The Prime shook his head, "Nothing's—"
"Don't lie to me!"
Lucien could feel the truth through the bond he shared with Ianthe. He may not know the man, but she did, and she knew when something was bothering the Prime.
"You said you banished the demon, but..."
"But?" His voice was tight.
"I don't think you did."
The words were a blow. No. No. It couldn't be free. It would have come after him, surely. No demon had ever submitted freely to the yokes of servitude. Only dark rituals and immense sacrifices could raise one, but in every story he'd ever heard, they'd all turned on their Master's the second they had a chance.
And this demon... it had had its chances.
"It's moving freely about on our plane?" Ianthe demanded, horror in her voice. "Surely we would know. We'd have heard news, or there would have been massacres, or... something. A demon cannot hide its presence for long. It would need to fuel itself with blood."
Drake hesitated. "I think you managed to force it to retreat to its plane, but I don't think you entirely shut the gates to it. There's something in your head, and it's not me or Ianthe. There's a bond there, as if something is tied to you. Plunging you into a trance awoke it. I could feel an alien presence, a strong, alien presence, staring back at me."
Like the day he'd been at Lady Eberhardt's and peered into her Shadows of Night. Lucien's blood went cold.
"That's not all you meant to say," Ianthe whispered. "I can see it in your face."
Fear pounded in his chest. Lucien couldn't deal with the demon again. He just couldn't. He'd barely survived the first time, and he was but a shell of that man.
"You're not a shell," Ianthe whispered absently, patting his hand. Her eyes never left the Prime's face, as if she didn't even realize what she'd just said, but both he and Drake shot her a hard gaze each.
Then they turned that look on each other.
"Can it hurt me? Can it... return?" Lucien demanded. "You owe me the answer to that, if nothing else."
"I don't know." Drake raked a hand through his hair. "Lucien, I think you are a gateway for the demon now. It hasn't quite worked out how to get back, but I fear, given enough time, that it will. I've managed to repair some of the damage its psychic assault caused, and I've warded your mind against it, so it cannot see through your eyes, or whatever it's doing in there, but there's no guarantee it cannot break free."
"Then what should I do?" he choked out. "Kill myself? Or—"
"Don't be ridiculous," his father snapped. "Who knows what your death would bring about? A summoning ritual needs some sort of sacrifice to even bring a demon through; perhaps your death would be the sacrifice it requires to manifest again? Maybe that's what it's waiting for? Then it has a nice, freshly delivered body to inhabit, already flush with power."
Lucien shoved to his feet. "I cannot live with this in my head!"
"Lucien." Ianthe stood, in a swirl of violet skirts, and caught his sleeve. He could feel her reaching out to him through the bond they shared, and that small hand stroking his sleeve was enough to settle his racing heartbeat a fraction. "You're not alone."
It all unfurled in his mind. Ianthe, standing hand in hand with him against the demon, trying to win a battle that would never be won. Ianthe, motionless on the floor in a pool of blood, cut down as easily as a child. By his own hand. The demon's hand. Yess, something whispered inside him, and he flinched.
This couldn't happen. He took a step away from her, even as Drake slowly rose to his feet behind her.
Make it swift. Do it. "I release you from your bond," he told her, forcing the words through stiff lips.
Ianthe flinched back, as if struck. "What?"
"Our deal is done. I will serve out my part of it, but I release you from yours." He couldn't stand it any longer. Catching the Prime's gaze, he turned away from the flash of grief he saw there.
Long strides carried him to the door, then a swish of skirts hurried after him. "Lucien!" she called.
He ignored her. Emotion seethed within him, throbbing in his right temple. It felt like his skull was going to split open.
He knew what that feeling was now. The demon, lurking malevolently inside him.
"Lucien! Wait!"
