Chapter 25 #2
“Yes! The empty cabin, the unsigned, unaddressed letters, the secrecy.” She sighed loudly with a romantic wistfulness she was surprised she could muster when surrounded by tools of torture and so many stains that looked like blood, but it was mostly so she could cover another strange sound from upstairs.
“I came up with a lot of possible scenarios, but I think my favorite was the one where your lover had been turned into this cottage, which is why no one was here and it was boarded up, and through some special magic, the house could read any letters delivered to it, but you were so devastated you couldn’t possibly bring yourself to make the deliveries on your own.
I also made up a tragic backstory for the reason you work at the Scholar’s Hall—you’re trying to get good enough at magic to turn your lover back into a demon, but, plot twist, your father, who you study under, doesn’t approve, and he’s the one who turned them into a cottage in the first place!
The whole thing’s terribly romantic, if I do say so myself, and I was even thinking of writing it all down in a book or something, but now I’m sort of hoping it’s not true because I don’t think all of us should really be inside your long-lost love like this, right?
I mean, I guess that could be what you’re both into, which would be totally fine, but a building can’t exactly tell you what it wants, can it?
Unless we just don’t speak the same language.
You know, I’ve heard stories about sentient houses before, and they usually communicate through squeaks and groans, but—”
“Shut up!” The demon squeezed the linen tighter to his ear and took a staggering step toward the back of the basement.
“Your inane prattling is a hex all on its own. Transfiguring a living creature into an inanimate object is practically unheard of anyway.” He ripped a cloth off another table revealing even more sharp tools and nasty-looking bottles.
Brioni grinned then, and it was genuine because at least she knew she wasn’t getting turned into a pile of anything. But the scuffing upstairs cut her celebratory silence short. “So what is it then?” she shouted. “What happened to your mate?”
The demon scoffed, propping his hip against the table as he rummaged through the objectionable objects. “Clearly I was not harboring that secret here.”
“It’s okay! You can tell me—I’ve done way crazier things for love.
I even ran at you with a knife.” She giggled, but it didn’t have the exact disarming effect she was looking for, the demon rifling wilder and knocking a load of glass and metal to the ground.
Brioni stifled a shriek. “I…I uh…t-tried to change my hair color once for a boy. All of his girlfriends were brunette, so I asked my half sister how I could get mine like that too. She gave me this powdery stuff to mix with this sludgy stuff and, well, it didn’t turn brown, but my hair stank like eel soup for a week. ”
“Humans are so dense they can’t even change their hair color?” The demon scoffed, tripping over scattered junk as he continued to knock things over in his frenzied search. Apparently he had not seen Aofe’s blue hair.
“Yeah, we’re pretty dumb, actually.” Brioni took a sideways step closer to Ragnar. “So dumb we would forget all of this in a few hours.”
“I told you not to move.”
“You did?” Brioni shifted back quickly, knocking once more into the cabinet as an even louder noise came from overhead. “See? Very forgetful!”
The orange demon finally rounded on her, ear still bleeding and body swaying, but the short, crystal-tipped staff he had finally pulled from the mess on the table gave Brioni pause. “No one will miss you if I just get rid of you, will they?”
It wasn’t meant to be a real question, but Brioni certainly hoped so—she knew Ragnar would, at least, but the current situation suggested they’d go “missing” together, a thing Moar would be heartbroken over.
But Kat would miss her too, that she knew for certain.
And Alamar. Maybe even Balran and Kaly. And when the mail wasn’t delivered, everyone on her route would at least spare her a thought.
Oh, and Stephan would certainly miss her, and the teal drayk was still waiting on her name.
And there was also, of course, every single veilhound.
“More than will miss you.” Brioni grabbed the edge of the wobbly cabinet and pulled with all her might.
The crash was resounding, glass shattering as bottles scattered in a horrible cascade between them.
The demon cast again, but this time not at her.
Liquid pooled under the splintered wood, and orange mist battled a whole host of colors.
Whatever she’d done had distracted him enough, but the noise upstairs grew too loud to be covered.
