Page 37 of Bound

“I don’t know what that is,” Slate said honestly. “It is Helvik fur. A creature that dwells in a long-forgotten void,” he explained when she gave him a blank look.

“Well, it’s lovely.” Ruby ran her hands once more over the fur, then touched a feather next to her head. It was from a bird in his own void, and he thought she would recoil from the shadows dripping off of it. But her smile stayed bright and vibrant, her eyes softening in awe as she stroked his nest.

Then her stomach rumbled. She winced, her gaze flying to him nervously.

Slate stepped forward. “Are you hungry?”

“I have pie in my room,” Ruby said hastily and paused. “Theroom. There’s a lot of it left; I will be fine for today.”

Slate couldn’t tell if she was lying. He still didn’t know how much mortals needed to eat. But if she was hungry now…

He reached into his loincloth and brought out the wrapped bar of chocolate.

“It was in a human kitchen,” he explained. “I assume it is suitable.”

He held it out. Ruby took it, her small fingers brushing his.

“Wow,” she said quietly.

She was holding it so reverently that Slate frowned. “Is it not part of your diet? You said?—”

“No, it’s wonderful!” Ruby clasped it to her chest as if he would take it away from her. “We have no chocolatiers in town. There is one person who sells it on market day. He imports it from the city, but his supply is always gone by the time I get to the market.”

Her brow wrinkled. Slate got the impression there was more to the story than that. Like perhaps the man was lying to her for some stupid mortal reason. Maybe he didn’t like witches. Whichwas ridiculous. Every passing hour with Ruby revealed that she was a kind, irritatingly helpful person, and her being a witch should make them respect her more, not less. At least, that was what Slate found when he visited the mortal realm before Ruby came along.

Ruby unfolded the chocolate and paused. “Is it alright if I eat it here?”

Slate made it a rule not to eat in his nest unless he was picking the bones clean. But he nodded, and Ruby broke off a piece and stuffed it in her mouth.

The chocolate did not look appealing with its hard and waxy appearance. But Ruby moaned in pleasure, the noise making Slate remember how she had looked stretched out around his fingers. His own hunger unfurled in his stomach, and for a moment, it even felt genuine. Like he did not just want to eat, heneededit. Like he might feel weak and useless if he didn’t do it soon.

“I appreciate you going to all the effort,” Ruby said, licking a shred of chocolate off her palm. It was already melting against her warm skin.

He tore her gaze away from the drop rolling down her wrist. “I must. Even with your dagger, you are still in danger. I will bring you food, and you can fetch water from the faucets. Stay out of the forest unless I am with you, or unless you absolutely have to wake me.”

“I will,” Ruby said and swallowed another piece of chocolate. “You’ve been… very good to me.”

Slate snorted. But he could not find any trace of sarcasm in her tone, only gratefulness. And, he supposed, hehadbeen good to her. Especially considering that he had been thinking about eating her when she appeared.

He still wanted to. But the want was melding with so many others it was getting hard to pick out his want to eat her fromhis want to—for instance—watch her eat chocolate. Or hold her down and push his tongue inside her. Or feel that dagger holster on her thigh again.

“I am bound to complete the warding ritual,” he reminded her, ignoring all his writhing, unruly wants. “I cannot do that if you starve to death before we prepare you thoroughly.”

Ruby flushed, as she so often did when he brought up what they had to do to complete the rite.

“I only mean to say thank you,” she said. “Being a gracious host is yet another aspect of the dreaded Bygone they left out of the stories.”

“Then that is one part they got correct. I have never hosted before.”

She paused, her chewing slowing. “What about Paimon?”

Slate waved a dismissive claw. “Paimon left whenever he wished. I had no duty to host him. We spent most of our time outside this void, anyhow.”

“Oh.” Ruby picked distractedly at a patch of moss under her knees. “I thought you spent most of your time asleep.”

“Before that,” Slate said. “I did not spend all of my existence in this nest. Only the past few millennia.”

Ruby’s eyes grew round. Slate wondered what it was like to not be able to comprehend that length of time. Slate had been alive for so many human generations he probably seemed impossibly old to her.

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