Damned if I do | Damned trilogy #1

Chapter Eight: Wren

I wasn't in Hell; I was in a madhouse. Had to be. No other sensible explanation.

Except the ridiculously incessant heat.

And the very realistic wails of the tortured constantly ringing in my ears like background noise at that point.

And the actual devil who'd managed to scare the pants off me just being in the same room as him even when he was being all...him.

And the devil's wife who would be the thing haunting my nightmares for the rest of my life.

Aside from that, and the very real feeling I had about everything, I could hardly believe I was in actual Hell. The devil was...flamboyant? That was the best word I had for it. He was flamboyant and extravagant, all at once amazing, ridiculous and terrifying. I couldn't get my head around it. But as antithetical as it seemed, that was the main reason I knew I wasn't mad; my brain never would have made up that sort of devil. It would just have been fire and death and fear.

While I'd been pretty scared since I arrived, I was mainly pissed off. The heat wasn't helping me keep a cool head, but mainly it was Drake. Being someone's wife was one thing – a weird thing, true – but having to sleep with him before I could go home? No.

I wasn't going to be having sex with him. Ever.

So, my only other choice was to settle in for the foreseeable future and make myself at home. Which I did as best as I was able, all while Drake and I ignored each other like we were arguing ten-year-olds. He slept beside me, but other than that we spent no time together past as long as it took him to get into bed and get back out again.

"Truman?" I asked the devilbum about a week later as he tidied up around me.

"Yes, ma'am? Can I get you another book? Perhaps a snack?"

I shook my head with a smile. "No, thanks. I was just wondering if I could ask you a question."

"Anything, ma'am. We are here at your service."

Well, that was certainly true of Truman. Kyle and Ignacio though? Ignacio was barely visible, choosing to go stalking after Drake all day like he was a simulacrum of Drake's mood. And Kyle spent most of his time curled up, sleeping on the ottoman next to my feet, like some deformed yet still super adorable cat, while I read. Truman though was almost human in his behaviour and he was still a calming, comforting presence in my life. I felt like I could talk to him and he wouldn't think me stupid or idiotic or judge me.

"The whole time difference thing. How does it work?"

"How do you mean, ma'am?"

"Well, Drake mentioned time passes differently here...?"

Truman nodded. "It does."

"How?"

"Well, the opposite of Faery."

I blinked. "Of what?"

"Faery. Where the fae live."

"I... Obviously." I cleared my throat, putting a pin in that tangent. "But how does it work?"

"Time here moves faster than it does on Earth. So, you could experience many hundreds of years in the same time your family experience two days."

I swallowed. "Hundreds of years?"

He nodded. "Indeed, ma'am."

"And Drake's been here for...twelve years..."

"Millenia by our count, ma'am."

"But he stopped aging then?"

"Of course, ma'am." Truman chuckled. "Master Drake's immortal."

"But what about me?"