Page 66 of The Demon's Delight
My heart sank. He’d been gone all night.
I went through the motions of cooking, eating, cleaning. Mentally, I tried to do some calculations as to how much time had actually elapsed since he disappeared. Seir had been very clear that time moved differently in other realms, but I didn’t know what exactly that meant. Did time in Hell move slower? Faster? It could be days or weeks there, but only minutes here and vice versa.
My heart thumped painfully as I finished packing up, stealing my breath and sending me to my knees. Something was very wrong, and I had no idea how to manage it. There wasnobody here to help me if I was sick or dying. My own power wouldn’t even do me any good.
I managed only a little squeak as the pain intensified, forcing my eyes closed as I focused all my energy on continuing to breathe. Then the everything went black.
The world swam into focus,far brighter than when I’d lost consciousness. My body was quiet, which was an incredible relief. I dawdled a bit longer, hoping that the lack of discomfort meant Seir was close by, but he didn’t appear.
Deciding it did no good to stay and wait, I shouldered one pack on my front and one on my back and forced myself to start walking. Before long, the little stand of trees where we’d camped was no longer visible behind me.
The road was empty still—which most days was frustrating, but today was a relief. I continually willed a demon to drop from the sky, and that would have been incredibly awkward for anyone else to witness.
The hours passed in a blur, my mind simultaneously preoccupied with making sure I kept putting one foot in front of the other and being sure I was distracted by my increasingly stressed thoughts.
If Seir was in Hell, was he being tortured for his absence? If so, it would be my fault. Would it be possible to offer myself up in trade to take his punishment? I wouldn’t hesitate to accept if so, but it could beanything. I felt tightness across my ribs as I went down that terrifying mental path and forced my thoughts elsewhere. Getting back to Ravenglen. Checking on Aunt Sal. Anything to keep me from envisioning the painful possibilities he might be suffering.
I walked until the sun had started to slip down the horizon again, and I was feeling weak and shaky before finally stopping to eat. There was a lovely little meadow with tall trees and a sprinkling of wildflowers where I stopped to camp.
Autumn had a firm grip on the weather now, the leaves on the trees turning orange and yellow, painting the forests in vibrant color before they gave up and fell off the trees completely. The late afternoon breeze ruffled the tall grasses and my hair, and for the first time all day, I wasn’t upset I had so much of my body covered by the insulating packs.
I frowned. It was my favorite time of year, and yet I couldn’t find it in me to enjoy it.
The container of water slipped from my fingers before I could take a drink as my hand spasmed. “Shit,” I swore as the sudden pain caused the precious contents to spill all over the dirt.
Something ticked over in my brain as emotion swamped me again. I kicked and swore, tears tracking down my face again which only made me angrier.
Once the pain resolved, I had a startling sense of clarity. He was my mate. I needed him. Iwantedhim.
I wanted the bond satisfied so I never had to feel like I had while he was gone ever again. But it wasn’t just about the bond or the painful side effects. We belonged together. I wanted him to be mine. I wanted people like those men in the tavern or that cosmetics vendor to get put in their place when they disregarded me standing at his side. Seir was kind, generous, attentive. He never asked me to diminish myself—the opposite in fact. He always honored my wishes. He’d done more for me and treated me with more kindness than anyone else in my life.
As my thoughts spiraled out, creating a list far longer than I could have hoped arguing for the logic of our pairing, I heard it. A heavy sound beyond what a bird could hope to achieve.
Hope flared and I looked up. In the distance was a man-sized creature with wings, coming from the direction of the camp where I’d begun the day. I stood, gasping as the torrent of feelings washed over me again. Then, they turned sour, sending a shock of cold through my body, nausea rolling through my gut.
It was like he’d hit an invisible wall in the sky. His body was limp as he plummeted, wings uselessly tucked to his sides.
Chapter 30
Hailon
“Seir!” I called out, headed for where he’d fallen at a dead run.
I didn’t see him hit the ground, but I could only imagine the damage such a fall would cause. He’d done plenty just slipping down that embankment at the ruins.
My breath ran short as I sprinted, his form nothing more than a dark dot on the road at a distance… until it wasn’t.
“Hailon!” he called out, suddenly no further away than perhaps the distance of a few city blocks from me. I could see the panic on his face until he spotted me, then everything transformed to pure joy. His arms went out wide, the interesting glide he was doing about a foot off the ground steady as he beat his wings. He hit me at full speed, grabbing me up in his arms then folding his wings around me for good measure. “Are you crying? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he breathed the words into my hair, peppering my face with kisses between words. The warmth and smell of him put everything inside me at ease. “I was summoned back to Hell to report to my unit leader.” The fire behind my ribs was doused, and I no longer felt as though I might drive myself mad with thoughts I couldn’t control. “Icame back as quick as I could. I didn’t mean to go. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He was babbling and clearly at least as distraught as I had been.
Then he took a few steps back and fell to his knees in the road. Panic stopped my heart for a moment. “Seir?” My eyes went wide as he literally crawled the short distance between us. “What are you doing? What’s wrong?”
His eyes met mine, full of glimmering sincerity. “I have no right to ask this of you, especially since I have to return to Hell once we get you back to Ravenglen, but know that I am yours, Hailon. In every way. I just need to be near you. I swear, I’ll figure out how to come back to you as fast as possible, every time. When I do, please let me stay by your side.” He pressed his forehead to my stomach, his hands wrapped around my hips. “Let me love you the way you are meant to be. Adored. Cherished. Please, my dangerous little Moonflower, let me show you how good of a mate I can be to you.”
It was the tremble that gave me away, the slight twitch in my flesh that had him gazing up with the gold in his eyes glowing. Fear shivered through me, worry that I was not worthy of this sweet demon, that this was all too hasty. That somewhere along the way, he would decide I wasn’t enough or that I was too much trouble. That the fates had made a mistake.
“How did I manage to summon a demon such as you? What have you done to me?” I exhaled long and slow, then plunged my fingers into his curls, giving the slightest tug as I swept through the strands, forehead to neck. I continued to stroke his hair like he was so prone to doing for me as he relaxed into my touch. The longer I stayed silent, the harder he dug his fingers into my hips, his forehead into my middle. The longer I delayed answering because I was speechless, the harsher his breath became.
“Please, Hailon. Don’t make me go on without you for eternity. I don’t want it if you’re not there with me. I know Isaid I could walk away before, that I could be okay if you weren’t mine even if I was yours. But I don’t think I’m strong enough.”
