Chapter 30
Raiya felt that something was wrong even before she awoke, before she remembered what had happened.
The first thing she became aware of was the cold, hard stone at her back. It felt cruel and unwelcoming, bruising her where it dug into her shoulder blades. Somewhere nearby, she could hear something large breathing.
Fear spun through her. She was in danger.
She tried to lift her limbs, to open her eyes, but her body was heavy. She was unnaturally tired, like she’d been drugged. Eventually, she pried open her eyelids, turning dry eyes on a scene that slowly came into focus.
Nirlan was standing over a table near the gate, his back to her. Raiya blinked, shifting her gaze across the room, and her heart stuttered. The red-skinned demon lounged in a too-small chair nearby. He’d propped the side of his head on his hand as he watched Nirlan doing whatever he was doing at the table, wearing no expression whatsoever. His red eyes flicked over to hers briefly.
He looked bored.
Raiya drew a shuddering breath. It felt like she’d been in hibernation for months. Trembling, she pushed herself up onto her elbow. Her baton was gone, as were her bow and arrows. Her satchel had been emptied onto the floor beside her, presumably when Nirlan had checked it for more weapons. Her book of notes had been carelessly tossed upside down beside her stylus, its delicate pages crumpled.
Deep, ragged breathing drew her attention again. She followed the sound until she spotted the large figure lying on the floor in front of the red demon’s chair.
Azreth.
He was alive, but vicious claw marks covered his body. Worst of all were the deep punctures in his belly. The demon’s claws had cut into him so far that she could see the glistening, black viscera inside him. She didn’t know how he was still alive. The wounds were catastrophic.
“Azreth,” she said, without really meaning to. Her voice was choked and hoarse. Azreth’s breathing hitched. He slowly tilted his head to look over at her, the muscles in his neck straining with the effort.
Nirlan turned as she spoke. “I can’t lie—it stings that the first thing out of your mouth when you awaken is another man’s name.”
Raiya pushed herself up to a sitting position. “You said he wasn’t bound to you,” she said.
“And you believed me.”
She was a fool. He had lied to her about everything. The demon had never been out of his control. Nirlan had no intention of sending him back to the hells.
Beside Azreth, there was another bloodied body. Adamus. He was very still, and Raiya couldn’t tell whether he was still alive.
She looked around until she located Madira and Jai just behind her. They were both still unconscious from whatever magic Nirlan had used on them, but she could see them breathing. She was relieved they were alive, but a part of her was also relieved they were still unconscious—she didn’t want to see the judgment in their eyes.
She’d led them all here. It was her fault. She had wanted to trust Nirlan so badly that she’d put them all at risk, and she didn’t even know why. She’d spent so long wanting him to love her and wanting so badly for him to change that she’d taken the hand he offered her like a fish taking bait from a hook.
She wondered why the demon hadn’t just killed Azreth and the rest of them, and then she realized the obvious answer. He couldn’t feed off of them if he killed them. Even now, he was probably soaking in Azreth’s pain, letting it bolster his own power.
“You’re not so mouthy without your weapon,” Nirlan observed, cocking a dark eyebrow. He picked up the metal plate from the table. “Thank you for this, by the way. I never thought any of your trinkets would come in handy, but with a little help from that priestess, this one proved useful at least once.” He tossed it onto the table with a clatter.
She recognized the object now. It was a sleep aid she’d created over a year ago, which had been sitting on a shelf in the parlor gathering dust for most of that time. It was supposed to be placed on a nightstand to help gently lull you to sleep. Someone, apparently Gereg, had clumsily modified the enchantment, turning it into a blunt weapon.
“You opened a gate to the hells,” Raiya said, still disbelieving. “Why?”
“That part was incidental. The priestess looked at Eunaios’s work from the last summoning, but she didn’t fully understand it. She said this was the best way for her to adapt his spellwork to connect to the hells and find another demon to bind.”
Raiya wondered if that was true, or if it had just been Gereg’s way of sowing the chaos and death she craved. “This is madness. Anything could come through it.”
Nirlan shrugged. “I can find a way to close it later. The important thing was finding the demon.”
“But why? Why is it so important to you?”
Rage flashed across his face. “Because you disrespected me, you unfaithful—!” He regained control of himself, swallowing the outburst. He lowered his voice again. “Because you deserve this. You were a fool if you thought you could cheat me out of my wife and my demon.”
This was all because of her leaving. He probably didn’t even care about Azreth escaping—he was just angry she’d gone with him.
She glanced up at the red-skinned demon, who just blinked slowly at her. Something shifted behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Jai was moving a little, close to waking.
Raiya looked up at Nirlan. “Let them go. Please.”
“Why?”
“They’re just children.”
“If they’re old enough to fight, they’re old enough to die.”
“Bastard.”
“Ah, there’s that mouth.” He walked over to her, and she flinched when he took her jaw in his hand. She tried to push him away, her arms weak. The lingering magic was making her body sluggish.
“Don’t condescend to me,” she hissed.
He looked her up and down with disdain. “You think you don’t deserve it? What have you ever achieved in life, other than spreading your legs in exchange for status and power, first with me and then with this creature? You’re weak without that weapon, without your demon, and without me. You have nothing left but yourself, and you alone are nothing.”
