Page 22 of Demon Bound

Azreth glanced back to check on the younger man, whose eyes widened upon catching the demon’s gaze. At the same time, something on the stove bubbled over and hissed. They’d been in the middle of cooking.

When no one moved, Azreth went to the kitchen, holding the wound at his side with one hand. He ignored the overflowing pot and took the raw deer leg that was sitting on a chopping board beside the stove. He gathered a skin of water and a few other scraps, too, before heading for the door.

Raiya glanced over at the young man kneeling on the floor. His eyes sharpened with curiosity when they met hers. He looked torn, like he didn’t know whether to hate her or pity her. His eyes asked a silent question: Was she the demon’s prisoner, or his accomplice?

“Human,” Azreth said expectantly as he stepped over the shattered wood.

Giving the family one last ashamed glance, she hurried after him.

Chapter 8

When they were a safe distance away from the scene of their crime, Azreth turned his attention to his wound, which he’d been doing an admirable job of ignoring. There was discolored flesh around the hole where the poker had stabbed him, almost like a burn.

“Iron is poisonous to you, isn’t it?” Raiya said. “That’s why you couldn’t lift the portcullis with your hands.”

He gave her a steady, warning look.Don’t get any ideas,the look said.

The wound looked painful, even if he was good at hiding it. “Are you all right?” she asked.

He gave her another look, thinking before he spoke. She was coming to realize that he was very cautious, always suspicious, rarely acting or speaking without careful consideration.

“It is a flesh wound,” he said. She couldn’t tell whether he was telling the truth.

“Those swords the guards used in the castle were steel, and they did nothing to you. Steel is made with iron.”

“Steel is mortal-made. It is not pure enough. It is not of the earth.” He placed his hand over the wound, and a pale glowbloomed around his fingers. A healing spell. When he moved his hand away, the wound was a little smaller, but not much. Maybe he needed more magic. More energy.

Nervous, she waited for the command—arouse yourself.

Instead, he offered her the deer leg. When she informed him that she wouldn’t eat raw meat, he made a fire, setting a pile of twigs aflame with a wave of his hand before tearing the meat into pieces. Raiya set the small chunks onto a stone beside the flames to cook, and Azreth lifted the rest of the leg to his mouth and bit into it, raw. She watched him with morbid fascination.

“Do you need to eat?” she asked, since he had not seemed averse to answering her questions so far. “Or do you just enjoy it?”

“My body does not require as much care as yours,” he said. “But I must eat on occasion, or I will grow weak and die.” He took another slow bite, ripping the wet, bloody flesh.

Raiya looked down, feeling bile creeping up her throat. She kept thinking about what might have happened to the farmers if she hadn’t been able to calm him.

And yet, she had.

“Human,” he said.

“Yes?”

He scanned the empty plain around them, his knees bending slightly as if preparing for a fight. “What is that sound?” he asked quietly.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She couldn’t hear anything. “What sound?” she whispered.

He crouched beside her, watching the tall grass gently wave in the breeze. He was silent, not even breathing, and the muscles in his shoulders and thighs were taut, ready to spring. A natural predator. From this close, she could smell him again, hot and dry and somehow intoxicating.

“There,” he murmured. And Raiya realized there was indeed a sound nearby—something she’d ignored.

“You mean… the bird?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

The chirping song came again. “That,” Azreth said. “What is it?”

Raiya laughed, releasing nervous tension. “It’s just a little bird.” She searched their surroundings until she spotted it—a tiny warbler perched on a long blade of grass. She pointed to it as it flew off. Azreth stared after it, perplexed.

“Do you not have birds where you’re from?” she asked.

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