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“You’re injured,” Byron replied as if that settled something. “We saw what happened. You need to get out of here before they can shoot you again.”
“But—”
Casimir made a chiding sound. “Do not worry, princess. I believe your giants have this well in hand.”
That much was definitely true. Over the vampire’s shoulder, I could see Dex taking on two soldiers at once, while Clay and Lars dispatched several others in quick succession. Blood soaked Ozias’s muzzle and chest, but our connection told me immediately that none of it was his. Diving through the trees, the demon tore soldiers away from the ground faster than they could flee while Ruhl circled the battle, picking off the stragglers as nothing but smoke with glowing green eyes and vicious teeth.
I held onto Casimir. “Have you seen Niko?”
The vampire’s arms tightened on me, and worry flashed over Byron’s face.
But neither man answered.
My heart started pounding harder. If they didn’t know, then that left three options, because I couldn’t bring myself to believe Niko simply wouldn’t come back to help us in a fight. So that meant captured, injured…
Or dead.
I trembled. No, it wouldn’t be that. If he was injured, we’d find him and help him. If he’d been captured, then we would rescue him.
I wouldn’t let myself imagine the other possibility.
33
THE DEMON
My treluria had asked for me to return.
Even the broken one could not fathom it, but his shock was nothing compared to my own. No, the princess did not want me as a lover. Did not crave me as I craved her. She let the others touch her, let the broken one have her, and it was hell itself for me to know I would never do the same.
But she had faith in my ability to protect her, and so protect her I would.
By making sure everything that threatened her died.
I caught one of the fools who thought to attack her, lifting him from the ground and then tearing him to pieces faster than he could scream. Another believed he could fire a weapon at her, only to find himself flying into the trees where he was impaled upon impact. More shouted, charging at me, as if their mere numbers could be intimidating enough to stop me from destroying them all.
But if this was the only worth I could have to the princess, then I would bathe this forest in the blood of those even less worthy than I.
The moments became a blur of blood and screams, a crude balm for the ache inside. I’d felt it when the broken one had been with her on that tower after all my plans had gone so horribly wrong. Even though I’d buried myself so deep that his time with her had been nothing but distant sensations, the way he touched her, sank deep into her, made her cry out and moan with need had still been excruciating.
And neither of them had wanted me to take part in that. At the time, I’d believed neither wanted me to exist at all. I’d sworn then that I would stay as far from them both as I could manage. Let him forget me. Let her do the same. I would become nothing but a ghost in the back of his mind, and maybe then he would know peace.
Maybe I would too.
But when these bastards attacked her… when she reached out and summoned me back from the darkness, back from my exile, calling for my aid in defending her…
Even a ghost could wreak havoc for the one he loved.
I flew at the last of the attackers. Three were left. One for each hand, another for my teeth, and then this would be over. None would threaten her again.
“Roan!”
I snarled at the shout from the giant with light-brown skin. The leader.
Dex, the broken one snapped at me from inside my mind, struggling to rise from the darkness into which I’d shoved him. Now that the battle was near its end, he wanted to reclaim control.
But he was a fool. My treluria wanted my protection.
I was not finished protecting her.
