Chapter 29 Unlost
UNLOST
Azrion
This was not how things were meant to shake out, but as Azrion sat beside Katarina snuggled into the darkest corner of the nicest tavern in Heck across from Melora and Fenthorn, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
Perhaps it was the high of completing a spell he didn’t even know existed the week before, or the rush of working with other demons to rescue two helpless souls, or maybe it was just the chance to put theories to the test and make a real difference.
But most likely it was just the second glass of wine that had him so giddy.
Azrion draped his arm over Katarina’s shoulders, fingers skimming down her arm as he listened to her explain perfectly how the runes worked to Melora.
She was practically glowing under the dim tavern lights, golden hair brushed back from her radiant face and excitement bubbling out of her instead of shame.
Melora, in contrast, looked absolutely disgusted.
Good.
Fenthorn, on the other horn, appeared utterly abashed.
Not for his work—that he had done excellently despite his abhorrence at what it had been used for.
No, the embarrassment probably came from sitting beside his best friend’s ex-mate as if she were his own.
And hells, maybe she really was. Maybe there was no game anymore.
Frankly, Azrion had sort of forgotten about the A-plot over the last week of pleasing Katarina and solving a magical mystery.
That had been quite a bit more fun than trying to convince the world around them that the two were a couple in order to win back someone he never wanted in the first place.
“And the two of you spent how long deciphering these runes again?” Melora asked, nostrils flaring.
“I think it was five days?” Katarina looked to Azrion for confirmation.
“And four long nights,” he added and took a sip of wine.
Kat went a little pink, and Azrion squeezed her shoulder.
She sank into his side in that comforting way she’d been doing for weeks now, and then her hand fell on his chest with a playful slap, but she didn’t remove it after contact.
Well, that’s intimate, he thought and gnawed his lip, reminiscing about those fingers dancing along his cock instead of his sternum.
Melora’s coloring went darker, and she placed down her quill and parchment with a thunk, grabbing her goblet and gulping down her third glass.
Fenthorn watched her warily. “Another?”
She slammed the cup down and snapped, “Yes, obviously I—” Melora stopped herself and licked her lips, turning to him fully. “I mean, yes, that would be lovely, Fenny.” Then she caressed the side of his face as if she really were in love.
You’ve never been a fantastic actress.
“Az?” the sweetest voice in all of Heck said into his ear. “Would you get me a refill too, please?” Her hand slid down his chest to land on his thigh and gave him an affectionate squeeze.
Azrion gazed down into Kat’s beautiful face, her eyelashes batting and plump bottom lip bitten. “Of course, darling. Anything.”
“Shall we?” Fenthorn asked, pushing himself up from the table, and Azrion joined him on the long amble across the tavern.
Just before they reached the bar, though, Fenthorn grabbed his shoulder and finally sputtered, “I didn’t mean to, she’s just really convincing, you know?
And she’s also really hot—like way hotter than I realized when you were courting each other because I just saw how awful she was to you, but she’s actually kind of nice to me sometimes?
And I like when she yells at me, which is a whole other conversation for another time, but I’ll break things off if you want.
I know it’s all part of your stupid game, and I thought it might help if I went with her to Lykalia, and I admit I was kind of mad at you about Tuli, but then I saw you and the human together, and—”
“Katarina,” Azrion interrupted. “That’s her name.”
“Katarina,” Fenthorn said quickly, nodding. “Right. Sorry.”
He glanced back at their table, but it was too shrouded in shadows to see anything properly. “She really did figure it all out, your reflection runes and the hidden barrier markings. She figured everything out.”
“Yeah, she seems great, and you’re…different.”
“Hmm?”
Fenthorn shrugged. “Clearly it’s not a game anymore, but I want—no, I need everything to be right between us. I’ll do anything to get it that way, just tell me what to do.”
Azrion tipped his head and looked at his friend, the first friend he’d ever made, the one who had always been there, the one he thought had known him best. Azrion grinned.
“Everything is right between us. How could it not be?” He clasped Fenthorn’s shoulder.
“And if you want the truth, being Melora’s mate, fake or not, is punishment enough for the worst of crimes. ”
Fenthorn sucked in a breath like he had just come up for air after nearly drowning.
It was true though—Azrion wasn’t really angry. In fact, he didn’t really care. In a way, he was almost happy. And then a set of arms snaked around one of his and squeezed, and when he saw Kat, he knew he truly was happy. “Melora says she’s done taking my statement. Can we get out of here?”
He winked at Fenthorn. “You can pick up the tab this time, eh?”
They sauntered out of the tavern woven around each other, and he didn’t bother looking back to see if they were being watched.
The air outside was thick with the smell of moss and earth.
Kat clung to his arm, and he guided her only a few paces down the street until he found an alley to tug her into.
Azrion gave Katarina a long and slow kiss, hands cupping her face and holding her close.
“You did it, darling,” he said when they broke apart.
Blue eyes blinked up at him. “Did what?”
“So many things,” he whispered, his heart aching with how full it was.
And then the sky opened up.
Kat squealed as rain doused them and thunder rumbled somewhere far off. Then she held out her hands and laughed because she was immediately drenched.
“Come on,” he called, tugging her under the nearest awning. “I’m sure I can flag down a carriage.”
“We’re close to your place.” Kat wiped her hair out of her face. “Why not just walk?”
He gestured to the rain.
“All right, we’ll run then.” And she took off.
