Chapter 15
Fifteen
W e journeyed through the forest, my hands bound and Bargoth holding onto the rope to ensure my compliance. Vaelor stalked next to me, his wings slightly spread as he gave the other male demon a death glare with every step. But as long as Bargoth held his talisman, Vaelor couldn’t touch him.
I watched Bargoth. He was tall. The antlers made him appear even taller. He’d helped us—like he cared about what I wanted. What did he really want? Perhaps he was simply a nice slave owner. I’d heard about them—in theory.
Namar’s words kept replaying in my mind, so I sped up to reach Bargoth and question him. “Do you have a hedge witch hidden somewhere?”
He cast a look at me out of the corner of his eye. “There is only one hedge witch here.”
I stumbled to a stop, my heart pounding. I glanced at my tied hands, dirt mixed with Namar’s blood still under my nail beds. Only when Bargoth tugged on my rope did I remember to keep walking.
Vaelor’s raging eyes turned to me. “You’re a hedge witch?” He let out a low growl. “That would be just my luck.”
“I’m not certain what I am,” I said quietly.
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “Suddenly you don’t seem so helpless.”
“I—that wasn’t magic. I only used information that my mother taught me…” Gods, Mother had abandoned me, but I had always believed I had a fundamental idea of who she was, and who I was as a result. “He said he knew my mother.”
The thought of that being true made my soul feel as if it was being filled with both light and darkness at the same time.
Vaelor raised an eyebrow. “How could he know her?” he asked, his voice low.
Bargoth marched forward, pretending not to hear us, yet I believed he could. Perhaps if I continued speaking, he’d interrupt with information.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “She left… it’s possible she came into demon lands.” I frowned, unsure whether I wanted this to be true. If she ventured into a demon territory, it probably meant that she’d suffered—that she may still be suffering. And yet, it might also mean that she was close by.
“Or he is lying.”
“What if he isn’t?” I asked. Again the light and dark swirled in me, rage and hope battling for dominance when thoughts of my mother came into play. I didn’t want her to be here. But I did.
“He has the finger talisman that holds me bound. Doesn’t make him very trustworthy.”
“Only because you’d kill him if you had the chance.”
His eyes narrowed, and he emitted another low growl but didn’t respond.
I settled a hand on his arm. “He freed you when I asked him to.”
He glanced at my touch, the anger in his gaze softening. “You believe in kind demons, Denara?”
Gods, that question had become strangely complicated of late. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you trusted the slavers more than you trust him.”
“To be clear, I trust neither, but at least a slaver is predictable. What I don’t trust is the game he is playing.” He nodded toward Bargoth.
“Not everything has to be a game.”
He eased closer, his other hand resting on mine. “Denara, there is something I should tell you?—”
He cut himself off when we both looked up and found Bargoth had halted and was standing right in front of us. The end of my rope lay free on the ground. I retracted my hands, and Vaelor straightened.
“It is clear you don’t trust me, and you have good reason,” he said.
“Demons are a bloodthirsty lot that revel in their enemy’s pain.
” He took a long breath. “But we aren’t all that way.
To survive, we must adopt a tough exterior, but deep down, we are the same as anyone else. And some of us choose to be different.”
Like Vaelor. The idea surfaced almost subconsciously, sparking a subtle, underlying unease about what it might mean.
Bargoth removed the finger talisman from around his neck and offered it to me.
“I trust you won’t let him do anything too horrible to me,” he said, then chuckled.
I held the finger, my stomach churning at the feel of the bloody, dried flesh.
Slowly, I lifted it and put it around my neck.
The tables of power had shifted between Vaelor and me remarkably fast. I glanced at him to gauge his reaction, but his face was devoid of emotion.
He took in the finger lying on my chest but then turned to Bargoth. “What do you want with us?”
Us.
Like we were a team. Like we were together.
“I don’t want anything with you, sir, except that she wants you here.” Bargoth inclined his head at me.
“Then what do you want with her?”
He touched a tree. “I’m taking you somewhere safe. But it has certain… protections around it, very similar to the inn Namar said he found you at. You will need to place your blood on this tree and make assurances.”
“And that worked so well for us last time,” Vaelor said.
He was right. Whatever places Bargoth claimed to be safe might be full of traps. “I don’t know if it’s for us,” I agreed.
“Try it out. You can leave any time. But it’s the only place that is completely protected from the slavers, ruthless demons, and the warlords that run Misophae,” Bargoth said. “There are even humans there. Free humans.”
