Chapter 24

Chapter24

Briar

One moment I’m staring into Sol’s panicked face, watching him dive for me, and the next my stomach gives a sickening lurch and I’m back in the room where this all started. Or, rather, where my entrance to the demon realm began. It looks almost alien after getting used to my low bed and cluttered cabinets in Sol’s room. I want to rip the pretty lace curtains from the walls.

I jerk out of Azazel’s grasp, well aware that he allows it. “You’re wrong!”

“I’m not.” He eyes me, the red in his eyes retreating until they’re the more familiar black. It’s not a heated look by any means, but I am suddenly aware of the fact that I’m naked beneath my blanket. Azazel frowns when I tuck it tighter around myself. “Are you in need of medical care?”

I flush from my toes to roots. The only pain points are the little teeth marks across my body, but I’ll be damned before I let him take those away. “I’m fine.”

He nods slowly. “You’re safe here.”

“I was safe with Sol.” I might have complicated feelings about what happened and how he acted afterward, but I have no doubt we were both victims to our lusts and a game going too far. He didn’t set out intending to trap me. I certainly didn’t set out to force him to violate the terms of the contract.

Azazel stalks to the wardrobe and flings it open. He grabs a robe and tosses it onto the bed. “Put this on, and then we’ll get you another pendant. I’m assuming it hasn’t been long since he tore the other.”

“A few hours, maybe.” I’m honestly not sure. I was pretty out of it after we had sex, and then I waited for more than a few minutes for Sol to come back to the bedroom before outrage gave me the strength to go hunt him down. For all the good it did me; our argument gave Azazel the ammunition he needs to call the contract into question.

Azazel moves to the door, presenting me with his back. “Time is of the essence. The pendant can prevent pregnancy as long as the process hasn’t reached a certain point.”

I blink at his back. “It’s a magical Plan B.”

“Something to that extent.” He glances at me and frowns. “The robe, Briar.”

I want to disobey out of sheer fury, but the fact remains that this must be the first step in digging Sol and I out of this mess. “I will come with you, but then you will listen to me.”

He sighs and turns back to face the door. “Very well.”

I drop the blanket and pull on the robe. It’s a thick material that is soft and warm, and after belting it at my waist, it covers me even better than the blanket did. “I’m ready.”

Azazel opens the door and allows me to precede him into the hall. It’s a different hall than last time; my door is no longer at a dead end but now stretches a great distance in either direction. He turns right and leaves me to follow.

I curse him silently the entire time. Each step causes my anger to rise. I forget that Azazel is a demon, that he’s nearly as large as Sol, that he is very much responsible for my being a widow the first time around. We turn a corner, and my fury bubbles right out of my lips in the form of a screech. “It’s none of your business!”

The demon turns to me with an exasperated mutter that the translation spell doesn’t quite convert. “You are under my care. Your safety is my responsibility.”

I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, but I’m too focused on Azazel to care if we have an audience or not. “You’re a nosy-ass demon who needs to let two adults have a conversation without you sweeping in and kidnapping me.”

“I didn’t kidnap you!” he roars.

I should be scared. I should be peeing my pants right now because not only am I in the middle of a confrontation, but it’s with someone who could disembowel me with one swipe of his black claws. Instead, I’m roaring right back at him. “Your ridiculous contract didn’t get triggered by what happened between us and you know it! I did not agree to come back here with you! I was having a discussion with my husband, not your high-handed demon ass!”

Azazel snarls in my face. His features haven’t shifted, but they seem less human-like all of a sudden. “Get your ass in that room right now, and secure a replacement pendant. I’ll deal with you when you’re reasonable again. Calm down.”

Everything goes staticky and strange. It almost feels like the top of my head explodes. Surely that’s the only explanation for me launching myself at Azazel, fingers curled like claws. “You bastard!”

I never make contact.

Arms hook around my waist, jerking me back against a broad chest. I don’t stop to wonder who grabbed me. I am not thinking about anything but ripping Azazel’s horns right off his head and beating him to death with them. “Take me back! Take me back right fucking now!”

