I tried to get everything to fit together, even though I knew there were still pieces missing. Nigellus—and presumably other demons that supported the treaty—needed Rans alive so they could harvest his blood. If Myrial wanted to trash the treaty, killing Rans was a simple way to do that if she could pin it on the Fae. Her fixation on Dad and me could mean that she thought she could use me as leverage against Rans somehow because of our bond.
The part I wasn’t getting was why Nigellus and the other demons wanted a village full of humans who didn’t age because they were hyped up on vampire blood. For a while, Rans and I had worried that the demons intended to use the tithelings to breed more demon-hybrids like me, but that clearly wasn’t the case. If it was, with as few women as there were in the titheling village, the demons wouldn’t be letting them pair up with human men to have human babies.
So what was really going on here?
I shook my head sharply, dismissing the question for now. I had a whole new host of problems to worry about. That question would have to wait. My gaze moved to my father, who was still watching me with more awareness than he’d directed at me since I’d arrived here. I got to my feet and crossed to his chair, kneeling in front of him and taking his hands in mine.
“Dad,” I said hoarsely, “I’m not sure what to do here. I need to go, but I’m scared to leave you alone in this place. I thought it was safe, but now I’m not so sure.”
He stared at me for long enough that I assumed he wouldn’t answer. Not exactly a stretch—he never answered when I talked to him. But then his lips parted, his voice emerging as a rusty croak.
“Go. Told you b’fore... don’ want you here.”
My throat closed up, my hands tightening convulsively around his. I swallowed several times before I could speak.
“I won’t leave until I’ve done everything I can to make sure you’ll be okay,” I said. “And you have to promise me that no matter what a demon offers, you will never agree to make a deal with one. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Dad made an ambiguous noise of disgust that could have been in response to my words, or to the idea of making a soul bargain.
I squeezed his hands again. “I need more than that, Dad. Come on now.”
But he was gone again, his gaze moving to the middle distance. Frustration joined the messy tangle of emotions dragging at me. I stood, comforting myself with the memory of his violent reaction when Myrial had tried to wheedle him into a deal a few days ago. At least when it came to that particular demon, I was reasonably confident he wouldn’t be signing over his soul anytime soon.
Now, though, I needed a plan. Rubbing my fingers absently over the smooth skin I’d sliced open with a knife barely half an hour ago, I went into the back room of the hut where I could think in solitude.
* * *
Over the next couple of days, I quietly implemented various parts of my plan while trying not to make it look like there was any planning going on at all. Stage one consisted of attempting to get a solid answer about how demon-bonds worked. To that end, I approached the two demons who usually guarded the cave containing the gate to Earth from noon until mid-evening.
It was almost always the same pair at that time, and they’d gotten used to seeing me since I’d been back several times to see if I could get through. First, I went in as normal and tried sticking my arm through the rock. Worryingly, it was more difficult than it had been the last time I tried—probably because I hadn’t fed in several days. I’d been too focused on everything else.
With a frustrated noise, I turned around and retraced my steps.
“Still no luck?” asked the chattier of the two guardians.
I shook my head. “Nope.” Big sigh. “I’m sure I can do it—I’m so close! Maybe if I just feed more often...”
“I’m sure you’ll get it eventually,” said the giant winged demon.
For someone who was seven feet tall with glowing red eyes, this guard was a freakin’ marshmallow at heart. Which, of course, was the real reason I was here. I gave him a wan smile.
“Yeah, I’ll keep at it. Thanks, guys—have a good rest of your shift.”
With that, I gave them a little wave and started to walk away, only to stop after a few steps, snapping my fingers in the air and turning to face them again.
“Oh! Almost forgot. Can you settle a little dispute for me? My friend Sharalynn and I were talking about soul-bonds the other night. She says you need to understand exactly what you’re agreeing to before a demon can bind you. But I always heard that as long as you agreed to do the thing with the blood and the crystal, it didn’t matter if you were clear on the details of the exchange.”
The chatty guard chuckled. “Eh, the truth’s kind of in the middle, honestly.”
“Oh?” I asked. “How so?”
“Well, you see—it’s not true that you have to know every detail of the exchange, necessarily. But it also takes more than just the blood exchange through the binding crystal. You’d at least have to trust the demon on the other end of the bargain. Like, really trust them. I mean, I couldn’t just grab some human’s kid and threaten to eat it if the parent didn’t agree to the binding. It wouldn’t take, because the magical contract wouldn’t be valid, see?”
I nodded, hiding the relief that washed through me. There were still an almost infinite number of Very Bad Things that Myrial could doubtless do to Dad if she wanted to, but,
