Page 96 of Demon Bound

Nirlan smiled smugly. He was pleased to have something he could withhold from her. “And why would I tell you that?”

“So we don’t kill you, idiot,” said Madira.

“If you kill me, you’ll never have your answer.”

“The answer is in the runes,” Raiya said. “I will figure it out eventually, with or without your help. But if you tell me now, you might live longer.”

Nirlan chewed his lip for a moment, glaring at her. “Tell your servant to release me, and I’ll show you.”

“I’m not a servant,” Madira growled.

“Let him go, Madira.”

Nirlan shot a pointed look over his shoulder at Madira, waiting. Madira snarled and lowered the sword.

Nirlan straightened, smoothing his hands over his coat. “That zealot mucked up the binding. You can’t depend on these people for anything, even the one thing they’re supposed to be good for.”

“The priestess?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill her?”

“The demon killed her. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mourn her, but I didn’t want her dead. Now I have no one to fix this mess she created. But you can help me send him back to the hells. I can’t have a wild, unrestrained demon running loose in my home.”

Raiya hesitated. She wouldn’t put it past him to stab her in the back the moment he had what he wanted. But what other choice did she have? “Fine. Show me the summoning circle.”

Nirlan gave a sarcastic bow, gesturing down the corridor. “Follow me.”

Madira leaned in to whisper in Raiya’s ear. “This is a mistake. We should kill him now.”

“I agree, actually,” Jai whispered.

“Not yet.” If he knew how to send his demon back to the hells, and how to remove that lingering half-binding from Azreth, they needed him. And she didn’t want to admit it, but she still hadn’t found the courage to end his life. Some kind of internal block kept her from just raising her baton and blasting him in the face.

Nirlan glanced over his shoulder as they walked, peering apprehensively at her baton. “What have you done with that thing?”

“It’s a demonic weapon,” she replied, her lips curling up. “Does it frighten you?”

“You’ve certainly changed in the past few weeks. Being a demon’s whore has made you think rather highly of yourself, hasn’t it?”

“We don’t need your help for this,” she said. “The sound of your voice grates on me. Insult me again and I’ll silence it.”

Predictably, he looked like he wanted to say something else, but he sealed his lips. There was outrage on his face, but there was also apprehension that she’d never seen there before. The fact that she had put that fear there filled her with satisfaction. She didn’t think she’d ever made Nirlan afraid before. Their power dynamic had never, not once, swung in this direction, and the thrill it gave her was intoxicating.

“Tell me what happened when you performed the summoning,” she said. “How did all the other monsters get here?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“Of course it’s my concern. They’re terrorizing the entire countryside.”

“I mean that you don’t need to worry about it.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She stopped short as they passed beneath an iron gate and reached the central chamber where he had summoned Azreth.

The room was teeming with magic. Glowing runes radiated from the middle of the chamber, even more of them than the last time she’d been here. At the center of them all was a strange object that she had trouble making sense of.