Page 59 of Hell Sent

“I always thought I would die fighting another of my kind sooner or later. It’s how most of us die. But now I’m not sure. Maybe a Paladin will kill me, instead.”

“Or maybe no one will.”

“I would want to do it myself, if I were mortal.”

She squinted at him. “Do you mean… you would want to kill yourself? You’d want to die by suicide?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, grimacing. “You are so strange.”

He didn’t understand what was strange about it. “I would not want to be surprised by it, if I had the choice. I would not want it to be out of my control.”

She pushed the lid back onto the jar of salve and began wrapping new bandages around him. “Most mortals don’t want to end their own lives,” she said. “Most of us hope to die naturally when we’re very old, surrounded by people we love.”

“Surrounded? Why?”

“So we don’t have to be alone when we go. Dying is not an easy thing. It would be scary and sad to do it alone.”

He waited for her to finish wrapping the bandage. She tucked the edge of it into itself to secure it. Azreth sat up.

“I want to be with you when you die,” he said.

She didn’t speak for a long moment, and Azreth wondered if it had been an inappropriate thing to say.

“It’s not easy to watch someone die, you know,” she said.

“I’m not a fool, Raiya. I know.”

“Sorry. I know you’re not.”

He reached out to take her hand. “If you let me, I will help you. I want to be one of the people surrounding you.” He wanted to hold on to every last moment with her. But would that be enough for her? Could a demon offer the comfort a mortal needed to die peacefully?

“Do you think you’ll still be here by then?” she asked. “Won’t you have grown tired of me?”

He didn’t know quite how to address such a silly question, so he just said, “No.”

A warm, sweet-smelling emotion emanated from Raiya. She interlaced her fingers with his and squeezed his hand.

* * *

The vythian was notthe last creature from the hells they saw. They heard rumors of more in other parts of Uulantaava, too. As they traveled north with the caravan, they saw it for themselves. People fleeing Frosthaven told them that the creatures were coming from the lord’s castle—from Nirlan.

The more Azreth thought about him, the more disgusted he became.

There were other people who had made him suffer more than Nirlan had, but no one else had been as pointlessly cruel. He could not understand what would embitter a mortal man so much that he would reach into the hells to bring violence to this peaceful place. People like Lord Han-gal and Priestess Gereg had no need for more power, but they were greedy for it anyway.

With Nirlan’s creatures already attacking, they did not have the time to fix Azreth’s botched binding first.

He and Raiya were in agreement that her ex-husband had to be dealt with now, but the binding wouldn’t let Azreth kill him. Raiya would have to do it. He wasn’t certain she was ready for it.

A permanent line had appeared between her eyebrows since the vythian attack. The scents of anger and worry came off her like steam.When she thought about Nirlan—which was often, now, he sensed—she became withdrawn.

She was so similar and yet so different from the woman he’d first met in Nirlan’s castle.She had been just as brave and defiant when she’d first freed him, but she hadn’t had the self-assurance she had now. She had her enchanted baton at her hip—a weapon she’d made for herself, which gave her the power to choose the course of her life instead of having it chosen for her.But each time she used it, he saw a conflicted look in her eyes, because she was still gentle at heart.

“You’ve changed, too, you know,” Raiya told him.

“How so?”

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