Chapter 7
Save the Cat, or, uh…the Heck Equivalent Catlike Critter
Brioni
Though she should have fled, Brioni froze, a bad habit with a worse consequence.
“I’ve been looking for you.” Drolmoth’s voice was much closer the second time, which made it twice as unnerving and thrice as anchoring.
Then Brioni fawned because that was what she always did—had to do—and she turned to face the purple demon. She’d hoped to avoid him, but she should have realized this was inevitable since the barracks were where he spent so much of his time. “Oh, well, you found me,” she lilted through her teeth.
Drolmoth didn’t notice her smile was forced, but then she had a lot of practice.
Maybe it had been his height or his width or maybe even his hair that had first attracted her—despite everything, she had to admit he had really great hair—but it was definitely Drolmoth’s words that had been repelling.
Handsomeness notwithstanding, disgust balled itself up in her belly and tried to force its way mouthward as that particular memory prodded at her mind.
Drolmoth’s gaze flicked down Brioni’s body, and she shivered—not a good shiver, but a familiar one.
It was like waking in the infirmary all over again, terrified and wanting to scream but only able to laugh herself into oblivion because of Balran’s magic.
She’d covered up her fear with sweetness—a protective shawl she’d worn so many holes in, it no longer provided warmth.
The healers turned out to be safe, but Brioni didn’t know that at first, so she’d let the strange demons examine her like she was a piece of meat—better than actually being flayed and eaten.
And better than all the vomiting that came with testing medicinal elixirs for human consumption, but she did what she thought she should to keep everyone happy.
At the height of her fear, she’d done something even stupider than downing a potion that looked and smelled like a frog pond.
She’d flirted. There was reason behind it: if one of the biggest, toughest looking demons had an extra special affection for her, she and the other humans might be a little safer.
Boy, was she ever wrong.
Unfortunately, though, the protective instinct to placate returned. “Looks like you’ve been beating up bad guys.”
Drolmoth chuckled, the dark circles under his eyes creasing. “Something like that. And what have you been up to, I wonder?”
Avoiding you. She’d been an expert at that since the last night she spent in the infirmary.
Everyone was preoccupied with Kaly’s violent escape attempts, so it was easy for Brioni to casually and quietly slip out of their shared room and follow the sound of Drolmoth’s voice coming from the far end of the hall.
“I’d wager a whole week’s pay,” he’d said as she sneaked silently down the darkened corridor.
“You gotta nail at least three for all that gold,” came another voice.
It had sounded like they were making a bet, and Brioni had been excited to poke her nose in and ingratiate herself before she and the other humans were shipped out into Heck, expected to survive on their own.
“That’ll be easy—the crippled one can’t get away.”
She’d just made it to the hall’s end when Drolmoth’s words hit her like a swift kick to the gut after another of Balran’s experimental potions. She flattened herself to the wall as laughter filled the air and nausea roiled in her belly.
“The council’s not gonna like it if you—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know; they’re supposed to have all the rights we do.” Drolmoth scoffed from around the corner. “But have you talked to any of these humans? They’re stupid. Especially that chubby red one. No wonder she was being carted off to Cyrinth, she’d make a good whore.”
Drolmoth meant her—she was the whore. He thought it was funny to joke about hurting them and about Aofe’s disability. He thought they were all stupid.
But she was the only one who had been stupid…
Now, alone behind the barracks with nothing but the Veilwood to her right and a sturdy stone wall to her left, Brioni couldn’t exactly be rude about any of it, not to a demon twice her size who thought forcing himself on her friend made for a good joke.
“I, uh…I’ve been so busy!” Brioni remembered then she had to respond and giggled nervously, which undoubtedly sounded even more flirtatious.
“Too busy to come see me? Disappointing.”
It was almost funny how those words might have made her feel quite differently if said by someone else. Someone out in the forest who was best friends with a dog…
She snorted at herself—there probably wasn’t a worse time to get caught up in a daydream.
“Alamar just has me running so many deliveries—which I love! And Stephan makes it so much fun—he’s the qapian who pulls the cart. Have you met him? He’s really friendly, has two amazing sets of horns, and he’s right out front. Why don’t we go to the square so you can say hello?”
Drolmoth shook his head and gave her a piteous look, one that made her feel doubly stupid.
“I’m not interested in going anywhere else right now.
