Page 46 of The Demon’s Collar (The Bard’s Demon #1)

B?k: An Unlikely Alliance

Y ou’ll have your reward soon enough.

I stood rooted in place, Austvix’s words raising gooseflesh like shadows whispering over raw skin.

My reward.

Ero’s soul.

My contract guaranteed that when Austvix killed each of his siblings—the task I was contracted to help bring to fruition—that he would capture and trade their souls to me in exchange for the piece I held of his.

I should be salivating. Beyond the promise of a demigod soul, Ero was the best puzzle I’d ever encountered. Why wouldn’t I want her in my possession for eternity? A prize that could scratch the itch that lived at the core of my being—that wanted only a worthy challenge to keep it satisfied.

Only I didn’t want it.

I wanted her. Alive. Here, on this plane, driving me to the edge of madness and then pulling me back again—over and over. Begging me to chase her and fulfill her darkest desires. Lying against me after, content and exhausted.

I watched him drag her away.

I couldn’t follow—and I mean that literally.

Austvix told me to wait for his summons.

Thanks to my contract, an order from him was as good as compulsion.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. That was why I’d put the dampeners on her to begin with.

With one silent gesture from Austvix, I’d betrayed her like it was nothing.

Why couldn’t she have just fucking run? There’d been a moment. One breath. She could have gone, and I could have stood between them long enough to give her a chance. But she hadn’t.

I picked up the collar. It was still warm, but there was no life in it now. No hum promised to bend another to my will. Until someone donned it again—if that ever happened—it was just an inert accessory.

I looked around me. Brü and Aelith were already gone.

The remaining crowd dwindled. No doubt, the story of what happened would saturate the camp in the space of an hour.

Fucking humans. The cacophony of their desire to tell, tell, tell echoed in their wake.

Not the first hint of concern for the bard, nevermind how they’d all fawned over her at the fire ring, begging for their favorite songs.

I cut a quick path to the woods before I could do something stupid like smite them all.

I should have tied her to my bed the moment I saw the vision.

The collar on the street. I could have stopped it if I’d stopped her.

It’d just happened too fast. I couldn’t compel her because I’d made the vow to Brü.

I couldn’t have guessed that I would do something like that, because it was a boneheaded move, and I wasn’t usually boneheaded.

Chalk that one up to Hammond’s influence. Again, fucking humans .

I scrubbed a hand over my face. Smoke tickled my neck. Behind me, a trail of embers threatened to become a full-blown fire.

Maybe the forest wasn’t the best place to feel things.

Maybe running away from the problem wouldn’t solve it.

Gritting my teeth, I turned back.

An hour later, I’d come to three separate yet equally irritating conclusions.

First, I couldn’t let Austvix kill Ero.

Second, he would suspect subterfuge if I tried to stop him.

Third, and worst of all…I probably needed to talk to Aelith.

I stood outside her hut on the healer’s road, appreciating one last moment of peace, knowing that I would inevitably yearn to burn half the camp down in a matter of moments—an unavoidable side effect of dealing with the elemental.

I tried one last time to think of an alternative plan.

Brü would have been preferable. But Brü genuinely seemed to like everyone.

He wasn’t the strongest candidate for convincing Austvix that my intentions were true.

If Aelith supported me? Austvix couldn’t possibly fail to take note. I needed the surest thing I could get.

The door swung open, nearly knocking me off the stoop.

I caught a brief glimpse of Aelith’s face before she spotted me.

Her jaw was already set, her eyes doing that shiny thing more characteristic of cats than humans.

A warning to living things to avoid if they wished to remain living.

And again—that was before she spotted me.

I took a step back. Dying right then would have been exceedingly inconvenient.

Brü appeared at Aelith’s elbow, looking haggard and in dire need of sleep after the friendly fire in the street.

His turmoil—always alive and well when Aelith and I met—hit a fever pitch when he noted our squared-off stances.

His desire to flee elicited a smirk from me that Aelith may have misinterpreted.

Her irritation flared into a delicious vintage of rage.

Aelith opened her mouth, but I held up a hand.

“A sound barrier would be ideal,” I said, nodding toward the people milling about the street.

Even that mild suggestion stoked Aelith’s desire to argue.

To her credit, though, she didn’t. After all, if she meant to confront Austvix—which I could smell all over her now, thank the Fates—she didn’t want half the camp pressing their metaphorical ears to the door.

