Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One R Nicole (open ebook .txt) 📖

chance at Camelot. It wasn’t like I was going to put anyone in danger and go full Dark again.

But Elijah… I felt his presence tug at me and wondered where he was.

“Did you ever find a way to completely reverse the effects of Human Convergence?” I asked.

Ramona looked thoughtful for a moment. “What sparked this?”

“I, uh… The demon got into my head,” I told her. “He made me believe…”

“That your mutation was back?”

“I can’t be sure what was real and what was an illusion.” I felt a pang as the lie passed my lips.

“Madeleine, you’ve nothing to worry about,” she reassured me. “When Scarlett and Wilder—”

“I know.” Except it wasn’t gone. “But did you?”

Her frown deepened. “We never had to. When Mordred died—”

I nodded. “I know.” But that didn’t help Elijah…or me.

Ramona sighed and sat beside me. “You went through a traumatic experience, Madeleine. Anyone would experience echoes after the battering your mind took.” She tapped on her tablet and added to my patient notes. “Don’t be alarmed, though. We can manage the symptoms.”

“Symptoms?”

“It will take a few days for things to settle down. You might experience mild hallucinations, dreams, and other phenomena.”

“Hallucinations?” I swallowed hard, suddenly questioning everything that’d happened since the Balan drilled into my mind

Her hand pressed against my shoulder. “Don’t worry, we can manage it.”

“How much more of this do I have to take?” I whispered. The ex-demon everyone blamed for almost destroying the Academy, captured by demons. It didn’t look so good now that I thought about it.

Ramona set the tablet down, hiding her expression before turning towards me. “Madeleine, you’re one of the strongest Naturals I’ve ever known, but you have to give yourself some time.”

“For what?”

“To reconcile.”

“Screw that. They’ll think I’ve been compromised,” I told her. “I’ve always been on the outer, but now—” My voice broke.

“Madeleine,” she placed her hands on my shoulders, “it’s not about everyone else. It’s about how you choose to react to it.”

Or how I chose to handle the thing inside me. I wanted to trust her, but I didn’t know what to do about Elijah and his stupid binding. I had to tread carefully, at least for now.

I looked up at Ramona. “I haven’t been doing a good job, have I?”

“You’re young,” she replied, though not unkindly. “And everyone’s path is different. But it’s up to you where you put your feet.”

I lowered my gaze, unsure what to say.

“But enough about that.” Ramona patted her hand on the set of clean clothes on the bed. “Let’s get you warmed up, huh?”

* * *

I was ordered to spend the night in the infirmary.

Naturally, I wasn’t happy about it. It was draughty, creepy, and anyone who walked by looked at me like I was a drain on society. It wasn’t any better than the barracks, so I wasn’t sure what I was complaining about.

After showering, I slid into bed and stared at the comings and goings outside the clear plastic window. I didn’t know how Elijah expected me to find a cure for something I didn’t understand, all while keeping it from everyone in Camelot.

“Hey.”

I looked up at the sound of Trent’s voice. “Hey…” He moved and sat on the end of the bed. “I’ve got something for you.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Not in the slightest.” He reached inside his jacket and took out my arondight blade.

“You found it?” I snatched the hilt from his grasp and held it against my chest, the cool metal comforting. “I thought it was gone for good.”

“I went back and looked for it,” he explained. “I know how much it means to you.”

He was right. Arondight blades were a personal thing. When we’d graduated from the Academy, we were all given the opportunity to choose our own hilts, though most of the time they chose us. Some were new, some were family heirlooms, and some were the weapons of fallen Naturals. The heirlooms chose by blood of course, but for those who didn’t have that link, sometimes the blade they ended up with was a surprise.

My sword had been in the armoury for a long time. Several generations had gone by and no one had taken it up…until I’d walked in. Elizabeth Clare had been a decorated, yet troubled, warrior in the mid-eighteenth century. Stationed in Paris during the revolution, she’d seen some gruesome battles and had famously gone undercover with a demonic cult to root out a greater demon. It seemed fitting that her blade had chosen me.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Trent asked, breaking through my daydream.

I shook my head. “There isn’t anything to talk about.”

“They captured you.”

I stared at him. “And?”

“And are you dealing with all of it?” he asked. “I know you’re a private person, Mads, but even you have to admit that being tortured by a Balan demon had to suck.”

“He didn’t get very far,” I murmured, remembering being kicked unconscious. Strange how these things had slipped my mind. I was oddly detached from it all. “He only got into my head once. I escaped before he could try again.”

“What…what did you see?”

“The time Kayla used her Light to burn up my cheeks in the girls’ bathrooms.”

Trent hissed, “Shite. She did that?”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t bad. Just a few burns that healed straight away.”

“I didn’t realise how badly they bullied you…”

“Don’t get cut up about it, Trent,” I told him. “That was a long time ago. Besides, we all made up, remember?”

“It doesn’t—”

“Just stop,” I snapped, my inner demon flaring. “I just want to leave that shite in the past, okay?” I flinched as soon as the words left my lips. I noticed the Dark edge to my psyche more and more. Whatever those creatures had blasted me with on the hillside must have triggered the thing back to life.

Trent scowled at me and stood. “Whatever, Madeleine. I was just trying to help, but like always, you’re too stubborn to accept a simple gesture of kindness without it turning into a shite show.”

He took two