I Tamed the Demon Girl Who Killed Me

Chapter 2

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

“Stop doing that,” Nyra said.

“Doing what?”

“Staring at nothing with that look on your face. You look like a priest reading a bill.”

Adrian ignored her. A second pane of light had unfolded in front of him, and this one had a name at the top.

[Function unlocked: Demon Insight.] [Allows the host to view a demon’s nature, condition and deepest unfulfilled desire.] [Use on target? Y/N]

“Yes,” he muttered.

[Target identified: Nyra]

• Race: High Demon

• Rank: Unawakened

• Personality: Arrogant, cruel and suspicious

• Current condition: Bound by a summoning contract

• Hidden desire: Freedom from her master’s control

Adrian read it once, then again. The last line was the only one that mattered.

Nyra’s hand tightened on the dagger. Her gaze was fixed on his face, and she wasn’t stupid. “You just learned something,” she said. “I can see it.”

“I learned you hate being on a leash.”

The temperature in the chamber seemed to drop. “Careful.”

“I’m being careful. I’m being so careful I’m barely breathing.” He swallowed. “The man who summoned you is dead, but the chains are still on you. That means his death didn’t end the contract. It’s still running. Which means the circle is still holding you, and you can’t leave.”

“I can leave whenever I wish.”

“Then why are you still kneeling in it?”

Silence.

He tried not to smile and mostly succeeded. In his old life, he had spent eight years learning to tell when a client was bluffing about a deadline. It turned out the skill transferred. People who could really do something did it. People who couldn’t explained why they didn’t need to.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Adrian said.

Nyra laughed, loud and bright. “A deal. With me. You have a hole in your chest, human. You can barely sit up.”

“And you’ve got chains made of light that I think are starting to hurt you. I’d say we’re both having a bad night.”

“I could kill you before you finished the sentence.”

“You could. But you haven’t, which means you’re curious.” He took a careful breath. “So here’s my offer. Don’t kill me. Help me get out of this basement alive. In return, I’ll find a way to cut those chains.”

For a moment she simply looked at him, wide-eyed, and he thought he’d actually surprised her.

Then she threw her head back and howled with laughter.

“Humans!” she gasped. “Gods. Do you know what you are? You’re livestock with ambitions. I have eaten kings who thought they were clever. I have burned cities. You are asking me to serve you in exchange for a favour you can’t possibly deliver?”

“I’m not asking you to serve me.”

“Then what are you asking?”

“Cooperation,” Adrian said. “Until I’m out of here. That’s all.”

“No.”

“You haven’t heard the rest.”

“I don’t need to.” She leaned closer. Up close, her eyes were not simply red. They were the red of coals just before they catch, with a darker ring around the pupil. “Humans are beneath my kind. We do not serve. We do not bargain with food. I will never, ever kneel to one of you. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly.”

“Good. Then die.”

She raised the dagger a second time, and a second time the blue glass flashed between them. Nyra snarled and slammed her free hand against it. The chains on her wrists blazed so brightly that Adrian had to look away.

When the light faded, she was breathing harder.

It was a small thing. A tiny hitch in her chest, a tremble at the edge of her wrist. But Adrian had spent a lot of his life watching small things, and he caught it.

He activated the Insight again, only this time he looked at the room instead of at her.

The system obligingly outlined the circle in gold. Thin lines of light ran outward from Nyra’s chains along the floor, past the edge of the circle and into six crystals set in niches around the walls. They hummed softly. Every time one of Nyra’s chains flickered, the nearest crystal brightened.

And every time they brightened, the glow around Nyra dimmed.

It’s not just holding her. It’s feeding on her.

“What are you doing now?” Nyra asked. Her voice had gone flat.

“Thinking.”

“Do it quietly.”

“You’re tired,” Adrian said.

“I’m annoyed.”

“You’re tired, and you’ve been tired since before I woke up. The circle’s pulling strength out of you. That’s why you haven’t left. That’s why you’re still sitting there, and that’s why you haven’t finished me.” He nodded to the dagger. “You’ve lifted that three times now. Each time it’s heavier.”

Her lips parted, and for the first time he saw something in her face that wasn’t amusement or contempt. It was the look of someone who had been caught.

Then it was gone, replaced by cold fury. “Say one more word about my strength, and I will tear that tongue out of your head.”

“Okay,” Adrian said. “But the offer stands. Help me get out, and I’ll find a way to break the contract. I’m not asking for loyalty. I’m asking for a fair trade.”

“Fair.” The word sounded like a curse. “Who taught you that word?”

“Mostly lawyers.”

She said nothing. The crystals pulsed. Somewhere deep in the stone, water dripped in a slow, steady rhythm that made the silence heavier.

When Nyra spoke again, her voice was very quiet.

“You said you’d cut the chains.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t even know what they are.”

“Not yet.”

“You don’t know who made them. You don’t know how they work. You have no magic, no weapon, and you are bleeding on the floor.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why would I believe you?”

“You shouldn’t,” Adrian said. “Not yet. Watch what I do, and decide after.”

It was the most honest thing he’d said all night, and he knew it landed, because her expression flickered. Just once, just for a heartbeat, before she wiped it clean.

“You’re a very strange human,” she said.

“I’ve heard that.”

“I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

“Then you’ll have to wait until I’m useful to you.”

She opened her mouth to answer.

Instead, she gasped.

The chains on her wrists went black. The circle convulsed, symbols flaring and dying one after another, and Nyra pitched forward onto her hands. The dagger rattled out of her fingers and skidded across the floor. She tried to push herself up, and her arms gave out.

“Nyra!”

He didn’t know why he shouted her name. It was just there, an instinct, a stupid, human, completely unhelpful instinct. He started crawling toward her, one hand pressed against his wound.

Before he could reach her, the iron door at the far end of the chamber slammed open.

Boots. Many of them. Torchlight flooded in, and with it came the clink of armour and the cold, practiced sound of men who had done this before.

Eight soldiers entered in a tight formation, swords drawn, shields up. Each wore a crest on his chest, a silver stag over a black tower. Adrian recognized it. Not from his life, but from the memories lodged in the back of his skull. The crest of House Vale.

My family, he thought. Or at least, the family I now belong to.

An older man strode in behind them, broad-shouldered, grey at the temples, with a scar through his left eyebrow and a face like a locked door. His eyes took in the chamber, the bloodied floor, the collapsed demoness and the boy on the ground.

They stopped on Adrian. And the man’s jaw tightened, just slightly.

“By order of House Vale,” he said, in a voice that carried without being raised, “the demon and her summoner are to be eliminated. No one leaves this room.”

Nyra lifted her head from the floor. Her eyes were barely open, but she looked straight at Adrian and, in spite of everything, she managed a thin, wicked smile.

“Well,” she whispered. “Now it gets interesting.”