He leaned in, hovering his mouth near hers. “But that’s all right,” he murmured. “You’ll come crawling back to me now. Kiss me. Be a good girl.” He paused there, waiting for her to come to him. It was worse than if he had just forced himself on her. He wanted to watch her realize she was powerless and then capitulate.
She swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “Fine,” she said quietly.
Nirlan’s eyebrows went up slightly. He looked pleased.
He glanced behind him to see if Azreth was watching, and he was. His eyes, glowing very faintly, followed every movement without blinking. The muscles in his jaw stood out as he clenched his teeth.
“No man will take what’s mine,” Nirlan said. “And no demon, for that matter. Not without suffering dearly.” He turned to Raiya, his mouth twisting into something that was too hateful to really be a smile, and leaned in. “You’re worthless without me,” he whispered. “Never forget that. Never forget this moment.”
She surreptitiously reached into the pile of items that had been dumped out of her bag until she felt the smooth, cold metal of her enchanting stylus. She wrapped her fingers around it. “I won’t,” she said. Then she stabbed the pointed end into his throat.
Warm blood burst across her cheek. She gasped involuntarily at the same time as Nirlan. His eyes were wide with shock. She’d hit him in the artery just beneath his ear. When she jerked the stylus free, another gush of blood flowed forth. It streamed down his throat and over his collar as if from a spout.
He clapped a hand over his neck. Panic and confusion flashed across his face. For a moment, he began to scramble backwards, but then he changed his mind and reached for her, fury in his face. With a shout, Raiya stabbed the stylus into his chest. He lurched, grabbing her arm to try to disarm her. She stabbed again, and he crumpled, grimacing in pain. Shoving him away, she clambered out from under him.
Azreth looked down at his palm. As Nirlan bled out, the runes changed, going flat and dull. They no longer shone with lingering magic. The enchantment was broken.
A shadow fell over Raiya. Nirlan’s demon had risen from his seat, giving her a curious frown as he towered over her. For a moment, she was relieved. Nirlan was dead, and so the demon could not be compelled to protect him.
But then the demon started toward her.
Nirlan’s death presented a new problem. The demon was unbound. He could do as he pleased. Kill who he pleased. Azreth tried to reach for him, just missing his ankle as he walked by. Gathering all the strength left in his dying limbs, Azreth turned over and climbed to his hands and knees, but he trembled and fell when he tried to get up.
Raiya turned and ran, but her legs were slow from the sleeping spell. The demon caught her before she’d taken five steps. He wrapped a massive hand around her forearm and turned her around to face him. He looked at her for a moment, taking stock of his next victim.
She almost sympathized with him. He was like Azreth. He’d been imprisoned here against his will, and he couldn’t change the fact that he needed to feed to survive.That didn’t mean he needed to look so pleased about it, though.
Whatever emotions she felt, he would take them and use them to make himself more powerful. She steeled herself, determined to feel nothing. “I saved you from a life of servitude to a cruel master. You should thank me and go.”
The demon laughed softly. Rather than answering, he moved a clawed hand to the soft, vulnerable flesh of her stomach, and pushed. Raiya froze, her heart pounding in her ears as the claws slowly began to cut, first through her clothes and then deeper, pricking her skin, drawing blood. She stopped breathing.
Feel nothing. Feel nothing.
The panic came anyway, drowning her. She opened her mouth to scream or cry, but no sound came out. The demon held her wrist in a steel grip, keeping her from pulling away. Sharp pain burst through her as the claws pierced through her flesh.
And then, a sword sprouted from the demon’s chest.
Everything stopped. The demon jerked, and he released her. Raiya backed away, her legs shaking so hard they barely held her up.
Azreth was standing behind the demon, holding Adamus’s iron sword in his fist. Madira’s black cloak was wrapped around the hilt in a thick bundle to make a barrier between his hand and the iron. Azreth let go of the sword with a shudder. His palm was dark where it had burned him even through the cloth.
The sword remained stuck in the demon’s body, and he clawed at it, his limbs already trembling from the effect of the iron. Raiya ran to the table, where she found the sleeping device, her baton, and her bow and quiver. The enchantments had both gone dull, their power depleted. Before the demon could dislodge the sword, she picked up the bow and drew an iron-tipped arrow, aiming it at him.
“Get back!” she shouted. She circled around so that he was between her and the gate to the hells. The demon glowered at her, but she held his gaze, trembling. “Go!”
He gave a furious, defeated exhale, and took a step backward into the gate. He took another step, and then he was gone, lost among the swirling images beyond.
Raiya dropped the bow. A sigh rushed out of her. She put a hand to the wounds beneath her ribs, and her hand came away bloody. Beside her, Madira was watching the gate with a look of shock. Jai was just waking up.
“Azreth,” Raiya said, spinning to face him. He’d dropped to his knees. She rushed to his side, started to put her arms around him, then stopped, afraid of hurting him. He seemed not to care about his grievous injuries, though, as he lifted his lacerated arms to touch her.
“You’re injured,” he said.
“Gods, I’m fine, Azreth. Look at you—” She sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
His hands came to her face, his eyes on hers.
“Your rage is beautiful,” he said reverently.
“Take it,” she said. “Take all of it.”
Magic gathered around him as he fed from her. White light sank into his wounds, slowly sewing them shut.
“Kiss me,” he said.
Raiya held his cheeks tightly as she pressed her mouth to his, her eyes still overflowing with tears.
She wanted to stay there, in that very spot, embracing him for the rest of her life.