Page 45 of The Demon’s Collar (The Bard’s Demon #1)

Ero: O Brother, Who Art Thou?

T he wind rushed in my ears.

That word pulsed like a drumbeat.

Sister.

B?k pulled me to my feet. His erratic emotions stained the air. I took several labored breaths, trying to find the words to ask every question Austvix’s statement begged.

Sister.

Who was our father? How could he be sure who I was? Why did he look so hostile?

In retrospect, I should have given more weight to the last question—but it was only an afterthought. I was too curious to be properly afraid. Nevermind the gargantuan warlord glowering down at me .

Sister.

B?k’s fingers brushed the back of my neck, gently curling into the collar. His warm breath tickled my ear. The moment hung heavy, frozen frame by frame. His shadows enveloped my tendrils. His thumbs grazed my skin. The spicy cinnamon flavor of his angst tickled my lips.

“Run,” he breathed.

The latch clicked.

The collar fell.

And I…froze.

My body wanted to listen to B?k. My tendrils strained against me, trying to force me to follow his advice and flee. But I couldn’t.

I looked up at Lord Austvix in silent awe.

Sister.

“How—” I started.

And then Lord Austvix’s magic washed over me.

The assault stole my breath. My tendrils rose to shield me, but for once, they were outmatched.

They grappled anyway, writhing against his.

But he had more, and they were stronger, and na?ve or otherwise, I simply didn’t believe my brother would kill me—and I didn’t know how to force my magic to fight without that minor motivator.

B?k’s flames flared between us, momentarily forcing our tendrils to rear back. Lord Austvix turned his furious gaze on B?k.

“No!” I cried. “Please!”

I don’t know why I intervened. I’d already seen B?k die several times. He would have been fine eventually. But at my shout, Lord Austvix’s eyes swiveled back to mine. This time, I saw my death there. This time, my tendrils did too.

When his magic came for me, mine erupted.

It spilled out in a flash of scalding energy.

It poured into my brother, stronger by every measure than the burst that’d eviscerated Wendlin.

Even as it happened, I fought myself. Cried out inside, terrified that I would destroy the brand new family I had only just discovered.

But Lord Austvix didn’t falter. The power lashing out of me glanced off him, finding no purchase until it lanced into the half a dozen guards and handful of onlookers around him, who promptly crumpled to the ground.

I stared in stunned silence.

Somehow, he’d deflected my magic, or I had diverted it. Had my panic done this, or had his defenses?

It didn’t matter, because I spotted something that made my heart collapse.

Brü.

His blood painted the cobblestones. A steady bloom of crimson saturated his shirt and dribbled down his neck.

So many wounds.

In a flash, the world resumed its speed. Shouts and cries echoed around us, calls for help. But there wasn’t time. Fading heartbeats all around me played their music out of sync, threatening to disappear.

“No,” I panted, falling next to Brü, already reaching for my lute.

You will let your friends down, and worse—you will betray your own blood.

I fumbled with the strings, forcing a chord, all the while expecting a final blow to level me from behind. I’d been no match for Austvix during our brief struggle, and my burst of magic had hurt everyone but him. If he wanted to kill me, now was the time .

I stared at Brü’s pale face. I’d done this. My magic. My power. My failure to harness what the Fates had given me.

I played, forcing everything else—the fear, the guilt, the anger—from my mind to focus on the singular task of knitting Brü’s wounds back together, of shepherding the blood that remained in his veins along their vital path to keep him alive.

When no killing blow took me, I let the heal wash out to the others.

No, I didn’t know them. But their pulses cried out for help just as loudly as Brü’s—and I didn’t want to be the one responsible for their deaths.

It gave me the same sickening feeling I’d had with Wendlin. I didn’t want to kill anyone.

Hot tears stained my cheeks. Only when the first verse finished did I chance a break long enough to cry out, “Get Aelith!”

I hoped one of the faceless onlookers would have the wherewithal to listen. And one must have—or perhaps she’d already been on her way. Midway through my third verse, a wave of cool aquatic serenity washed over me. It beat back some of my panic even as it finished the job I couldn’t quite do alone.

Brü’s eyes blinked open. He took a shaky breath, but Aelith was already there, scooping his head into her lap, burying her face in his bloody shirt—the scene from mere days ago in reverse.

