Page 17 of Hell-Bound

She spared a moment to open her eyes and saw several people begin to gather, their own eyes large. None gave money, and it didn’t look like they had anything to give, but it didn’t matter.

She continued playing and tried to make meaningful eye contact with several strangers, wanting to show them that she played forthem.But they all stared back through unseeing eyes, swaying gently from side to side. Her eyes caught on a thin, Fae male. His ears were almost as long as his head, and he wrote a ratty brown hat over one eye.

Momentarily distracted, Renata didn’t see the Devil approach. He snatched the piccolo out of her hands.

“Stop that racket!” he barked.

After recovering from the initial shock, Renata felt rage rise inside her.How dare he interrupt her song. Her music! How dare he interfere with such an intimate moment andtouchsomething so personal.

“If you damage that piccolo. I will kill you,” she heard herself say.

What are you doing?Her inner voice screeched in her head.

The male Devil was about a foot taller than Renata with blue skin, sharp, pointed teeth, and four jagged horns, which rose from his forehead and bent back toward his crown. He flicked a long barbed tail threateningly and clenched his fist tighter around the piccolo. Renata could almost feel the instrument strain against his grip.

“This is your only warning. If you do that again, if you disturb the sleepers, I will report you. Then you’ll hope death is the only thing that happens to you.”

The people around her had already scrambled away.

“Excuseme,” she snarled, snatching back her piccolo, “but I was just trying to bring a little life into this place—”

Before she could continue, the Devil grabbed the front ofher vest and lifted her up.

“Don’t bestupid.”

He bored probingly into her eyes. His expression didn’t change, but she saw his eyes dilate quickly.

Renate stared at him, matching his threatening gaze with her own. In truth, she had no idea where this boldness was coming from, but she liked it.

Yes. This is me.

“Normally, I would crush you and that ridiculous little device. But you don’t belong to me,” he grunted roughly, dropping her.

Renate reacted and landed on both feet, the impact twinging her sore muscles.

“Get this, you ignorant Elf. You might be new here, but if you get in the way of my doing my job, I will report you to Lord Pelegros.”

His satisfied smirk conveyed that he believed she should be shaking with terror. Renata, feeling more stubborn than anything, said nothing, held his gaze, and shook from fury.

He snickered.

“Honestly, I pity you. You’re brave now, but you’re just a Mortal. If you even knew half of the trouble you’re in.” He sniffed the air deeply. “Aaaahh…you just arrived.”

He shook his head, laughed once, and pointed a large, thick finger at her.

“It’s for your own good. Remember it.”

Then he stalked away.

Renata’s jaw worked, trying to release the tension while tracing her fingers lovingly down her piccolo. She couldn’t imagine anything happening to it. Her piccolo was the only thing that felt familiar from the very first moment she saw it in her rooms. Rooms that, themselves, felt entirely foreign.

Well, Devils officially suck.

She thought this while gently storing her treasure.

All the people had skittered away, and she was left alone in the streets.

Hitching her bag closer to her, Renata began walking towards the center of the small city, or where she believed it should be. When she finally saw someone, a female Half-Orc, sitting by a fountain in a plaza, Renata waved amicably.

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