Willow's Point of View

  Turned out the hero was more excited about writing this book than I was. We spent the past few days holed up in the library chatting and having a wonderful time as he explained his life and all his plans to me. Armed with that knowledge, I even managed to get a few chapters written which felt like a huge success. I still didn't know what the big plot twist was, but at least I finally had something on the page that was readable. Everything felt better with words on the page.

  Dain and the Demon Lord relaxed in the corner, a silent but steady presence day after day. They still didn't seem to fully trust the hero, but at least they were finally chill enough to take naps, read, or stare into the fire instead of at us non-stop. That had been a very awkward first day. The hero was a very animated reader though, so it was hard to stay serious with him around. He cheered when he got to the good parts of his book, cried when something sad happened, and sometimes even jumped up like he was going to join the battle when there was a fight.

  It was all so ridiculous, exactly like the hero I'd grown up reading about. Having him right here in front of me made nailing his personality even easier and the words were flying off the page at this point.

  I finished up chapter four in no time, moving on to chapter five. Halfway in, I realized the hero hadn't made any noise in a while, and he definitely wasn't the quiet reader type of guy. He was leaning back in his chair, book forgotten by his side as he squeezed his eyes shut in pain.

  "Another headache?" I asked softly. "You've been getting those more and more lately."

  "My medication doesn't seem to be helping as much as usual." He rubbed a hand over his face, holding it there like he was blocking out the light. "Maybe I need a stronger dose. I should head back to the capital and check in with the healers."

  "Or maybe get some sleep and see if it gets better?" I asked hopefully. I wasn't ready for him to leave yet, but I also didn't want him to be in pain. "I could always make you something for it too if you want. I'm an apothecary, so it's my job."

  He peeked at me between his fingers. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

  "Of course. You've already done so much for me." I studied him for clues as to what was really ailing him, knowing that the book alluded to a mysterious illness he'd had since he was a child. Nothing stood out besides his headaches though. "What's your medication for? Migraines?"

  "They're just a symptom." He sighed, slipping deeper into the plush chair. "I've actually got miasma sickness. Apparently I inhaled too much miasma as a baby and can't tolerate it anymore. Maybe that's why it's worse. This land is full of it."

  "Miasma sickness?" I hadn't seen that mentioned anywhere in the books, not a trace of it. "What's–"

  "It doesn't exist." The Demon Lord's voice startled me. He'd been so quiet the past few days, but now his voice was cold. "Miasma is just a cruel word humans use for our magic. Demonic magic is beautiful and pure, the very essence of our world, it would never sicken a child."

  The hero shrugged. "Well, I have it, so it must be real. That's all I can tell you."

  Shadows whipped around the Demon Lord and Dain like a storm cloud.

  "Whoa now." I held my hands up. "I'm sure he's not trying to insult you, he's just answering my question. If they told him it's miasma sickness, and you say that doesn't exist, then that's another clue." I stared at the Demon Lord, willing him to understand. "This is a good thing. Every clue helps me unravel this story."

  His jaw clenched, but he nodded. "Fine."

  Things got a bit tense after that as I asked the hero for all his symptoms, which seemed to be all over the place and vague. No wonder it had taken the healers a while to cure him because in my world, these didn't add up to anything specific. It was like his body was fighting itself, but not in any way I'd seen before. The Demon Lord was getting more and more irritated every time the hero blamed miasma, so maybe this would go better without him here...

  "Umm, aren't you supposed to be helping Gran?" I asked. "You haven't gone back there in a while and she still needs an assistant."

  The hero's eyes widened. "The Demon Lord...is an elderly woman's assistant? The surprises never end, do they?"

  "It's almost like you know nothing about demons." The Demon Lord glowered at him. "Before you attack us again, maybe you should figure out who we really are. Helping the elderly, creating beautiful works of art, and growing plants that can heal the masses are just a few things that demons do. It wouldn't be a surprise if you had ever tried talking to us instead of fighting us."

  I winced. He had a point, but with the hero in pain, it didn't feel like the right time to make it. "Please go help Gran. I'll take care of things here."

  He caught my gaze and held it for long enough that heat rose to my cheeks, but he eventually nodded. On his way out of the room, he turned to Dain. "Watch out for that hero. Don't let him hurt anyone. And continue taking care of Willow too."

  "Yes, sir." Dain saluted him, standing tall and proud. "You can count on me."

