Page 99 of Demon Bound

She almost sympathized with him. He was like Azreth. He’d been imprisoned here against his will, and he couldn’t change the fact that he needed to feed to survive.That didn’t mean he needed to look so pleased about it, though.

Whatever emotions she felt, he would take them and use them to make himself more powerful. She steeled herself, determined to feel nothing. “I saved you from a life of servitude to a cruel master. You should thank me and go.”

The demon laughed softly. Rather than answering, he moved a clawed hand to the soft, vulnerable flesh of her stomach, and pushed. Raiya froze, her heart pounding in her ears as the claws slowly began to cut, first through her clothes and then deeper, pricking her skin, drawing blood. She stopped breathing.

Feel nothing. Feel nothing.

The panic came anyway, drowning her. She opened her mouth to scream or cry, but no sound came out. The demon held her wrist in a steel grip, keeping her from pulling away. Sharp pain burst through her as the claws pierced through her flesh.

And then, a sword sprouted from the demon’s chest.

Everything stopped. The demon jerked, and he released her. Raiya backed away, her legs shaking so hard they barely held her up.

Azreth was standing behind the demon, holding Adamus’s iron sword in his fist. Madira’s black cloak was wrapped around the hilt in a thick bundle to make a barrier between his hand and the iron. Azreth let go of the sword with a shudder. His palm was dark where it had burned him even through the cloth.

The sword remained stuck in the demon’s body, and he clawed at it, his limbs already trembling from the effect of the iron. Raiya ran to the table, where she found the sleeping device, her baton, and her bow and quiver. The enchantments had both gone dull, their power depleted. Before the demon could dislodge the sword, she picked up the bow and drew an iron-tipped arrow, aiming it at him.

“Get back!” she shouted. She circled around so that he was between her and the gate to the hells. The demon glowered at her, but she held his gaze, trembling. “Go!”

He gave a furious, defeated exhale, and took a step backward into the gate. He took another step, and then he was gone, lost among the swirling images beyond.

Raiya dropped the bow. A sigh rushed out of her. She put a hand to the wounds beneath her ribs, and her hand came away bloody. Beside her, Madira was watching the gate with a look of shock. Jai was just waking up.

“Azreth,” Raiya said, spinning to face him. He’d dropped to his knees. She rushed to his side, started to put her arms around him, then stopped, afraid of hurting him. He seemed not to careabout his grievous injuries, though, as he lifted his lacerated arms to touch her.

“You’re injured,” he said.

“Gods, I’m fine, Azreth. Look at you—” She sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

His hands came to her face, his eyes on hers.

“Your rage is beautiful,” he said reverently.

“Take it,” she said. “Take all of it.”

Magic gathered around him as he fed from her. White light sank into his wounds, slowly sewing them shut.

“Kiss me,” he said.

Raiya held his cheeks tightly as she pressed her mouth to his, her eyes still overflowing with tears.

She wanted to stay there, in that very spot, embracing him for the rest of her life.

Chapter 31

As much as Raiya wanted to just lie down with Azreth and sleep for the next day or week or several months, she had other things to consider now. Nirlan was dead, and there was no one else left to clean up the mess he’d left behind.

She and Azreth spent the morning sealing off the room with the gate so that no other creatures could come through. Once they’d closed the area, Azreth approached the gate, hands raised and glowing with powerful magic. Raiya’s hopes climbed when the gate shrank smaller and smaller until it was just a narrow, glowing line in the air. Azreth’s arms shook with the effort of goading magic into the gate, but it had stopped shrinking.

Finally he lowered his arms, glaring at the gate in defeat. “This is as much as I can do. Opening and closing gates between planes is not simple magic.”

“I imagine there would be a lot more demons visiting our plane if it were simple.”

“Yes.”

She could no longer see through the gate like a window, but she wondered whether someone could still pass through thecrack if they had a mind to. “Perhaps this will be enough. It looks like it will be more difficult to move through, at least.”

“More difficult, but not impossible. Someone who knows where to find it could still use it.”

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