Chapter Thirty-Five
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
Severin silenced Aurelie’s scream before any sound could escape.
He barely managed to catch her before she collapsed, her body spasming.
Her fingers dug into his arm, nails biting deep, but he didn’t push away.
Instead, he pulled her into his lap and curled his wings to shield them from prying eyes.
Gently, his hand smoothed over her sweat-slicked hair, surprised by just how much it pained him to see her like this.
Severin, too, felt nauseous and dizzy, though at least the bond wasn’t making him seize.
“Aurelie.” He patted her cheek, trying to summon her attention as her eyes rolled back. “Aurelie, talk to me.”
She gave no response save for sharp and ragged gasps as she trembled against him.
Pain lanced through his wrists, though he guessed it was severely dulled compared to what she must have been feeling.
Something must have happened to Yuri. Was something about to happen to him, too? Severin despised not knowing. Despised the way her face twisted in pain as she clung to him.
He was a demon. He was not made for gentleness or for caring. And yet he found himself murmuring her name softer as he brushed his sleeve across her clammy forehead, a darkness within him aching to make someone pay for this. “I need you to wake up for me, Badger. We need to go.”
Vex wouldn’t leave Aurelie’s side, claws clenching her shirt like a kneading cat. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I’ve no idea.” He gritted his teeth, the frustration in him a dull, seething thing.
It wasn’t until Aurelie’s lower lip began to wobble that something in him shifted. He bent closer, narrowing the space between them as he studied her.
It was strange, this bond of theirs. She was strange.
He’d spent years picking people apart, peeling back their defenses, savoring their unraveling.
But Aurelie … He hadn’t expect how jarring it would be to feel someone so wholly.
The pain that had brought her to him, the desperation she clung to, and buried deep beneath it all, the curiosity. The doubt.
Not that he cared about any of it. He couldn’t. And yet he found that there was a knot in his chest that loosened when she moved. A tension that ebbed when her eyes squinted shut and she groaned softly.
He reminded himself that he was concerned for the bond, not her.
It could never be for her no matter how much he’d enjoyed drawing sounds of pleasure from those pretty lips.
No matter how often he’d found himself wondering what clever thing she might surprise him with next, or how delighted he’d been by the way her body had turned to fire beneath his touch …
“Severin?”
He stilled at her quiet call of his name, sliding his forearm beneath Aurelie’s head and easing her upright.
“I’m here,” he told her. “Tell me what happened.”
Her eyes fluttered open, slowly at first, then followed by several quick blinks as she tried to orient herself. She gasped suddenly, trying to sit up only for her head to knock into Severin’s. He bit back a wince, leaning back to give her space.
“We need to get to Yuri.” Her voice was hoarse. “They’re going to kill him—”
“We won’t let them.” The words left him too quickly, too naturally, and he despised it. But he couldn’t stomach the fear that gnawed at her, wrapping Aurelie in its clutches. There was nothing he wanted more than to soothe it. To fix all her problems, and smooth that furrow knit between her—
No.
That was the bond talking, not him. Severin didn’t care about any of that. This girl was entertaining, certainly, but only in the way that any new toy was.
“Can you stand?” he asked, annoyed when his voice came out concerned.
She nodded, but swayed the moment she tried. Severin’s hands were on her instantly, steadying her. He shielded her instinctively, pulling him closer into his chest. When she glimpsed the strands of her own white hair, she understood why.
She gripped his arm tighter. “My hair—”
“It’s fine.” What the fuck was this feeling? This sudden, gnawing attention to detail. He was too aware of their surroundings. Of how many demons lurked nearby, and how vulnerable she was with her hair on display.
He was too aware of everything having to do with her, frankly. This human was consuming.
“We’re going to get him back.” He’d known this would be trouble when he’d offered the bond to Aurelie.
Knew the risk of it, as well as the reward.
But he hadn’t expected to become so fascinated with the knight, or that the bond would have him wound so thoroughly in its clutches.
Even as she reached for her dagger, keeping it tucked and out of sight, he felt warm with satisfaction from her tenacity.
Content when her fingers curled between his.
It was maddening.
