Page 78 of Demon Bound

But the fight wasn’t over. The vythian darted for him again, its damaged wing dragging beside it. Azreth jumped back, bringing his floating sword down to knock the vythian aside. Raiya could see Azreth tiring. His movements were becoming slower.

She started running toward him. Toward a fight between a vythian and a demon. She had definitely lost her mind.

The duel went on as she ran, until Azreth’s floating sword disappeared. He’d run out of magic. The vythian saw its opportunity and dove in, teeth bared.

Raiya screamed as the vythian grasped Azreth in its jaws and bit down, teeth piercing his shoulder and chest. Azreth contorted to reach up and jab his fingers into the creature’s eye, raking it viciously. The vythian dropped him, shaking its head. Its eye was a ruined mess of gore. Azreth staggered, leaking black blood everywhere.

“Hey!” Raiya screamed at the beast. It ignored her until she waved her broom in the air, the attached iron-filled satchel swinging, and then the vythian turned to look at her. “That’s right,” she said. “Leave him alone. Come here.”

It did.

The vythian stalked toward her at a frightening pace, and Raiya’s knees threatened to collapse beneath her. She forced herself to run toward it.

It drew back its head and opened its mouth, its throat filled with pent-up heat. The scent of boiling metal and burning flesh singed her nose, and hot wind from its maw blew back her hair.

With a shout, she raised the broom above her head and jabbed it forward, shoving the satchel of iron into the vythian’s mouth. The end of the broom stuck deep in the back of its throat, and the vythian recoiled, choking.

The broom was ripped from her hands as the vythian withdrew. It backed up, trying to dislodge the stick from its mouth. It was too deep, possibly stuck in the flesh of its soft palate. And then the iron began to take effect.

The vythian panicked. It heaved and retched, foul-smelling steam erupting from its mouth. The broom remained stuck, the iron burning it from the inside out.

Its struggles didn’t last long. The vythian collapsed, heaving a few last labored breaths before it went still. The metallic poison had done its job more effectively than Raiya had ever imagined.

She turned to Azreth, who was kneeling nearby, clutching his wounds as he watched her in disbelief. Punctures on his shoulder and stomach were bleeding freely. Raiya ran to him, pressing her hands against his shoulder to try and stop the worst of the bleeding. He grimaced at her touch.

“Azreth,” she gasped. “That was foolish of you to fight that thing alone. Damn you, that was foolish.”

“Are you hurt?” he said.

“No.” He was practically bleeding out, but he was worried abouther.She wanted to hug him, but she thought it might cause him pain. “You saved everyone. The whole camp. The whole town.”

“The behelgi?” he asked.

Raiya choked on a laugh. Perhaps he cared more about the welfare of the animals than the people.

She looked over at the herd. The fires hadn’t touched them. They were frightened, but were being calmed and corralled by a few shepherds who had lingered despite Fu-lon’s orders.

“They’re fine,” she said. “They’re all fine.”

Azreth nodded. He allowed himself to slump a little, as if it was an effort to even hold himself upright. His gaze moved toward the crowd in front of the city. They were staring. None of them had moved yet.

Raiya noted that Azreth’s prosthetic arm had disappeared. “Do you have enough magic to heal yourself?” she asked.

He slowly shook his head, then tried to stand. “Help me,” he said, reaching for her. Raiya’s eyes widened. She wrapped an arm around his back and let him lean on her as he stood up. She staggered under his considerable weight.

“You need to be healed,” she said.

“I will survive as long as the people do not attack,” he said. Given the amount of blood streaming down his chest, she wasn’t too sure. “I can’t fight them. We must go. Please.”

She nodded rapidly. “We’ll go. I have my baton. I won’t let them hurt you.”

They started moving away from the town, but he couldn’t manage more than a slow walk. Soon, people were breaking off from the group to approach the vythian, and perhaps to follow her and Azreth. She kept moving and tried not to look back.

Chapter 25

They had not gone more than a dozen yards before Raiya realized they couldn’t go any further. Azreth did not even have the strength to straighten up. He leaned on Raiya, his head drooping so that his blood-dampened hair obscured his face.

“We need to stop,” she said.

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