remolded by magic. Even light took energy to create there, and less powerful demons had to attach themselves to other beings with more magic or simply suffer having to live in the darkness. Archie saw a shadow, his own shadow, stretch on the ground in front of him – or actually, Damaris, whose eyes he was seeing this memory through – of a figure who loomed tall and imposing, with broad shoulders and thick thighs, an enormous set of majestic antlers coming from his head. The image faded.
Archie swallowed.Is that you?
There was no answer. He waited, and then realized that his impression of Damaris in his mind was curled up small, asleep. Archie blinked in astonishment. He had been convinced that Damaris didn’t need sleep. Perhaps it was the heat. That was a useful tidbit to file away in his mind, that demons were so unfamiliar with the heat that a hot bath could put him to sleep. But more importantly, it was amazing the difference between that hulking figure he had just seen in his mind’s eye and the tight little ball of magic currently in his mind.
Archie let himself mull things over in the bath for a little longer. The steam helped loosen up the tightness in his muscles and his mind, and he hadn’t realized how comforting it was to know that Damaris was still there, even if he was silent, instead of previously when he had vacated altogether. That was another conversation to be had, but he’d have to have it later.
CHAPTER TWELVE
USUALLY A LONG relaxing session in the baths could guarantee Archie’s good mood for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, when he got back, Charlie was in their quarters, lounging in the drawing room where Archie had planned to try and read more of those demonology books.
If they’d been at home, he would have taken himself to the second parlor or his father’s small study instead, but they only had the one drawing room here. Of course, if they’d been at home, Charlie wouldn’t have bothered to be around at all. It was only the prestige and convenience of the palace being near his various fashionable haunts that had him back, Archie surmised.
“You’ll make yourself scarce this eve, won’t you?” asked Charlie, glancing up momentarily. “I’ve got some of the boys coming over for cards.”
Estelle and Ollie would have at least extended an invitation for him to stay and join them, even if they didn’t expect him to take them up on it, thought Archie sourly.
“How did you know I didn’t have plans to host friends here tonight?” asked Archie mulishly. He didn’t, obviously, but he could have.
“Do you have friends?” asked Charlie with surprise. The worst part was that Archie knew he meant it genuinely. Sure, Charlie could be mean and malicious, but the idea that Archie had people who liked and spent time with him voluntarily was simply baffling to him.
Archie scowled and banged his way back to his room, which wasn’t even his room, it was Oliver’s. He sat on the bed, his heart and his body suddenly heavy. That offhand comment had cut deeper than he’d realized, even though Charlie couldn’t have known that Archie had been contemplating how few people spent time with him just because they liked to. Even Damaris, who lived in his very mind, was only here because of a transactional deal Archie had made with him.
Speaking of whom, Damaris was awake again. He’d been sluggish for a while after the bath, but Archie could tell he was fully cognizant of the conversation that had just happened. It was somehow even more humiliating that he’d witnessed that.
I am not the only demon in your mind. Damaris said it without judgment, and that was somehow worse.
There were three letters awaiting Archie on the small desk that he must have missed the arrival of. One from Jeremy, confirming that they could take the box at the theater and that his wife would invite some interested friends. It felt strange reading that now Damaris was here, it felt so long ago, but it would safely get his mother off his back.
The second was from Seth, an old family friend. Their fathers were good friends but Seth had been the heir when Archie had been the youngest-born. The note was quite apologetic, indicating that his duties had led him to quite neglect other things such as friends, and invited Archie around post-haste. Archie remembered belatedly that their estate had been caught by the hurricane last season and there was likely a number of repairs and emergency planning administration for him to be embroiled in recently.
The final note was from Estelle’s fiancé, asking if he might be interested in a luncheon or afternoon at the club to get to know him better ‘as Estelle is very fond of you and I expect you will be entreated to spend summers with us at the family house’. He read it over several times, bemused. He’d only seen Caleb a couple of times, mostly from afar. He poked his head out of the door when he heard his sister’s voice outside.
Estelle was speaking in clipped tones with Charlie, as she had done more frequently the moment she knew she only had to put up with him until the summer and then she never had to live in the same house as him ever again. It appeared from Archie’s eavesdropping that she’d also invited a group here for the evening and Charlie was pulling rank over her. Archie waited until she stomped away, and waved her down.
“Blasted Charlie,” whispered Estelle as she slid into his room. “Why is he bringing people here anyway, he hates hosting!”
“To remind his friends how close to the king we are,” said Archie. “You know how he is. I’ll bet he hasn’t even warned any of the servants to have extra drink on hand.”
Estelle made a most unladylike harrumph. “It’s a good thing I came back to change my gloves, or I wouldn’t have found out until my lot started arriving. Gods, how embarrassing. Anyway, what did you want?”
“Have you read this?” Archie produced the note from her fiancé.
“Oh, already? That was fast, I only mentioned it this morning. Good man.” She looked pleased.
Archie frowned slightly. “So you put him up to it?”
“No, silly, Caleb’s been trying to figure out a way to get to know you for weeks, but you’ve spent this whole season being hauled off by mother to some garden party or other. He never gets invited to those. I told him just to send you a note directly, it doesn’t matter you’ve not been introduced when you’re practically family already.”
“And what’s this bit about summering at his family house? Isn’t his estate all the way on the south coast?”
