Wandering the halls of the castle, Sabrina eventually found the library. Brightly lit and spacious, she couldn't help but feel homesick knowing that Roz would have adored it. Although reading wasn't her choice way to pass the time she started exploring the stacks in hopes of finding a book of magic that would help her take off her collar.
Her fingertips grazed the warm metal around her throat as she searched. She felt her magic's absence vivided, even in the castle where magic seemed to linger in every crack and corner it felt like a language she once knew but forgot.
But much like how the magic of the castle felt, Sabrina quickly found most of the books were unreadable, written in an ancient looking language that she couldn't understand. That didn't stop her from wandering the stacks with determination. Running her fingers along the spines, she searched high and low throughout the vast library.
BOOM!
Sabrina jumped, spinning around. Behind her a book had fallen from the shelf she'd just been looking at and it lay open on the floor. Hesitantly, she walked back and picked up the dusty tome.
"From the dust He made two, man and woman, and they were each other's perfect mates" Sabrina read, slowly walking to the window seat, "They were called Adam and Lilith."
"Together," she read to herself, "They named every plant and tree in the garden, they named the birds of the air and the animals that animals of the earth. But all was not peaceful in the garden that knew no war, no violence, and no shame."
"Adam wanted to mate as the animals did, but Lilith refused to lay in the dirt under him. We are equals, she said, and we should be equals in everything. She offered to lay beside him, or to be on top, but Adam insisted it was his right as the man. Lilith fought against him, but in the end she left the garden, to forge her one way, alone."
"Ever since then, Adam and his kin pass down the story of Lilith, the demoness who roams the earth to this day, destroying every kind and good thing in her path."
"Kitten?" Sabrina jumped as Madam Satan's voice interrupted her concentration, "Love, why are crying?"
She touched her own cheek, surprised to find tears there, dripping from her chin to her lap. Sabrina let Madam Satan take the book from her and moved over to give her a place on the window seat.
"The story of Lilith?" Madam Satan asked, eyebrows raised as she scanned the page, "Where did you find this?"
"It fell off the shelf," said Sabrina, "But it's so sad! It wasn't her fault and she has to be all alone now?"
Madam Satan gently wiped the tears from Sabrina's face, "What a tender heart you have," she said softly, "Lilith was the first demon, and despised by mankind for not obeying her husband."
"But that's not fair! Adam shouldn't have tried to force her to do anything! He was the real villain of the story!"
More tears threatened to spill over and Madam Satan was watching her closely with curiosity.
"Is that what you believe?"
"Yes! If this book is right about what happened! She's- she's just like me! She didn't do anything wrong and was punished for it!"
Gentle fingertips caught another tear, tracing it's path down Sabrina's face as Madam Satan's touch travel down to the curve of her neck. Sabrina's lip trembled with sadness and anger, but Madam Satan looked more open and vulnerable than she ever had in Sarina's presence and Sabrina faltered at that. There was no mask, no hiding behind any wicked or flirty charade. Sabrina reached up and took Madam Satan's hand in hers.
"She is," Madam Satan said softly, "Was, rather, quite like you Sabrina."
Sniffling, Sabrina swiped at her cheeks with her free hand.
"The world is very cruel," said Madam Satan, and Sabrina watched her mask return, "Just like me."
"You're not cruel," Sabrina said.
"Am I not?" a slow smile crept across her face as she leaned close, kissing Sabrina's tears away. She untangled their hands and moved unbutton the top button on Sabrina's blouse, then the second and the third.
Sitting still, Sabrina watched her. Madam Satan slowly traced her finger from Sabrina's collar bone, down between her breasts. She leaned into the touch, licking her lips as she met Madam Satan's gaze.
"You're not cruel," Sabrina repeated, "If you were you would have already fucked me."
"Do you kiss your aunties with that mouth?" Madam Satan said, pulling away, "Come have dinner, you'll feel better once you've eaten."
…
Sabrina lingered in the hall, glancing down the dark hallway that lead away from Madam Satan's tea room. At the end of the hall lay, aside from her budding curiosity, two gigantic wooden doors covered with ornate designs set into them with metal as black as night.
"You are not to enter here," Madam Satan had said the week before, leading Sabrina by the hand to the doors, "You can go anywhere else in the castle, from roof to dungeons, from my chambers to the kitchen, but you must not go in here, understand?"
Sabrina had nodded, but her curiosity was peaked. She would find out what was hidden in that room as soon as she could.
…
Her dress was black as midnight on a cloudy eve, soft as silk and flowing far past the dais where she stood. Tendrils of Hell fire licked at its edges but Sabrina couldn't feel the heat. What she could feel, however, was the weight of the crown on her head and the hand on her shoulder. She didn't need to look to know who stood behind her, his presence emanated throughout the room.
"I have captured your tormentor," The Dark Lord said, his voice speaking only to Sabrina's mind, "She tried to keep us apart but not even the false god's angels and archangels can keep me from what is rightfully mine."
Everything in Sabrina's being screamed to run, to flee, to get as far away from him as possible but she was rooted to the spot both enable to move or speak. She was supposed to want this, she was supposed to like being The Dark Lord's chosen one. She'd been taught her whole life that this was what she should strive for.
"Bring forth Lilith!" His voice echoed through the throne room as The Dark Lord summoned the guards. To the foot of the dais the dragged a woman, dirty and small, shackled hand and foot. But beneath the woman's dirty hair that hung in front of her face, Sabrina recognized her piercing blue eyes.
"Lilith, how do you plead to your charges?" Boomed the Dark Lord.
"Sabrina," Madam Satan said, looking inpoingly up at her, "Don't listen to him, you have to escape, you can't stay here."
"Silence!"
"Remember what I taught you? About what he does to women like us? Sabrina, love, you're stronger than you know!"
Sabrina wanted to scream but couldn't, she wanted to throw herself towards Madam Satan- Lilith- but couldn't.
The Dark Lord laughed, "You know nothing of love, woman," before waving a hand at the guards. One dark cloaked guard raised their fire shrouded sword, thrusting it towards Madam Satan.
Sabrina screamed and, with a jerk, she woke up. She'd fallen asleep in the Madam Satan's tea room, her head in Madam Satan's lap, Madam Satan gently stroking her hair.
"It's alright darling," Madam Satan said softly, "It was just a dream. You're safe."
But was she? Sitting up, Sabrina whipped the sleep from her eyes, pulling to the far side of the couch, away from Madam Satan. The Dark Lord has called her Lilith, like from the book, and accused her of treason.
"Was it a nightmare?" Madam Satan asked, and when Sabrina nodded she continued, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No Mistress," Sabrina licked her lips, "It's nothing, really I'm fine. I think… I think I'll go to bed now."
Madam Satan nodded and handed her a small vial filled with a purple liquid, "Stop by the kitchen on your way down and mix this into some tea, it will give you a dreamless sleep tonight."
As Sabrina stood in the vast kitchen a few moments later, waiting for her water to boil for tea, her eyes wandered to one of the drawers. After preparing her tea, and mixing the vial of sleeping draught in, she opened the drawer and took out a long knife. She slowly turned it over in her hand, she watched the metal glint in the light. Then Sabrina took her tea and the knife back to her cell, hiding it between her bed and the stonewall.