Page 54 of The Princesses of Ruin
The beast raises a hand and scratches along the wall as it walks. Yellow magic pours from its arm and lights up the stone, unmaking our hidden traps. The cave glows brightly with our bursting wards, illuminating the monster fully.
Its wolf-like face is plated with bones. Farther down its maw is shorter, coarser fur like that of a deer. It has broad shoulders even wider than mine, and a body like a man. Its torso is covered in shaggy white hair like a winter wolf. It has only three fingers, but each is tipped in talons thick and long enough to gut a grown man.
And it just unmade hours of work with a single scrape of its hand…
The runes fade away and Lily stands to face the monster. Her claws extend and the creature stops at the edge of our camp, its glowing yellow eyes tracking between us.
“The laws of the fire apply?” it asks.
Laws of the fire…while we share its warmth, we’ll do one another no harm.
Lily’s claws retract and she extends her hand to the monster. “On my life.”
The duskwalker takes a step closer and my demon pushes to the surface. I step in front of her in a blink, axe poised to strike with a snarl on my face.
The creature cocks its head, scraping its antlers again. It pulls a long, whistling inhale through its bone-plated nostrils. “Mates. I understand. I will not touch her…for now.”
“You will not touch herever.” My voice resonates with the fury of my demon.
“If your fire is eternal, perhaps.”
My arms flex and I struggle to contain the beast inside me.
“Alastair,” Lily whispers, gripping my elbow. “The laws of the fire.”
She takes a step away, pulling on me. I move with her, not giving the creature my back. We move to the other side of the fire and she sits. I cannot.
The duskwalker enters the circle of the fire and expels a burst of yellow energy that settles on us both. I move to strike but find my muscles bound, immobilized by an invisible force.
I snarl as I push against the magic holding me with all my demon’s might. It does no good. I’m trapped.
“Lawsss of the fire,” the duskwalker says, its yellow globes pinned on me. Under his stare, I feel my body loosen, then come back under my control. “Men cannot be trusted to keep their word, and so my magic is binding.”
My breath comes in heavy pants as my heart hammers. This creature is far beyond even our combined strength. Our traps were intended to do much of the work, but they’re gone.
And now it’s sitting at our fire.
The duskwalker’s gaze shifts to Lily. “So,princess, tell me the tale of your quest.”
Chapter twenty
Lily
The duskwalker listens with eerie silence as I tell him our story, from the very beginning. Intermittently he’ll stop to ask me or Alastair a question, but he’s otherwise quiet. When the firelight fades, he summons dried wood from thin air and stokes the flames back to life.
Maybe he’s lonely.
Lonely or not, it’s an abomination. A monster unworthy of the head on its shoulders. A creature of greed and hunger that’ll sooner break its promise and gut me when I ask for one of its bony protrusions than give up the antler we need.
But I must try.
There’s no other way to survive and get what we need.
I perform, gesturing grandly to entertain him. His gaze is intent on my love as I describe the battle with the pirates as Alastair had told me. I show off my scars from the bear and describe the unfathomable cold of hypothermia.
“Your frail skin permeates heat that you do not replace fast enough…how did you recover from this?”
I look at Alastair. His narrowed, demonic eyes have not left the monster once. He’s planning. At least, I pray that he’s planning. Ifmy request doesn’t reach this creature, I have to give Alastair enough time to formulate a strategy to get us out of this alive.
