Page 34 of Bound and Tide

The boy halted at his side, blanching.

“Don’t look like that—I know you can cut through metal with a precise enough arcane blade.”

He shook his head, swallowing hard.

“Yes, you can—how else do you do all those carvings?”

Costa’s eyes widened, likely assuming his artistry had gone unnoticed by Xander, but just because he had said nothing of it did not mean that he hadn’t tucked the information away. “That’s on wood mostly…”

“Mostly?” Xander peered hard at the boy, eyeing the earring he wore, a metal cuff with an intricate design. He’d compared it to that bracelet of Maia’s, and though the metal was crude, the markings were crafted too finely to have been done with anything but arcana. He slapped one of Costa’s thin arms. “Exactly. All right, now—”

“What am I supposed to do?” Maia brought him to another stop, and in the brightness of the two moons shining in the alley out back, her age was all too clear—she was just a little girl pouting up at him and far too keen, as if this were some game.

“You’re our lookout.”

“That’s it? But—”

“That’s it,” he snapped, sticking a finger in her face, the cut to his voice enough to silence her.

He should have appreciated her ambition—minions who were so willing to throw themselves into danger were rare, but just the thought of her slipping into that pit and one of those men touching her made him angry to an irrational degree, which would be of no use while under duress.

Xander clicked his tongue. “You get to be in charge of the imps, though, for additional distractions if need be, but no stacking under cloaks.”

She was clearly unsatisfied, but the popping of the octopus and the starfish back into their imp forms and saluting her were enough to keep further complaints out of her mouth.

Xander held out one of the trinkets he’d swiped days earlier from the temple in town, triangular with a blazing sun carved into its middle. Even now it felt strangely hopeful in his hand, blessed once and imbued with the intentions of believers, powerful things both, but few things were incorruptible. It had taken him longer than normal, but he’d opened a tiny rift within it, and now all it needed was a little break.

He dropped the trinket and stomped it with his heel. As it splintered, a silvery slice cut through the air, and out stepped not a woman exactly, but her breasts and hips could convince most to look past the horns, wings, and blue skin.

The familiar succubus immediately wrapped her arms around Xander’s neck, but he gently pushed her away. “Ah, no, Tilly, not me this time.” He cast a furtive glance at the other two, both utterly shocked at her appearance. “There’s a knight around the corner I need you to distract.”

The succubus made a little whiny noise, one she knew he liked though it didn’t quite have the same impact as usual, then she huffed and headed off.

“And for the adoration of the gods, make yourself a smidgen more wholesome first.”

She snorted, but just as she turned the corner, everything about her changed. The straps of leather that barely contained her bounciest bits shifted into a full tunic and skirt, and her hair went curly and blonde, horns disappearing along with the wings.

“You’re sending that thing after a holy knight?” Maia scurried up to the edge of the warehouse to peek around it. “He’ll just banish her back to the Abyss!”

“First of all, don’t call Tilly a thing. She is a loyal servant who has a rich inner life on the infernal plane, I am sure.” Xander sauntered up behind Maia to watch as well. “And maybe she would end up banished if she were some other kind of demon, but she’s an ubi, and that man’s never been laid in his life.”

“That one?” Costa scoffed, leering out behind the both of them. “But he’s gorgeous.”

Maia snickered. “I know, right? Look at all those muscles.”

“You are far too young to have an opinion,” Xander cut in, surprised yet again by his own opinion on the matter.

“No, I’m not, I’ve—”

“Whatever you are about to say, keep it to yourself—I do not need to add slicing some reprobate from scalp to scrotum to the list of things I’m doing for you. Just trust me, that knight might be beautiful, but…” They watched as the succubus in disguise gently touched his face and then led him away. “See? Dumb as rocks.”

The summons had taken very little noxscura since Xander had been able to slowly prepare it over days, but the shadows he intended to wrap the other guard in would be much more complex. It would have been much easier to just kill both men—really, it would have been easier to kill a whole lot of people than most of what he’d been doing lately—but his arcana couldn’t be trusted to do exactly what he wanted, and even if it could, there were too many others involved. People had seen him go to Red’s shop too many times, and he was doing crime with children for darkness’s sake, so it was only reasonable some precautions needed to be taken.

Xander hated precautions, but there he was, sidling up to the edge of a prison so as not to show his face and biding a shadow to crawl along the floor and suss out the single guard left on duty. The man was already half asleep, but then it was rare for someone to break into a prison. Xander could have strangled him, but instead he used yet another precious drop of blood from his vial to slowly lay more precise shadows over his face until he could feel him snoring up against the artificial dusk.

The shadows would act like a cocoon, blocking out sound and other senses, keeping the guard asleep. When he woke, he would be horrified to know a prisoner had escaped, but at least he’d have one of the best naps of his life.

Using shadows to rock babies to sleep now, are you? I thought you couldn’t get more pitiful.

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