Chapter Forty-Seven
CHAPTER
FORTY-SEVEN
Yuri felt like he was flying.
The bond between them thrummed as Aurelie played, her heart soaring higher with each note. Onstage, she was someone else entirely, every ounce of her fear falling away as she became a woman who Yuri hadn’t yet met but wanted desperately to know.
Light, was she beautiful.
This girl was radiant and unbound, but where had she come from? Where had the knight disappeared to?
He couldn’t look away, but he wasn’t the only one.
From the side of the stage, barely visible, Severin stood with his eyes fixed on Aurelie. If not for the drifting miasma, Yuri might not have noticed Lute standing behind him, close enough to whisper something into the demon’s ear. Whatever it was made his face harden.
Though he couldn’t say why, something in that look made the hair along the backs of Yuri’s arms rise as a slow, crawling sense of dread bloomed in his chest.
Too easy, the voice within warned again. This was all too easy. You’re missing something.
At first, he told himself that this worry was all in his mind. He knew he was paranoid by nature, so perhaps this was his own fear whispering danger where there was none. After all, he’d seen the cure work with his own eyes.
Hadn’t he?
Demons have tricks. How do you know that what you saw was real?
It was possible they were being lied to, certainly. But what could Severin have to gain from this charade?
Look closer, his instincts urged. Find what’s missing.
Yuri looked again at the demon. He was smiling, whatever mask he’d dropped quickly replaced.
Whether it was paranoia or an angel’s instinct, Yuri knew in that moment that he needed to tread with more caution than ever.
“Vex.” His eyes never strayed from Severin and that envyborn wretch. “Those two are up to something. Can you do me a favor and see what you hear?”
He didn’t realize until after a long beat of silence that the vesper had her own distractions. At some point, she’d slipped unnoticed into his wine and was now drinking greedily.
“Vex,” he repeated sharply, prying her away. “Keep your wits about you!”
“The angel worries too much.” She laughed, clearly drunk. Her normally sharp, tinny words were dissonant and grating, like the screech of an out-of-tune flute.
Yuri caught her before she could list sideways, plucking her from the air as her wings faltered. He turned Aurelie’s empty chalice over and set the vesper atop the stem. She sagged onto it, content.
“You knew of Severin before all this, didn’t you?” he asked, leaning in. His voice was nearly lost beneath the din of the tavern, but he had no doubt that Severin could use magic to make out his words if the demon wanted to. “Did he ever talk to the other vespers about what he’s been working on?”
She yawned as she shook her head, happily patting her swollen belly.
“What of the hybrids?” he prodded, determined to get something out of the Luminel before she fell asleep. If anyone knew about those beasts, it should be the vespers who used all of the forest as their whisper network.
It was subtle, but there was a tightness in Vex’s jaw before she turned on her side, avoiding his stare.
“Miss Aurelie will be safe,” she said, voice carrying a surprising firmness. “All is well, angel.”
He lowered his face to the vesper’s level, trying to make sense of her words. Then, suddenly, all he could hear was the gentle strum of a lyre and a voice as sweet as honey.
The demons had fallen silent. They no longer moved. No longer joked or sang or drank. Instead, each of them stood with their heads twisted upward to Aurelie, spellbound.
She was too lost in her own music to notice the shift, her eyes shut as she strummed the lyre. Yuri, too, felt his attention pull toward her, unable to resist the siren song.
Severin reacted first, cursing before he swept onto the stage, lute already in hand. The envyborn behind him melted back into the shadows she’d slithered from.
Aurelie startled as the second instrument joined hers. Severin leaned close, whispering something into her ear. He nodded toward the crowd, and panic quickly bubbled up through the bond as she followed his gaze.
He must have instructed her to keep playing, letting his music overlap her own. As it did, the crowd began to stir. One by one, the demons came back to themselves as if nothing had happened.
The music ended with a crash of applause.
Severin bowed and Aurelie gave an awkward curtsy before allowing herself to be swept offstage.
Yuri met them at the stairs, having hauled Vex onto his shoulder so that the small creature wouldn’t be left alone.
She settled there comfortably, nestled and napping against his neck.
“Anyone care to explain what just happened?” Yuri took Aurelie by the arm, escorting her through the crowd.
“Believe me,” she rasped, huddling closer, “I want an answer as much as you do.”
“My magic can change the way someone thinks.” From the way Severin’s voice rang crystal clear, Yuri guessed he was using magic to keep this conversation private.
