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I sit here now, cringing at the memory, clutching onto my glass of spiced rum, as I recall how I stood there in my luxurious silk robe, overlooking the successful implication of my scheme. I had designed his downfall from whispers of betrayal and false tales of infidelity by his wife to the deliciously bitter, combusting end.
At least, at the time, it was delicious. Now, all I can see is Jenna’s face. Those gleaming forest-toned eyes, the eyes that used to gaze at me with quiet regard, turn dark with terror. Like she was looking at a stranger.
I grunt and throw back the rest of the rum. It stings my throat, but I don’t care. I have no motivation to partake in anything unscrupulous that the court may expect of me.
Yeelus, of course, expects it in truckloads. He sleeps in my lair like a house cat curled up on the bear skin rug under my feet. The sight of him only reminds me of my wretched past.
I refill my glass and accidentally jostle him awake with my heavy feet. He stretches out, wrinkles his nose, then gives me a childlike glower of confusion.
“What are you doing?”
I stand at the bar, pouring some more booze to stun the pain into submission.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I snap.
Yeelus rises to his feet, too oblivious to be offended, and stretches his long arms out into the air. The wings attached to his elbows and ankles flair out like a flag.
“Wait, you aren’t still down about that human chick, are you?”
I crash the bottle of rum against the hardwood of the table. It doesn’t shatter, but it makes a few items below it tremble.
“Don’t call her that,” I seethe. “Her name is Jenna. She’s a woman.”
Yeelus rolls his eyes and crawls toward me. He walks upright, but often goes onto all fours when trying to get a morbid point across.
“You can have any demon matron you want, in case you forgot,” Yeelus mumbles. “Just bag yourself a few at the club, and you’ll be sure to forget this human slu … I mean, woman, in no time.”
I close my eyes, trying to keep my rage to a minimum. There is no way that my imp of a partner is going to understand the agony of heartbreak. That means he would have to know what it’s like to fall in love. Which means allowing the iron gates around your heart to soften and melt away.
“I’m not going to do that, Yeelus,” I say, grabbing hold of my glass and moving back to the couch. “I don’t do that anymore. I can’t do that anymore.”
Yeelus regresses into his temperamental teenager form, shaking his body up and down with displeasure.
“But I’m so fucking bored, Verrin!” He bellows. “When are we going to get back to doing what we used to do? Don’t you remember all that?”
“Regretfully, yes,” I say, sipping at my drink.
The flaming harvest was one thing. It was the biggest, most catastrophic scheme we’d successfully hatched and executed together as a team of terror. I see Yeelus and me clinking our glasses together, malevolently ratified by the disorder executed by our own hands.
Yeelus stomps to me, looking even more agitated.
“What are you on about, Verrin?” he said, trying to take me by the arm. “What the fuck happened to you up there?”
I stare off into space, thinking of nothing but Jenna. Lovely, divine, amusing, bold, sensual Jenna. The way her hair fell out of that scarf and the scent wafted up to me. How she’d shake it back and forth and settle her gaze on me. Her plump lips that found mine and every other corner of my body with scalding kisses.
I may be the sorcerer, but Jenna was surely the more successful enchantress.
“She happened to me, Yeelus,” I reply, not meeting his annoyed glare. “I know you don’t give a shit, but there it is. I’m not interested in plotting schemes anymore. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
Yeelus let out a long, heaving sigh. He reluctantly settled back onto the rug, laying on his side, pursing his lips as he looked up at me.
“Well, if you miss her so much, then why don’t you go back up there and get her?”
I bring my hand to my eye sockets, pressing lightly.
“It’s not a matter of ‘getting’ her,” I reply. “She has to want me, Yeelus. Kidnapping isn’t my thing anymore.”
Yeelus scowls at me, utterly disgusted.
