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Mine, Slate thought.

He growled and came, hot come gushing deep inside. He shoved his knot as deep as he could, legs quaking as he swelled and locked them together.

Ruby cried out, arching against the slab. “Yes!”

Blue light radiated from her hair. Slate lifted his head groggily, watching. For a moment he thought thatshewas glowing. Then he saw Paimon’s rune below her and understood.

The ritual was working. He could feel magic filling the air, sharp and electric. The symbol underneath Ruby glowed brighter until she was backlit by a sea of blue.

Ruby didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her hands locked around his horns as he fucked into her.

In the distance, the dog spirit barked.

Ruby gasped. Her eyes flew open, and Slate startled.

Blue light flowed out of Ruby’s eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Light climbed her skin and her hair, turning each dark thread ward-blue.

Slate panicked, grabbing Ruby’s shoulders. “Ruby!”

But Ruby was still arching, her hands still locked around his horns. She wasn’t in pain, he realized as the light grew so bright Slate’s dark eyes watered. She was coming, he could feel her squeezing around his cock.

Finally, the light began to dim. Ruby sagged against the stone slab, her chest heaving. She was giggling faintly.

He stroked her hair out of her face, relieved and torn. They had done it. His part of their binding was fulfilled. Her town was safe?—

A loud crack rang out through the clearing.

Slate stared as a fissure appeared in the stone above Ruby’s head.

“Ruby,” he said.

Ruby didn’t move. She was staring up at the evening sky, her face set in a wide grin.

Another crack split the stone underneath Ruby’s hips.

“Ruby,” Slate snapped. He went to scoop her up, only to stop when Ruby’s hand slapped into his chest.

“Don’t,” she said.

Slate reeled. There was something in her voice, old and oddly familiar.

“Your ward,” he said, panicked. “It isn’t renewing. It’s breaking. I do not understand what we did wrong.”

Ruby’s hand gentled, rubbing over his chest.

“We did nothing wrong,” she said. “But we need to go.”

She looked down to where they were joined, her expression turning mournful. Then she reached down and slid her fingertip over the spot where they were joined.

Slate jerked. His knot was shrinking. The cause was magical, he could feel it surging through him.

“Ruby,” he whispered. “I don’t?—”

She shushed him. Then she leaned up, kissing him long and deep as his knot softened and the stone ward cracked into tiny pieces behind them.

“Let me down,” she said.

Bewildered, he did. He looked around the woods, checking for demons who might be playing another cruel trick. But he could sense no one. Just him and Ruby, alone in the forest.