Page 68 of I Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend

“Me-” I didn’t hear what Sintk had to say. I lifted him in the air by the horn and, in one swift motion, ripped the dirty dicks from his body. When I dropped him, he quickly bled out.

Each demon who dared to approach me died. It didn’t matter who they were or what relationship we once shared. All that mattered was her, getting her out of there alive. By the time I reached her, the floor was slick with multi-colored blood.

She lay there, battered and clinging to life behind the heavy bars. Damn searching for a key. I had to get to her. I grabbed the bars and pulled. The metal groaned in protest, but the fight was short lived before they were ripped from their posts. When I tossed them behind me, they flew into the wall and removed the head of a fleeing demoness. An unfortunate casualty of battle.

It didn’t matter to me. I would remove the heads of a hundred more if that’s what it took. I cared about nothing but her, the hardheaded human woman tied to my world. She was nearly gone. Her chest fluttered with the final breaths of life, and I knew I had to act quickly.

I picked her up from the floor, ripping the chains that held her from the wall, and ran. As I did, I picked up my clothing but didn’t stop moving. I had to get far enough away to give her the elixir, but I could already hear them coming.

My chest burned with the fear that I hadn’t made it to her in time. It took me too long to get to her, and now, I was losing her.

“Please stay with me,” I whispered as I ran, pulling her limp body close to my chest. “I need you to survive this.”

Just ahead, a shadow flickered, a sign from an old friend who would put a target on his back if they knew he helped me. Cufio. I let my body shrink but held tightly onto Rayna as we slipped into the shadows and away from the battlefield.

Cufio taught me well to follow his path through the shadows. I had to shrink myself and never step a foot out of bounds. Many were lost trying to follow a shadow demon through their passages. Theirs were the back doors through worlds where the unstable energy waited to snatch people away from their lives. This was the hell the humans knew, eternity trapped in endless suffering, all because you missed a step. If you weren’t careful, the ones lost in the dark corridors would pull you in with them.

A moment later, I stepped out of the shadows and into the caverns. This hidden system was one Cufio and I discovered many years prior. We’d stocked it with supplies for such a day as this, when the world turned its back on us.

Cufio wasn’t there; I could see the marking of the shadow he used to escape. In another minute, no one would be able to trace him.

“Thank you,” I said, though I doubted my friend could hear me.

I carried Rayna to the small cot to the left of the space and carefully laid her there. From the jacket I’d ripped away during my transition, I pulled out the box Likosa gave me and took out the first vial. On it, written in Likosa’s hand, was Rayna’s name.

When I popped the cork, the clear liquid fizzled and turned golden.

“I hope that was supposed to happen,” I muttered. There was no time to find Likosa and ask her. I put the vial to Rayna’s lips and poured its contents into her mouth.

“You have to survive this,” I spoke to her, unsure if she could hear me. “I know I’ve been stubborn, but so have you. It’s what makes this work between us. But now is not the time to be stubborn. Stay with me, Rayna. Promise me years of your stubbornness. Please do as I ask. Please fight to stay here.”

Rayna’s face flushed with warmth. It lasted a moment, but it was enough to convince me the elixir was working. I pulled her hand into mine, but her fingers were cold as ice. If I didn’t warm her up, she wouldn’t make it. I knew that.

In the center of the hideout was a fire pit, and above it, a small vent to allow smoke to escape through a series of pathways, keeping our location hidden. It seemed my friend had thought ahead. There were fresh cut logs and plenty of kindling. I got the fire going quickly, then lifted the cot with Rayna still on it closer to the fire. It would have been good to get her something more to keep her warm, but to leave her was out of the question, not until I was sure she would be okay in my absence.

“They’ll be looking for us, but we’re safe here. You don’t need to worry about that.” I talked to her because it felt strange not to. Pulling her hand back into mine, I continued. “When you’re awake, I’ll tell you everything, anything you want to know. You were right; I shouldn’t have hidden so much from you. It was naïve to think I could protect you from any of this. I won’t do that anymore. This is my promise to you. I will support you in this journey and protect you from my enemies. Whatever life you want to lead, I’ll be there to guard your dreams and soothe your heart. You deserve that and so much more.”

My confessions continued until my eyes grew heavy and my head dropped. Before sleep took over me, I added two logs to the fire. One last look at her, and I saw the color returning to her face, restoring that deep chestnut brown. My last thought before I slept was that I hoped to look into her eyes once more.

When I woke, Rayna had not yet regained consciousness, but she looked better. Her breathing was stronger, and her skin looked warmer.

“You should be okay on your own for a bit.” I rubbed her hair, still matted with dirt and blood. “I’ll be back soon.”

I hoped she wouldn’t wake and find herself alone, but I had to get supplies for her.

Back in her house, I gathered things to care for her. In her garage was a large plastic bin that I loaded with jugs of water from her kitchen and canned soups from the pantry. I grabbed her clothing, towels, soaps, and other things to clean her wounds. She had a small bin with first aid items, which I dumped into the larger one.

Before returning to her, I grabbed some bedding, two pillows and a comforter to help keep her warm. I looked around her home again just to make sure there was nothing else she needed.

The painting she was working on sat there, closer to being finished, and as I appreciated the surety of her strokes and admired the transition of colors, I realized this painting, this place from her dreams, was familiar. I’d been there once before, when a witch nursed me back to life and told me of the woman tied to my soul.

“Dammit.” This couldn’t be a good sign.

Rayna was still sleeping when I returned to her. I poured some of the water into one of the pots we had in the cavern and warmed it over the fire. Then, using the towel and soaps I took from her home, I washed her body of the blood and dirt. The elixir had already healed her injuries, leaving only one scar on her leg where the worst wound was. The others healed without a mark.

I washed and carefully combed her hair before putting it in the twists taught to me by a young girl in South Africa, then covered her hair with the bonnet I grabbed from her bedside. Dressed in fresh clothing and clean of the filth and blood, she looked more like my Rayna.

It was strange to me how much I enjoyed caring for her. She’d given me nothing but trouble, but all I wanted was to make sure she was okay. I looked forward to detangling her hair and washing her skin. The thought of bringing her any form of peace made my chest warm with something unfamiliar to me.

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