Feathers and Blood (boyxboy)

Chapter Seven

We were back in Fear's domain. Fear himself was squeezing my hand so hard I mentally made funeral preparations for it; I got the feeling Phobos wasn't in the best of moods.

Deimos of Panic and Jane of Secrets were waiting at the doors of the throne room, along with three other demons. They all bowed when they saw Phobos approach them, but I noticed more than one nasty glare aimed at me.

"Hello, Jesse," Deimos said with fake cheeriness. "Allow me to introduce you to Hattie, Lady of Prejudice; Oliver, Lord of Misery; and Apate, Lady of Lies."

I looked up at Phobos. "Just how many Specialist demons do you have?" I demanded, and received a smirk.

"This is all of them," he assured me. He went from looking depressed to snarky in a matter of seconds. I hated when he did that; couldn't he see how obvious that shield was?

"My lord." It was Apate who spoke first. She was tall and muscular, with dark skin and hair. Her eyes were impossible to focus on. "We must discuss battle plans. Surely you don't plan on taking the... human... with you?"

"The human can hear you," I snapped, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phobos' tail cut swiftly through the air and smack me across the mouth. He didn't do it all that hard, but it hurt. "Ow!"

"Hush," Phobos scolded. "Go to your room, Jesse. I have no further need of you."

Rage enveloped me. "What the fuck happened to the 'you aren't worthless' crap, then?" I snarled.

"Go," he replied coldly. He wasn't even looking at me anymore.

"Fine," I spat, taking great care to shove past him. It wasn't a very mature approach, but I had nothing else anymore. I was defeated.

And even as I marched down the halls, I could hear the demons behind me whispering, presumably about me. The last I heard of them was Phobos' light, melodic laugh.

Who were they to mock me? They were demons, the lowest of the low, slaves to the fallen angel in Hell. Even Phobos, despite all his authoritative demeanor, was a little bitch sometimes. I saw the way he cowered in front of his older brother, the way he moped when things didn't go his way. And he was the one with a palace!

And the City of Fear. It was official called Timor, which just angered me, as it was just another of Phobos' names. Other than the two trips to the Surface, I had never left the palace. I had never seen the city.

Phobos told me to go to my room, the stupid, tiny thing that it was. But he would never bother to check... Hell, I probably wouldn't see him for a week anyway.

Bitterness and curiosity are dangerous allies. I made my decision.

*****

I made a horrible decision.

There was no sun in Timor, but it wasn't exactly nighttime either. The atmosphere was gray and damp, which is definitely worse than humid. It wasn't cold, but I felt a chill the entire time. I saw no color.

The palace itself was right in the middle of the dense and crowded city, with houses and vendors' stands hugging at the walls. As I slunk through one of the side gates, I noticed with a shock that many demons weren't completely in human form. Some were transparent, as if half shadow. Others had claws, or fangs, or had abnormally long limbs.

Some had tails, but these were either short, or too thick, or disfigured in some way. None of them were as perfect as... No, I hated Phobos' tail. Hated it.

My goal was to walk for a few minutes unnoticed, but to my dismay, many of the demons stopped murmuring to each other to glare at me.

"Unus ipse est," I heard one of them murmur to his possibly female companion. She hissed in disgust.