Page 15 of The Demon’s Delight (The Demon Princes #3)

Chapter 14

Hailon

“ W ell, this is embarrassing.” Seir grinned up at me, the smile fading into a wince as he tried to shift his weight. “You were much more graceful than I was getting down here.”

He wasn’t wrong there. I’d slid down the rocky embankment entirely on my feet, which was much more than I could say for him. It had taken far longer than I liked, but with the help of the skinny new-growth trees, I’d managed not to fall or hurt myself on the way down.

“Stop moving,” I ordered sternly, dropping down to my knees at his side so I could better examine the wound. My stomach pitched and rolled when I spotted the pointed shard of bone on the outside of his skin instead of the inside, where it belonged. “Seir, your leg.” Then I saw the blood blooming across his shirt. “Oh, fuck .” I whispered the curse, but he heard it clearly enough.

The tan skin of his face had paled in a worrisome way, his breath coming in sharp pants as he propped himself up on his elbows, wincing. “Can’t be all that bad, right? Just bandage me up, and we’ll be on our way. Surely there’s a way to get back to the road. Oh.” He grunted as he pulled his shirt tails out of his trousers and then above the bleeding. There was a branch of some kind protruding from the center of his body, in the crease between two of his abdominal muscles. His eyes closed and his head tipped back, nostrils flaring as he dragged in slow, measured breaths.

I swallowed, throat dry as my shaking hands hovered over the limb, unsure where to start. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

He leaned up, slowly moving his eyes from my face back to the concerning injuries. “Isn’t that terribly… inconvenient.”

My eyebrows slammed together at his detached assessment of the situation. Break aside, he had to have some pretty serious scrapes from the way he’d skidded down the rocky hill. Was he already in shock? I’d seen his desensitization to things like hot pots in action, but could he be immune to mortal physical pain altogether?

His wings had been out when he started to fall, and they were folded awkwardly behind him now. I peered closer at the way one was bent and realized with no small amount of horror that it wasn’t a branch that had punctured the demon. It was a bone from his own wing.

My hands shook, bile rising hot and sour in my throat as I tried to figure out how exactly I was going to help him. I could fix it. I could. It would just take some time.

I glanced up in time to see his eyelids flutter and kicked out a foot so that his pack slid enough to cushion his head as he fainted.

“Saints and devils,” I swore, leaning up toward Seir’s face. I slapped his cheeks, willing him to regain consciousness. He gasped and coughed several long seconds later, his gaze unfocused when his eyes finally opened again. “Hey. You with me?”

“I’m here,” he said, still sounding breathless. He inhaled deep, and I could actually see him become centered. “I’ve been hurt plenty, but this is something new.” He grinned again, back to himself enough to be thrilled by the prospect of a novel experience, even if it was not a good one. He was truly bizarre, but I admired his pluck.

I handed him the pack strap. “You’ll want to bite down on this.”

“I will?” He looked at the fabric, then back at me before placing it between his teeth. I appreciated the blind trust he was putting in me because this was likely going to hurt.

“On three, okay?”

Seir nodded, and I put my hands on either side of the break, heart bruising my ribs it was pounding so hard. Of all the wounds and illnesses I’d healed, bones broken in this way had always been my least favorite thing to manage. My gift could knit them back together on the inside, repair the muscle and flesh given enough time and energy, but I had to do the hard part by hand first.

“One, two…” I gripped and pulled, twisting the limb and forcing the bone back where it belonged all in one hasty, adrenaline-fueled motion. It used nearly every muscle in my upper body to accomplish, but it seemed to have done the trick. I had yelled with the effort it took, the birds and other small creatures fleeing from the trees at the abrupt sound.

At least down here there were such animals. Perhaps the strangeness was limited to the road itself.

Seir hadn’t even cried out but stared at me with his eyes wide and his chest heaving as I dug around in my pack for some cloth to tie it with.

He spat the strap out, bewildered but not angry. “Three, Hailon. You said on three .”

“Sorry. Too many experiences with a patient backing out at the last second forced me to adapt a work-around. Telling you that ahead of time would have ruined the element of surprise.” He blinked at me. “How does it feel?”

“I honestly have no idea how to answer that.”

“I’ll heal you up, but we have to get somewhere I can focus first. Don’t go anywhere.”

He chuckled, using his sleeve to blot the sweat from his brow. “I’ll do my best to stay put.”

I stood and turned around, trying to assess where we’d landed. Hopefully there was somewhere we could shelter for the night nearby, somewhere I could work safely… fast.

Trying to keep Seir within sight, I walked in the direction of the sound of water. We’d need to clean ourselves up, in any case, and there might be some fresh berries or maybe even fish. I was not a great hunter, but between the forest and fresh water, there was bound to be something useful.

I walked until the top of Seir’s head was barely visible over the stones and timber as the ground sloped down toward a reasonably sized stream. It was likely the one on the map, the one we thought we’d been following the whole time, but at this point I was unsure about much of anything on the little scrap of parchment.

