“Perhaps he intends to exorcise you and force me to join the hunt,” said Damaris, sounding remarkably calm about it.
“What?” Jasper sounded truly shocked. “Gods, how gruesome. No, I asked you here to speak with you because a direct summons in the palace would have aroused attention, whereas asking mycousinto join a social event was much more plausible. I want you to work in service of me.”
Archie didn’t understand. The only person who could countermand one of Jasper’s commands would be the king. “Your Highness? If you need something, you only have to ask. You are the Crown Prince.”
“For magic working,” Jasper clarified.
“Oh! I don’t know if we could be any use at that. I don’t –wedon’t really – that is, the magic…” Archie trailed off. “Surely the king’s mages would be more useful than us.”
“Unless you need help fucking someone,” Damaris added helpfully.
“My father’s mages are exquisitely trained but, more importantly, they are bound only to the crown. I could, certainly, make a request of them and I do often, but then there is a log at the university of what magic workings I’ve requested. I will inherit their loyalty when my father dies, but until then, I am the heir and yet also the only member of the royal lineage unable to do magic myself,” Jasper said bluntly. “In contrast, my brothers’ demon blood gives them innate magic of their own, which puts me in a precarious situation.”
“You want us to be your secret mage to do things your daddy wouldn’t approve of,” said Damaris.
Jasper ignored the jab. “Precisely. Which is why I needed to speak with you before Ix got his claws into you completely, and also why I wish to know what you owe him.”
Archie was startled that he could recognize the flavor of Damaris’s silence as thoughtfulness. He wouldn’t have thought he could read that much into the demon. He waited out the unnatural stillness. Between just the three of them here, Damaris didn’t need to pretend to breathe.
“Ixthan has instincts of a demon but not the upbringing,” said Damaris slowly. “He made me swear a magical oath to keep his confidence but what he doesn’t know is that demons are not bound by oaths to your human gods.”
Even this, Archie understood, was a secret that Damaris was choosing to reveal to Jasper, a kernel of information for him to hold over his brother. Jasper bowed his head in acknowledgment, clasping his fist over his heart.
“Do not mistake me: perhaps being part-human means thatIxthancan be held to such oaths, but not me,” added Damaris.
“Would it be too daring for me to ask to whom demons swear their oaths?” asked Jasper curiously.
“I would not fault you, but neither will I tell you.” Damaris smiled, again with too many teeth. “Before I tell you what you wish to know, I would have you clarify your terms. We help you with magic working, and in return you do not have your father’s men reveal our existence. Is that the sum of it? It seems a poorly weighted deal on my part without knowing more of the kind of work you wish performed.”
Damaris’s shadow had stretched across the floor of the tent, snaking into Jasper’s shadow until the bottom of his boots went dark. Through their link, Archie could tell that those tendrils were like ice-cold claws digging into his ankles, a not particularly subtle threat.
Prince Jasper was too refined to show any pain aside from a slight tension around the edges of his eyes. “Nothing nefarious, nor more complicated than the king’s mages might be requested to perform. What would sweeten the idea for you?”
“No more or less than any royal advisory position, Your Highness,” said Damaris mockingly. “An order of pardon, to beheld by us, as proof of your word, to start. And a generous monthly stipend.”
Archie and Jasper both stared at Damaris, still lounging insouciantly in the armchair; Jasper recovered quicker. “That sounds so reasonable I almost suspect a catch. I shall have it drawn up immediately if you will uphold your end.”
Damaris laughed. “Very well. Then I shall tell you: your brother Ixthan has been searching for a way for him to enter the demon realms.”
“Gods!” Prince Jasper’s eyes widened. With a quick glance at the tent entrance, he lowered his voice again with some effort. Archie also struggled to hide his reaction. He’d assumed that Damaris and Prince Ixthan had been discussingsomethingdemon-related in their individual conversations but he hadn’t thought it would be this.
“I told him he was more likely to die than not, but he insists,” Damaris shrugged, as if it was no concern of his whether Ixthan survived.
“Then my first request of you would be to aid my brother in this matter however you can,” said Jasper after a moment of thought. He said it so agreeably that Archie fought a shudder. The prince put their new agreement into effect immediately, scribbling the pardon onto a piece of paper and dripping hot wax onto the bottom of the page before pressing his signet ring into it.
“Here.” Jasper handed Archie the pardon. Archie had never seen one before, but it was simple enough when he read through. By the power invested in him by the crown, PrinceJasper hath decreed that Archibald of Russex is granted a full pardon from all accused crimes, magical in origin or otherwise.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” said Archie, trying to keep his voice steady as he folded the letter up carefully.
“Try not to immediately commit any atrocities, cousin,” said Jasper, and it took Archie glancing up to see the amusement in his face to realize that it was a joke. “I must head out now, the rest of my party for the Hunt ought to be arriving soon. Pleased we could come to an agreement so quickly, gentlemen, do take advantage of my hospitality for the next few days.”
Archie barely had time to jump up and bow as the prince strode away, the two of them already forgotten as Jasper moved onto other matters. Archie waited until the tent flap dropped before turning to Damaris. “You sounded very human then. Like a real Earl.”
“All that time spent pretending to be human is reaping its rewards.”Damaris did not sound overly impressed by his new-found knowledge.
“Where did you even learn about royal pardons? And negotiating terms?”
“Lymond holds a seat in the Assembly of the Lords. He is constantly lobbied on all sorts of documents and proposals.”Damaris clearly considered Damian as some separate entity to himself, but Archie was struck with the idea of people sending letters or meeting with a shadow demon to discuss political matters. Was that where Damaris had been disappearing to? He had simply assumed it was all to feed or to have secretive demon-only conversations with Ixthan.