Vex settled once more into the crook of Aurelie’s neck, staying hidden as they wove around demons still lost in the throes of passion. Severin hadn’t realized how stifling the den was until the cool air greeted them outside, welcoming them into what felt like a different world.
Kieran had been here for nearly five years now, having razed the village before he’d masked it with a glamour of his own. It wasn’t nearly as strong as Lute’s glamour on Veritas, but it was decent enough that the humans hadn’t yet found them.
“What happened to all the townsfolk?” Aurelie asked weakly. She’d pulled her hair back with a leather strap, doing whatever she could to keep it tucked out of sight.
“Kieran gave them a choice—die, or accept a bond. He was the one who made the attack on Rhovar last week, not my people.”
She stilled, though he could feel the threads of her doubt. “Then why was Lute there?”
“She had other business in Rhovar that night. I suspect she was seeing her bonded.”
The tension knotting through her was sharp and heavy. “So that’s why she ran. It wasn’t her fight.”
“It wasn’t. But you found her anyway.”
She dropped her eyes and said nothing more as they followed a path of footsteps across the dirt. In the distance came sounds of jeering from inside a small stone building that looked a few strong gusts away from crumbling entirely.
Her breath hitched. “Why would they take him to a church?”
A thread of unease wound through him as he studied the building. “Kieran’s playing to the crowd. We’re demons, after all.”
Aurelie quickened her pace, stubborn even through the fatigue that dragged at her limbs. Severin kept close, regretting—not for the first time—that they hadn’t brought Lute. Her magic would have made this so much simpler.
The church loomed ahead, shattered stained glass windows gaping open like a row of broken teeth.
He caught flashes of movement through the gaps, demons lounging over pews, their laughter curling through the night like smoke.
They lounged like overfed nobles at a soiree, attention fixed on something—or someone—at the center of it all.
Crouching, Severin kept his wings tucked low. His flute rested against his thigh, the most powerful weapon he had. He could handle the others easily enough, but Kieran was one of the oldest prideborn. Defeating him wouldn’t be easy.
It wasn’t until one of the demons shifted to the side that it became clear what they were looking at. He saw Yuri seconds before Aurelie did, and captured the sound of her shock with his magic, quick to silence it.
She pressed forward against the stone, trying to steady her breathing. Vex, too, watched with her ears pinned back as she peeked out from behind Aurelie’s hair.
Yuri was no caged curiosity or docile creature trotted out for sport.
The demons had devised something far more sinister.
The angel was strung up from the rafters, his wings wrenched wide and wrists impaled with an iron spike that had been driven deep enough to crack bone.
Golden blood streamed in glowing rivulets down his arms, dripping in molten trails beneath him.
His head hung limp, white hair matted with sweat and filth as his chest rose and fell in ragged intervals.
No wonder Aurelie was so pale. So weak.
Yuri was bleeding out.
If this kept up, all three of them would be dead by sunrise.
Demons filled the space, lounging in the pews like spectators at a play. Some laughed, while others placed wagers on how long the angel would last. Kieran sat at the center, his feet kicked up ahead of him and his presence radiating power.
Severin made no immediate move. Instead, he watched the slow drip of Yuri’s blood. The way it gleamed against the stone, and how each drop trembled for a moment before falling … Something in his chest wrenched, a hunger he had long since buried coiling up from the depths of him.
“Severin.” His name cracked like glass on Aurelie’s tongue. She’d called it more than once, clearly. “How many of them can you handle?”
He turned, feeling the horror that curled around her. She was wound too tight, her body thrumming with the kind of reckless, foolish desperation that got people killed.
“All but Kieran, if I pull from the bond. I won’t take enough to hurt you.” He drew his flute from its sheath. “Take Vex and circle around the back. When the time is right, get to Yuri. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to give you.”
Her jaw clenched tight. “You’re certain you can do this?”
He smiled, curling a finger under her chin and tipping her face up to his. “Don’t worry, Badger. I’m no martyr.” He eyed the dagger at her hip, ensuring she was prepared before he eased away.
“Go. Get the angel as quickly as you can. We’ll need Glory if this is going to end in our favor.”
Fear trembled through the bond, but there was resolve there, too, rooted solidly beneath. She patted Vex’s head, ensuring the vesper was secure before she turned away.
