Page 36 of Bound

Slate nodded. “Then I will take my leave. My nest is calling.”

Ruby jumped in front of him before he could vanish through the trees.

“Wait,” she pleaded. “I’m… I’m always lost. Could you show me around? I never know where I’m going.”

“You needn’t know,” he said. “We are bound. I will take you wherever you need.”

He started to step around her. She leaped in front again, heart racing with her audacity.

“But when you go away,” she tried. “When you sleep, I still want to know. Just while I’m here. Please?”

She gave him her best smile. Then—with a wild hope that bordered on insanity—she toyed with her neckline, pressing a finger under the shadowy fabric.

Slate’s eyes did not drop to follow it. But he did sound unnecessarily distracted when he said, “Follow me.”

Ten

Skullstalkers were not a nervous species.

Slate reminded himself of this fact as he led Ruby into his nest.

Skullstalkers were one of the most dangerous creatures in any realm. They rarely had reasons to be anxious, especially one as old and powerful as Slate.

So, there was no reason for the shadows around his skull mask to start billowing like a storm.

Ruby tore her eyes away from the nest to watch the shadows pour. “Is that meant to happen?”

“Yes,” Slate assured her. “Completely normal.”

He clenched his fists at his sides, willing the shadows to be still. It was no use. There was an old animal instinct arising in him, hissing and feral. It reminded him of his earliest days when he didn’t know what a castle was, and his bone mask was a thin membrane his brothers could pierce with one claw.

There was a cave. He was almost certain. One of his brothers—he couldn’t remember which one—had brought in someone who wasn’t supposed to be there. And the air had gone thick withthe same fearful, protective scent spilling off of Slate right now:danger, it warned.Intruder, fight, kill!

Slate assured the instinct that there would be no killing. Certainly not Ruby, who was gazing around the nest with such sweet wonder it made the instinct die down to a low hiss.

“It looks so soft,” she said. “I didn’t notice before.”

She took a step toward it, then hesitated. She looked back toward him for permission.

Slate opened his mouth to say she could look but not touch. He had not allowed anyone to touch his nest, even Paimon. Except for the dog spirit, who had done it while he was sleeping. The little bastard.

“Go ahead,” he said instead.

Ruby’s surprised smile was almost worth how annoyed he was at himself. He was one of the most powerful creatures in the voids. And he was letting some puny mortal touch his nest, getting her scent all over it. Not only that, he was fetching her food and spinning her dresses and daggers out of shadows. What was happening to him?

“This part of the forest is protected,” Slate told her as she pressed at the fur lining the nest. “Just like the castle. If I am away, I am either fetching something for you in the mortal realm or I am here.”

Ruby looked over. One of her feet was in the nest, bracing to haul herself up.

“Will I have to try very hard to wake you?”

Slate considered. “We are bound. So, no. I will sense you.”

Ruby didn’t bring up that he wasn’t able to sense that demon before until it was on top of them. Or the lost soul until she had started talking to it. But he could see it in her face as she looked away, climbing into the nest on her hands and knees.

She settled into the middle of the nest, feeling the soft surface with a growing grin.

“I didn’t think it would be socomfortable,” she gushed. She ran the fur between her fingers. “Is this deer velvet?”

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