AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I felt nauseous. I thought of Jeremy, and how much he loved me. My whole life, Jeremy had tried to help me navigate the world and grow up with confidence, despite how much my peers hated and shunned me. I could not imagine what it would have been like if he had treated me the way Amon’s father had treated him.
“Anyway, Amon made it into the guard after some good old fashioned training from yours truly. We spent the next thirty years or so living well. Aleites was a formidable but fair daemon and Amon and him became very close. I think Amon looked to him as a bit of a father figure towards the end. The more time he spent with the guard and Aleites, the more positive change I saw in him as a person. But then… well, then everything went to shit.”
“Anjoilie Nevra and the Nightshades.” I said, and Dossidian nodded gravely, gazing out into the distance.
“Yes. Those fucken Nightshades.” He confirmed. “I was there when Anjoilie turned Aleites and Elvira into stone. I was fighting her and the Nightshades in the throne room of The Origin’s castle. I was truly giving it all I had. As the magick settled in and I watched the light leave Aleites and Elvira’s eyes, I beheaded Anjoilie myself.”
This was the daemon from Aleites’ guard who had killed Anjoilie Nevra, sitting before me eating a sandwich. My heart skipped a beat.
17
“It was you that killed her?” I asked softly. He nodded gravely.
“Aye. That earned me a one way ticket into a slavery bond. Ash Nevra, who had been there fighting alongside her mother, was not happy with me. I was the first daemon, I think, that she enslaved.”
“Dossidian, I am… I don’t know what to say. I am so sorry.”
He glanced at me and grunted roughly. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. If anything, I’m sorry. I failed you and your parents.”
I reached out and touched his arm. I was at a loss for words.
“Amon had been away when the castle was sieged as a planned diversionary tactic by the Court of Lust. They knew their chances would have been slim if he had been there as well. They called him away on some sort of bullshit trade meeting. When he came back and found out what happened, he was livid. He was ready to invade the Court of Lust then and there.
“However, they had planned for that as well, and had planted his father in Aleites’ throne room, to deliver the news. His power-hungry prick of a father wanted him to mate with Ash Nevra to solidify his court into a position of power. Amon was ordered to live in the Court of Lust, and to serve the new Queen of the Dominion in the interest of improving relations.
“Amon, of course, refused. He had Bond-Breaker, so they could not enslave him. But that did not mean they did not have power over him.” Dossidian looked devastatingly sad.
“When Amon said no and petitioned his father to help free those of us who had already been enslaved, his father threatened to kill his mother if he did not comply.”
My jaw dropped. “That is… really fucked up.”
Dossidian nodded at me, sadly. “Indeed.” He agreed. “To make things worse Ash Nevra expanded her lands to consume Aleites’ territory. She still rules from his palace in the north.
“So, Amon was forced, for the next two hundred and forty-nine years, to serve Ash Nevra, from the place he had called home for most of his life. That is where we met Kasha, who had already been a prisoner in the Court of Lust for several years before the Nightshades perfected the slavery bond.”
“Amon mentioned that, but he wouldn’t tell me any details,” I told him.
“I don’t want to get too into it either. It is difficult for me to talk about without seeing red. To give you an idea, Kasha is what we call a chameleon. I don’t know if you’ve noticed how unique her aura is, but she can change her appearance into anything she likes. She can look like anybody, anything, and even make herself sound like them too. This made her a highly valued commodity in Ash Nevra’s sex trade.”
If I had felt sick before, it was nothing to how I felt now. I put down my sandwich and swallowed, willing myself not to throw up in disgust at this news.
“It was a long, drawn out, horrible time for all of us, especially for Kasha. We were all watched closely, so it was difficult to offer comfort to each other in our worst moments.” Dossidian’s eyes were shining, and he looked away from me to compose himself before he continued.
“The lessons in political maneuvering Amon had received in his youth came in handy though. He molded himself into what Ash Nevra wanted him to be. Doing so afforded him the ability to protect Kasha and I from the worst of Ash Nevra’s imagination. Though all of us suffered some form of torture at one point or another, because of Amon’s careful maneuvering, we were better off than most.”
I remembered what Amon had told me about Kasha’s nightmares. I couldn’t imagine what kinds of horrors my mind would come up with if I had to endure what they had for so long.
“How…how did you get out? Amon told me his father had been killed, and then he was able to free you both?”
“Yes. The asshole was working out a trade deal with the Court of Greed. You see, the Court of Pride has two main exports, emeralds, and restructium. The Court of Greed, being well, greedy, had threatened to invade Aurora’s Cove, which is where most of our emerald deposits wash up. Amon’s father obviously was not happy about this and had organized a dinner to work something out. Things went south at the dinner and the Prince of Greed killed both of Amon’s parents in a fit of rage.
“Ash Nevra was furious, and immediately killed the Prince of Greed in punishment, and his daughter took over his territory. However, the damage had been done. She no longer had a sympathizer ruling the Court of Pride.
“Despite Ash Nevra’s efforts to solidify herself as true Queen over the Dominion, the courts are laid with old magick that is bonded directly to the bloodlines of the monarchs that rule them.
“She has yet to work out a way to pervert this too, and until she does, the Court of Pride will always answer to Amon first. He cannot call himself King, but in the way that it matters, he still is one. The second his father died, the land shifted its loyalties to Amon. He suddenly was no longer a pawn, but a major player in the game.” Dossidian looked down at his hands, a small sad smile blooming on his mouth.
“I’ll never forget the day Amon freed us. It was like seeing the sun for the first time after being locked in a dark closet for centuries. He told Ash Nevra that he would be taking us, and if she would like to maintain open trade with the Court of Pride they would need to work out new terms. He took us away that day, and we spent the next 90 years rebuilding the Court of Pride together and working to heal each other. As a team.”
