Page 93 of Demon Bound

She could not have done this without them. The thought of seeing Nirlan again, even now, made her want to turn back. Facing demons was one thing. Facing him was another.

The iron portcullis on the outer wall was up. They passed beneath it and stepped into the bailey. An awful, rotting scent hit Raiya’s nose, and she covered her face with her hands to try to block it out. Adamus put his hand over his heart in the way that worshipers of Paladius did, murmuring a prayer.

There were bodies lying here and there on the ground, half covered in snow. Some of them were new, but the source of the smell was likely the ones that had been there longer—the guards Azreth had killed when they’d escaped. Nirlan had been in sucha hurry to chase after her that he’d left them here to decay. Raiya stopped to stare at them.

“Raiya?” Azreth said quietly.

“What kind of person just leaves the corpses of their own men to rot in their garden?” she asked.

It was not even the lack of respect that bothered her, although that was also concerning. It was the bizarre decision to prioritize chasing her over cleaning dead, rotting flesh out of his own home.

“There’s something wrong with him,” she said. “He’s not normal.”

“Did you just realize this?”

Perhaps she had.

Maybe madness was harder to see when it was wrapped in a clean-cut, well-mannered package. With someone as calm and confident and well-dressed as Nirlan, someone who knew how to flatter and charm and use clever words… People assumed that someone like that knew what they were doing. Someone like that couldn’t be wrong. Even Raiya had believed it. She’d believed the illusion of his competence over her own.

She turned to Azreth. “Let’s go.”

He put a hand on her cheek. “We will succeed. Don’t worry.”

His little sweet touches always surprised and pleased her. “Are you so certain?” she asked.

He hesitated, betraying his own fear. “I am certain that I will do whatever it takes to keep you from harm.”

She squeezed his hand. “I’ll do the same for you. Come on.”

They met the others at the entry to the castle proper. The doors were different than the last time she’d seen them. A circle of glowing runes covered the old wood.

“Some kind of dark magic,” Adamus said.

“It’s locked,” Madira explained, turning to Raiya.

“It’s not dark magic,” she said. “They’re just runes. An enchantment to block the doors. But I think I can devise a counter-enchantment. Let me see if…”

Azreth put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She stepped aside. Without further prompting, he kicked a booted foot through the wood, sending both doors crashing across the room inside.

Madira snorted. “I was going to suggest stealth, but I suppose you think showing off for your woman is more important?”

Raiya smirked up at Azreth, who just looked confused by the comment.

“You’re a night elf. Of course you were going to suggest stealth,” Adamus said. He gestured into the castle, looking up at Azreth. “After you.”

Chapter 29

As they stepped through the broken doorway, a rush of memories assaulted Raiya. The last time she’d stepped over this threshold, she’d been with Azreth. She’d been terrified of him, but more terrified of her husband. She’d felt so helpless, so filled with misery and desperation, that she’d seen no other way out.

So much had changed in only a few weeks.

She had strung her bow and hung it over her shoulder beside her new satchel, placed her small quiver of iron-tipped arrows on her hip, and she held her charged baton in her hand. She was prepared this time. She was ready to face whatever would come.

From the moment they entered, she sensed something off. The castle was always dark and cold and quiet, but now there was a heaviness to the silence. The air was dead, no breaths disturbing it, and no flickering, lively candlelight breaking up the shadows. She was thankful for the moon slicing through the narrow windows, and Azreth’s ball of mage light.

They had only taken a few echoing steps into the large entry hall before they encountered another corpse sprawled on the floor. It was a woman with a dark robe and a ghostly pale facemarked with black. Her hood had fallen back to reveal silver hair.

“It’s Priestess Gereg,” Raiya said.

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