The pitch of her panic told me how close a thing it’d been.

And I wanted to dissolve into the cobblestones right there.

Hands pulled me back. B?k’s hands. I turned—ready to collapse mindlessly into him, frightened and overwhelmed with the need for one safe place. Desperate for it to be him.

“I’m sorry, kitten,” he whispered.

His dampeners clapped onto my wrists.

My magic receded in a cold rush. It was just as bad as the first time, in the woods. But worse now, because it was a betrayal.

The pain in B?k’s eyes was nothing to my fractured heart. I’d almost believed he felt something human for me. Almost. And maybe he had. Enough to warn me. Enough to tell me to save myself. But not enough to stand with me now.

I looked around at the crowd—hoping, I suppose, for one friendly face. Several of the guards were getting to their feet, some combination of my heal and Aelith’s having stabilized them. Two still weren’t moving. Several weapons were drawn, but all eyes were on Lord Austvix—waiting for orders.

Lord Austvix strode forward, the heat gone from his eyes. He was all business and no fury now. He took the chain connecting my cuffs from B?k.

“Wait for my summons, demon. I have questions about how all of this came to be.” His brow furrowed, as if he might ask some of those questions now after all, but then with a small shake of his head, he said, “Nevertheless, I suppose you’ve done well. You’ll have your reward soon enough.”

The way he jangled the chain when he said that last bit made a wave of disgust rise in my chest. Did he mean to gift me to B?k?

His own sister? Nevermind that B?k had already claimed me in every way that mattered.

Austvix didn’t know that. And how fucking dare he?

So much for Brü’s stories of his chaotic goodness.

Austvix turned. The crowd immediately parted to allow us to pass.

I looked back at Brü. His eyes were closed again, his cheek resting against Aelith’s stomach.

She met my gaze instead. There was something unreadable in her expression.

Her golden eyes were tired and sad and full.

Of questions? Accusations? My heart ached .

I couldn’t exactly stay and talk it out. My alleged brother tugged once on the chain, and I stumbled after him.

No one followed.

I had to move fast to keep up with his grand strides. My emotions ricocheted all over the place. Guilt, fury, curiosity. It was a whole mess. But we hadn’t gone too far before I found my tongue again.

“Lord Austvix?” I said tentatively. I had several pressing questions for this man.

“I can silence you,” he said coldly. “Or you can silence yourself. Your choice.”

He didn’t look down at me. His focus remained straight ahead, moving us down the street toward gods only knew what. I had no doubt that he both could and would take my voice away if he wanted to. That didn’t shut me up, of course, but I recognized the need to choose my next words carefully.

We rounded a corner and came to a halt at a gate. It led into a tunnel that’d been carved into the stone face of the mountain. A guard opened the gate, and Austvix pulled me through. It clanged shut behind us.

The dark swallowed us. All the fear that Aelith’s heal had tamped down swelled again—and then redoubled when I realized we were in a dungeon. Cells on either side stood empty and waiting. A dank, mildewy smell wafted from them.

Time was up. I had to ask. It was now or never.

“Who is our father?”

Austvix stopped then. He finally looked down at me.

His expression was a hybrid of disgust and disbelief.

I tried to see in his face what Brü saw, what Aelith and the others believed that made them speak so highly of him.

His face had a grand, leaderlike quality.

A powerful jaw, electric eyes. The air of someone who had his life decidedly in order.

Enviable. In that half second, I thought I could imagine their Austvix.

Even if it was just a fantasy—a story painted over reality.

Then, one corner of his lips quirked down in a clear dismissal. He wasn’t going to answer me.

“Please,” I whispered. I sucked in a breath before he could stop me. “I’ve been looking for him—for you—my whole life.”

Austvix’s eyes went heavy with put-upon irritation. As if I were a chore he’d been tasked with, and someone else—anyone else—ought to have handled it before it fell at his feet.

He sighed.

“Our father is Haz, the God of War and Peace himself,” Austvix said with an unmistakable note of acerbic distaste. The very same way I might have sounded revealing my mother’s identity, if pressed.

I didn’t have long to question that, though, because as he turned away, he added, “And you’ll get to meet the rest of our siblings in a few days. They’ll be invited to your execution.”