Page 32 of Hell Sent

A minute passed as she panted, her limbs trembling. Azreth took at least as long to recover, but he eventually released her, letting his summoned hands disappear.

And then… the sweet taste of her pleasure turned to ash in his mouth as another feeling quickly replaced it.She had suddenly become deeply unhappy. He watched her curl up on the floor of the tent, her face to the ground.

A jolt of fear went through him. Had he hurt her?

It shouldn’t have mattered. He should have drunk down her sadness just as easily as her lust, the same way he’d devoured Eunaios’s despair as he died. But he couldn’t. Some meals always made him sick. Maybe he had some illness that prevented him from digesting them—a birth defect, like his arm.

There was something familiar about her melancholy. He realized he’d felt it before. It was the same muddled anger, sadness, and shame he always felt when intercourse was complete. He hadn’t realized there were other people who felt that, too.

Was she recalling bad memories, like Azreth was?

After a time, she rose, sitting back on her knees, as if determined to pretend away her own regret, but she said nothing. Azreth knew how to make a mortal come, but he had no idea how to fix unhappiness. He thought of grabbing her and commanding her to stop feeling this bad feeling.That probably wouldn’t help.

He wrapped his arm around her, seeking her warmth and softness, but he knew that his own body was harsh and heavy and could not offer her the same comfort in return.

“Be at ease, Raiya,” he said helplessly.

To his surprise, she rested a hand on his arm, hugging him against herself. “I am,” she said, but it was a lie.

Truthfully, nothing about any of this should have been surprising.

He was a demon, after all. He was made for breaking things.

Fifteen

It was not until they were on the road to Ontag-ul again that, after far too many days of abstaining, Azreth finally worked up the courage to sleep.

No, that wasn’t accurate. He never really gained the courage—just the desperation. Even demons couldn’t go without rest forever.

So many horrible things could be done to an unconscious person. He feared sleeping more than almost any other task in life. But he didn’t fear Raiya. Or at least, he feared her less than he feared anyone else, mortal or demon. Was he a fool to feel that way?

He dreamed of brown eyes, tawny skin, and expressive black brows.In the dream, he felt happy. Had he ever felt happy before?

He couldn’t recall the woman’s name, but he knew they were companions, and he was glad she was with him. They were together on the ground in his cave in the fourth hell, resting in the warm, dark earth. She was smiling at him.Their hands touched. She rolled closer, leaning into him, entwining their bodies. He held her close, pressing his face close to hers.

And then, to his horror, he felt his teeth sinking into her flesh. He tried to stop, but his jaw would not unclench. He held her down and bit clean through her neck, ignoring her struggles. Her warm, fragrant blood burst from the wound, spilling over both of them. She was going to die.

He pulled back, agonized. Why had he done this?Why hadn’t he just stopped?

And then, pain cut across his throat. Looking down, he found an iron dagger in the woman’s hand. Each of them had secretly plotted against the other.

She raised the dagger and stabbed again and again with strength that only seemed to increase as she neared death. Her head was at a grotesque angle, mostly separated from her body, but her expression was cold and calculating. Pain came in bursts where the blade hit him. He didn’t try to stop her.

Azreth awoke suddenly. The dark blue sky, dotted with stars and turning lavender on the horizon, stretched above him. Cool, watery air filled his lungs. His heart was pounding.

Raiya was sitting beside him, legs stretched out casually in front of her, her baton on her lap. She gave him an easy smile. “Good morning.”

He stared at her dumbly, which seemed to amuse her.

“Do you feel better?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

He glanced down at his hand, checking the runes. She would have had time to paint new ones on him while he slept, if she’d wanted. Maybe she could even have found a way to channel magic into them and activate them, to curse him in some new way that would serve her. But even before he looked, he’d known that nothing in his body had changed. No new magics had attached themselves to him, and no part of him was injured.

She hadn’t touched him. She’d sat beside him, protecting him. And she casually said good morning, like it was nothing.

In retrospect, that may have been the moment when he’d begun to fall in love with her.

Raiya checked his hand, as she did each morning. She said she wanted to make sure the enchantment was not changing. He had begun to feel a strange, nervous anticipation for the examination each morning. He was not afraid, but his heart raced and his nerves lit up when she came toward him.

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