Chapter 8 FriendshipSomething Like It #2
Kat was granted freedom from Azrion’s elbow—or rather he was freed from her grip. She only realized how hard she’d been squeezing when her fingers had nothing to hold onto. She flexed away the strange emptiness as the female demons took turns embracing Azrion. And then they turned to her.
“And who is this?” asked one as the other swooped in and gripped Kat by her already stiff upper arms to plant a smooch in the air dangerously close to her right cheek. If she was supposed to return the gesture, it certainly wasn’t happening because Kat was too stunned to move.
“Katarina of the Ankerick Humans.” Azrion’s voice carried an even haughtier air, as if she were some fancy emissary from an exotic, faraway land and not a nobody dumped off on Heck’s doorstep, tied up and knocked out by sorcery. Surely they all knew the truth, but no one acted like it.
Another set of hands were taking Kat’s shoulders, and she went even stiffer, mind, body, soul all freezing.
If only her blood would go cold too, but no, it did the exact opposite.
A bead of sweat formed just at the nape of her neck to drip uncomfortably down her back as the second demon woman gave Kat another of those fake kisses on the space hovering beside her left cheek.
“Oh, I can’t believe we haven’t visited any of the humans yet,” said one of the two as she squeezed Kat’s shoulder like they were close friends.
“Well, we’ve been so busy with the shop,” said the other, gliding clawed fingers through Kat’s hair.
“Yes, but it’s terribly rude.”
“You’re right! So rude. Please, accept our apologies?”
“We’ll do much better next time. Promise.”
Kat’s head pinged between the two, and she opened her mouth because she was sure it was her turn, but nothing came out.
A third demon, the one who Azrion had greeted on the street, slid in between the women and scooped up Kat’s hand to press his lips to her knuckles. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Katarina of Ankerick.”
That was it, that was the thing that was actually going to kill her.
Kat could feel her vision tunneling and her body overheating, and the pain beginning to climb up her spine determined to do in her head.
If she hadn’t already fucked up, she was bound to in the next moment, and she’d be plunged into the hells where she would be surrounded by even more demons, touching, prodding, talking…
But then she was tugged away from the others by a hand around her waist. She knew it was Azrion’s touch because there was that spark again, the one that didn’t happen with anyone else.
He fit her against his side, and it seemed like that small action was enough to quell the others.
She never thought she’d be grateful for a demon gripping her around the hips, but Azrion’s touch went from an annoyance to a necessity, and the darkening in her vision cleared away.
Then he rubbed his thumb gently into the divot of her waist, and a shiver ran up her back, chasing away the heat. Huh, so that’s at least useful.
“Katarina, these are my good friends, Calran, Cherzer, and Shaneth Naevas.”
All three were a creamy orange color with hair a bit like Brioni’s, fiery and worn in curls around their spiraling horns.
Their black eyes glimmered with friendliness, set deeply into round features, but Kat could only nod at each of them, impossible to tell apart, though she noted they had surnames, so they must have been part of one of those sixteen noble families Azrion was so fond of.
“Thought we might peruse the shop,” Azrion said, giving Kat’s side a squeeze. “See what’s new?”
“Oh, you have perfect timing—we just appraised our latest shipment and set everything out.”
“I had a feeling.” Azrion gave Kat a knowing look, though she wasn’t sure what on earth she was supposed to know.
The female demons were experts at speaking in tandem as they showed off the items on display.
The theme, as it turned out, was oddities, bits and bobs they collected by way of writing letters—letters sent through the rune portal, Azrion pointed out and then praised Kat for her marvelous work at the post. They all chimed in then, declaring the virtues of Heck Post and its phenomenal employees, and Kat was certain she’d been dead for at least ten minutes, and the torture of her afterlife was painfully spot on.
All three Naevas siblings were talkative, just as full of questions as they were explanations.
They asked after how Kat was finding Heck, what her job was like, how she and Azrion had met.
Kat stuttered through every answer, and Azrion did his best to pick up the half-spoken sentences and quarter-formed ideas she attempted.
Azrion acted very interested in it all, but his gaze kept flicking to the door. When it finally opened, his grip on Kat’s waist tightened.
