Chapter 17 Cut Both Ways #2
The demon caught her arm. “Stay,” he commanded, frown deep. His tail flicked into her periphery, and the spikes on its end were big enough to impale her to the ground if she refused to comply. Not that she was sure she would get farther than a few feet with the sudden stupor that hit her anyway.
“Sweet absconding inamorata!” called a voice that swam through Kat’s veins affectionately and mingled with the magic already there, presumably from that gold demon’s touch. “I implore you, my swift-footed and deafened-eared mate, to—oh!”
She blinked, one eye and then the other, but didn’t trust herself to stay upright if she turned around to see.
“Thank all the gods and stars and street rubble you’ve stopped, Katarina.
” Azrion’s breathlessness came nearer until another voice ordered him to halt.
He coughed and replied, “Under no circumstances will I st—oh, well, a brandished weapon might convince me to slow down. Not to mention my legs and lungs aren’t made for long distance.
Stars, father was right when he said I wouldn’t last in the guard. ”
Kat snorted, and so did the big golden demon.
“Darling, are you all right?”
She nodded, still eyeing the guard standing in her way. “Where’s Kaly?”
“Not here.”
“Then move.” Her legs knew she wasn’t balanced enough to get around him, but her will won out, and she tried.
Hands gripped her shoulders and held her steady. It looked so effortless from where she stood, and Kat could no longer take it—though she wasn’t quite sure what it was. She slammed her fists against her captor’s chest and screamed in his face.
Of course, Kat’s perception and reality were two different beasts, the one she imagined a terrifying monster of might and rage, and the one she embodied but a frustrated rabbit.
She couldn’t know that Tonomoch’s gentle calming magic meant she was only barely tapping him and making a mildly annoyed noise rather than thrashing for her life to be free.
“Katarina, dear, would you mind please not assaulting the heavily armored and presumably already battered guard?” Azrion called, voice closer but bedraggled.
“I promise to defend your honor and take up the mantle in your stead, but I do need a moment to catch my breath first. Ah! Yes, yes, all right, I see how sharp it is. It’s not like I said I’d kill him, though, and really look at the two of us.
Do you actually believe I pose a threat to your big golden friend? ”
From behind her, the other demon made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat.
“Exactly. Now, if you would be so kind as to unhand my human, I think we can come to some sort of understanding.” Azrion’s touch replaced the strange demon’s, and with it came the overwhelming desire to collapse.
“How in blazes did you get so fast?” he asked in her ear as he tugged Kat against his body.
She shook her head as she spun into him, closing her eyes and pretending none of it had happened because gods it was painfully embarrassing all of a sudden, and maybe if she could just disappear into Azrion’s arms she could go back to that nice moment in the studio before running and dinner and the attack.
The attack.
“I need to know if Kalypso is all right,” she rasped up against Azrion’s shirt.
“Why’s she asking about Kaly?” The blue demon appeared at the gold one’s side and scratched his chin with a short sword.
“Presumably, this is her sister,” said the one Kat had kind-of-but-not-really pummeled.
The other whistled lowly. “Her sister? Boy is she gonna be pissed when she finds out you talked to her before she got a chance.”
“We’re both talking to her.”
The blue one held up his weapon and an empty hand defensively. “Nu huh. I talked to the scrawny purple windbag.”
Azrion clicked his tongue. “Okay, inaccurate assessments aside, could we please be taken to my mate’s sister?”
The demons traded glances, and it was like an entire combative conversation pinged silently between them until the golden one sighed in defeat.
“Unfortunately, we can’t do that. Kalypso wasn’t badly injured, but there’s protocol and…
other shit.” He spread his hands open with surrender.
“And I doubt she’ll admit it, but she has to rest after what she did tonight. ”
“But she’s all right?” Kat breathed, fingers laced into Azrion’s shirt but her gaze set on the other two, searching for the truth.
“All right?” The blue one laughed, a sharp sound that cut through the eeriness of the night. “She saved all our asses. She saved the whole city’s ass!”
“The city doesn’t have an ass, Garion.”
“Then what just got kicked by all those monsters?”
Pride prickled up Kat’s chest. That’s my sister, she thought, and as much as she wished she could embrace her then, there was a simmering relief right beneath it.
Now isn’t a good time to say sorry anyway.
She needs to focus on getting better, not on me.
Kat dug into her skirt’s pocket. “Can you give her this for me?”
Both demons flinched away from the needle she brandished.
“It’s not a weapon!” Azrion said quickly, flicking his hand into the fray to show he wouldn’t be impaled.
The needle was even woven into a piece of stiff fabric to keep it from poking, but Kat decided that might be a little snide to point out. She passed it off to the gold demon who assured her it would find Kalypso’s hands.
Kat kept her lips pressed together tightly on the walk away from where she had ended up.
She couldn’t even ask Azrion where in Heck they were, she just hoped he would guide her back to the post. With hands in his pockets, he strode beside her, away from the worst of the rubble until they were alone on a narrow street full of houses lit gently from inside.
“You know, if you want to see her, I can make it happen.”
“No,” she said too quickly even for her own ear. “I’m…not allowed. By order of the guard or something.”
“The guards orders mean nothing when faced with enough coin. Tomorrow we can—”
“I can’t.” The sharpness in her voice put an end to the conversation, and the two walked silently through the streets for some time.
“My brother was in the guard,” the demon finally said, voice floating into the night like a ghost.
Kat lifted her head to see the corners of Azrion’s mouth turned down.
“He was killed.”
She waited for more because, with Azrion, there always was. Except this time. This time, he only stared blankly at the way ahead, still moving toward it but with none of his typical exuberance.
“I didn’t…know,” she said quietly once the silence between them had gone on too long. “I’m sorry.”
Azrion shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I thought he was indestructible, though, you know? In fact, I still do most days, which leads to a lot of confusion since he’s not…undestructed.” He gestured meekly to the road before them and the siblings that weren’t there.
“Kaly’s indestructible,” Kat half whispered.
“I don’t mean to suggest you should think of her any other way.” Azrion shoved his hands back into his pockets. “I just want you to know that I understand.”
They turned a corner, and the post’s drayk roost loomed on the other side of the main thoroughfare.
The crescent district looked as if nothing had happened in Heck at all, serene and quiet and untouched, and guilt ate away at Kat’s insides—guilt at how safe she was now and always, all because of Kaly.
She wasn’t quite sure what she was waiting for as the two of them stood staring at the post, but she waited anyway. “Thank you for walking me back.”
Azrion nodded.
She stepped out into the road.
“Kat, wait.” He ran a hand over his smooth chin, dark eyes cast down. “If you love her, don’t hesitate to tell her every day. Not because she might not be there tomorrow, but just because it’s nice to hear.”
It was good advice, of course, but that didn’t mean Kat was ready to take it, so she just nodded and went inside alone.