  He glanced back at me one more time before sweeping out of the room and taking his shadows with him. The air seemed to lighten and the hero let out a deep breath. I hated how much conflict there was between them when it felt like they could be best friends if they'd grown up in different circumstances. The story had forced them to be enemies and I still wasn't sure why. What was the point of all this?

  Wondering about that had done nothing but make my head spin, so it was time I focused on something I could fix: the hero's headache.

  "Okay, let's head over to the apothecary gardens and gather ingredients." I held my hand out to help him up with a smile. "I'll banish that headache in no time and then we can get back to work in the morning after you've had some rest."

  "Sounds–"

  "Like a terrible idea," Dain said. "The hero can't roam our village unattended."

  "So, attend him?" I shrugged. "It'll be fine. We'll just make him wear a hood and nobody will notice he's a human, let alone the hero."

  Dain raised an eyebrow. "Is that like how nobody noticed you were a human? Because that only took a few moments."

  "Yeah, and you stabbed me, remember? So I think you owe me one." I tapped my cheek, which had fully healed by now, and Dain looked horrified. I waved him off with a smile and walked into the hallway. "We're going with or without you, so if you want to keep your word to the Demon Lord, you'll have to come with us."

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  The hero followed me without hesitation, making Dain sigh loud enough to impress the Demon Lord if he were here. I bet Gran would put him to work right away, mixing up something he had no idea how to make, but they'd have a wonderful time doing it. My stomach twisted, wishing I could be there too, but I had my own work to do right now. Dain handed the hero a cloak before we left the castle, pulling the hood down so far I doubted he could even see where we were going.

  As we made our way to the gardens, worry gnawed at my stomach. Was I being too egotistical thinking I could heal the hero when it had taken the royal healers years to figure something out? Maybe if I studied the tonic he'd brought with him, I could work backwards and identify the herbs inside.

  "Do you still have some of your medication left?" I asked the hero. "It could be useful when we're looking for new remedies."

  He handed me a bottle with a few drops of dark liquid in it. "That's all I've got. Not that it's been helping anyway."

  I held it up to the light, staring at the beautiful swirls of purple running through it. I glanced at the gardens surrounding us, pulsing with beautiful dark purple magics, and frowned. This tonic looked so similar, as if it was made with herbs from this very garden. Or at least, herbs that had been infused with demonic magic. We wandered further into the gardens, smiling and waving at the other apothecaries without a word hoping they wouldn't come over by us. The last thing we needed was for one of them to recognize the hero.

  This tonic definitely looked demon-made though. "Dain, have you ever–"

  The hero clutched his hand to his chest, doubling over. I rushed over, sinking to the ground in front of him to support him. Sweat beaded his forehead and his breathing was labored.

  "What's happening?" he asked through clenched teeth. "It feels like my chest is going to explode."

  I held a finger against his wrist. His pulse was racing. I might know about illnesses because of my job, but I wasn't a doctor. It had been foolish to take him here.

  "We need to get him to the capital." I shot Dain a frantic look. "Now. Before he dies right in front of us."

  He moved to lift the hero over his shoulder, not even second-guessing my request to go deep into the human lands, but the hero screamed and Dain dropped him back down. The hero curled into a ball, holding his head like it was splitting.

  "This isn't normal." Panic had my own heart beating fast. How had he gone from having a headache to this? "We need to get him out of here. His symptoms started getting worse the moment we stepped into the garden. Maybe it really is a magical illness that gets worse the more magic he’s exposed to?"

  How could I have been so careless? I should have left him at the castle where he'd be safe, locked away from most of the demonic magic in town. But instead, I dragged him to a place that was literally overflowing with it. The magic was so strong here you could practically taste it in the air, like a faint metallic note on your tongue.

  The hero screamed again, his body convulsing as Dain tried to carry him out of the garden. Small white horns sprouted from the hero's head along with fluffy ears. He kind of looked like... My mouth dropped open as Dain stumbled back, glancing at me with wide eyes.

  Was the hero actually a demon? No. That couldn't be right. Except, a floofy tail sprouted from his lower back too as if saying he absolutely was a demon.

  The hero took a few deep breaths like he was no longer in pain. He just stared up at the sky, breathing in and out like that was all he could manage right now. At least he wasn't screaming anymore. Dain ripped the bottle of medication from my hands, sniffing the tonic inside. He cursed and threw it away.

