I Woke Up Married to the Cursed King

They met in the sitting room after dinner.

Riven was already there when Elian arrived. Sitting. Calm. The same as always.

Elian closed the door.

Sable sat across from Riven. She’d been quiet since Veira’s warning. Processing.

"Tonight," Elian said. He sat down. "No deflection. What’s your actual motive. Why are you really here."

Riven looked at him.

Then at Sable.

Then back at Elian.

"She told you to press me," Riven said.

"She did," Elian said. "And she’s right. You know too much. You got here too fast. You have contacts nobody should have." He held Riven’s gaze. "Who are you. Really."

Silence.

Riven set his hands flat on the table.

And then the room changed.

It was subtle at first. A shift in the air. A quality to the light that was slightly wrong. Elian felt it in his chest before he saw it — the specific recognition of something that was not human presenting as human.

Riven’s eyes changed color.

Not dramatically. Not a movie effect. Just — a deepening. Something older than the face it was sitting in.

Sable stood up so fast her chair scraped back.

Elian didn’t move. He held very still in the specific way of someone who had decided that moving would be worse.

"I’m a demon," Riven said.

His voice had a quality it hadn’t had before. Not monstrous. Just — layered. Like several voices occupying the same space.

"I’ve been bound to this world by a contract," he continued. "A woman came to my domain and asked me to fulfill a wish. I fulfilled it." He looked at Elian. "I killed someone for her. At her request. She agreed to return in one year with payment."

"Payment being her soul," Elian said.

"Yes."

"And she ran."

"Yes," Riven said. "She’s been running for two years. Using something to hide from me — something I hadn’t felt before. Something that made her signature difficult to track." He paused. "Until she came to this palace and I felt it clearly for the first time in months."

Elian thought about Isolde.

About there was nothing there before.

About whatever had been blocking Riven.

She used something to hide from a demon, Elian thought. She made a deal with Riven, killed someone, and then used some other bound entity to cover her tracks.

"So you came here," Elian said.

"I came here to collect what’s owed to me," Riven said. "Her soul. That’s all I want. That’s all I’ve ever wanted." The layered quality in his voice was steadying. Becoming more conversational. "I’m not here to hurt anyone else. I’m not here to interfere with whatever you’re doing." He looked at the table. "I’m here because a contract was made and broken and I am tied to this world until it’s honored."

"You want to go home," Elian said.

"Yes," Riven said. Simply. "I want to go home."

Silence.

Sable was still standing. Pressed against the far wall. Her professional composure doing its best and not entirely succeeding.

"We made no contract with you," Elian said.

"I know," Riven said. "I’m not here for your contract. I’m here for hers." He looked at Elian. "And I’ve been helping you because — practically — she’s in this palace and I can’t reach her while she has Malgur’s protection. So helping you dismantle what’s around her gives me a cleaner path to her."

"You’ve been using us," Elian said.

"Yes," Riven said. "But everything I’ve told you has been true. Every piece of information. Every ritual. I didn’t lie. I just had an additional reason for being here."

Elian looked at him.

At the eyes that were back to normal now. Just dark eyes in a human face.

He looks exactly the same, Elian thought. The same person. The same Riven. Just — not human.

"Why the morally grey line," Elian said. "When we met at the temple. Why that framing."

"Because it’s accurate," Riven said. "I operate within rules. Contracts. I don’t take what isn’t owed to me. I don’t harm people who haven’t made agreements with me." He paused. "Demons have rules too. Mine are contract-based. Someone asks for something, agrees to pay, I collect. That’s the entirety of my ethics."

"And if someone doesn’t pay," Elian said.

"I collect anyway," Riven said. "Eventually."

"So why haven’t you," Elian said. "Two years is a long time. You’re powerful. She’s one person."

Riven was quiet for a moment.

"Because of Malgur," he said.

Elian frowned. "What’s Malgur?"

"That seven foot thing you saw during the eclipse," Riven said. "I didn’t know its name until that night either. I’d felt something blocking her signature for months — something I couldn’t identify. The eclipse let me finally feel it clearly enough to recognize it. It’s called Malgur."

Elian sat back.