Azrion was no fan of being caught in downpours or being anything other than the perfect temperature, and he downright loathed running, but when he was in pursuit of a giggling, smiling, teasing Katarina, he loved all of those things, chiefly her.
They splashed through the streets calling after each other as they went, the intensifying storm drowning out the words, but they didn’t really matter, only that they were together and they were free.
Kat was a fast creature, but she slowed for him, an improvement on the last time they had run through Heck, and when she came to an unfamiliar crossroads, he led the way back to his home in a race that no one would lose.
The bent trees of the Zizreni gardens blocked out the worst of the storm, but a crash of thunder shook the sky, and they continued to hurry through to the portico where Azrion fumbled for the lock and Kat finally stopped to shiver.
“Still glad we ran here in the rain?” he asked as he opened the door.
She stayed still, eyes going wide. “Oh, no, I didn’t think of the mess we’d make.”
He wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her inside and into a kiss.
She was cold and wet, but she plastered herself to him, tongue and teeth demanding attention up against his own.
Her hands peeled his coat away from his shoulders, and with a wet thwack it hit the floor somewhere in the hall.
He struggled with the sopping ties of her dress until they came free, whipping about as she pushed him into the wall and tried to climb him.
Azrion lifted her and her shoes were lost somewhere beside his own near the kitchen.
The stairs would have been easier had she not been slippery, but Azrion managed, and it was only half a case anyway before they were tumbling into his studio, half dressed and wholly aroused.
She pulled at his shirt until he was bare chested, and he tugged off her outer layers, and then they collapsed on the floor in the last of their soaked clothes, her atop him with her legs spread on either side of his waist.
Kat sat up from their kissing, her thin shift clinging to her body, hair in long, wet tendrils over her breasts. He ran a hand up her thigh to her belly, tracing the navel he could see through her dress, and then he simply marveled up at her.
“You’re so beautiful, Kat.” Even though he had said it countless times, there was rawness in his throat, like this was his only real chance to tell her.
Katarina’s smile twitched. “You don’t have to lie to me, you know.” Her hand came up to the side of her face and rubbed at her cheek.
“I’m not. I haven’t once since the day we met.”
She rolled her eyes, but he gripped her hips and shook. “Why don’t you believe me?”
With the click of her tongue, she pointed to the ridge in her face from the corner of her lip across her cheek.
“And?”
Kat’s gaze darted around the room as if the answer might be drawn on the canvases. There was an answer there, but it was covered under a linen, so she couldn’t know. “My scar.”
Azrion blinked. “Scar?” He reached up and moved her hand out of the way, squinting. “I thought…that’s just how humans look.”
Kat screwed up her face, and it was still just as pretty. “You’ve seen other humans, my sister included. None of them look like this.”
“No, but Aofe is covered in dots and Brioni’s skin changes from ghostly to red, and your sister has dissimilar eyes—oh, and don’t even get me started on all of your eyes.
So strange—beautiful, surely! But strange.
Like the gods put all the color you could have there instead of on your skin where it belongs. ”
Kat gaped down at him, and he supposed if he really looked at it, he could understand now that it was a scar.
He’d seen plenty of demons with scars, it was just that demon skin scarred much differently, and with her hue and the fact she was from so far away and didn’t have horns or a tail, he’d never really questioned it.
“You just think this is how I look?”
He shrugged. “Is it not?”
“It is…” She bit her lip. “And you never said anything about it. None of the demons have actually. Not even Melora, and she’d be the first I would expect to be cruel. Humans used to be so mean, but since I’ve been here…huh.”
Azrion grinned up at her. “See? Not lying. And frankly I’m offended you thought I was.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Well, a lie was what this whole thing was built on.”
“What thing?”
Kat placed her hands on his chest and averted her gaze.
“Oh. Us.” He swallowed. He’d lived no better days than the last few with Kat, and it wasn’t just the touching and the magic.
It was the quiet moments, watching her hands thread a needle or her teeth bite down and sever a strand.
It was the way she sipped her tea and admired every cup, and the way she hummed when she forgot she wasn’t alone in the room.
But this evening had perhaps cinched the thing he’d been fearing.
Melora had finally spoken to Kat, and she was going to her mother with the details of their work, and if his father was right, then they could conspire to send her and the other humans away.
He’d been weighing his options, even going as far as to discuss with the Naevas sisters about how he might meet with their sellers in another demon city.
They thought it was just a joke, of course, because so few left Heck, but he’d asked to be indulged anyway and took the required notes.
“Azrion?” She was chasing the last of the water on his chest with a fingertip. “Can I ask you for a favor?”
“Anything.”
She tipped her head and her hair fell forward, shadowing her face. “There’s one more thing I’d like the practice.”
She didn’t have to say it because he already knew.
He reached up and traced her temple to examine her face. There was only lantern light as the storm outside raged, but it was enough to see what he needed. “Are you sure you want it to be me, Katarina?”
“Yes.” She turned her head and kissed his palm.
A spark ran down his arm and wrapped itself around his heart.
He hadn’t noticed when the magic became second nature, when it no longer stopped to make him think, when it became a comfort rather than a shock, but that all came back as her lips trailed down to his wrist and his fingers climbed up over the rounded tip of her ear and into her hair.
It had made itself comfortable, and yet the magic was stronger than ever, that thing he’d thought he’d lost because of his mistake in the caves so long ago and the binding tattoo on his chest.
Azrion pulled Katarina’s mouth down to his and kissed the woman he knew now was unequivocally his soulbond.