“Don’t do anything reckless,” Aurelie warned, but Severin only grinned.
“You know I will.”
He held his breath as he watched her go, hoping with everything in him that she wouldn’t be noticed. If only she could mask her hair, or summon back her disguise … but there was no time, and she was too exhausted to maintain any magic on her own.
Severin watched as she reached the side of the building, slipping toward a half-broken window. Only then did he draw the flute to his lips.
He didn’t play right away. Instead, he fixed his attention on a cluster of demons near the front of the church.
With a flick of his magic, Severin wrenched all sound from around them, silencing their crude amusement in an instant.
He watched, hungry for the confusion in their eyes as they glanced at one another, mouths working uselessly, not yet understanding what had been taken from them.
Then, just as one turned toward the door, Severin hurled all sound back at them like a hammer through glass. The effect was immediate.
One demon clawed at his skull, mouth gaping in a silent scream before his head snapped back, blood bursting from his ears.
Another staggered, fingers digging into his temples before he collapsed, body jerking as his skull caved under the crushing weight of magic.
A third barely had time to react before her eyes rolled back and she crumpled, limp as a discarded puppet.
Three dead in a single breath. It was a clean strike—or at least it had been, until a fourth demon toppled forward, tumbling from his pew with a resounding thud that echoed through the church.
Severin cursed under his breath.
The rest of the demons went still, their murmurs dying. All eyes turned toward the source of the sound. Blood seeped in dark rivulets from ears and noses, pooling against the cracked stone floor.
“Severin,” someone inside the church whispered, his name carrying like a curse on the wind.
A slow smile curved upon the demon’s lips. He always had enjoyed a grand entrance.
At the center of the room, Kieran rose to survey the carnage. No shock touched his face, only a flicker of interest before he lifted his gaze and locked eyes with Severin across the way.
Severin gave a lazy wave, his grin razor sharp. And before anyone could stop him, he raised the flute to his lips and began to play.
The first note poured out like honeyed wine, smooth and rich as it curled into the air.
He closed his eyes and let the music take hold, coaxing each note to life.
The melody slithered between the pews, winding around the demons’ throats like a noose.
Severin drank in his bonded’s power with every breath, threading his will into these creatures’ minds like a snare.
For a breath, the world held still.
Then chaos answered his call.
A snarl shattered the silence as he turned the demons on one another, their claws flashing silver. A sickening crunch followed as one tore the wings from another, severing them at the joint in a brutal spray of black ichor. Screams erupted, the sharp scent of gore rising with the music.
Severin played on, weaving his song deeper, guiding their minds into ruin. If his first note had been a whisper, the next was a war cry. Note by note, he pulled on their strings like marionettes.
The demons fell upon one another like starved beasts, driven by the command of his melody. One clawed at his own throat, eyes bulging with confusion before another demon pounced, raking talons through his gut.
Severin played faster, drunk on the power. Drowning in it.
A lustborn shrieked as a greedborn wrenched her back, fangs sinking into the delicate curve of her throat. A smaller demon scrambled toward the doors only for another to seize him by a wing, twisting until bone snapped with a grotesque pop.
Severin preened at the sound. His music swelled, power flooding through him in a delicious rush as he urged them on.
Kieran’s lips curled as one of the demons lunged for him, fangs bared for the kill. He caught the creature midair, fingers closing around its throat with an audible crunch.
A second demon charged from behind. Kieran barely turned to look before his tail lashed out and struck with bone-snapping force, hurling the demon into a pew.
Severin laughed, low and breathless, as he drank in the chaos of his symphony. He shifted the song once more, letting the madness build as he stoked the fury in their veins.
Kieran moved as if scything through weeds. He dodged a blade meant for his ribs, then drove his claws through another’s chest, tearing its heart free in one clean stroke. A body collapsed at his feet, ichor seeping into the stone, but the horde didn’t relent.
Through the carnage, Severin met his gaze. He shivered from the thrill—until he realized the prideborn was smiling.
That was never a good sign.
“Emeric,” the prideborn called, and the name made Severin still. “Come and say hello to an old friend.”
A narrow door swung open near the altar—
—and a hybrid stepped out into the chaos.