“It’s like we’re parasites tunneling into their minds.
It requires an incredible amount of focus and power, but our bonded did it without even meaning to.
” The demon paused, studying her. “It’s incredible. ”
Yuri supposed he should be relieved that she had such a powerful tool at her disposal and the means to protect herself. But as it was, he was trying his best not to bristle.
What did it mean that she could summon a demon’s magic this potently, but still struggled with his?
“Most of the demons won’t realize what just happened,” Severin continued, “but there may be a few who catch on if we press our luck. It’s best that we not draw any more attention to ourselves.”
Severin’s hand slipped to the small of Aurelie’s back, and Yuri couldn’t tear his gaze away from such a casual touch.
“How about a dance, Badger?”
Aurelie hesitated. Her eyes flicked toward Yuri, as if waiting to see his reaction. He forced his expression into one of neutrality, digging his nails into his palms to force himself to stay quiet.
His heart fell to his stomach when she turned back to the demon with a tentative nod.
Severin guided her with great flourish to the center of the room as another musician took the stage.
This one was far less talented, but the tavern’s revelry suffered little.
Aurelie laughed as the demon spun her, the sound as soft as wind chimes.
Her cheeks were flushed as she let him pull her close.
Let him lean down to purr something into her ear with that silvered tongue of his.
And all the while, she smiled.
There was no fear through the bond. No tension. Among all these demons and a wrathborn who was far more powerful than any of them gave him credit for, Aurelie felt nothing but joy.
Yuri’s jaw tightened as it pulsed through the bond. His fingers curled around the edge of the table, raw and restless as jealousy gnawed through him.
“They make a good pair, don’t they?” Vex purred from his shoulder.
It seemed the tiny menace wasn’t asleep after all, though in her inebriation her voice had taken on a darker, sharper tone. If she hadn’t been glowing blue, Yuri would’ve thought it was a Nyxaris whispering near his ear. “I’ve never seen a human adapt so quickly to a demon’s magic.”
Yuri didn’t take his eyes off the twirling pair. “Are you trying to bait me?”
Vex rolled lazily on his shoulder, inspecting her nails. “Is it working?”
Unfortunately, it was.
Rationally, he understood that none of this was normal. He barely knew Aurelie, and yet here he was, half-sick with an emotion he’d long buried deep within him and prayed would never resurface.
What he couldn’t understand was why, if he had to feel all these emotions, didn’t she? Was she just better at hiding them, or did she truly not feel the pull the way he did?
He couldn’t fault her if she didn’t. Not when he kept sending her mixed signals, trying to draw her closer with one hand while pushing her away with the other.
Severin was a demon. He had no rules that bound him. Nothing that told him it was wrong to want something.
But Yuri wasn’t supposed to want, and he’d seen firsthand what desire did to an angel. Still, jealousy burned as he watched Severin touch her.
That was the dagger, but her laughter was what twisted the blade inside him. She was radiant beneath the golden glow of the candlelight, having no business looking so at ease among demons.
Especially not this demon.
Yuri had no definitive proof that something was wrong. He had but a feeling, low and insistent, pulsing in his gut. Still, he needed to talk to her now, before this went any further.
He moved before he had time to second-guess himself, nerves crawling up his skin.
Severin saw him coming.
The demon didn’t stop dancing. He only pulled Aurelie tighter, his eyes darkening. He moved to spin her once more, but Yuri reached out to catch her hand on the turn.
“Mind if I cut in?”
Aurelie drew a tiny gasp, and Yuri wished more than anything that he could make sense of the emotions that sparked through their bond.
“She’s all yours,” the demon said pleasantly. But then, in a voice that Yuri was certain only he could hear: “For now.”
He resisted the urge to clench his jaw, refusing to give Severin the satisfaction. Instead, he turned his attention to his bonded.
“I never thought I’d see the day,” she teased, though her voice was softer and more hesitant.
Yuri threaded his fingers through hers. “I’ve been known to surprise people on occasion.”
That earned him a real smile. Not the bright, easy one she’d worn with Severin, but something quieter that made his stomach tight.
The music had taken on a sultry rhythm, and the demons surrounding them began to dance with less restraint the more they drank. Some swayed too close, laughing as they tangled together in ways that felt far more suggestive than any dances Yuri knew.
He felt his cheeks warm as he turned them both pointedly away.