” He took a step toward her, and she wanted to point out the new spot he occupied was somewhere else from where he had just been, but that would have been a little too smart, and with as much as he reveled in calling her stupid, he certainly wouldn’t like it if she was anything but dumb.
Instead, she just took her own small step back and then another because her stride didn’t match his at all. “Oh, that’s too bad. I have a whole cartload of deliveries to make still, so maybe next time—”
Drolmoth’s hand fell on her wrist. “You can spare a few minutes.”
“No,” she said with a sharpness and a tug forceful enough to break out of his hold. Brioni’s voice shook as she laughed to cover up how surprised she was with herself. “I mean, Alamar is really worried about everything being on time. She says the whole city runs on the post!”
The demon’s brow pinched with a quick glance down to his now empty hand, but he grinned again. “Sounds like you’re under a lot of pressure. Maybe you need a break.”
“Good idea.” She clasped her hands behind her, taking continuous steps backward as Drolmoth advanced. “If I finish quickly, I can go take a nap—oof!” The wall came up against her back, stone that refused to budge, and then there was Drolmoth at her front, also unbudgeable.
Her gaze flicked to either side, the long length of the barracks’ back wall spreading out in both directions farther than she could run without getting caught. Her heart didn’t seem to understand, though, speeding up like she was already darting away.
“No need to go back to the post to get into bed,” he said, and she was sure he meant it seductively, but her skin crawled. And then he touched her again, and she wanted to peel her skin right off.
“Um, Drolmoth?” She watched his fingers trace up her arm as she contemplated the gentlest way to say, Ew, gross, stop. “I don’t think we should…”
“Should what?” His touch skimmed over her collarbone to her chin.
She carefully reached up to his hand and eased it away from her face. “You know.”
“No, I don’t. And neither do you.” His cold laughter rang in her memory. This was an act, and a cruel one at that. If he really liked her, really wanted her, he wouldn’t have said those nasty things.
She inhaled deeply and flattened her voice. “I’m not interested.”
“That doesn’t sound like you, human.” His hand slipped under her chin again, fingers grazing her neck.
Human.
“It…it is me, though. I’m saying…um, it.”
He chuckled, the feel of his other hand on her waist. “You don’t know what you’re saying, do you?”
Stupid.
“Please, don’t,” she whispered up against the growing pressure on her throat.
He shrugged. “You’ll like it.”
Whore.
“Don’t touch me!” she spat and shoved hard against Drolmoth’s chest.
The demon stumbled a step back, though Brioni was sure she wasn’t strong enough to actually move him. Her heart pounded madly, and her arms shook, throat suddenly tighter than it had been with a hand wrapped around it. Where in the hells had that come from?
His condescending grin fell away. “What the fuck?”
“She said, don’t touch her.”
The stones against Brioni’s sweating back suddenly felt cool rather than oppressive, and the looming shadow that appeared behind Drolmoth made her chest squeeze with hope rather than fear.
The irate look that had creased the purple demon’s face was replaced with a smirk as he straightened, glancing casually over his shoulder. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Ragnar stepped closer, a sliver of moonlight falling over his face as his gaze dipped to Brioni. “Are you all right?”
She quickly shook her head before Drolmoth could see, but the demon boxing her in scoffed anyway. “Of course she’s all right. We’re just having a friendly conversation. That’s when two demons talk to one another, in case you forgot.”
“Come here.” Ragnar ignored the other demon and beckoned to her.
Please don’t fight, Brioni chanted into her mind as she slipped out from between Drolmoth and the wall. The idea of two men throwing punches over her honor might have been a fantasy of hers long ago, but when faced with the reality, she would rather have her protector intact and her aggressor gone.
The feel of Ragnar’s gentle touch on her shoulder was like being brought in from the rain and wrapped in a warm blanket before a fire. She sidled into that warmth, half hidden by his body before she realized she was practically climbing up his back.
“What is this?” Drolmoth screwed up his face, rounding on them fully. “You would rather fuck this magicless mongrel?”
Brioni sucked in a deep breath, emboldened with Ragnar’s body between them. “Don’t you dare call him—”
“All she is choosing,” Ragnar said with a levelness that made her words catch, “is to be away from you.”
Drolmoth snorted, pointing at Brioni with an extended claw. “You have no fucking idea what you’re—”