Page 110 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

He stepped in front of Coarse instead, protecting me with his own damn body.

The Demon landed in front of us a heartbeat later, shaking the glacier beneath our feet. I clutched Coarse’s fur as he tensed for the fight.

Ravv’s ice claws and shards coated his body, and Elwynne’s and Orvay’s swords appeared in their hands.

But the demon shifted into the form of a man—a gorgeous man, with light skin and thick, curly crimson hair. He was even bigger than Ravv and Orvay.

Rather than attacking, he lifted his hands up as if in surrender.

None of us moved.

“I’m not here to kill you,” the Demon called. “My curse drives me to track my targets, but I won’t be forced to act on the urge to take your life for a few more weeks.”

“What do you want?” Elwynne demanded.

“To make a deal with you.”

A moment of silence followed his response.

“We’re listening,” Ravv finally growled.

“I want you to kill me,” the Demon said.

There was a long, long pause.

I studied the man. He didn’t look like a monster. He looked… tired.

“Why?” Ravv asked, his fury shifting to angry confusion.

His voice was weary as he admitted, “My curse controls me entirely, and I’m tired of being its prisoner. Death would be my only escape.”

His words struck me hard.

I knew what it was to be a prisoner. To wish for a way out—any way out.

“What about mating?” I asked him.

His attention jerked to me, and Ravv gave a low, threatening growl.

“Mate bonds change your magic. What if taking a mate could alter your curse?” I added.

“This may all be a game to him,” Ravv warned me. “Do not risk yourself in any way.”

I didn’t think it was a game to him, though. I knew suffering well enough that I didn’t think anyone would be able to lie to me about it with any amount of success.

The Demon studied me for a moment. “And what if I make the female like me?”

“Then you’ll have to make sure she falls in love with you, or she’ll hate you for it,” I said bluntly.

He studied me for a long, long moment before he shook his head. “I have taken too many lives as it is.” His attention moved back to the fae with me. “Find a way to kill me before the eclipse, or my curse will force me to take your life. Your elves’ shields may stop my brothers, but they’ll be useless against me.”

With that, he shifted back into his dragon form and launched into the sky.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding as he disappeared above our heads.

“We move, now,” Ravv said harshly.

Our bonded idorr ran like our lives depended on it the whole way back to Loire.

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