“That’s about enough of that,” a familiar voice says.

Ramanu.

They toss me over their shoulder. “I’ve got this covered, Azazel. It didn’t require your direct interference.”

“Take care of it,” Azazel snaps. Heavy footsteps stalk away from us, but I can’t see anything except Ramanu’s round ass in my face.

“Put me down!”

“I don’t think I will.” They take a few steps, and then we’re leaving the hallway and entering through a door I’m nearly certain wasn’t there a few seconds ago.

I try to still my racing heart, determined to burst for the door the second Ramanu sets me down. There was a way through this place to Sol’s keep before. Surely it still exists. I just need to find it. It will mean evading Ramanu and Azazel, but I don’t care. I will not let things end with Sol.

Not like this.

Not without even getting a chance to say goodbye.

Ramanu drops me, none too gently, into a chair. They’re there with a hand when I try to pop to my feet. I slam into their palm and drop back into the chair with a curse. “Let me go!”

“I know how little humans like to be told to calm down.” They root around in a cabinet with one hand while the majority of their attention seems to be on me. “But the fact remains that I’m not letting you out of this room until you can walk nicely without trying to assault our leader.”

“I wouldn’t have to assault anyone if he didn’t transport me out of Sol’s study without so much as a question of whether I wanted to go.”

Ramanu shrugs. “He holds your contract. He can do whatever he pleases, barring harm.” They yank a pendant from the cabinet, identical to the one Sol ripped off me earlier today. “Hand.”

I glare but finally thrust out my hand. They prick my palm with a claw and press the pendant there, closing my fingers around it. The familiar jolt through my body makes me shake a little. I stare down at the pendant, my emotions a tangled mess.

I don’t want to be pregnant. Not if it means leaving the child behind.

But… If I didn’t have to leave? If Sol and I had a future without an expiration date? That’s a different story altogether. I reluctantly drop the pendant around my neck and look up at Ramanu. My heart is still racing, my brain fuzzy, but I manage to speak without screaming at them. “Please take me back to Sol.”

“That’s not my call to make.”

“And yet you managed to make all sorts of calls while you’ve been checking in on me over the past month.” I cross my arms over my chest and glare. “You know damn well that Sol would cut off his arm before he’d ever actually hurt me. He hesitated before he ripped the other pendant off. He also hesitated before fucking me. I ran. I knew what would happen if I did, and I did it anyways. If anyone’s caused harm in this scenario, it’s me.”

I knew he was having regrets, that he was feeling guilty for what happened. If I hadn’t hesitated to go down and talk to him because I knew the conversation would be uncomfortable, we wouldn’t be in this mess. We could have spoken and figured things out without Azazel appearing to set the whole damn contract on fire.

Ramanu sighs. “You have to understand, little bride. Azazel might be the leader through sheer might and viciousness, but he’s an overprotective daddy bear when it comes to his precious contracts. Regardless of your intent, he’s only seeing the bottom line. He’s not thinking any more clearly than you are right now. Give him some time to cool down and then explain things. I doubt he’ll change his mind, but you have a better chance of getting him to listen than screaming at him in the hallway.”

What they’re saying makes sense.

I don’t care.

I rise slowly to my feet, daring them to intervene. “Either tell me where Azazel will have gone, or take me back to Sol.”

“I told him this was a mistake. The other leaders are too damn stubborn, and humans are nothing but trouble.”

I don’t think Ramanu intends for me to hear that, so I ignore it. “Fine. I’ll find a way myself.”

“Patience.”

Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m not feeling patient in the least. The second they turn for the cabinet, I head for the door. If Ramanu won’t help me, then I’ll just figure this out for myself.

I make it one step out into the hall when something sharp pricks my neck. My legs go out, and Ramanu scoops me into their arms as my bones turn to jelly and an overwhelming numbness spreads through me. “What…” My lips won’t move properly.

“If you won’t have patience on your own, then I’m forced to persuade you. Sleep tight, little bride.”