Page 30 of Hell Sent

He lifted his hand to gingerly touch the tattered remains of his shoulder. He thought of the weapons he’d seen the other demons conjure—knives and clubs of pure magic energy, and he imagined magic taking the form of a new body part instead of a weapon.

Fourteen

Azreth thought of the eldress as he fiddled with the bracelet on his wrist.

The behelgi on the edge of the camp snorted softly behind him as he willed his glamour to change. The illusion of human skin on his hands pulled away, leaving blue behind on both, even his summoned arm. He turned the hands over, then back again, studying them.

With another thought, he removed the runes on his palm, too. Then he smoothed away the various scars on his fingers.

He stared at his palms, frowning.

He had thought to give himself a moment of self-indulgence, to imagine that he was wholly himself, untainted by the marks other people had left on him. But the more he changed, the less this body felt like his. He was accustomed to his scars, and taking them away didn’t make him feel whole—it only made him feel like someone else.

But it didn’t make him like the scars any more, either. If he disliked both his real self and his illusory self, where did that leave him?

Footsteps swished through the grass, and he quickly brought back his human color.

It was Raiya approaching. She slowed as he looked up. “Azreth? What are you doing out here?” He had thought she would be impatient, but she mostly seemed concerned.

“Nothing,” he replied. He didn’t get up.

She came to sit beside him. She began to reach toward him, then paused. “May I touch you?”

Remembering the way he’d snarled at her the first time she’d touched him, he felt foolish. He hadn’t realized how freely mortals touched each other. She’d only been doing what came naturally to her, and reacting so explosively had only revealed a vulnerability of his. “You don’t need to ask.”

She took his hand. Azreth waited, but she just sat with him, curling her fingers around his. He had seen a few of the other people in the camp holding hands this way as they sat or walked together, like they were reluctant to part with each other. He had thought it was a gesture of affection, but now that she was doing it to him, he wasn’t sure.

“We’re safe here, you know,” she said. “You shouldn’t be afraid.”

“I’m not,” he said evenly, staring toward the dimming bonfire.

Raiya said nothing, but tilted her head in front of him to force him to look at her. She searched his face, looking into one eye and then the other. The wind blew strands of her dark hair across her face, and he caught a hint of her scent—not her emotions, but her body.

“Be at ease,” she said, and he realized she was repeating his own words back to him. And this time, her voice had no mocking tone. She thought he was in need of comfort.

She could have spent the evening with the other mortals, laughing and dancing like the rest of them. She could even have shared her body with one of the other human men here if she craved companionship. But instead, she was here, with him.

“The glamour makes you forget what I am,” he commented.

“I have not forgotten,” she assured him. “Would you rather I cringed away in fear?”

“No. Your passion pleases me more.”

Her expression was guarded, but he saw her draw a slow breath. An invisible heat pulsed from her, a shiver in the air. She stood and tugged on his hand. “Come.”

The more time he spent with her, the more he was beginning to feel like he was her prisoner, not the other way around.

* * *

They returnedto their tent for the night so that Raiya could feed him. As soon as the door to the tent was sealed, he let his glamour fade. Raiya watched him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. Her emotions were muddled.

He wanted her, selfishly. He wanted to give her pleasure so that he could feel what she felt. He wanted to take her joy for himself, like the parasite he was.

He moved close to her. “May I begin?” he asked.

She put a hand to her face, and he heard her swallow nervously. “Yes. You’ll have to give me a minute…”

He pulled back a little. That wasn’t how he’d hoped she would react. “To do what?”

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