Page 31 of Hers to Keep

A towering form coalesced from the thunderheads, fifteen feet high, with thick horns that sprung from his head like branches.His skin had the texture of gnarled bark, and his face was a featureless mask but for two holes that formed bottomless black eyes.In one immense hand, he held a crude spear that looked to be made out of the same wood as his body.“You aren’t supposed to intervene here.This is my realm.”

“Except it’s not.You were banished, and that left a vacancy.”Ashdei grinned.“One that I am more than happy to fill when the proper sort of invitation materializes.”He slid a knowing glance toward Mari that made her skin crawl.

Cisco growled and stepped forward until Mari gripped his wrist to hold him next to her.There was no telling what would happen if he left the shield.After a moment of tortured indecision, he relented.

“That creature owes me oceans of blood.”The Forest Lord pointed directly at Dohal without looking his way.“And I intend to collect it.Very slowly.”

Mari barely halted the aggressive reaction of her magic to the threat to someone who was hers.Inside her, she felt the goddess coil herself tightly in readiness to spring.Teeth clenched, she managed to rein in both of them before they did anything rash.

“I said you can’t have him today,” Ashdei said with a growl that shook the windows of the manor behind them.“I’ll let you know if I change my mind and withdraw my protection.”He turned toward them in a clear dismissal of the Forest Lord.

The Old One raised his hand to rake his fingers across his own chest, tearing into bark and flesh all the way down to the bone.Glowing green blood poured from the wounds, and he shrieked with a horrible sound that made Mari cover her ears.With a concussive blast of magic that she felt rock against the shield that covered them, he vanished.

Ashdei rolled his eyes.“Well, that was dramatic.”

“Why are you protecting us?What do you want?”Mari asked as soon as she found her voice again.

“I would have thought that was obvious.”He glanced over her with appreciation.“You.”

“You can’t have me.”This time it was fury that shook her voice.How dare he do what he had done to her and then return years later to lay claim to her?

He removed the shield around them with a clenching of his fist.“It just proves how little you understand about yourself that you think that.”

Cisco sprang at him, wings flared, and fangs bared.

Mariana seethed when once again her magic moved to intercede between them before she could stop it.Her gargoyle was caught in a trap he couldn’t escape, and she had put him there.

“Motherfucker!”she screamed in frustration.“Why does that keep happening?”

Ashdei aimed an evil smile Cisco’s way.“I suspect that she would consider an attack on one of you an attack on her, so I’ll let your terrible manners go, just this once.”He returned his attention to Mari, all charm again.“You should ask the gorgeous creature that lives inside you that question, duckling.She and I had the most interesting conversation the night we met.”

“We didn’tmeet,” Mari spat.“You assaulted me when I was a child.”

Anger sharpened his features.It was the first time he had worn an expression that wasn’t bored amusement.“I consummated a ritual and sealed a contract with a creature older than the land we’re standing on.There was no child present.”He tilted his head, unsettling his perfect hair.“You were locked up tight as a drum somewhere inside.”

She sent a panicked glance Cisco’s way.His face looked bleak.“I put you to sleep with my magic.”

“You said you took my memories of it.”

“I did.But the time when I put you out is black, as if you were asleep.Because you were.”

Mari sent her awareness inward, seeking to confront the goddess about what had happened that night.It was never a conversation with her, more like an exchange.

When the goddess responded, she was smug.She’d done what she needed to—to protect Mari, and to protect Dohal, who she had known was under Las Vegas all along.But it was clear in the…affection she had for Ashdei that whatever had happened between them had been consensual, even pleasant.

Mari snarled in frustration.“It wasmy body.Even if she agreed.”

At that, the goddess bristled.The body belonged to both of them.It had since the moment of the first ritual which had brought them into being–together inside one flesh.And the goddess had willingly shared that flesh with the demon in front of them.As far as she was concerned, there had been no transgression.

“I take it from the look on your face right now that she doesn’t agree with that assessment?”Ashdei offered her a flat smile.“It must be confusing for you.I am sorry for that.I thought at the time that your absence was something she had done to assume control.I see now that was not the case.”

“Get out of here,” she growled.Though she was mightily angry, her magic didn’t stir at all.Her power understood at some base level that he was no threat to her.

Ashdei dipped his head.“Just so you’re aware.Our agreement was one of mutual protection.I protect you and you protect me.It’s a soul contract.Unbreakable, unless I act to harm you.”His eyes passed over the men around her.“Your sense of you is larger than I anticipated, but still valid nonetheless.”

“She said get out,” Cisco shouted, straining at the cage of her magic, but it held fast.

“I’ll see you soon.”Ashdei turned around with a cheeky wave and disappeared in a burst of blue fire.

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