Page 24 of Lich's Mate

A chill overtakes me. I think I see the candle nearby dance, and the shadows wind up and deepen, a gust of wind blowing in from out of nowhere.

The candle levitates through the air, seemingly of its own accord, before placing itself down on the table.

“Never mind,” he says. “I got it.”

“How—”

But I can’t find the words. I’m entirely stumped.

The entire time I’ve been with him, other than being a bit aggressive in bringing me here, he’s shown no interest in harming me. I’m not even sure he’s shown much interest in me at all.

He says nothing, moving his finger over the map.

I clear my throat.

He looks up, appearing almost offended.

I know that I need to phrase my words carefully. Yet I also know that if I don’t break the silence, I might never know anything at all.

“Am I free to go?” I ask suddenly, recalling the leash that isn’t attached to anything.

He chuckles slightly to himself.

“You know, some of us demons have these shadow powers,” he says. “If I wanted to, I could snatch that leash right up, and we’d be right where we were two minutes ago.”

I say nothing, terrified of speaking out of turn.

“But I don’t think that’d be much fun,” he says. “You don’t want that. I don’t want that, either.”

He scratches his chin, then goes right back to studying the map, now moving his finger to the northwest.

“And what do you want?”

He looks up again, this time more amused than pissed off.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Ethical business practices?”

The door of the tavern swings open suddenly.

I turn my head, confirming nobody standing there.

“Strong winds today,” he says.

“Was that you?”

He says nothing.

“Your shadow powers?”

“And you know, I never thought about it until now, but I’m not too fond of this human slavery thing either,” he says, ignoring the question. “Or at least not the way Gorran runs it.”

I find myself somehow more confused than I was when I entered the tavern.

Did I just find the only buyer not committed to casually discarding me like an old toy?

“Gorran?”

Somehow, I feel like if I ask about the human slavery thing, he might just take it back. So I find another part of the statement to ask questions about.

---