Page 20 of The Demon’s Collar (The Bard’s Demon #1)

Ero: Speak No Evil

Bardic Advice from Eroithiel von Dua to future generations: Even when the bastard deserves it, spare a moment to plan your revenge. The consequences of your actions can be such a headache otherwise.

“ D on’t speak.”

Although B?k didn’t raise his voice, his order cut through the cacophony of the crowd. It was laced with compulsion—so I had no choice but to obey. Which meant I couldn’t defend myself.

The dead man’s friends fought to reach me. B?k conjured a mote of fire to keep them at bay. The smoky stench of burning grass and leaves raked at my eyes.

I watched in a daze, their shouts and struggles removed as though they were a show and I its audience.

“Kneel .”

I was too hollow to question B?k’s reason for giving that order. For giving orders through the collar at all. As if I would have resisted him right then. I was one stiff breeze from collapse. I knelt.

He caressed my hair, offering silent praise despite my lack of choice. Then his thumb squeezed between my throat and collar—holding it like I couldn’t be trusted not to attack.

A prickle of embarrassment broke through the numbness. Half of our company had just watched me obey B?k like a mindless pet, and more were arriving every moment to see what the raised voices were about. They would find me kneeling at his feet.

I sucked in a breath—ready to look up at him to show my disapproval in whatever way I could, since I couldn’t speak it—but he gave a subtle jerk of the collar, momentarily taking my air away.

It was jarring enough to give me pause. For now. I didn’t have the energy to fight B?k. So instead, I closed my eyes to block it all out.

I killed someone.

I killed someone.

I killed someone.

The cadence of the jeers and shouts changed when leadership arrived. A woman’s sharp voice rose above the rest. “What is this, B?k?”

By the pin-drop silence that followed, I knew the voice belonged to Colonel Astrada. The woman who would probably decide my fate any minute now. I’d only seen her from a distance, but her commanding tone was exactly what I’d imagined.

A man on the other side of the flames shouted with raw fury before B?k could speak, “She killed Wendlin, Colonel! Everyone here saw it. ”

I opened my eyes, looking up at Colonel Astrada. Her tight bun and her stiff uniform told me all I needed to know about her relationship with regulations. I was triple-fucked.

She frowned down at me. “Explain yourself, initiate.”

It felt like the dream where a monster stands over you and you want to run, but you can’t move. Or shout, but you can’t open your mouth. Helplessness was my least favorite flavor. I gritted my teeth in frustration, imagining B?k’s face melting as loudly as I could. Let him read that desire.

“She won’t speak,” B?k said.

Colonel Astrada’s gaze snapped up to him, and her tone turned to ice. “Excuse me?”

“Wendlin attacked her last night,” B?k said calmly, ignoring the protests from the men he’d neatly boxed out with his flames.

“She confronted him. They fought. He struck to kill.” B?k shrugged one shoulder, as though he was sick of telling the same dull story twice.

“I ordered the bard to defend herself. She did. Wendlin didn’t survive. ”

My incredulous gaze shot to B?k. What was he doing? He hadn’t ordered me to do anything. I’d started this fight—and my magic had ended it.

A swarm of angry butterflies trilled in my stomach at the thought. My magic had done this. The tendrils I coaxed into bolstering my songs every day, that I had to push and cajole to heal—had gutted a man like it was nothing.

Holy shit.

Colonel Astrada’s mouth tightened. “And why can she not tell me this herself, B?k?”

I sucked in a sharp breath. The closest I could come to vocally agreeing with the spirit of Astrada’s terse question. The thumb B?k held between the collar and my throat tilted, intentionally tightening the collar until I could barely breathe .

“Because I ordered her to be silent,” he said, as though that were explanation enough. “I brought her into the faction on business for Lord Austvix. She wears my collar. She follows my orders. If there’s a problem, Colonel, I will address it.”

The look Colonel Astrada gave B?k put her on a special shelf in my mind, inhabited previously by Aelith alone.

A party of two who showed absolutely no sign of bending in the face of B?k’s considerable intimidation.

They were stronger women than I. The words the dark voice had spoken in my head that morning taunted me now.

You allow him to control you. So weak. Such a disappointment, Eroithiel.

In that moment, I couldn’t help but agree with the shadow’s assessment.

“B?k, you are out of bounds,” Colonel Astrada said softly. “Remove that collar, or I will have my guard put her down.”

Black spots danced in my eyes from the lack of oxygen as B?k’s grip tightened further still—this time, I think, unintentionally. But he remained outwardly calm. After a beat, he released me altogether. I fell forward on my hands and knees, gulping in the smoky air and choking on it.

B?k met the colonel’s gaze—not with the superiority or dismissiveness with which he always seemed to look at me—but with respect. And regret. “I can’t do that, Colonel. The situation is what it must be to serve Lord Austvix.”

