Chapter Forty-Four #2
Their existence was strange. They were just like the humans. Just like the angels. Laughing with one another, jesting, their voices bleeding into the hum of a village at peace.
This natural, idyllic morning did not suit the creatures he’d spent his life hunting, and it was unnerving.
He thought of the comrades he’d lost over the years. The men and women who had died screaming, their flesh torn by claws and teeth.
There has to be something I’m missing. The thought had been bothering him for a while now. This is all too easy. But for Aurelie’s sake, he kept quiet for now, unwilling to send her into another panic.
“My minions!” Severin practically burst from his home, the door swinging wide. Vex chirped in surprise, and all three heads turned to find the wrathborn grinning at them from the threshold, dangling a silver vial from his fingers. “Are you ready to save the world?”
Lute stood behind him, her shadows wound around a third demon. His skin was a bright yellow, and he lashed a barbed tail at them in protest as steam billowed from flared nostrils.
An envyborn. Or that’s what Yuri might have thought, if not for the silvered markings and the telltale black wings of a wrathborn sprouting from the beast’s back.
A hybrid, then. Yuri was on his feet at once.
“Come in, come in,” Severin called, sealing the door shut behind them. Immediately the hybrid’s head whipped to Yuri. The abomination stumbled backward in an effort to escape, but Lute’s shadows held strong.
“Relax. The angel isn’t going to touch you,” Severin told the hybrid as he crouched before it. “We’re just going to try a little experiment.” He uncorked the silver vial with a soft pop, and immediately the room was filled with a sharp metallic tang.
Vex made a sound of protest at the stench, while Yuri fought every instinct to summon his Glory as Severin took the hybrid by the neck and poured the contents into its mouth.
A second passed, then several more, and doubt began to root itself in his chest when the hybrid continued to glare at them.
Surely this would end the same as it had before and the demon would burst into ash. Yuri angled his body closer to Aurelie, ready to haul her back if anything happened. Yet one minute passed in silence, and rather than combusting, the demon’s breath hitched as he began to change.
His skin tone shifted, draining to a fleshy pink as the silver patterns along his body faded. His fangs receded, the redness of his bloodshot eyes disappearing as his claws dulled.
The change swept over the demon like dawn breaking over a battlefield, and by the time it was done, there was no sign of the hybrid from before. There was only a man sitting before them, breathing hard as he grasped at his head, searching for horns that had disappeared.
Aurelie’s fingers pressed to her lips.
“Gareth.” Her voice wavered. “Is that you? By the Light, we thought we’d lost you in that hunt.”
The man opened his mouth to speak, though he was perhaps not yet used to his new form, for he struggled to get out his words.
“No one apart from us five can see him,” Severin said, keeping his voice low. “And no telling any of the other vespers, Vex. My horde knows I’ve been working on something, but not everyone is going to be so open to the idea of a cure.”
Vex perched atop Aurelie’s shoulder, holding a strand of her hair. “I will say nothing.”
“Good, then I’m going to take him for now.” Lute looked pointedly at Aurelie as if waiting to be challenged. “I’ll hide him until we’re ready to share what we’ve been working on. We just needed you to see that it works.”
Aurelie nodded slowly, still processing what she’d just seen.
While she was looking at the gloating demon, Gareth’s eyes flashed to Aurelie. Something about the look had Yuri positioning himself between them, but it was there and gone in a flash as Lute took the man by the arm and ushered him down the hall.
Even then, Yuri could not pull his gaze away from the direction Gareth had disappeared, unable to shake that something was wrong.
“Why the long face, Pigeon?” Severin taunted. “You should be singing my praises.”
“It’s real.” Though Yuri recognized his own voice, he hadn’t realized the words slipped from him until they were already out in the open. “Your cure truly worked.”
“You did it.” Aurelie was breathless, and Yuri didn’t understand the way his heart squeezed when the demon turned to her, his grin widening.
Severin stepped toward Aurelie, taking her hands. “We did it.”
She grinned back at him, then turned suddenly and flung her arms around Yuri with a joyous laugh.
He wanted to celebrate with her. He wanted to trust what he’d just seen with his own eyes. And yet he stiffened as she pressed close, frozen for a beat too long.
Severin swept in with none of Yuri’s same reservations, scooping Aurelie into his arms. He spun her easily, the hem of her dress flaring while she and the vesper laughed, delighted. The sound rang off the stone walls like music.
For one sweet moment, the war itself fell away, and even Yuri felt the hope of a world that could soon be.
“We’ll free my father,” Aurelie announced, her arms slipping around Severin’s neck. “He can be the one we use to show King Edric the cure. Unless you plan to use it yourself instead?”
“Your father can have it first. I don’t mind staying bonded to you for a little while longer.”
Yuri saw the moment those words landed.
“Our bond,” Aurelie echoed softly, her voice catching. Her eyes darted away, his words clouding her joy.
The look grated at Yuri, who felt tension coil low and hot in his chest as she grieved the slow unraveling of a bond that never should’ve belonged to Severin in the first place.
The demon had gone quiet, eyes never straying from hers.
Yuri could accept that she might miss the magic. Severin’s bond gave her strength, and power enough to tempt any human. But by the look in her eyes, he knew it wasn’t just the bond’s gifts she would mourn.
He turned away when he felt the jealousy that seared him, shutting it out at once.
How long had it been since he’d last felt that? Light, he’d sworn never to allow himself to be consumed by it again.
He’d be glad to be rid of Severin. Without the bond, there would be nothing left tying him to Aurelie. She’d return to her life in Rhovar, and Severin could drift away, out of their lives for good.
“You’d make a fine knight,” she told the demon, her voice gentle. “Once you’re human again, you should consider taking up the sword.”
His smile was apologetic as he set her down. He patted the flute tied to his belt. “I’ve no fondness for the sword. Only for my music. If the world becomes safe for me, then perhaps I’ll finally have the chance to play it, town to town.”
Her posture shifted, longing flaring to life within her.
Severin cleared his throat, turning from her to Yuri. “We make an excellent team, Pigeon. The world will have you to thank for what comes next.”
Yuri said nothing, his Glory still waiting there just beneath the surface, begging him to make use of it.
“Now,” Severin told them both, his voice bright with mischief. “How about we celebrate?”