My patience was hanging by the thinnest of threads as I waited, listening intently to the conversation going on in the greenhouse.
The words wouldn’t have been difficult to hear if this damn demon would stop talking. One would think being bound in chains and kicked in the face would inspire some silence, but this hellion didn’t know when to shut up.
“You got a name?” he said, still talking even with my foot crushing his head against the stone floor. “I mean, since we’re just going to sit here and get to know each other…I figured…introduction might be nice. So…uh…I’m Zane.”
My irritation rose. At least the voices in the greenhouse had grown calm; the raised tones I’d heard several minutes ago were gone.
Begrudging as I was to admit it, perhaps my witch had been right to spare them. If these two could handle some of the dirty work for us — namely, killing Kent Hadleigh — we’d be better off.
Still, the demon babbled on, “Have you been here long? Odd place, Abelaum. A little Hellish, isn’t it? Where’s that witch of yours? I mean, I’m assuming she’s yours. I don’t think a witchling could have summoned a lovely being like you. You two have made a deal, eh? Lucky you, getting a witch’s soul. I’ve heard they’re sweet as Heaven.”
If Everly hadn’t ordered me not to, I would have ripped out his tongue for a moment of silence.
“You know nothing of witches, hellion,” I said dryly. “You talk too much.”
Everly and Juniper had left the greenhouse; their scent was growing closer. It was faint, but even at this distance, I caught a whiff of something that filled me with alarm: blood.
Everly’s blood.
Seizing hold of the demon at my feet, I teleported through the halls, following Everly’s scent. Her eyes widened when we appeared before her, and Juniper immediately shifted into a defensive stance despite having no weapon except her fists.
There was a tiny cut on Everly’s finger, and she swiftly pressed it against the skirt of her dress, trying to hide it from me.
“Let him go, Callum,” she said. “They won’t harm us.”
I’d already forgotten about the demon dramatically gasping at my side. Being forced to teleport was certainly a bit discombobulating, but this bastard was playing it up for his woman’s sympathy. Leaving him to Juniper’s concerned embrace, I went to my witch’s side.
She was uncomfortable. Restless. Her tension did not ease as I banded my arm around her, putting my body between her and the intruders. It made me want to hold her tighter, cocoon her within my wings.
She was watching the intruders as they embraced, their relief at being reunited fiercely obvious. The way they clung to each other, and how the woman positioned herself protectively in front of her demon, filled me with a strange melancholy feeling.
To my relief, Everly leaned her head against my side as she said, “Then we have an understanding, don’t we, Juniper?”
Juniper faced the two of us with a cold gaze. “I kill the Libiri,” she said. “You kill the God. And we stay the hell out of each other’s way.”
There was no forgiveness or comradery in her voice, but I was still impressed. Perhaps I had doubted Everly too much. I didn’t know this woman, but her soul was strong despite being so damaged.
The other demon appeared impressed now too, looking me over with renewed interest. “A God-killer, eh? Were you in the wars?”
Tightening my arm around Everly, I said, “I was. I’ve killed my share of gods.”
“But with an army at your back,” he said. He sounded a bit smug for my taste, and it raised my hackles again. “Still so confident when it’s just you and the witchling?”
He knew nothing of the wars. Like so many demons who had come into being after that time, he took his freedom and safety for granted. The lives of those lost were merely stories told by singers and bards to him, not flesh and blood that had suffered so Hell could be free.
Everly shifted her weight, pressing against me. She laid her palm on my chest. It was a warning — and a reassurance. It quieted the fury in my head, the restless tingling in my limbs.
Kissing her forehead to reassure her, I said, “I don’t need an army, hellion.” Then laying my head atop hers, I lowered my voice. “Make them leave.”
She bid them farewell, and we saw them out of the house and into the woods. Even after they had vanished from sight, we stood in the yard in silence, unspoken fears passing between us.
“I have angered you,” I said, and she looked up at me in alarm.
“I’m not angry,” she said, shaking her head at the word. “I’m just…all of this is…it’s so much. I wronged her. She remembers…” She gestured toward the woods, where Juniper and her demon had disappeared. “She’s going to kill my father, Callum.”
Her voice was strangely void of emotion. She took a slow, deep breath in and didn’t exhale.
Frowning, I said, “Is that not what you want?”
Still, she held her breath. She held it like it was the last wall between her and whatever invisible battle she fought.
“I never wanted to be the one who would decide if others lived or died,” she said.
“That is war, Everly,” I said. “It’s a cruel thing. As many monsters as it destroys, it also creates.”
She turned away with a solemn nod. “You’re right. This is war.”
In the tunnels under the coven house, the air was unnervingly still.
Behind me, there was a distant howl of wind, but ahead, nothing. Only the slow, cold drip of water. The smell of rot and mold.
The tunnel was narrow, the dirt soft and muddy. The path ahead had been sealed, or attempted to be. A wall of wooden slats barred the way, runes carved into the wood to create protective spells.
But they hadn’t been enough.
The wood was splintered, the wall broken. Thick slime clung to the broken slats and mushrooms grew from the wood. I rubbed some of the slime between my fingers, giving it a sniff. It had the odor of rotten fish and blood. Doubtlessly from an Eld creature. This was likely where the beast that had attacked Everly broke through.