“What the blazes?” The orange demon’s black eyes darted to the stairway just as a clattering filled it, claws on splintering wood scrambling out of the darkness. Darkness that was suddenly filled with swirling purple eyes.
“Balls!” Brioni yelped as loudly as she could, pointing to the orange demon as she sprinted away.
Maybe it wasn’t the right command, but the veilhounds understood it all the same.
Bony spines flooded down the stairwell as massive bodies fought one another to be the first to draw blood.
There wasn’t enough room, but the creatures didn’t care—they crawled over one another, jumped the banister, and attacked.
The demon’s scream was horrible, but it was quickly swallowed up by gnashing teeth and snarling snouts. The hounds’ bodies blotted out the shredding of the scholar’s robes, but the ruckus didn’t disturb the bodies on the cots. Ragnar groaned, though, head lifting.
Without hesitation, Brioni grabbed another knife and sawed at the ropes, telling him through rushed whispers she was there, he was safe, and she was getting him out. He was moving more now, fighting what was putting him under.
Oh, that rune! She threw herself to the floor and dug the knife into the symbols carved into the floor beneath him. “Stop hurting my Ragnar,” she growled as she scraped blade against floorboard. “I won’t let you! I won’t!” Orange sizzled as she scratched away the hateful markings.
“Brioni?”
Ragnar’s black eyes blinked open. He fought the runes, and the half-frayed ropes snapped. Brioni grabbed him by his big bulky arms and pulled.
Ragnar slid off the chair, flopping onto the ground beside where Brioni landed—not atop her, thank the gods, because as much as she wanted to be beneath him every other waking moment, right then would have been pretty inconvenient.
“Zelvax,” he huffed out. “The orange one. He’s here. Run.”
She cupped his face, wiggling closer so that they were right up against one another on the basement floor. “I don’t think we have to worry about him anymore.”
Ragnar made a disbelieving sound, eyes narrowing as he lifted his head.
Brioni tightened her grip. “No, don’t look—it’s too gruesome for your delicate sensibilities!”
The pack was still snarling and ripping, and Ragnar apparently did see because all the magical daze drained out of his face. Then he quickly focused back on Brioni. “Are you hurt?” His hand skimmed up her side, fingers trembling.
“No,” she told him, and it was either because every part of her body felt equally bad so it was like nothing hurt at all or because having him meant all the pain melted away. “Are you?”
He shook his head in her hold, skin shimmering like silver in the dim light.
Brioni put on her number one best smile despite the growling in the chamber and the dirt on the floor because Ragnar had more than earned it. “I love you.”
Ragnar blinked. “Did I die?”
She snorted. “I don’t think so considering you’re still here with me.”
He sat up and took her with him, hands falling to her waist and tugging her closer as something bone-like snapped behind them. “But you just said…”
“I know the timing isn’t great what with the fact you’re still probably a little under some spell and maybe a little poisoned too, and the other fact that there are two unconscious strangers in the corner who may or may not need a healer’s attention pretty soon, and the third fact that your veilhounds are eating a demon and that’s probably going to mess up their diet, and the future fact that I don’t know how I’m going to carry everybody out of here, but I need to say the most important fact to you right now.
” She wrapped her arms around his neck and touched the tip of her nose to his.
“I understand the bite-heart you gave me now, and the reason why I can’t stop coming around the barn and why you let me come around at all.
We’re mates. We’re meant to be. You’re my soulbond thingy—you were always that even before I knew what it was.
Please say you still want me to be yours. ”
Ragnar scooped her into his lap, strength suddenly surging. His lips were cold, but they were pressing to hers with a fervor as his grip tightened. “Thank the gods you’ve said it for the both of us,” he mumbled between kisses. “I was afraid to tell you.”
She bit at his lips and crushed her chest to his. “Why?”
A crunch behind them made them both wince. “If you knew I never wanted to let you go, I was afraid it would chase you away.”
Brioni pulled back, cocked her head, and gave him a pitiful look. “That’s pretty dumb, Ragnar. Telling me you love me is one sure way to keep me around.”
The demon grinned, fangs on display and black eyes boring into the soul that was hers and his both. “Then I love you, Brioni.”