Page 29 of The Simurgh

‘A couple of hours, maybe a couple more. It is coming up on late afternoon. I’ve been terribly bored.’

Silas’s stomach turned on hearing how much time had passed.

‘Did Lucifer say anything of where he was going?’

The faint hint of a smile broke over Byleist’s lips. ‘To me?’

‘Yes, to you.’

‘He had very little to say to me, certainly did not leave me an itinerary. Said only that if I truly wished to protect you, then I’d not allow you to leave here.’

Silas took a moment, pressing down the blinding rage that came with hearing such nonsense.

‘But you will, Byleist. You will not hinder me again, do you understand?’ He didn’t recognise the voice that spilled from him. One that gave him a shiver, one that had the Dullahan standing to attention. ‘I do not need your protection, I do not want it. What I want is to leave. Can you open the gates?Willyou open the gates?’

Byleist pressed a gloved hand to his chest and tilted into a deep bow. ‘My lord, I cannot. I am as much a prisoner as you all.’

‘A prisoner they let out of ’is cell?’ Tyvain sniffed from where she crouched beside the sleeping Valkyrie. ‘Makes no sense ta me. Watch ’im, Mercer.’

‘None of this makes any sense,’ Silas muttered. But that wasn’t true. It all made perfect sense if what he suspected was correct. That Lucifer sought to return Pitch to Arcadia and the abaddon, and knew Silas would play no part in such a scheme.

‘My Lord Death has nothing to fear from me.’ The Dullahan walked on impossibly quiet feet to where Tyvain knelt beside Sybilla. ‘Reginald knew it too. Your well-being is my duty, my lord. And remaining here ensures your well-being.’

‘I just told you, I do not wish for protection.’

‘But I’m afraid I shall give it to you, whether you wish it or not.’

‘What the blazes are you on about?’

‘Bloody ’ell.’ Tyvain sighed. ‘Mercer, did ya save ’is damned life when you could ’ave taken it?’

Byleist raised a ghostly brow, amused by the question.

‘No.’ Silas scowled. ‘I…well, I released him from his curse. That’s hardly the same thing.’

‘Rather exactly the same thing. I had no life within that curse.’

‘’E’s gone and Duty-Bound ’imself to ya,’ Tyvain said. ‘When a fae owes their life to someone, they can bind themselves to protectin’ that person. But it’s a bloody old custom, didn’t think it was anywhere but in the Seelie libraries nowadays–’

‘And indeed prohibited in the UnSeelie Court.’ Byleist’s fathomless eyes were set on Tyvain. ‘Clever little soothsayer. Perhaps I was too quick to judge you as uninteresting.’

‘People often do.’

‘I had nothing to tell Reginald of the prince’s whereabouts when he used his daemonic wiles upon me,’ Byleist said. ‘But he did learn of the Duty Bind. So, hence, here we are. How do you know of the Bind?’

The soothsayer set a pillow beneath Sybilla’s head. ‘I’ll just say that there once was a fae who didn’t find me so uninteresting either.’

‘But I don’t want your bloody protection, Byleist,’ Silas cried. ‘Unbind yourself from me.’

‘Where would the fun be in that? Look at me.’ Byleist swept a gloved hand down his front. ‘I was a slave to that whip. All but mindless when it was in my hand. But now, well, I am living the life. I am trapped inside a house that smells faintly of the sewer and mildew, with very little to do but twiddle my thumbs and listen to you fuck your daemon in your sleep. Could I have wished for more?’

Silas dug his fingers into his hair, turning his back on the infuriating fae. ‘It wasn’t a dream.’ He didn’t have time for bashfulness, and refused to feel any shame. ‘Pitch was there…we were together, somehow, I’m sure of it.’

‘Oh, you were definitely together,’ Byleist said smoothly.

‘Together?’ Tyvain slapped the Dullahan’s hand away when he made a move to touch the angel. ‘In a dream?’

‘It wasn’t a dream.’