The Spritely Ways of Dark Familiars (A Pact with Demons, Volume 1) by Michael R.E. Adams

Author:Michael R.E. Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enchanted Cipher

5

THE PRINCESS FLOWERS

I am a ghost. I am buried under the hydrangea. Her roots have wrapped around me. A cocoon. I was protected from the darkness. In a dream that was not a dream. Awaken before you die, she said. I am already dead, I replied. To die to be reborn and to die to forever end is your choice, she pronounced. Gone forever. Oblivion. A warning that felt more like a sweet and tempting offer.

I awoke in Beacon Woods. Almon Campbell lay across from me, sprawled out over his checkered blanket, quietly asleep. No. He usually snored. He had sunken into something deeper. I sensed that much. I lay against a log, my hair strewn about the bark and clinging to my face with sweat. I loved my hair long. But it was such a nuisance.

I never believed in helping humans. What was the point in saving them from their own choices? You were granted free will, abusing it was your business. I’ve never seen anyone help each other. Not really. A little assistance now became a crutch later. Everyone tried to be perfect, but that was never the point. You were supposed to live, make mistakes, and then proceed to live a little better than you had before. Unless an unwanted condition threatened your safety, I did not see the value in interfering with your life’s process. But in our world, sometimes we conjured the outside forces that would destroy us. We accepted risk for our lives to be an adventure. I respected that even if your instinct of self-preservation did not.

Then I had a boyfriend. I helped him because I worried. I was still not sure how I helped him, and what I had actually done. I may have helped myself. I’m playing a game I’m not sure I’m playing. I’m playing a game I have to take responsibility for starting. I owned that I was manipulative. I knew the worth of bright eyes and a smile on a girl. I knew how that worth could have diminishing returns. Ultimately, a girl became a woman. A woman needed respect not comfort. I knew when to retire the silliness and step forward as the alpha. The rewards have been greater and so have the price. The two men who mattered most to me knew my intelligence. And as much as they respected me and valued my loyalty, they still couldn’t help but slightly fear me. In one of their cases, I rather appreciated that though. My best friend made a pact with my boyfriend’s demon to save him. I’m not sure if I would have facilitated Almon helping Lowen if I had known the outcome. I chose friendship over romance as a priority in general. However, my own ambitions transcended them. I never pretended to be a good person. Neither did Almon. He was kind in his way. So was I. But we knew we served our own interests even when helping others.

‘Men are poison. Women are the antidote,’ said my mother.

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