Without a word, she retreated into the hut.

Brü gave me a tentative searching look before he followed. I supposed that was my invitation.

Aelith’s room was large but modest. As was habit for most of us, her personal items and gear remained packed for quick mobilization. The only items on display were pieces of art that gave the room a bit of flavor most of our quarters lacked and a few tinctures in neatly labeled bottles.

The moment the door closed and the runes glowed golden, promising the privacy I’d asked for, Aelith rounded on me.

“What did Austvix mean when he said you would have your reward?” she demanded without preamble.

“Ero’s soul,” I answered just as bluntly. And no, I wasn’t enjoying myself exactly—because I obviously wasn’t thrilled with the situation either—but I did take some small pleasure in her rippling outrage.

Aelith shot Brü an “I told you so” look, and drew her holy symbol from her pocket. As if I were the one to fight. As if she could.

This was why the righteous elemental drove me mad. Why would I have come here to rub my win in her face? My joy in tormenting her abruptly fizzled. If Aelith truly believed that I intended to collect, what must Ero think?

At any rate, the reaction confirmed my suspicion that I would make no progress with Austvix on my own. He certainly wouldn’t believe that I’d had an attack of conscience. He’d never known me to have one.

“We need to talk to Austvix,” I said. “Together.”

Aelith’s sharp eyes narrowed further still.

“If I do it alone,” I went on, the initial irritation I’d felt at the realization creeping back into my tone, “he’ll think I’m trying to outmaneuver him.”

“And what are you doing?” she growled.

I leaned forward, edging into her space as heat crawled predictably up my neck. “As much as it will pain you to hear, elemental, I’m doing the same thing you’re doing. Trying to keep her alive.”

Aelith may have scoffed, but Brü believed me immediately. I didn’t have to look at him to know. His desire to run relaxed into a mess of relief, an eagerness to play peacemaker. This was what made him a good leader.

Aelith tightened her grip on the holy symbol. “We don’t need your help.”

This was what made her an abysmal party member.

“You do,” I said. “Because Austvix traded me something he can’t afford to lose. He won’t change his mind just because you tell him you like her.”

“He’ll change his mind because she’s not one of them ,” Aelith spat. For a moment, her hatred of the other warlords blazed even brighter than her hatred of me. Impressive. And then she pressed on with her nonsense. “Austvix isn’t one of them either. He’s reasonable—and good . He’ll listen.”

I crossed my arms. “Then why didn’t you go to him already?”

Color rose in her pale cheeks.

“Enough,” Brü said. His tone was pained but still carried authority. We both looked at him. “B?k, please explain your plan. Aelith…please let him.”

I gave her a cantankerous smile.

And then I explained.

We approached Lord Austvix’s chambers together with unearned confidence. I suppose we all had the sense that a cause big enough to join Aelith and me was a cause that couldn’t fail.

The first part of the plan was simple. I would stand outside. Austvix still hadn’t summoned me. Brü and Aelith would convince him to do so.

The door had barely closed behind them when Austvix called out, “For the love of Haz’s cursed children, get in here, demon!”

Perplexed both by his exasperation and quick acquiescence, I entered. And the plan immediately went to shit.

For starters, the room was already populated. Hammond, Nigel, and Tavish sat on a bench looking rather sheepish .

It took a moment for me to grasp their shared desire.

They’d come for her too.

Something turned in my gut. I wouldn’t call it butterflies. Bats, maybe. They cared about her. Enough to confront a warlord. Maybe we could actually handle this.

“She will die,” Austvix said—pointedly, as though repeating something he’d already had to explain more times than he cared to. “And you all need to hear that now.”

Maybe not.

Several voices spoke at once. Aelith, Nigel, and Brü all fought for the next word.

I hung back, taking a moment to assess. Austvix’s foul mood tasted of singed roses.

He was not a man who was accustomed to being backed into a corner—and he showed the strain of that now.

His magic, unlike Ero’s chaotic mess of rainbow tendrils, liked to arrange itself behind him in the shape of sharp iridescent wings (like a fucking angel).

But now, it writhed around him in a protective shield instead.

“Whatever you think she is—” Aelith said, failing in her battle for calm, but winning the floor against Brü and Nigel, “—she’s not. She’s not the Huntress. She’s not Lady Gwendolyn or Naeve Andarnus.”