Chapter 28 Apropos of Familial Relations #3
“Yeah! And she’s awake too! Oh, you should have seen it, it was so sweet after the gross stuff.
Zaiya kissed her and cried and started apologizing like it was somehow her fault, and guess what?
The demon guy? Turns out he’s actually a human!
I mean, you probably could have guessed that—that was kind of the whole body switching thing, right?
He’s not awake yet, but Balran says that’s probably from spending so long under the spell kinda like us when we first got here.
I told her the laughing magic is probably the best bet on him because it’s going to be rough waking up surrounded by demons. ”
“A human man?” Kaly’s hand instinctively went to one of her knives. “You don’t think he was one of the slavers, do you?”
Brioni shook her head. “Oh, no. Out in that cottage Zelvax was using for all this awful magic, there was a bag of human stuff that looks like it belonged to him, and while I was waiting for Ragnar to wake up the other day, I went through it. No slaving stuff, but there were journals and drawings and dried flowers. I think he’s some kind of explorer from the south who was obsessed with finding the Achreos Barrens. Well, buddy, you sure found it!”
The others filed out as Bri explained, and Kat had never seen a set of demon men look so…
well, weak was probably the right word, but then again she had seen Azrion rather ragged and exhausted, and this was a different kind of spent, like all their magic had been used up.
Fenthorn rubbed at his eyes and Ozirax massaged one hand with the other then switched.
Azrion stretched and yawned and then pretended none of it happened. “Marvelous job everyone! And don’t mind my sister. She’ll probably never thank the two of you, but somewhere down in her hardened little heart she’s grateful. Though Ozzy, she probably isn’t sorry about the death threats.”
“Thank Frank for Balran holding her back, otherwise my lines would have been crooked.”
“Who threatened you?” Kaly growled.
Kat grabbed her sister’s arm. “Zaiya says a lot of things she doesn’t mean. Just like a couple someone elses we know.”
Kaly grunted but a nod from Ozirax had her muscles untensing.
Melora exited the room as well, curiously with a roll of parchment in hand where she was scribbling notes.
“Mother won’t believe this.” She stepped into the group, finishing out the circle they had somehow created around Brioni, and her eyes snapped up over the short woman’s head to meet Kat’s. “Was this really your idea?”
Kat’s heart fell into her ass. “Uh,” she said.
“Yes!” Azrion threw an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her to his side. “My Katarina is utterly brilliant after all, not to mention completely dedicated to the good of Heck and its demonic inhabitants. Make sure you write that down, Mels—a human with nothing but the best intentions for Heck.”
Melora blinked slowly, lip curling in disgust, then went back to writing.
Kaly probably would have cut someone then if she could choose between the demon who was touching her sister and the demon who was insulting her sister, but she met Kat’s eyes and obliged the tight head shake she received to stay still.
“Lucky I was here,” Melora went on. “The council will need a full briefing on what happened, and I’m the only one levelheaded enough to record it.
I’ve already asked the guards to write up their own versions of what they saw and Balran’s notes will be adequate, but I need more from the rest of you, if you can manage it.
Especially you”—she pointed at Kat with her quill without looking at her—“Kraparina, is it?”
“It’s just Kat.” She dug her nails into her sister’s elbow in anticipation of violence.
Kaly gripped her knife’s hilt. You want me to kill her? she asked silently.
Sort of, but not really. Her mom’s on the council, Kat told her through face twitches alone.
So? I’ll kill her too.
We don’t do assassinations, remember? Trust me, I can handle this.
Kaly snorted out a disappointed sigh but released her knife.
“Well, this is super awkward,” Bri announced, clapping her hands together and spinning in the circle’s middle like she’d just been handed the best gift ever.
“But I’m happy to give the council my report, if you want to transcribe.
I think it really all starts the day I met Zelvax and he guilted me into delivering that first letter, but then again we might have to go back to when I met Ragnar. Or actually when I woke up—”
“No.” Melora rolled up her scroll. “Write it up yourself, and I’ll have a scribe pick it up in a few days. Same for you since it appears your hands are out of commission for now.” She gestured to Ozirax who was still kneading at his knuckles. “But Fenny and I need statements from the both of you.”
“We do?” Fenthorn seemed to wake up then from a magic-draining-induced standing sleep.
“We do. Somewhere nice. Preferably with wine.”
“Wine,” Azrion repeated, and his fingers tightened around Kat’s shoulder. “I know just the place.”