“Naranni!” the twins squealed in succession, sweeping over to shower the pale blue demon in embraces and air kisses, but the newcomer’s black eyes found Azrion first and then, unfortunately, terrifyingly, found Kat.
“Did you see anything you like, darling?” Azrion shifted Kat in his grip so they were facing one another, but his voice was too loud for the intimate position.
Kat was befuddled, gaze darting all over until Azrion’s fingertip nestled itself just under her chin.
He tilted her head back so that her eyes met his.
She stretched her neck, shoulders rolling back for perhaps the first time all day, hair falling away from the protective cave she always hid away in as her features and brain went slack.
Azrion’s smirk shifted from one side of his face to the other, a slow crawl that made the fine tip of his nose wiggle just a bit and a dimple form in his left cheek.
Silvery brows arched upward in a silent rehash of the question, but he should have known he wasn’t getting an answer, not when so much of her throat was exposed and her heart was suddenly beating so hard in it.
“Of course not, this place isn’t your style,” he said so that only she could hear, and his fingers traced up her jaw, over her ear, and past her temple to smooth through her hair. “It’s been a pleasure, friends, but we must be going—we’ve got a date to get to.”
Azrion caught Kat around the waist again and swept her through the store, past the others who offered musical goodbyes.
Kat would have tripped over the raised threshold if she’d had half a mind about what was going on, but it was a bit easier to be led by someone when she forgot she was burdened with a body.
Kat finally got her bearings again when the shop was far enough behind them that she could no longer see it. “Oh, my gods,” she finally said and raked both hands down her face.
Azrion came to an abrupt halt, eyes wide. “What ever is the matter?”
“I made an idiot of myself in there,” she hissed.
“What? How? You barely said two words.”
She squeaked out a groan as if to say, Exactly.
“Nonsense, you were perfect!” He waved away the non-problem and turned to walk backwards down the street, curling a finger so that she would follow.
Defeated, she did. “It was I who failed. I could have been so much more helpful, but I don’t know enough about you to fill in during your charming pauses. So tell me, Katarina.”
“Tell you what?”
“Everything?”
She groaned and ran hands into her hair to pull it forward and shield her face.
“Understood—you require more direction. Start with your childhood.”
“Absolutely not.”
He snorted. “That tells me more than you think. How about your family? You’ve a sister here, don’t you?”
“Kaly,” she said, gaze drifting down the road and vision blurring before she shook her head. “No, that’s off limits too.”
“Come now, I could go find her myself, have a little chat—”
“She would cut off your tail and strangle you with it.”
Azrion blanched to the palest lavender and fell still. “Off limits it is. What about life before you came here? What did you do?”
“I stole things,” she said without thinking then cleared her throat. “Sewed things, I mean.”
Azrion was quiet, waiting, and she could feel his pupilless eyes on her.
“Then some assholes beat us unconscious and used sorcery to try to cart us off to another city where they could sell our bodies to the highest bidder.”
Azrion’s silence shifted from curious to embarrassed. “I…that is…at least you ended up here instead?”
Kat touched her cheek, finger sliding along the tight skin of her scar. How much would she have gone for? It was a terrible thought to have, but the low price she knew she would fetch only made her feel worse, and the nausea of disgust rose like an off tide in her belly.
“As an amends, I will tell you about myself!”
“That doesn’t—”
Azrion spun on his heel, slipping his elbow into her grasp and somehow guiding them along the road again like they’d never paused their casual stroll.
“I’ve entered into my twenty-ninth year quite recently.
It was a good time, though it sort of led to this whole mess.
I’ve got one living sibling, a sister like you, though please note I am not asking after yours and don’t deserve asphyxiation for it.
My sister is called Zaiya, and she’s a menace.
She works with my mother overseeing the masons and the crystal quarry.
My father is an administrative head at the scholar’s hall where I too work.
There’s probably something to be said about our familial dynamic, but I try very hard to not think about it.
I’ve got my own place, but it is on the Zizreni Estate, which is arguably not actually mine, but then how much can you really own when you’re under so many claws?
” He finally took a breath, though it was more of a sigh.
Kat felt her brow narrow. “That’s a lot of words just to tell me you have a family and a job.”