Page 62 of Demon's Bane

“My son trusts Joan, so I do as well.” She lets her voice carry as she speaks, putting all the authority her two hundred years afford her behind her words. “Unless you’ve all forgotten, we treat mating bonds with respect in this village. And we honor ourguests.” She turns back to Joan. “I offer an apology on behalf of my nephew for his inexcusable rudeness.”

Joan takes a shaky breath. “It’s f—”

I reach for her hand, giving it a brief squeeze to let her know she does not have to brush off this slight against her.

“I accept your apology,” she says instead.

Tyvar scoffs, and I turn to him with a barely leashed growl ripping from my throat. “Anything you’d like to say?”

Again, the male before me is not the one I’ve known since I was old enough to know anything at all. Red eyes burning with anger, scorn written clearly on his face, he’s barely able to rein that hatred in at all before he speaks.

“We’ll continue our investigation until we know who’s behind this.” His eyes slide from me and land on Joan. “And we won’t be satisfied until the culprit is brought to justice.”

With that, he turns to go. Gorver and the rest of his crew follow, and my mother lets out a scoff of her own as they leave the village square.

“Vile child, isn’t he?”

With the chaos dying down and more than enough work to go around dealing with the mess of the mining tunnel after the cave-in, the crowd in the square disperses.

“Do you think David is here?” Joan asks quietly. “That… thing Tyvar had. There’s no way to be a hundred percent sure, but it looks like something David would have made.”

“It’s… possible,” I allow.

I didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary in the cave, and I can’t even begin to guess how the wielder might have gotten past the guards, but in truth, I’d had most of my attention focused elsewhere.

“We’ve already sent out a search party,” Halla says. “As soon as the cave-in happened, we sent scouts out to scour the woods.”

I nod. “Good. I hope they catch the bastard.”

Joan’s hand tightens on mine, and when I glance down at her, a fresh pang of guilt lodges itself in my gut.

She looks exhausted. Weary from our trek through the mines and covered in grime, her shoulders are slumped forward and it takes a few moments for her to meet my eye. When she does, all that deep brown is threaded through with worry.

Evening is falling over the village, the sun setting early this far into the north mountains, and though I haven’t forgotten the invitation my mother made earlier to join her and Halla for tea and dinner, I can’t imagine that’s what my mate wants.

No, she’d likely prefer to be anywhere but here. Somewhere she could clean herself up and rest for a while, recover from this whole cursed day.

Perhaps even back in her own realm.

My mother seems to realize it, too, as she casts a worried look back and forth between the two of us.

“Enough for today,” she says decisively. “Things are being handled, and your both look dead on your feet. Joan, if you’d like a place to stay for—”

“We’ll stay together. In my cabin.” My mother and Halla both give me knowing looks, but I ignore them as I turn to my mate. “Unless you’d prefer otherwise?”

Joan hesitates for a moment as she considers the offer. “No, I… I’m fine staying with you.”

Not a particularly ringing endorsement, but I don’t expect any amount of enthusiasm from her right now.

With a brief goodnight to my mother and Halla, we start off toward my cabin. It’s at the edge of the village, as private as it can be in this small, insular place.

Usually I don’t mind the solitude. But tonight, as we pass out of the square and through the more tightly packed rows of cabins in the inner ring of the village, a prickle of unease worms its way into the back of my mind.

Perhaps I should have let her stay with my mother and Halla, somewhere less isolated, somewhere help would be closer if anyone tried to…

No.

I refuse to believe anyone in the village would try to hurt her. They have their suspicions, emotions are running high after the cave-in, but I’ve known these demons all my life.