Page 66 of The Laws of Nature (Heirs of the Empire #3)

Diazuul makes a chuckling sound like a low deep rumble. Clearly, he sees Harok as nothing more than a mild inconvenience. “You will not leave this cavern alive. You cannot kill me. ”

Harok holds out the dagger. Its blade seems to glow, pale purple. He knew it as soon as he saw it: the blade is made to kill a demon.

The fight is long. Drawn out and exhausting.

Harok takes several wounds from Diazuul’s jaws and claws.

Sweat is dripping from his body and he is close to dropping from sheer exhaustion, when he finally thrusts the blade into Diazuul’s chest. Blinding orange light flashes out of the demon’s body.

A loud screaming sound rips the air of the cavern apart.

Harok realises he is the one screaming. Screaming as the orange light rushes towards him, blinding him, then taking him.

He hears the demon’s voice saying, “You thought you could kill me, Solwen wretch. You have freed me.” The voice comes not from Diazuul’s fallen body, but from inside Harok’s own.

Diazuul’s body lies on the floor of the cavern. But Diazuul is not gone. Diazuul’s spirit is inside him. Trying to take control of him, but disorientated inside him. He may only have moments. He must act now, while he can.

None must know, he thinks. None must know Diazuul is not truly slain.

He summons the last of his strength and climbs from the pit with the demon’s body on his back.

He emerges into a shocked Sacred Hall. He throws the demon’s corpse into the firepit and announces his triumph.

Diazuul was a demon. And Diazuul is slain.

The Solwen stare at him, but there can be no doubt what he has done.

And the sight of what Diazuul truly is has stunned the room.

Even Irgo Vahul looks horrified. His personal guard are too shocked to even react as Harok charges across the Sacred Hall to take his uncle’s head with Demonica.

As Irgo Vahul falls dead, a cry goes up. A cry of triumph for the new Irgo. Irgo Harok. But when Harok looks around the hall, many faces are wary. Many are shocked by what Harok has done. And when Harok meets his mother’s eye, he knows she sees the truth.

He has not killed that demon. He has become him.

Harok leans his head back against the stone behind him and roars up at the night sky.

Harok can do nothing. Nothing but roar his agony into the night again. Diazuul will take control of his body and all men will suffer. And it will be his fault. He freed Diazuul. All down to his foolish, careless rage.

Harok can feel it. All these overwhelming visions are sent, not from his own mind, but the mind of the demon.

He feels loose and dreamy. He is finally losing control.

Diazuul will take his mind and he will never get it back.

He tries to fight, for his life, for himself, but trying to pull away from the demon inside him causes searing pain.

He can feel it, like slimy tentacles siding inside his mind.

He cries out in the dark grove, fighting the chains that hold him and the demon twining itself around him from the inside.

He is lost. He has fought this thing for years. But he cannot fight it a moment more. He screams and screams…

…It’s then that he realises he can feel his kushir.

All this time he has not even been able to see him in the dark.

But now he can feel Suskara moving. He looks down.

In the glow from the distant torches he can see Suskara is wriggling out of the ropes that hold him.

He has almost got out of the ones around his wrists.

As Harok watches, Suskara manages to free himself.

He pulls away the ropes around his body and gets to his feet. His bare legs are shaking.

He looks at Harok with big wide eyes. Is he real? Is this real or another vision? More of the filthy abieum in his blood. Or another trick from the demon that would destroy him?

“Irgorye,” Suskara says in a soft voice. He sounds scared but also so sweet that Harok is sure this is him. This is real. The demon seems too quiet, as if it is looking at Suskara too. Watching him. Knowing him.

Suskara stands and puts his arms around Harok. And Harok knows he can hold on. He can hold that creature back. Not forever. But for a moment more and then for a moment more.

“How did you free yourself from your bindings, Suskara?” Harok says.

Suskara strokes a hand along Harok’s arm to the iron cuff at his wrist. He pushes a finger into the cuff, between the iron bracelet and Harok’s flesh.

“My friend Darvo, do you remember him? One of your men broke his arm. He would perform escaping tricks with the circus. He taught me a few things. But really, I just asked him to show me those things because I enjoyed it when he bound me.”

Harok gives a dry laugh. He feels it. The way his kushir changes everything. Suskara is more than a weapon to kill the demon Diazuul. He always was. His kushir calms the demon, pushes him back. His kushir is balm. “You are quite the wanton, Suskara.”

“I used to be. Before you. Darvo could get free of chains too, but he never taught me that and I think there was always a trick. A hidden catch or a secret key.” Suskara runs his hands around Harok’s chains, as if searching for such a trick.

“Suskara, these chains have been used by the Ambolk to sacrifice to Diazuul for two hundred years. There is no trick to getting free. If there was a way to escape them, one of Diazuul’s tributes would have found it by now. ”

“I thought they went willingly,” Suskara says, looking up at Harok. His pretty face licked by torchlight.

“Not all of them,” Harok says grimly. “Not when the abieum was in their blood. And you must remember, I have been bound to this stone before, the first time around.”

“I saw the demon,” Suskara says softly, “In my visions. He told me something. I do not think he wants to possess you. He wants something else. Something that involves me.”

“You?” Harok shakes his head. “No. He wants me. I know he does. He will take control of me and destroy the world.”

“And he has not taken control of you in twenty years.”

“I have fought him, Suskara. I have held him back.”

“No. You have not. He has always been strong enough to take over. No man is strong enough to have done as you have unless the demon wished it. He has been waiting. This was part of his plan. Me. Coming here. All of it is part of his plan. He wanted you to bring me here.”

Harok’s voice drops low. “Then please, Suskara. You are free. You did not listen to me before, but you must now. You must run. Run, Suskara. Get away from here. Find your beast in the forest and return to your own people.”

“I will not leave you, Irgorye,” Suskara says.

“You must,” Harok says. His tone is low. It is the voice he uses when he does not expect to be disobeyed.

But Suskara simply presses himself closer.

“I will not leave you.” Suskara looks up at Harok.

His grey eyes burn with such determination.

Harok does not know how he ever found himself in possession of such a kushir.

“I do not care what Diazuul means to do to you,” Suskara says, sounding almost angry in his grim determination.

“Or to me. I love you and I will not leave.” Suskara presses in even closer and kisses Harok.

Suskara’s mouth is sweet. Harok sees bright colours flash before his closed eyes.

His mind feels clearer. The visions all around him in the dark fade.

Suskara kisses Harok again. Each kiss seems to cool the demon’s fire inside him. “I love you.” Suskara murmurs against his skin. “I cannot leave you. I love you.”

“I love you too, Suskara,” Harok says softly.

Suskara curls around Harok’s ankles. He feels like a pet. It makes Harok feel warm inside to see it. How sweet it would be to spend more of his nights with his Suskara curled around him.

But his heart is heavy. If Suskara is right and Diazuul wants him here, plans something else, then Harok has no idea what could be coming. For both of them.