Page 98 of Demon Bound

She recognized the object now. It was a sleep aid she’d created over a year ago, which had been sitting on a shelf in the parlor gathering dust for most of that time. It was supposed to be placed on a nightstand to help gently lull you to sleep. Someone, apparently Gereg, had clumsily modified the enchantment, turning it into a blunt weapon.

“You opened a gate to the hells,” Raiya said, still disbelieving. “Why?”

“That part was incidental. The priestess looked at Eunaios’s work from the last summoning, but she didn’t fully understand it. She said this was the best way for her to adapt his spellwork to connect to the hells and find another demon to bind.”

Raiya wondered if that was true, or if it had just been Gereg’s way of sowing the chaos and death she craved. “This is madness. Anything could come through it.”

Nirlan shrugged. “I can find a way to close it later. The important thing was finding the demon.”

“But why? Why is it so important to you?”

Rage flashed across his face. “Because youdisrespectedme, you unfaithful—!” He regained control of himself, swallowing the outburst. He lowered his voice again. “Because you deserve this. You were a fool if you thought you could cheat me out of my wife and my demon.”

This was all because of her leaving. He probably didn’t even care about Azreth escaping—he was just angry she’d gone with him.

She glanced up at the red-skinned demon, who just blinked slowly at her. Something shifted behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Jai was moving a little, close to waking.

Raiya looked up at Nirlan. “Let them go. Please.”

“Why?”

“They’re just children.”

“If they’re old enough to fight, they’re old enough to die.”

“Bastard.”

“Ah, there’s that mouth.” He walked over to her, and she flinched when he took her jaw in his hand. She tried to push him away, her arms weak. The lingering magic was making her body sluggish.

“Don’t condescend to me,” she hissed.

He looked her up and down with disdain. “You think you don’t deserve it? What have you ever achieved in life, other than spreading your legs in exchange for status and power, first with me and then with this creature? You’re weak without that weapon, without your demon, and without me. You have nothing left but yourself, and you alone are nothing.”

He leaned in, hovering his mouth near hers. “But that’s all right,” he murmured. “You’ll come crawling back to me now. Kiss me. Be a good girl.” He paused there, waiting for her tocome to him. It was worse than if he had just forced himself on her. He wanted to watch her realize she was powerless and then capitulate.

She swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “Fine,” she said quietly.

Nirlan’s eyebrows went up slightly. He looked pleased.

He glanced behind him to see if Azreth was watching, and he was. His eyes, glowing very faintly, followed every movement without blinking. The muscles in his jaw stood out as he clenched his teeth.

“No man will take what’s mine,” Nirlan said. “And no demon, for that matter. Not without suffering dearly.” He turned to Raiya, his mouth twisting into something that was too hateful to really be a smile, and leaned in. “You’re worthless without me,” he whispered. “Never forget that. Never forget this moment.”

She surreptitiously reached into the pile of items that had been dumped out of her bag until she felt the smooth, cold metal of her enchanting stylus. She wrapped her fingers around it. “I won’t,” she said. Then she stabbed the pointed end into his throat.

Warm blood burst across her cheek. She gasped involuntarily at the same time as Nirlan. His eyes were wide with shock. She’d hit him in the artery just beneath his ear. When she jerked the stylus free, another gush of blood flowed forth. It streamed down his throat and over his collar as if from a spout.

He clapped a hand over his neck. Panic and confusion flashed across his face. For a moment, he began to scramble backwards, but then he changed his mind and reached for her, fury in his face. With a shout, Raiya stabbed the stylus into his chest. He lurched, grabbing her arm to try to disarm her. She stabbed again, and he crumpled, grimacing in pain. Shoving him away, she clambered out from under him.

Azreth looked down at his palm. As Nirlan bled out, the runes changed, going flat and dull. They no longer shone with lingering magic. The enchantment was broken.

A shadow fell over Raiya. Nirlan’s demon had risen from his seat, giving her a curious frown as he towered over her. For a moment, she was relieved. Nirlan was dead, and so the demon could not be compelled to protect him.

But then the demon started toward her.

Nirlan’s death presented a new problem. The demon was unbound. He could do as he pleased. Kill who he pleased. Azreth tried to reach for him, just missing his ankle as he walked by. Gathering all the strength left in his dying limbs, Azreth turned over and climbed to his hands and knees, but he trembled and fell when he tried to get up.

Raiya turned and ran, but her legs were slow from the sleeping spell. The demon caught her before she’d taken five steps. He wrapped a massive hand around her forearm and turned her around to face him. He looked at her for a moment, taking stock of his next victim.

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