“That’ll do nicely,” I muttered aloud, carefully stepping over obstacles toward a grouping of large boulders. The largest of them had a natural curve we could easily fit underneath even standing up and a flat area below. If nothing else, we’d be out of the elements should another rainstorm come through.

Making a quick pass, I used my boot to scuff the smaller rocks and sticks out of the way, creating a somewhat smooth floor for us to sit on. We could lean against the wall of rock comfortably, and if I started a fire, the smoke would vent and some of the heat would still be retained. It was just about as perfect as it was going to get given the circumstances.

I returned to Seir and grabbed both of our packs to take over first. By the time I got back to him again, he was already sitting up on his own and fiddling with the hasty bandage.

“Leave it,” I scolded gently.

His expression was a mix of guilt and chagrin when he looked up at me. “Sorry. Just curious.”

“Think you can make it over there with my help?” I pointed.

The demon was his normal unflappable self. “If you let me lean on you, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”

Seir looped his tail around my waist, and I ducked under the arm on his injured side, using the strength in my legs to get him vertical. His stomach wound was a bit of a hindrance, but we were able to make slow progress toward the shelter. I watched the bleeding carefully, pleased that it had slowed. I might have time to fix him properly after all.

“Thank you,” he said after we’d successfully lowered him down again.

“I’m going to make a fire before we get started. I never know exactly how much it’s going to take out of me, but bones are difficult. We’ll need to remove… that.” I gestured vaguely to his midsection.

He looked down, hands hovering over the wound. “I’m fine, really. Embarrassed, mostly. It’s my fault we’re in this predicament, after all. If you slide my pack closer, I’ll start assembling supplies while you work on the fire.” He was almost somber, which was more worrisome than the injury itself. I’d never seen him so serious. It made my chest feel tight.

I did as he requested, leaving both packs within his reach as I gathered stones to make a fire ring and enough wood to keep us warm through the night.

The adrenaline kept me moving, busily getting things in order for us to be somewhat secure while I healed him. The rush started to wane as the first sparks took the dried grass I’d use as kindling. My hands gained a tremble, and a cold sweat broke out across my body, leaving me feeling clammy.

“You’re very skilled at that,” Seir complimented quietly. “You’ve prepared us a comfortable dwelling with hardly more than stones and branches. I should make us something to eat.”

“You’ll do no such thing! And I don’t know that I’d go that far, but I appreciate the compliment.” I sighed, sitting down next to him. I was mentally readying myself to pull his broken wing out of his body, and he was worried about food and the comfort of a fully stone shelter.

“You don’t give yourself nearly enough credit, Hailon. Now or… ever. At least not that I’ve seen.”

Here we were again with the flattery. I shook my head. Even bleeding, the demon simply couldn’t seem to help himself. Not that I minded, of course, it was just very foreign.

I excused myself quickly and dashed to the water where I washed my hands as best I could and wet down the cleanest of our extra cloths.

“Are you ready?” I asked. He’d gone even paler than before. There was no more time to waste.

“I’m at your whim, Hailon. How do you want me?” The way he arched his brow told me he’d intentionally chosen words that lended heavily to innuendo. I understood then that he was exaggerating his flirting—his humor was a way to cope.

“It’s okay to be afraid,” I whispered, and his bravado faltered. His smile slid from his face, and I could plainly see the worry in his eyes.

I lowered him to his side, heart thudding heavily every time he so much as held his breath in discomfort. Once he was as positioned as well as I could get him, I sat myself between his body and the stone wall, sending up prayers to whatever deity might be listening that I could use a little bit of help with this task.

“On three,” I said softly, wrapping my fingers around the tip of his wing, one foot on either side of where the exposed bone stabbed through his back.

“I’m not falling for that again,” he huffed, fingers flexing against the dirt floor, like he was trying to claw his way through to brace better.

“Your choice. One, two…” He scrunched his eyes closed, and I pushed with my legs and pulled with my arms. The nauseating sucking sound his flesh made as the bone pulled free drowned out my final count. He hadn’t done more than pull in a harsh breath to indicate he felt what was happening. “Okay. It’s okay.” I crouched over him, one hand trying to staunch the bleeding at the front, the other from the back. I closed my eyes and reached for my ability, channeling the power through my hands.

Beneath the layers of his flesh, my magic sought out what it interpreted as the bad and began to remove it, which sped healing. First came sealing up the little bit of organ that had gotten nicked. It was something very much like a human kidney. Then came stopping the bleeding. I could do the finer work on this, his wing and his leg all at once, I just had to get the urgent issues taken care of first.

“Hailon.” Seir’s voice was soft, one large, warm hand covering mine over the wound in his abdomen. I looked away from where my hand covered the hole in his back and found his eyes golden, glowing. “Thank you.” That hand lifted, cupping my face as he gave me a weak smile that went straight through to my soul.

Then, he passed out cold.