He led the way into the tavern, where a delicious meaty aroma had my stomach cramping with hunger. The place wasn’t too busy, just a few locals sitting around wooden tables, drinking ale. All eyes turned to us as we entered, but they looked away quickly, tucking in their chins.
The demon behind the bar touched one of his horns nervously as we approached. “We don’t want any trouble,” he said. “I paid already. I got nothing till the end of the month. I swear.”
Conah and I exchanged glances.
“I think you may have us confused with someone else,” Conah said politely. “We merely stopped for some food and ale.” He pulled a pouch of coins from his pocket. “We can pay.”
The barman looked horrified. “No. No payment. I insist. Please take a seat, and my wife will be over to take your order.”
Conah frowned and put the money away. “Very well.”
We left the bar and took a table up against the wall, where it was obvious we were being scrutinized surreptitiously by every occupant of the room now. Was there a spotlight on us only they could see?
What the fuck was going on? “Conah?”
“I don’t know,” he answered my unspoken question.
“Our cloaks?”
“Yes, they’d know we were from Lilith’s court.”
“The bar guy seems scared.”
“I know. It’s worrying.”
“Maybe we should—”
“No. We’re not leaving. You need food.”
It was weird how he was reading my mind. “You can’t read minds, can you?”
He looked thrown. “No. I don’t read minds. I can read memories, remember.”
A female demon approached us. She was wearing a scarf around the bottom half of her face, and her eyes were slanted with vertical pupils. Her hair was pulled back from a forehead that was peppered with a scale-like pattern. She placed a jug of ale and two glasses on the table a little too roughly, and some ale sloshed onto the surface.
She didn’t bother to apologize.
“We have meat stew, vegetable stew, and meat pies,” she said gruffly.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think we’d insulted her firstborn or something.
Conah cleared his throat, clearly disconcerted by her unflinching glare. “I’ll take a pie and some vegetable stew.” He looked at me. “Felton?”
I stared blankly at him for a moment before it clicked. He was calling me by the guy name they’d picked for me.
“I’ll have the same, please.” I smiled at the barman’s wife, and she glared at me.
Damn, she was pissed at us about something. She retreated to get the food.
“Conah, I don’t think we should eat the food. I think she might spit in it.”
“Or put venom in it,” Conah said. “She’s a Conari daemon. Pureblood from the looks of it. They have venom glands in their cheeks.”
I stared at him, horrified. “You think she’ll poison us?”
He chuckled. “No. Not unless she wants to be executed.” He touched his cloak. “We’re Lilith’s court. Any harm done to us is punishable by death.”
Still, I wasn’t feeling hungry any longer.
Conah poured us ale and picked up his mug. “Relax, Fee, they’re probably just nervous to have nobility in their tavern. This place is off the beaten path. This village is on the outskirts of Imperium rule.”
“We’re nobility now?”
“Dominus are automatically part of Lilith’s court. But you’re also a descendant of Samael, Lilith’s one true love, which makes your connection to the court even stronger, not that we can claim that right, though, even with you glamoured as a male.”
If we claimed I was descended from Samael, she’d be able to deduce that I was Samael’s and Eve’s bloodline because she kept tabs on her and Samael’s bloodline. Not even the amulet would keep me safe then.
“Has Cora spoken to the Masterton Coven witch about her abilities yet?” Conah asked before taking a sip of his ale.
“No. She thinks she’s an anomaly. Apparently, she shouldn’t be able to do the things she can without being bound to a coven.”
“But she’s a Tulpa, so maybe the rules are different for her,” he suggested.
“Probably, but I think she wants to scope things out before she reveals herself. I don’t blame her, though.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
He canted his head slightly, studying me from sapphire eyes. “Do you have any witch power you’re not telling us about?”
I snorted. “Aside from being able to smell magic, no.”
He looked thoughtful. “Being a witch is part of your DNA, but it seems you somehow shut off your ability to manipulate miasma and gave that ability to Cora instead.”
“It makes no sense scientifically. I mean it’s my DNA, how can Cora use the ability in my DNA?”
“I don’t know,” Conah said. “Magic is a kind of science we haven’t yet completely grasped, and it has its own rules. Maybe Cora is still linked to you somehow. Able to utilize facets of your makeup you can’t. Or maybe her body is a copy of yours but without the Loup and demon genes.”
