King of the Underworld
476
Adrik
“Yes! I’m on fire!” he said quietly again, making me laugh. I was happy to make him some money, or whatever they were betting with, while we talked. “Viktor will come around. You’ll see. Kostya talks to him nightly. This last time that Stephen helped him worked much better than the first time. He’s going to need it one more time, but then he should be good. Sephie helped him understand how his actions have come across to everyone else. He feels much better about everything, which means he’ll be much more comfortable around everyone very soon.”
“What happened to his demon?” I asked, curious,
He sighed. “He doesn’t know this, so let’s keep this between us, shall we?” I nodded in agreement. “When he asked for it to be taken away, the only choices that Kostya had were to send it back to H ell, where it may or may not ever get the chance to escape again. Or it could go to a sort of purgatory, if you will. Purgatory in the traditional, religious sense, isn’t a real place, but there is a sort of in between Earth and H ell. Kostya sent Viktor’s demon there. If Viktor ever reaches the point that he’s ready to join the rest of you, then it’ll be your jobs to fetch his demon from that
purgatory.”
“It has to be that demon? Are demons like assigned to people?”
“Yes and no. For Viktor, it has to be that demon. You guys aren’t dealing with just any demons. There’s a hierarchy of demons. Every single one of you has a very old, very powerful demon with you. It had to be so. You’ve had the same demon over many lifetimes. This is the one that finally saw you each taming the demon. There have been other lifetimes where that was not necessarily the case for all of you. It had to be all of you.”
“If it had to be all of us, then how is it still working without Viktor’s demon?”
“Kostya. He’s a new addition to this lifetime. He’s so grateful to Viktor for helping him to clear his Karma that he’s filling the gap left by the absence
of Viktor’s demon.“
I suddenly felt worried about Viktor’s demon. “Is it safe wherever it is? Can it be harmed?”
“Because it’s so powerful, it can take care of itself. It’s not a cake walk where it is, but Kostya keeps an eye on it. Viktor is fearful that he could tame the demon, which is why he asked for it to be taken away. Kostya is trying to help him have the confidence to be able to handle it, but it might not happen in this lifetime. His demon isn’t in so much danger that it can’t last a while. We help out when we can, but it’s really quite scrappy. It’s doing
fine. So far.”
I still couldn’t help but worry about it, which sounded very strange to say. He chuckled at me. “Again, this is why you’ve been granted this power, Adrik. All this time, you’ve been worried that Sephie would love you less because of your demon. You’ve completely missed the part where your light is so strong that even your demon prefers to leave the shadows now. You’re worried for the safety of a demon just to be clear what we’re talking about here.” He looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, then asked, “you’re all feeling the same way about your demons that you feel about each other
now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am. I know Sephie is for sure, too. I’m almost positive Ivan is as well. I can feel the difference between Sephie’s demon and her now. Her demon got mad at me the other day too. It was like she was doubly mad at me.”
He laughed. “I don’t envy you in that situation. Even as a child, she had an impressive temper. We rarely saw it, but she moved the Heavens when it
appeared.”
“That sounds right,” I said, smiling at the thought of tiny Sephie throwing a tantrum.
“The three of you are a shining example of the subtleties of good and evil. You can use good for evil and you can use evil for good. At the end of the day, it’s about the choices you make and what you choose to give your energy to. You’ve all seen unspeakable horrors in your short lives, but the darker your shadow, the brighter your light. You can’t have one without the other. You three, and eventually six, are the balance between good and evil.” He took a step closer to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. “In order for this to work, I’m going to have to zap you, so to speak. You’re going to worry Sephie because you’re not going to wake up for a few more hours. She’s already been trying to wake you for half an hour or so. She can feel that you’re happy, so she’s not fr eaking out. But she will when this happens because she’s going to see it. I can get word to Kostya and Viktor will tell her that everything will be fine.”
I looked at him, somewhat worried. He laughed. “Don’t worry. It won’t hurt,” he said. As soon as he got the words out, all I could see was blinding light around me. I could still feel his hand on my shoulder, but I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t see the room we were in. I couldn’t see the piano.