Panic coursed through me. She was going to have her men kill me, and I wouldn’t even get to plead my case first.

“Be still,” B?k ordered.

I froze. It didn’t stop the feelings, which spilled down my cheeks in the only way they could now. My anger blazed to new heights. The tendrils in my chest—I pictured them differently now, bloody and hungry—stirred with fresh desire.

No, no, no. I pleaded with—them? Myself? Fear of what I might do if Astrada’s people came for me overtook everything else. It was all coming to a fever pitch when she finally spoke again.

“I see,” she said.

She brushed ash from her pristine cloak, frowning in deep thought. I couldn’t begin to guess at the power dynamics at play. I could only hope they worked out in my favor.

“Then you take responsibility for your factionmate’s death?” Colonel Astrada asked, her tone returning to business and suggesting a purposeful topic shift.

“Yes,” B?k answered without hesitation.

She took stock of her audience. Everyone was watching. I didn’t need B?k’s senses or abilities to read the crowd and understand that no answer was going to please everyone. I didn’t envy the colonel. She grimaced.

“Raise the whipping post,” Colonel Astrada said.

A fresh cry of outrage from Wendlin’s crew sounded. Murmurs blanketed the crowd. Astrada lifted her hand for silence. She frowned at B?k. “You will report in ten minutes. Bring what you need.”

“Yes, Colonel,” he said.

And then he yanked me to my feet and pulled me away from the crowd.

The compulsion dissipated when we entered his tent. He didn’t have to say anything. My ability to speak simply returned. The only barrier then was deciding which of my many, many thoughts to voice first.

I started with a nice all-encompassing, “What the fuck was that?”

“You’re welcome,” he answered .

He turned away, wrenching a small satchel from the ground as though it weighed much more than it appeared to.

He reached inside. Although it looked like his hand alone would fill the bag, he extracted the manacles and the long chains he’d used in the woods.

His dampeners. My tendrils lurched at the sight.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure I don’t kill a man for doing his job.”

He meant the whipping post. Gods help the factionite tasked with whipping B?k.

And what else? The codex, which I’d been so pointedly gifted that morning, mentioned that executable offenses—such as killing a factionmate—that happened in the field were to be litigated before Lord Austvix himself.

But B?k couldn’t be killed. So what would happen?

Which brought me to another salient point. Why B?k? Why not me? I harbored no delusions about B?k’s character nor his feelings. He wasn’t the ‘sacrifice myself for others’ type.

“Why did you lie?” I demanded.

He paused then, letting the chains fall, and turned to give me his full attention for the first time since he’d stepped to my side at the fire. His hard look softened infinitesimally. His onyx eyes bore into mine. My breath caught in my throat.

“Only I get to punish you,” he said simply.

“F-for killing Wendlin?”

Saying the words aloud sent a ripple of alarm through me that had nothing to do with B?k. As though the statement made it real—again. And I hadn’t just killed Wendlin. I’d cooked his heart and liquefied his brain.

A grim amusement danced in B?k’s eyes. “No. Wendlin was already dead the moment he put his hands on you. Your killing him tonight merely saved me the effort.” Some of the amusement faded in favor of his usual put-upon frown.

“Granted, I would have been more subtle about it. Killing him in the middle of the camp’s evening festivities was… certainly a bold choice.”

I winced. I might have pointed out that it actually hadn’t been much of a choice—more of a strange anomaly even I couldn’t explain. But that was need-to-know information. The last thing B?k needed was more knowledge to use against me.

The way he looked at me made those thoughts fizzle out. I could feel him digging around in my head. I feared what he would find there.

“I guess I should be grateful,” he said in that low, dangerous tone straight out of my nightmares. “At least when you come for me, I know it won’t be a surprise.”

I swayed, dizzy with the accusation. The obviously true accusation. Also, the one I’d been stupid to let him see, first with the holy water and again not twenty minutes ago when I’d made love to the mental image of his face melting. “I?—”

“No, kitten.” He put a single finger to my lips. “No lies tonight.”

When his hand fell away, I licked my lips and tasted his earthy flavor mixed with ash. He was about to take my punishment—and we hadn’t even settled our other scores. The ledgers were a mess.

“Time to go,” he said. “If you value your life and the lives of your factionmates, I suggest you don’t contradict anything I told Colonel Astrada tonight.”

I nodded, physically unable to speak. This time, I couldn’t blame the collar.

“Good kitten,” he said.

He picked up the chains and slung them over his shoulder. Then, he strode from the tent without a backward glance.

I took a moment to gather myself. To remind myself that I was still alive—for now—and that somehow, I’d escaped whatever fate Colonel Astrada might have rightly given me for killing Wendlin. The fate I had waiting for me with B?k, however…

Well, that was a problem for later.