We dropped into a companionable silence as we considered the options, and it hit me that this was the first time we’d sat and chatted. Just chatted. The first time since the day he’d cooked for me and told me about the world I belonged to.
I’d started falling for him then. I would have given him my heart so easily. I’d been ready.
Nostalgia was a fucking bitch.
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?” Conah said softly. His eyes crinkled in a smile. “I knew you were special the first time I set eyes on you, but I never anticipated how special.”
“I’m nothing special, Conah. I’m just me.”
“No, Fee, you’re special. You’ve changed us for the better. You’ve made us question the way we see the world. I’m honored to serve with you, and I want you to know that whatever happens, I will always be here for you. We’re a team: you, me, Mal, and Az. We stick together.”
I nodded, a lump in my throat. “I know. Same goes for you. I’m here for you and the guys, and Kiara too. We’re a team.”
Our gazes locked and all the stuff that could never be said and never be thought passed between us one last time, and then I let it go and smiled brightly.
“Where the fuck is this food, huh?”
His smile was sad as if he knew that this was it. The end of any possibility of us. “Is that your boisterous male impression?”
“Good, right?”
“Not bad.”
The food arrived, and we tucked in. It was delicious, and I forgot about the eyes on us for a few minutes as I stuffed my face, not caring how messy I was being. Ha. I was a guy, after all.
We were finishing up when the door slammed open, letting in a gust of icy air. Four massive demons wearing crimson cloaks strode in. Cloaks like ours, except theirs were edged in silver and black, not gold. They scanned the room, and their gazes rested on us.
The bar guy held up his hands. “I’ve paid. I’ve paid.”
“We’re not here for you. We’re here for them.” The demons strode toward us.
Conah put down his glass and stood to meet them. “We didn’t request a guard escort.”
I studied the demon in the crimson cloak—his gloveless hands and dirty nails, his yellowing teeth, and unkempt hair. His boots were shoddy too. Surely Lilith’s guards wouldn’t look like homeless demons who’d robbed noblemen of their cloaks? I’d expected them to be better groomed. There was something wrong with this picture.
I slipped out of the booth. “Conah?”
But Conah must have noticed the oddities too. “What regiment are you with?” he demanded.
The guard bared his yellow and black teeth. “The regiment of you-need-to-die.”
The glint of a blade galvanized me into action too late.
Conah made a strange grunting sound, and my blood turned to ice.
The guard pulled his dagger out of Conah’s side.
He’d stabbed Conah.
He’d fucking stabbed him.
My vision bled to red, and rage took a front seat.
Conah staggered, clutching his side, and a growl tore the air.
My growl.
The beast wanted out, and I was ready to shift, but my Loup smashed into a wall and shrank back. What the fuck? Why couldn’t I…The fucking amulet. It wouldn’t let me shift.
My obsidian dagger was in my hand, and I lunged, shoving Conah to the side and slashing at the guard. He jumped back out of the dagger’s reach. Conah would be up in a moment. Healed. It was just a dagger wound, but he wasn’t moving. Fuck. I slashed and swiped, trying to keep them away from him as they attempted to get to him.
“Who are you?” I swiped in a lethal arc, forcing them to back off. “What do you want?”
“Get out of the way or die,” the fake guard said. “We don’t have any issue with you. It’s him we want. Orders of the queen.”
The queen? Why would the queen want to hurt Conah?
I needed my scythe, but no matter how much my hand tingled, the scythe wouldn’t appear.
The damn amulet was blocking that too.
There were four of them and one of me. I was good, but could I fight them off and keep them away from Conah at the same time? Fuck it. Only one way to find out.
I lunged at the guard trying to circle around me. My dagger tasted blood. He yelped and leaped away, clutching his cheek. And then they all attacked at once.
I slashed and stabbed and spun, daggers in both hands to create a barrier between them and us. Fire ripped across my forearm and my thigh. Fire in my blood and in my veins. The world was wavering like I was looking at it through one of those funhouse mirrors that distorted everything. My legs…Why wouldn’t they move?
Wait, why were they staring at me. “Come on!”