Vaelor snorted in disbelief. But I turned to him. “What if what he says is true? There may be a chance it is a big mistake, but…” The thought of there being a sort of sanctuary for humans made me hopeful. A place where I might reside as I searched for Gerand. “I want to see.”
“Denara, he claimed to be acquainted with your mother. He obviously wants you in there, and then who knows what he will do to you.”
“Well, we can find out.” I turned to Bargoth. “You say you’ve met my mother? Describe her.”
“She bears a strong resemblance to you, though she is older. Brown hair, a bit wiry, and short with a spitfire disposition that could match any demon.”
“That’s not helpful,” Vaelor said. “All you did was describe Denara.”
Bargoth shrugged.
To be honest, I did look exactly like my mother. And as for the attitude part… I kind of liked that Vaelor thought of me as fierce.
“What is her name?” I asked Bargoth.
“Maralyn.”
My pulse spiked. “He knows her name. Plus, he went back for you,” I said to Vaelor. I touched the finger around my neck. “He gave me this. I need to see. Besides, you won’t be under the same obligations I am under. If I am in danger, you can possess me or him or whoever you desire.”
He drew his hands into tight fists but nodded.
I grabbed the sword and again made a minor cut in my finger and touched it to the tree.
“Repeat after me,” Bargoth said. “I will not disclose what I see once I enter. My companions will also remain silent, and I accept full responsibility for their actions. I will harm no one except in self-defense, and I will choose words over weapons.”
I repeated his statements, and an energy heated my body as the binding magic took hold.
Bargoth motioned to me, and I stepped forward, sensing a strange resistance. A rush of power moved over me as if I were walking through a waterfall. I pushed through and the pushback ceased, the surge of energy fading away.
The forest still surrounded me. Same trees, same light brush, same fallen tree two feet to my right.
“Wasn’t there supposed to be something different?” I asked.
“Follow me,” Bargoth said.
Vaelor scanned the area as we walked, his fists clenching and unclenching.
I hurried to stay by his side. “Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Later.” It was clear he was on high alert.
Vaelor’s mist curled at our feet. I gazed around the forest, birds chirping, and a lightness I couldn’t explain enveloped me. And yet in the corners a darkness lingered, a foreboding of something waiting in the shadows.
A figure moved. It took the form of a woman, stepping out from behind a tree. She matched my height and wore a simple dress.
I stopped walking and just stared. “Ma?”
Tears filled my mother’s eyes, and she stepped toward me, throwing her arms around my shoulders. “Oh, Denara, my love. I’m so glad you are safe.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t respond. I suspected she might be here—but for her to be here left me feeling as if the ground underneath my feet were falling away. I shut my eyes, trying to stabilize my world, but when I opened them, nothing had changed.
Mother didn’t appear to care. She stepped back and wiped at her eyes. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
I managed to control the fury that threatened to erupt at those words. “Yes, well, you left…” I said flatly.
Bargoth claimed I resembled her, but I observed the new gray strands in her hair, the extra wrinkles around her mouth and eyes.
But she appeared healthy, maybe even healthier than when I last saw her.
There was a soft glow about her and a confidence in her movements that I’d never seen before.
And yet, her scent was the same—violet and sage.
The same way she’d smelled the day she’d given me a hug before she disappeared.
Gods, and her voice was the most familiar thing in the world. How many nights had I lain awake wishing to hear her speak?
“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, but I had to,” she said, her expression earnest. “And Gerand? What happened to him?”
It was as if she’d stabbed a knife into an open wound. I dropped my gaze, unable to meet hers. “He’s gone.” Shit. What was wrong with me? Somehow I felt ashamed to admit to the woman who had abandoned us that I had lost my baby brother.
Mother recoiled, eyes widening in horror. “You mean he’s…he’s…”
“He was sold off,” I bit out. The injustice of it built a heated pressure behind my gaze. “You left us, and he’s gone to be a slave who knows where.”
She swiped at her eyes. “Thank the gods he’s alive.”
“I don’t know if he’s alive,” I yelled. A tear made its way down my cheek.
Mother wrung her hands. “I have people out searching for him. Now that we have more information, we can perhaps narrow the search. Come, come to my home, and I will explain everything.”
Vaelor cleared his throat. “Denara?—”
I held up a hand to cut him off.
Vaelor frowned. “I have?—”