Page 37 of Demon Bound

She wanted to cry. She shouldn’t have—it was foolish—but she supposed that was how emotions were. Sometimes they arrived illogically, when they were unwelcome and inconvenient.

She wiped her forehead, breathing hard as she sat back on her knees. She waited for him to call her a whore, or laugh at her, or gloat.

He put an arm around her waist, gently pulling her against him as he knelt behind her. “Be at ease, Raiya,” he said quietly.

His voice was like a soft blanket over her. Tentatively, she rested a hand on his wrist, taking perverse comfort in the heat of the demon’s body against hers. She nodded jerkily. “I am.”

She felt him hesitate, as if he sensed the lie.

“I’m fine,” she assured him—and herself.

Azreth leftand didn’t come back all night. In the morning, she found him just outside the tent.

“Were you waiting for me?” she asked.

“Yes. We should go.”

Raiya waited, tense. With Nirlan, there had been a near-instant change after the first time they’d had sex. He’d turned to her the next morning in bed, smirked, and said,You’re easier than you look.Even now, she felt the same sick, sinking feeling she’d felt then.

Azreth just looked down at her impassively, waiting for her to lead.

Giving him another cautious look, she hefted her satchel and struggled to balance with it on her shoulder. It was heavy now, laden with the supplies the Roamers had traded to them. Without saying anything, Azreth took the satchel from her and easily slung it over his shoulder. Perhaps the glamour he was wearing made him easier to read, because she thought he looked tired. His eyes were heavy-lidded and dull. She had expected him to look energized from the previous night.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

“I am healthy.”

“Yes. But are you… all right?”

He gave her a dark, suspicious look. “Why are you asking me this?”

“I thought you looked off. Did you not feed enough yesterday?”

He stared at her. Then, he slowly reached out and grabbed the collar of her robe in his fist. He pulled her closer, as if to remind her how easily he could overpower her. “I am strong enough to destroy you and half of this camp. You would do well to remember that.”

Raiya’s eyes widened. And then, she was annoyed.

“Only half?” she asked sarcastically.

Even if she hadn’t been able to see the anger on his face, she would have felt it seeping into the air. Instinctively, she started to raise her hands to try to push him away, but then she thought better of it.

“If you betray me, I will make sure you regret it,” Azreth said.

This time, she did not tease him. For the first time since they’d left the castle, she felt afraid of what he might do. And in retrospect, she should never have stopped fearing him. In her experience, men were most likely to turn on you just after you dropped your guard.

“I understand,” she said quietly.

He regarded her for another moment, as if trying to see into her mind, before he released her. He looked over his shoulder suddenly. Jai was walking toward them. She frowned a little as she approached, but said nothing about what she’d just seen, for which Raiya was grateful.

“The clan matron told me to invite you to breakfast and then see you out of the camp, if you like,” Jai said.

“That’s all right,” Raiya said. “We should be going. We’re in a hurry.”

“Oh. I’ll take you to the road, then.”

“Thank you.” Raiya wondered if they were being escorted out of politeness, or so that Jai could keep an eye on them and make sure they didn’t cause trouble. Maybe they were worried about theft.

They followed her toward the edge of the camp. It was early morning still, just past sunrise, and steam was rising off the dewy grass. Many people seemed to be just getting up, but Raiya spotted a dark figure standing atop one of the hills nearby. It was another night elf in dark armor. He looked too skinny to be very old—perhaps only a few years older than Jai. As he met their eyes, he pointedly rested his hand on the pommel of the sword at his side.

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