A guard emerged out of the manor, presumably having seen the strange carriage in the drive. The guard started after seeing her without her mother and father, and in the company of strange men. “Lady Elizabeth.” The guard glared daggers at Caspian and Asmodeus, who both stood just behind her. “Where are Lord and Lady Ashcroft?”
She hesitated, and Caspian held out a hand. “I will handle this,” he said smoothly, striding in front of her.
He stared at the guard, his gaze intense and unblinking. “You’re feeling tired,” he said, his words soft. The guard furrowed his brow for a moment. His eyes began to look dull. “Lady Elizabeth will be well cared for; her parents have been alerted to her leaving with me, and they are fine with it.” The guard’s brow smoothed a little. “You needn’t even remember you saw us. Your post will not be in danger.”
Just as soon as the guard’s gaze relaxed and became heavy lidded, he jerked awake, and his brow furrowed again. “Wait, who are you?”
Caspian cursed and muttered a strange word under his breath.
The guard’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The other demon caught the guard and safely lowered him to the ground.
“What in the Seven Hells did you do to him?” she whispered.
Caspian grimaced. “I had no choice. He was irritatingly strong-willed. Demons have powers of suggestion, among other things, but they are not limitless.”
“What?” she asked weakly, her mind struggling to make sense of his casual admission. Powers of suggestion? Her gaze darted between Caspian and the retreating guard as the implications slowly began to take shape. “You ... you did something to his mind?”
“Magic. I rendered him unconscious using magic.” Caspian nodded towards the doors, bidding her to go first.
She pushed open the door, feeling like a traitor to her name with her hands onthe heavy oak, and slipped inside. She turned and saw that Caspian and Asmodeus were still outside.
“Come in already,” she hissed. “I don’t want anyone to see.”
The demons glanced at one another, then followed her inside.
Elizabeth ran up the staircase to her chamber and began shoving things in trunks and tossing things into a large pile on her bed.
“Are you sure you need all of this?” Caspian asked, raising an eyebrow at the size of the growing pile.
“Yes!” she huffed. “I won’t come with you if I can’t bring some of my own things.” She hurriedly took clothes from her closet and tossed them into the trunks.
She took jewellery and gowns, taking care to pack the expensive ones that might be easy to sell if everything went wrong. She was no fool and knew that once she left here, she would be renounced from her family name, and there would be no coming back.
Caspian crossed his arms as she carefully folded a gown into a trunk. “This is taking too long.” His voice was laced with impatience. “Put everything you want to bring on the bed and set the trunks open on the ground.”
Thinking that it was an odd request, she obliged. Rummaging in her closet for a few extra things, she placed it all in an enormous pile on the bed.
After some hesitation, she placed some of her favourite books into a large pile. They were heavy, and completely impractical to bring, but she couldn’t stomach the idea of leaving them all behind. Pursing her lips, she surveyed the ones she had laid out, adding a few books to the pile, removing a couple and then surveying her shelves once more.
Eventually, she had a pile of about twenty books she wanted to take with her. Favourites that were too precious to her to be discarded.
With a last fond look at her bookshelves, and her reading chair by the fireplace, she wrenched her gaze away. A few favourites were all she could afford to bring, and even those would likely be heavy and cumbersome, taking up far too much room as it was.
“Finished?” Caspian prompted.
She placed the last book she intended to bring on the pile, and chewed her lip. Scanning the pile, she nodded once.
Caspian peered at her chosen items, his gaze narrowing. “The blue and silver dress that I first saw you in. I don’t see it here.”
She looked at him in confusion. “Oh. It’s a ballgown and not exactly practical. I hadn’t planned on bringing it.”
“I would like you to,” he said simply.
“Oh. Sure.” She rummaged through her closet once more. Gently placing the silvery blue ball gown on the enormous pile, she smiled and glanced at him. “Done.”
The demon surveyed the pile of clothes on the bed, his expression unreadable.
