Page 34 of Demon Bound

“Can you wait that long?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? Is it… If you feel any strong urges to… do anything, will you tell me?”

“I am not a wild beast.”

She gave him a sidelong glance and said quietly, “I’ve seen you lose control before.”

He didn’t say anything, and didn’t look at her. Upon reflection, Raiya supposed she wasn’t being entirely fair. Evenwhen he’d been starving and Nirlan had thrown her to him, he hadn’t hurt her.

“Don’t panic,” came a girl’s voice.

Raiya and Azreth both turned, and Raiya’s eyebrows shot up. Standing tensely behind them was an adolescent elven girl. Her skin was somewhere between blue and dark gray, and it made her look almost as alien as Azreth. Based on the way her bright green eyes were glancing between them, it was clear that she was, in fact, accustomed to people panicking when they saw her. Her black hair was artfully arranged into a collection of narrow braids. Her clothes were strange and elaborate, presumably of night elf make, and she wore unusual armor of black leather, along with a sword at her side. She was also holding a large basket in her arms.

“I won’t,” Raiya said. She smiled, trying to convey calm.

The girl looked relieved. She moved toward the fire and set down the basket she carried. “Fu-lon told me to take care of you. I’m Jai.”

“I’m Raiya. This is Azreth.”

The girl shot Raiya a shy smile as she started taking small, wrapped packages of food out of her basket.

Raiya had never seen a night elf in her life. Anyone who did was unlikely to live to tell about it. Like the Roamers, the night elves had a fearsome reputation that stretched far beyond their borders. Jai seemed harmless, but where there was one night elf, there were probably more lurking in the shadows nearby.

“How unusual, seeing a night elf this far outside of the Varai forest. Are there any others here?” Raiya asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Jai sighed. “It’s only my brother and me. We aren’t going to sacrifice you to our goddess. I promise. Yes, we’re really members of the clan. Yes, it’s unusual. No, we don’t go on raids, and we’re not highwaymen.”

“Of course not,” Raiya agreed, as if she hadn’t been thinking exactly all of those things.

Jai seemed mollified. She put a tea kettle over the fire.

“Is your brother older or younger?” Raiya asked.

“Older. He’s a dick. But usually he goes out hunting at night, so you won’t have to talk to him.”

“Ah.” If the Roamers had accepted them, they probably weren’t murderers. She inched a little closer to Azreth nonetheless. He peered over at her questioningly.

Jai proudly handed them both plates of food she’d put together from the things in her basket, then glanced up at them as if checking their reactions. “I hope you like it. These are potato dumplings, and this is mutton. The tea leaf salad is my favorite. Oh! I forgot tea. I’ll be right back.” She hurried off into the sea of tents. Azreth stared after her.

“She is a juvenile?” he asked quietly.

It struck Raiya as an odd question. “Yes. She looks about fourteen. Her aging is probably just beginning to slow. She’ll be grown in a decade or so.”

“That long?”

“More or less. It’s a bit different for elves than for humans. Do demon children grow up faster?”

“We do not have children.”

“Don’t have children? What do you mean?”

“We are born of age.”

She pulled back to stare at him. “Do you mean to tell me that you popped out of your mother at your current size? Gods bless that woman, she must have been massive!”

His mouth moved in an odd way that might have been his version of displaying amusement. “Mortal females grow children within their bodies, yes? And the children are still very small when they are torn out of the mother’s body?”