Page 27

TANGENTIAL TRICKERY

Severath

S everath could not confirm whether soulbonded beings always screamed in each others’ faces when they first woke as it didn’t happen the second time he was gently roused by the feel of Ember stroking his skin.

She was petting just between his eyes this time—or where his good eye was and the bad one wasn’t.

His patch had drifted up in the night, exposing more of the scarred skin below, and her fingers found the tight ridges.

It wasn’t painful—in fact, it was quite the opposite—yet he still reached up and took her hand, lifting it away.

“I’m sorry,” she said, voice hoarse, but she didn’t pull out of his loose grip .

He didn’t deserve her apologies, he knew. He should have been giving them.

Severath held her hand still before his face, the silver cuff around her wrist catching the morning moonlight.

She was his prisoner, and what had he done?

Forced his way into the chamber he’d promised was hers alone, compelled her to touch herself for his own pleasure, climbed into her bed and wrapped his body around hers to comfort an ache he had no idea how to otherwise quell.

But Ember knew how to kick him out. She’d done it before, and he had quickly obliged, yet she wasn’t ordering him away now.

Now, she was still cuddled into his side. He’d been smart enough to not wrap his tail around her this time, though it had sidled up against the back of her legs in the night. She was still resting her head on his shoulder, her other hand curled against her chest. The hand he had watched.

Severath felt himself harden again. Fucking blazes. “Big plans for today,” he said, throat dry as he sat up, hoping he hadn’t slept in past Elliran’s arrival.

When Ember pushed up onto her elbow, the blanket fell away, and her nipples were once again taut against the silk of her night clothes.

Every thought fell out of his head—the plan he had devised days ago, the approval he had gotten from Councilor Fineril, the appointment he’d set up with Elliran to expand the silver cuff’s perimeter, all traded away for that much more of Ember’s earthy-toned skin on display.

What might it be like to see every inch of her exposed ?

“Second half of the alphabet?” she asked, black hair falling messily into her face.

Severath’s chest squeezed, and he knew he was ruined.

Even worse than learning the night before the true depths of his undeniable lust, there was a budding affection that made him go stupid simply from watching her rub the sleep from her eyes.

She could sink one hundred knives into his gut, and he would thank her for every single one.

All the more reason for today’s plan. “No lessons today. No cooking either. We’re going out.”

Midmost Dell was alight with lanterns of every color.

They lined the way to Heck’s largest gathering spot, strung up on market stalls and hanging from posts put up just for the summer celebration.

It was a largely frivolous venture, Severath always thought, but one he volunteered to attend each year as a guard.

Though this was the first time since he enlisted that he wouldn’t be defending Heck by watching for demons who had grown rowdy from the summer wine that flowed too freely when his people welcomed the new season.

But Severath had not been asked to work. In fact, he had received only a single drayk from the captain telling him he would be called in for evaluation when time permitted—he need not keep asking.

On the other claw, he was parading a prisoner through Heck’s streets, and that was perhaps even more dangerous, though for whom exactly was difficult to decipher.

Whether the black eyes on them were due to the fact gossip had surely spread like indigo moss about Ember’s crime, or that a human was walking the streets of Heck at all, he didn’t know, but she kept so close that she constantly bumped into his elbow.

Not that he could possibly complain about the reassurance of her warmth and touch when some of those leery eyes flicked to his missing horn.

And then there was her smell. Not the intoxicating one from last night, but the human one, the one that had settled within him and refused to fade away.

It filled each of his breaths, more powerful than the sweetened bread crisped in bubbling lard or the boiled drayk eggs wrapped in sausage meat and also crisped in bubbling lard or even just the many vats of bubbling lard cloying up the street.

When they reached the park, a tug at his arm brought him to a stop. Ember’s hand remained on his elbow, her eyes wide, thick brows lifted high. “It’s so…colorful.”

