Free Yield the Night by Annette Marie

fear.”
    Piper stared at her blankly. Mona frowned a little. “Did Walter give you too much?” She squinted. “Perhaps. But better than not enough. Tonight is going to change your life.”
    Mona rubbed Piper’s shoulders in a soothing way while they waited. Little flickers of thought and emotion danced in the clouds in her head, nothing touching her long enough for her to feel anything.
    Time passed. Piper didn’t notice. Eventually other people appeared and she was pulled up to her feet and gently guided across the room. They went through a doorway and the rumble of noise made Piper stop in vague surprise. Hands prodded her forward. Up three steps. Walter stood in front of a podium. Someone turned her to face the room and she blinked.
    Faces looked back at her. Lots and lots of faces. The room spun a little. The crowd looked at her curiously but didn’t seem to know why she was there.
    Someone nudged Piper over to one side of the dais and out of the spotlight. All the eyes shifted to watch Walter as he began speaking again. Piper stood listlessly as his words washed over her. He talked about plans for the future. Goals. Missions. Things about the Consulates. How they protected daemons instead of humans. How they were tainted by daemon favoritism.
    The words spun and swirled and danced in a wash of sound. Piper stood unmoving, waiting without a thought or care, staring at the growing shadows beyond the windows as the sun disappeared.
    “And when we’re ready to face the remaining daemons head on,” Walter declared, “we’ll have a powerful ally. Do any of you know Piper’s unique history? You see, Piper was born to two haemon parents.”
    A couple calls of disbelief from the crowd.
    “We all know,” he continued, “that female children born to two haemon parents always die in childhood. But do you know that daemons can save our girls? A daemon saved Piper from dying as a child by sealing away the dual magic she inherited from her parents.
    “For hundreds of years, daemons have been letting our children die when they could have been saving every single one of them. Why? Because they don’t want the competition. A haemon with a dual bloodline is just as powerful as a daemon! The daemons want to keep us weaker than them, so they let our girls die.”
    The Gaians jeered in anger.
    “Piper’s magic has been sealed away her entire life, keeping her weak. Tonight, we will remove the seal and give her full access to her magic for the first time. Witness the power your daughters could wield!”
    Loud applause. Walter turned off the microphone and gestured. Hands pulled Piper to the chair in the middle of the dais and pushed her down. Other hands touched her upper arms. Magic tingled. Invisible bonds tightened around her arms, binding them to the back of the chair. Piper blinked, distantly unhappy but the feeling soon faded.
    A new face appeared in front of her. An old woman. She smiled and patted Piper’s hand. “Don’t worry, child. I’ll get that spell out of you, don’t you fret.”
    “Are you ready, Helaine?” Walter asked quietly. The crowd chattered, a low hum behind him.
    “Of course,” Helaine said with a bite of impatience. “Don’t be doubting me now. I’ve removed filthy daemon spells from hundreds of unfortunate souls.”
    “Begin then,” he replied shortly.
    “Will it be difficult?” Mona asked, crouching beside Piper. “The daemon was—”
    “Hush,” Helaine snapped, laying her hands on either side of Piper’s head. “It’s bad enough you let that devil wrap your daughter in his evil spells. He did a pitiable job anyway. I can feel the threads of it; the spell is in a wretched state. It would have lasted a year longer at most.”
    Piper stared at the woman’s face as it scrunched in concentration. So many wrinkles. Her hands were calloused, her hold tight. Piper’s head felt hot under the woman’s touch. Distressed whispers skittered across her thoughts. This was a bad thing,