Page 33 of Caught in the Devil’s Hand

“Before I discovered you, I was traveling to Stillwood, an immense forest southeast of here. Fewer people live in Stillwood, but its largest city is still something to behold.”

Her lover continued his story, describing places she had never heard of nor thought even to imagine in such detail. Ensconced in their cozy, candlelit world, she dreamed of something wider, bigger. She lusted to travel as much as Vallen had with no worries about money or time.

“So the bulk of Kito doesn’t touch the ground?” she asked, trying to picture trees large enough to hold up a city.

“Yes. The city’s biggest threat is a forest fire, whether born from nature or arson, so they maintain a large unit of citizens dedicated to guarding against them.”

“It sounds so unreal and far away,” she sighed.

Vallen admired the dreamy look in her eyes. The lust for life he saw in them was infectious. Something softened inside of him, while another part stirred.

“Not so unreal. Not that far away,” he said, voice unobtrusive to the naked wants playing across her face. He had suspected she’d been tempted the first time he’d offered to take her away from her village, to give her everything she wanted if only she’d let him have her. She had rejected the offer so unequivocally, but he had been right. Now the question was whether he could tempt her again, this time successfully, by presenting it right. He turned the matter over his mind.

“Vallen,” she said quietly, rousing him from his thoughts. He focused on her sober expression, and for half a heartbeat, he wondered if she’d bring up his offer herself. “You were human once, weren’t you?” she asked, matter-of-fact.

Shocked, he struggled to form words. “You… H-How did you know?”

“I asked the witch about sex demons.”

“So your kiss did buy some information after all.” Vallen let his arms go slack, and his erection vanished. Being confronted with one’s past could do that.

“How did it happen? Who cursed you?” she asked.

He refused to look at her. “A magic-user, who else?”

“Why?”

A simple question with the most complicated answer to anything she could’ve asked him. To ask why was to dig up a past he hadn’t even thought of, let alone shared with another, for longer than she had been alive.

And yet he found himself searching for a place to start. He wanted to tell her.

“My father was one of the empress’s commanders, back when we had an empress. Thus, I was born to wealth and power, and surrounded by people like me. I lived my life as if I’d suffer no consequences—selfish and arrogant.” He glanced at her, realizing he was still selfish, still arrogant. Her only reaction was to lift her eyebrows and encourage him to continue.

“My two best friends and I spent most of our time pursuing the ladies of the court—particularly the modest ones—as if they were prizes. We broke many hearts. And then the fresh-faced daughter of a widowed noblewoman came to the capital. I was the one who seduced Miharu and then rejected her. I boasted to my friends of my latest conquest, and my comments about her were…cruel.” And untrue. But what did it matter now? Miharu and her sweet, trusting nature were both long gone.

“I never suspected the revenge her mother had planned. She had been secretly tapping into the power of the Damned One through his high general, a demon known as Bane.”

No one alive at the time had ever seen Bane in the flesh, for the Dark Court’s war with the demons had turned away from most face-to-face battles in favor of undermining from within. To Vallen, the demon general had seemed more like a scary tale for children.

“I’ll never forget the night we were cursed. The pain was excruciating,” he said, closing his eyes. He had been too drunk to move, or even be aware, but the agony of having his magic ripped out had instantly sobered him. “My hair had been black then, reflecting my magical talent, but after the ritual, it was white.”

Shumei watched him intently, lips parted and heart pounding. A million questions buzzed in her mind, but she didn’t dare interrupt him.

“When we woke the next morning, we were starved for sex. We fell upon our current lovers, and while I stopped before I killed Suzuku, my two friends didn’t come to their senses until their lovers had perished. My father slew the noblewoman in a rage, effectively destroying any chance of learning about a cure.”

Shumei couldn’t help stiffening, but she managed to show little on her face at the mention of a potential cure. The thought had never occurred to her since she had learned the truth from Majo, but if magic worked the way she thought it should, then a cure was a sensible leap of logic. After all, if one magic-user could curse you, couldn’t another break the curse? The magic inside her twitched.

“Though my father tried to protect me,” he went on, “I was cast out of the court and for a while lived in the hidden estate my father had set aside. Yasuke, the youngest of us, died within a year. And after my father passed away of old age, I wandered the world with my third friend. We sometimes returned to the estate, but we spent more time walking in silence under the moon than anything else in life. It’s been fifteen years since I last saw him, and I know not if he still lives or if he lay down somewhere and wasted away.”

He sighed deeply, as if the words had cost him more energy than he had gained that day. He no longer held her at all, though she was still tucked close.

“Your third friend, what’s his name?” she softly asked.

He stared at the cloth ceiling. “Rosuke. He’s Yasuke’s older brother.”

“You said you had magic, and your black hair reflected that?”

“In my day, crows were the ruling class because we could wield magic, and no one had ever questioned whether magic-users should govern. The darker your hair, the stronger your magical potential. Women always have stronger powers, so the highest seat of authority was that of the empress.”