Severath squinted out on the awnings and carts, each one decorated to match its wares and illuminated with a soft, magical glow. He supposed he was always too concerned with what was going on in the shadows of his own home to truly appreciate the brilliance Heck could offer.

“Ankerick was never like this—not the parts I saw anyway. Well, springtime at Lady Adine’s place in the country was pretty when the wildflowers bloomed, but they didn’t last into summer. ”

“We can keep looking if you want, but I hoped to complete at least one perimeter check.”

Ember snickered. “Oh, right. But”—she gave his elbow a squeeze, fingers digging in—“I don’t want to get swept away in the crowd. Everyone’s so much bigger here. Is this okay?”

Severath swallowed back the elation at the thought of her hanging on to him like they were a pair. “Of course,” he said, his heart thumping with pride and anxiety both as they continued down the path of colored lanterns.

Being in constant physical contact only meant that she couldn’t sneak off and murder someone, of course, and that was a good enough reason.

Other demons strolled arm in arm, hand in hand, or with tails entwined.

He wanted to wrap his own tail around Ember to warn others away, but that was ridiculous: she was not his .

And what would the others think if he did make such a show?

She was human , and he was meant to be guarding her—er, them from her.

Severath was hard-pressed to ever break from established precedent, and although no one had bothered to write it out because it was so fucking obvious, mating with a prisoner was definitely against the rules.

They hadn’t mated though, he’d only watched her…mate with herself, and blazes, he couldn’t think about the shadowy wetness between her legs or the look of ecstasy she’d worn or the taste of her—no, definitely not in public.

“Balls of Nagreth!”

“What?”

Severath pointed to one of the boiling vats of lard to distract himself from the memory of Ember’s climax. “They’re a kind of food that is round and crispy and covered in honey. You must try one.”

Ember did a better job at distracting him than indulgent fare by marveling at the mundane as they continued not just walking the perimeter of the park but winding through its middle with no true destination.

They spent longer than any other demons at a competitive display of fruits that had been enchanted to be gigantic and oddly shaped, and then dallied along a row of stalls where craftier demons were selling their wares.

With Severath’s encouragement, she asked a vendor about the materials used, and the two engaged in a long discussion about how linens were made.

Severath understood none of it, but the meaning behind the tightness in his chest when he watched Ember’s shoulders relax was clear.

She was so engaged she didn’t notice the long, inquisitive looks from other demons, including a few council members who were making their rounds, but Severath did.

The Horn of Finance and the Horn of Preservation eyed Ember with especial curiosity, but Councilor Fineril gave Severath an approving nod when they passed by, and that was enough to quell his nerves.

At the park’s pond, they watched blue demons attempt to cross with only magic, most failing after a few steps and dousing themselves, and Ember actually laughed.

She threw a stifling hand over her mouth immediately, but the corners of her eyes still crinkled with mirth, and that mirth intensified the concentration in his chest .

But that bowstring-like tightness did not detract from his vigilance.

A streak of silver shot toward Severath through the crowd, and all his senses flared at once because Ember .

Fire licked at his clawed fingertips on one hand as the other pushed her out of harm’s way.

But before he could parse out if a conjured dagger or a flaming sword was necessary to replace the bow he didn’t bring, the threat neutralized itself.

An atteapir sat itself down hard on Severath’s foot.

It wasn’t painless as the creature had some heft, but if that was the best it could do, no weapon was needed.

Normally atteapir were massive beasts with gnashing fangs and a penchant for summoning fire that could slice through a demon with no resistance, but this one was far too small to do much more damage than overturning a table or two.

Severath could sense its magic was stunted as he snuffed his own flame out, and the human hurrying after and calling out an endearing nickname probably meant the miniature Veilwood beast posed no threat.

Still, he kept Ember behind him, gaze flicking from the potential threat to the approaching human, moving quickly despite her crutches. There were apologies, but Severath was so thrown by her coloring that the words were muffled behind his own thoughts.

She was blue .