That’s the thing, he thought. The one that said peekaboo. It has a name now.

"You’re both demons," Elian said.

"We’re roughly the same tier," Riven said. "Different domains, different natures, but close enough in power that if I move against Malgur directly to get to her—"

"It becomes a war," Sable said quietly.

"It becomes a war," Riven confirmed. "Between two entities of that level, in this world, during a period when the veil is already thinned by everything else happening here." He shook his head slowly. "I am not interested in being a cautionary tale. I am not interested in a war. I want the contract honored and I want to go home and I never want to take another contract from a human again. Ever. You’re all far more trouble than you’re worth."

"So what do we do," Elian said.

"You’re going to deal with Malgur regardless," Riven said. "It’s part of what’s killing your husband. Once Malgur is out of the picture — whatever that takes — her protection is gone. And I collect what’s owed."

Elian sat with that.

Two birds, he thought. If we deal with Malgur for our reasons, it solves Riven’s problem too.

"One more thing," Elian said.

Riven looked at him.

"The wish," Elian said. "What she asked you for. Who did she have you kill."

Riven was quiet for a long moment.

"Her grandfather," he said.

The room went very still.

"Her own grandfather," Elian said.

"Yes."

"The one who summoned Malgur in the first place."

"The same one," Riven said.

Elian stared at him.

She killed the person who bound Malgur to her family, he thought. And then inherited the binding herself.

That’s not an accident. That’s not inheritance.

That’s a transfer she engineered.

Sable spoke first.

"Can you." She stopped. Started again. "Can you go wait in the other room."

Riven looked at her.

"I’m scared of you," she said flatly. "I understand that you’ve been helpful. I understand the explanation. I need five minutes to process the fact that I’ve been working alongside a demon and I would prefer to do that without you in my eyeline."

Riven looked at her for a moment.

Then he stood.

"Of course," he said.

He went to the door.

Stopped.

"I’m still going to help you," he said, without turning around. "Even if you decide you don’t want me here. There are limitations to what I can do in a human world — things that require human practitioners to execute properly." He paused. "So. If you need me, I’ll be available."

He left.

The door closed.

Sable sat back down on the floor.

Elian sat where he was.

They didn’t say anything for a while.

"Well," Sable said finally.

"Yes," Elian said.

"A demon."

"Yes."

"The whole time."

"Yes."

She pressed her hands against her face.

Elian looked at the door.

A demon who wants to go home, he thought. Who made a deal with Isolde. Who has been helping us because it gives him access to her.

And Isolde killed someone. With his help. And then ran.

And used Malgur to hide.

And came here with Rowan.

And has been watching us the whole time.

He picked up his pen.

He had a lot to think about.

After Riven left, Elian sat with Sable in the quiet.

"Malgur," she said eventually. "She used Malgur to hide from him."

"Yes."

"And Malgur is the thing we saw at the eclipse."

"Yes."

"And she killed her own grandfather to get it."

Elian nodded slowly.

"That’s not someone who stumbled into something," Sable said. "That’s someone who planned. Carefully. For years." She looked at him. "Who is she."

"I don’t know yet," Elian said. "But I know more than I did an hour ago."

He thought about the pieces.

A demon bound to a family for generations. A granddaughter who killed the person holding that binding — her own grandfather — to inherit it herself. Then used a different demon’s contract to fulfill some other purpose, and used Malgur’s protection to hide from the consequences.

She’s been running two demons, Elian thought. Manipulating both of them. For years.

And she’s been in this palace the whole time.

He looked at Sable.

"Tomorrow," he said, "we find out everything we can about her. Where she’s actually from. Her family. What her grandfather was involved in." He paused. "Because if her grandfather had Malgur — if that’s been in her family for generations — then her family has history with dark practices going back a long way."

"Connected to the network," Sable said.

"Maybe," Elian said. "Maybe not. But it’s a thread."

He stood up.

Looked at the door Riven had left through.

A demon who wants to go home, he thought. Helping us because it serves him too.

Fine. I’ll take the help.

But I’m watching him.

He went to bed.

The list, as always, had gotten longer.

But for the first time in a while, it felt like it was getting shorter too.