Straightening up, I gathered magic around me, crafting it into rope-like braids of aether. The ropes were formed with the intention to protect, creating a formidable barrier the Eld would not be able to breach again so easily.
These tunnels were like a maze, and I’d been exploring for hours. For the past week, Everly and I had been coming down here every day. She would remain in the laboratory, studying Sybil’s notes, and I would traverse the tunnels.
It was high time I returned to her.
Back in the laboratory, I could barely see Everly over the piles of books and papers surrounding her. She had conjured several small flames that floated around her, illuminating the handwritten book laid open on the desk. Her eyes were narrowed, and she chewed her lip in concentration.
It amazed me that she could sit in quiet stillness for hours, perfectly focused.
She stretched when I braced my arms against the back of her chair and leaned down, kissing her forehead.
“You’ve been in here all day,” I said. “Studying. Reading.” Pressing my face against the nape of her neck, I slowly inhaled. Her scent flooded my brain like the sweetest perfume.
The slightest glance from her — a breath, a word, a fucking giggle — and I was hard, forced to attention, ready to serve however she needed me.
There was a smile in her words as she said, “Is that your way of saying you miss me?”
I nodded. I traced my fingers down her spine, over her silky blouse.
“I do miss you,” I mumbled against her neck. “Miss you every second I’m not touching you. Every moment I can’t see you.” My hands caressed over her, grasping her breasts and squeezing until her breath hitched. “I can hear you constantly, Everly. I hear you sigh when you turn the page…” I scratched my nails lightly down her arm, coming to rest on her hand. “I hear your tongue move over your lips as you’re thinking. The beat of your heart…the chair creaking under you…the floorboards bowing when your feet move across them…You haunt me.”
When I lifted my head, she was smiling at me. Her eyes were red around the edges from long nights spent reading by firelight.
Since her conversation with Juniper, she’d thrown herself into her work. It felt like she was withdrawing from me. Tension lingered between us that I didn’t know how to address. In the past, if a fellow demon and I had a disagreement, we would simply fight it out.
Or I would leave. Running away from discomfort was a simple solution.
But I couldn’t run from her.
“Have you eaten yet?” I picked up her hand and felt it shake. “What have I told you about neglecting yourself, eh? It’s like you’re trying to make me punish you.”
She giggled as I growled at her, insisting, “I’ll take a break! I am getting hungry. But it’s so hard to stop.” She surveyed the books spread around her, shaking her head in awe. “Sybil’s notes are written in code. There’s so much of it I can’t decipher. But her journals, written in Latin…” She grasped one of the books, picking it up excitedly and flipping through the pages. “She was experimenting on flesh samples from the Eld, and from the God Itself. Her research seems to indicate that the gods aren’t carbon-based lifeforms – at least, They weren’t in whatever dimension They came from. That’s why They have such difficulty surviving on Earth, why it requires so much energy for Them to form physical bodies and move around. But They can imitate fungus. She believed that the God was using mycelial networks to expand the influence of its psychic energy.”
She paused, ducking her head shyly. “What? Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you fascinate me,” I said. “The sound of your voice. Your enthusiasm for what you study. It’s soothing.”
She laughed softly. “Kids used to tease me in school for being a know-it-all. I guess it was annoying that I was always the first one to raise my hand for the teacher’s questions, or that I spent more time reading than playing outside.”
I growled again, but it wasn’t playful this time. “And who were these children?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. You’re not going to kill them, Callum.”
“No.” I folded my arms. “I’d merely take their tongues for being nasty to you.”
She got to her feet, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Why don’t you let my tongue distract you, instead?”
She rose on her tiptoes to kiss me. She tasted like Earl Grey tea and lemon cake, a feast for my senses. It was blasphemy for a creature like me to touch a being as heavenly as her, but I relished the sin.
“What do you say to a little game before lunchtime?” I said, as she parted from me. “There will be a reward at the end, if you win.”
“What if I lose?”
“That’s the best part,” I said, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “You can’t lose, my lady. It’s impossible.”
She looked confused as I leapt back from her, dancing my way to one of the branching tunnels. She shook her head, laughing when I took her hand and gave her a spin. She didn’t know it, but I’d been reading her paperbacks after she went to sleep. The romance novels she would read in the brief spaces of time she wasn’t studying or practicing were now my study materials.
These gallant heroes she read about weren’t like me. Princes, dukes, and marquesses, who could sweep a young woman off her feet with politeness and charm.
I found far more of myself in the villains, the shadow figures determined to cause death and destruction wherever they went.
But if I was going to be a villain, I would be hers. Her protector in the shadows, her tool of chaos. If I couldn’t charm her with poetry and politeness, then I would use the skills I did have.
I cupped her chin and peered with her into the darkness. The tunnel stretched ahead, dissolving quickly into shadow, and she gulped against my hand.
“Find your way through the dark,” I said. “There are candles along the way, so light them as you go. When you find the sun, you win.”
“It sounds too easy.”
“Does it? I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Her pretty lips curled into a playful smile. “Will you be hunting me?”
“Not this time, darling.” I let her go, backing away from her into the tunnel. “This time, you’ll be hunting me.”