  "It's Veilshade." He spat the word out like it was disgusting. "It seals a demon's aura so completely that their demonic aspects slowly die off. They appear human, but at the price of a much shorter life. It's a banned substance, so nobody here would have made it for him."

  "Then who?" I was still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it, but the horns and tail were hard to dispute. "Who would go that far to hide that the hero's a demon?"

  The hero blinked up at me and then started laughing. "What did you just call me?"

  "Um, a demon?" I bit my lip as his laughter grew louder. "Don't you...feel any different? Maybe your head? Or your backside?"

  "Well of course, they don't hurt anymore." He sat up, grinning as if the pain was but a memory now. "But I needed a good laugh, so thank you."

  Dain scratched behind his horns. "Uh, I hate to shatter your worldview or whatever, but you're definitely a demon. Half-demon if I had to guess."

  "This isn't funny anymore." The hero stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes. His cloak had fallen off entirely, revealing those beautiful shimmery-white horns poking out of his blonde hair. His hand brushed against his tail and he froze. "What's that? Get it off." His voice rose a few octaves as he tried to pull it off him, but he winced in pain. "What's going on?"

  He spun around, trying to spot his tail behind him. It was fluffy and white-blonde, just like his adorable ears, and the whole thing reminded me of a dog chasing their tail. I covered my mouth with my hand, determined not to laugh at him when he was in such a shocking predicament. But he just kept spinning and flipping his head over his shoulder like he couldn't comprehend what was behind him.

  "It's a tail." I said in as serious of a tone as I could. "You have ears now too and, um, horns. But just tiny ones. People will barely even notice, I'm sure."

  His eyes bulged as his hands clamped down on his head. "No, no, no. This can't be happening. What did you do to me??"

  "Nothing!" I picked up the bottle Dain had thrown away. "It was all this medication you were taking. It was hiding who you really were this whole time."

  Dain nodded. "It's a poison. Nobody should have ever given that to you."

  "It was helping me!" The hero's shouting was starting to draw unwanted attention from the other people in the gardens, but I wasn't sure how to calm him down as he kept patting his new ears and horns. "You turned me into this.....this monster!"

  Dain's eyes narrowed. "I know this is hard, but you're going too far now. We are not monsters and if you keep talking like that, we're going to have a problem."

  "We've already got a problem," the hero moaned. "I'm supposed to be the hero of this land! How can I do that while looking like this?" He rushed over to me, clutching my hands in his. "Take pity on me. Make him turn me back to normal."

  "You are back to normal," I whispered. "This is who you've always been. You just didn't know it." His hands gripped mine even harder as he started to tremble. I felt terrible for him, but wasn't sure what to do. Maybe the Demon Lord could help. "Why don't we go back to the castle and sort this out?"

  He leapt away from me, shaking his head so hard his ears flopped around. "No way. I'm never stepping foot in that place again. You tricked me with heroic stories and tasty food, but this was your real goal all along, wasn't it? To turn the hero into a terrifying monster!"

  "Come on, your tail and ears are far from terrifying," I said. "Honestly, they're kind of cute."

  His mouth fell open. "Cute? You think these are cute??"

  Now we were definitely drawing too much attention as apothecaries came toward us from all directions. Dain sighed and hit the hero in the back of the neck, knocking him out. He slung the man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, threw the cloak over him, and walked straight out of the garden like it was totally normal.

  "Dain! You can't just knock him out like that!" I hurried after him, making sure the hero was still breathing and okay. "We're trying to gain his trust, not lose even more of it."

  "Do that once you're back at the castle," he grumbled. "I swore I'd protect you and there's no way I can do that if this fool keeps screaming about being the hero and monsters and all that."

  He had a point, but it still didn't feel good. I pulled out my writing board to let the Demon Lord know what was going on.

  Get back here as soon as you can. We need help.

  Hopefully he'd see it before the hero woke up because I had no idea what to say and there was no way I was going to lock him up. Dain would, but not me. I couldn't just let him run back to his people either though, not until he calmed down and we had a chance to talk about this. The beginnings of an idea started forming in the back of my mind, tugging at me to write them down.

  If the hero was secretly a demon, then that changed everything. I'd been looking for a plot twist, sure, but this felt like a plot wrecking ball, and I had no idea where to even begin.