Page 21 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter nineteen

Alastair

“ A nd then the sailor pulled up his pants and said, ‘Madam, I was asking for chum, but thank you very much for the blowjob!’”

The joke is crude, as usual. I want to groan and bite her thighs, bury myself in her body to ward off the looming anxiety, but I laugh overly loud instead. We’re trying to attract a monster, and distracted prey is quite the lure.

Perhaps I should make her come. The wails of her pleasure are their own lure.

But I would not ever want to share those sounds with a creature of evil like the duskwalker, nor would I want to use my wife like…chum in the water.

“Tell me another,” I say, turning the speared rabbits over the fire.

Lily’s smile is not as bright as it used to be. There’s sorrow in her marrow, poisoning her entire body. I want this to be over already. I want my wife back.

“I hear duskwalkers rut in the fall,” she says.

I look at her curiously. Would the beast understand if she calls it by name ?

“If he shows up with a half chub and a limp, I’m not volunteering—but I’ll watch.”

I bark a laugh, real and genuine.

“Another?”

“Please.”

She clears her throat. “Why did the dryad break up with the duskwalker?”

I want to groan in advance. “Why?”

“She said he was too emotionally deer-tached. ” She leers and I cover my face in embarrassment.

At least it wasn’t too salacious.

“But you want to know the real reason?”

I peek at her from between my fingers with a muffled “Sure.”

“She caught him rubbing antlers with a pine.” She raises her eyebrows at me. “Get it?”

I sigh. “Yes, I get it.”

She grins and I see my wife again. My heart stutters at her beauty, and I know I have to keep her here in this moment.

“One more,” I say.

“How do you know if a duskwalker is male or female?”

I scowl. “How?”

“Cut yourself and run through the forest. If the only thing hard is on their heads, you’ve got a girl!”

“That’s not always true.” A voice like groaning wood in a torrential wind drifts down our trap hallway.

I let myself get lost in her and didn’t hear the creature’s approach. I open my demon senses and listen for movement. There’s nothing beyond the crackling fire and the howling wind.

Lily’s face is pale, but she swallows and wets her lips. “Oh, is that so? ”

“Females have hard claws, too.”

The voice is behind us now, well within range of my wards, yet none have been triggered. I look over my shoulder, my hand flexing on the hilt of my axe as my demonic eyes overtake my vision. There’s nothing beyond the firelight but our runes carefully hidden in the walls of stone and ice.

Lily harumphs, the sound forced. “You just didn’t get the joke, I guess.”

The voice bounces from side to side, encircling us. “Are you trying to baaait me?”

I lurch forward, ready to protect Lily, but she holds up a hand to stop me. I want to see my enemy, and the denial of that has my ire rising. But my wife is clever. She knows what she’s doing.

“What if I am?”

The voice snickers like the clacks of summer cicadas. “Then you are very stupid. Why have you come?”

I hunt through the cavern with all my senses, searching for any sign of the monster, but there’s none.

“We’re on a quest,” she says, reaching into her bag. “We need to collect items.”

“Iteemmmssss.” The sound is like rustling leaves in the fall.

Lily pulls out a tonic mixture of pain dampener and calming draught. Scarlett warned it could easily kill the drinker if they can’t sense their own body’s limitations, and for a fraction, I worry for her.

“Why have you come to my domain? What itemsss could you be seeking here in the desolate lands?”

Lily takes a sip, then passes the bottle to me. I shake my head. I need to keep my senses .

She swallows. “How rude of me not to invite you to our fire. Please, visitor, join us.”

Vibrations of laughter bounce off the walls. It sounds like a man now, instead of the wilds. Shadows flicker and pull my attention. None of them are the monster we’re hunting.

“You invite me to your fire?”

Lily opens her arm to the spot beside her on the stone. “It was poor manners to not invite you sooner. Very unprincessly.”

“Princess,” the voice murmurs from the end of the cave.

Its form appears, cast in the stark shadows of our camp.

I raise my hand to block the glare of the fire and narrow my gaze on it.

Lily made the cave nine feet tall to accommodate my full demon form and still the creature must hunch over.

Its antlers scrape the top and it turns its head side to side, as if sharpening its rack.

The noise is grating on my patience. My hands itch for blood.

The beast raises a hand and scratches along the wall as it walks. Yellow magic pours from its arm and lights up the stone, unmaking our hidden traps. The cave glows brightly with our bursting wards, illuminating the monster fully.

Its wolf-like face is plated with bones.

Farther down its maw is shorter, coarser fur like that of a deer.

It has broad shoulders even wider than mine, and a body like a man.

Its torso is covered in shaggy white hair like a winter wolf.

It has only three fingers, but each is tipped in talons thick and long enough to gut a grown man.

And it just unmade hours of work with a single scrape of its hand…

The runes fade away and Lily stands to face the monster. Her claws extend and the creature stops at the edge of our camp, its glowing yellow eyes tracking between us.

“The laws of the fire apply?” it asks .

Laws of the fire…while we share its warmth, we’ll do one another no harm.

Lily’s claws retract and she extends her hand to the monster. “On my life.”

The duskwalker takes a step closer and my demon pushes to the surface. I step in front of her in a blink, axe poised to strike with a snarl on my face.

The creature cocks its head, scraping its antlers again. It pulls a long, whistling inhale through its bone-plated nostrils. “Mates. I understand. I will not touch her…for now.”

“You will not touch her ever .” My voice resonates with the fury of my demon.

“If your fire is eternal, perhaps.”

My arms flex and I struggle to contain the beast inside me.

“Alastair,” Lily whispers, gripping my elbow. “The laws of the fire.”

She takes a step away, pulling on me. I move with her, not giving the creature my back. We move to the other side of the fire and she sits. I cannot.

The duskwalker enters the circle of the fire and expels a burst of yellow energy that settles on us both. I move to strike but find my muscles bound, immobilized by an invisible force.

I snarl as I push against the magic holding me with all my demon’s might. It does no good. I’m trapped.

“Lawsss of the fire,” the duskwalker says, its yellow globes pinned on me. Under his stare, I feel my body loosen, then come back under my control. “Men cannot be trusted to keep their word, and so my magic is binding. ”

My breath comes in heavy pants as my heart hammers. This creature is far beyond even our combined strength. Our traps were intended to do much of the work, but they’re gone.

And now it’s sitting at our fire.

The duskwalker’s gaze shifts to Lily. “So, princess , tell me the tale of your quest.”