Page 17 of Bound

The dog spirit sat down next to her. Spirits didn’t feel the temperature in the mortal realm, but Ruby didn’t know if that was the case here. The dog seemed content enough to lie down in front of the fire with its paws stretched out to catch the warm air.

She scratched behind its ears. “You’re not meant to be here, you know. Someone’s probably missing you.”

The dog looked up at her, happy and uncomprehending.

“They are,” she said. “They’re waiting out there, somewhere. This realm isn’t somewhere you stay. It’s a place you wander before you figure out where you’re meant to be. At least, that’s what the Bygone… that’s whatSlatesays.”

She stared around the bedroom. Before Slate, she had never seen ceilings this tall. Never felt a water pump running hot. She had never seen trees dripping shadows or felt an inhumanly long tongue moving inside her.

It would all be over soon. Once he…preparedher properly, a thought that made Ruby’s cheeks flush and her stomach fill with heat. Then, they would be able to complete the ritual, and Ruby would return to Sweetsguard. Go back to her cluttered cottage on the corner of town where nobody visited unless they wanted a boil lanced or a pregnancy gone or a love potion she politely refused to make.

The dog spirit nipped her hand good-naturedly and jumped up, sprinting to the other side of the room.

“If you want me to follow, I’m quite comfy here,” she called.

The dog spirit whined and pawed at an obscenely tall wooden dresser.

“Is that where the Bygone keeps his treats?” Ruby grinned.

The dog spirit whined louder. Its paws kept scraping, and Ruby realized it was pawing pointedly at one specific drawer.

“Isthat where he keeps his treats?” Ruby wondered and stood. She kept her towel secure around her chest as she crossed the room and bent down in front of the dresser, the dog spirit’s whining turning excited as she reached for it.

“If you’re luring me into a trap, I’ll be very upset,” Ruby warned him.

She opened the drawer. It took two hands to close around the handle.

It was empty except for a piece of paper folded in the corner, yellowing with age.

Ruby unfolded it. Two familiar faces stared up at her, sketched in charcoal: one of them was Slate, wearing a helmet on top of his skull mask and smiling so wide she could see all his fangs. And the other…

Ruby’s breath hitched.

She knew that face. She had neverseenit—not in its entirety—but she knew it deep in her bones.

“Paimon,” she murmured.

The goat deity had a furry arm flung around Slate’s shoulder, smiling just as hard. He was holding something in front of them. The paper was so faded it took Ruby a moment to realize what it was.

A demon head. Paimon was showing off a decapitated demon head.

Ruby winced. A sketch from after some gory battle. She had no idea which one; news rarely trickled from the voids into the mortal realms unless it affected humans. Any news that did come through was muddled with fiction and age. It could have been a battle that happened before her great-great-great-grandparents were born.

She turned the paper over. There was a line written in neat, swooping cursive:cleaning up the wandering void with the goat.

Ruby frowned.Cleaning up?Were there a lot of demons in Slate’s realm? She’d never heard of that. She thought this realm was only for lost souls and unlucky travelers who wandered somewhere the veil was thin.

The dog spirit’s ears pricked. It turned to the door, barking excitedly.

Ruby shoved the sketch back into the drawer and slammed it shut, her heart hammering.

The door opened. Slate stepped inside, looking utterly unsurprised to find her so far from the bathroom he’d left her in. He was holding a flowing black dress.

“This is for you,” he announced. He laid the dress on the dusty coverlet.

Ruby stood, clutching her towel and trying to calm her thundering heartbeat. She could feel his unrelenting gaze upon her as she walked toward it.

Ruby reached cautiously for her towel. Slate had seen her lying naked over a stone slab. There was no reason for her to be self-conscious. But she couldn’t help the hot shiver that ran through her as she let the towel drop to the floor.

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