Page 103 of Demon Bound

And yet, she had suspected there was a part of him that missed conflict. It was the part of him that claimed to crave blood. She saw it in him whenever he lost himself in the pleasures of her body and sank his teeth into her. She felt it in herself, too. There was a hunger in both of them.

Now, untethered by curses or cults or bad husbands, they were free to go where they wished when they wished. They could choose peace and quiet or adventure and battle as it suited them. That in itself was a luxury.

There was just one last thing to be addressed.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Come on,” she said, picking up her notebook and pulling him inside. They wound slowly through the castle and down many stairs, deep into the heart of the dungeon below, until they came to the central chamber where Azreth had first been summoned. The gate still shimmered in the center of the room.

Azreth stood patient and still as Raiya painstakingly painted runes all over his body in dark ink. She had already spent long weeks on the runes in the rest of the room, painting over ones that needed to be modified and scrubbing away the ones she didn’t need.

“It will work this time,” Raiya said, more to herself than to him.

“I know.” He went to stand beside the gate in the center of the room, then waited. Runes striped his body and radiated out from him in all directions. They were flat black, waiting to be charged with magic.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“I am.”

Her heart was in her throat as she recalled what had happened the last time she’d tried this. What if she’d gotten it wrong again?

“Be calm, Raiya,” Azreth said. “The runes are all in place? Everything is correct? You have nothing to worry about.”

She looked around one last time. The runes were right. She’d researched and experimented for weeks. She’d done everything as well as she possibly could. They were ready.

She nodded. “Do it.”

Azreth didn’t move, but she knew the exact moment that he charged the runes, because they began to shimmer, filling the room with rainbows of light.

He didn’t contort with pain as the runes on his own body lit up. Instead, he held up his hand, watching the inert binding mark on his palm. Raiya leaned closer to watch with him.

The mark faded, and then it was gone.

Azreth looked up at her, sucking in a breath. He bent over her, taking her face in both hands as he kissed her hard.

“Thank you, Raiya,” he said emphatically.

She was surprised by his delight. “It was nothing. I doubt it would have done any harm to you, now that Nirlan is gone. It was just an unwanted tattoo at this point.”

“It means a great deal to me,” he said. “My body is my own again.”

That, she could understand. She nodded. “I’m glad.”

The runes around them began to fade again. Raiya shook her head a little. “Gods. I’ve been working on that for so long. I don’t quite know what I’ll do now that it’s finished.”

“Now we will begin the rest of our lives. I will supply some ideas, if you wish.”

“I have some ideas of my own.”

Whatever came next in life, they would do it side by side.