I Tamed the Demon Girl Who Killed Me

Chapter 4

THE DEMONESS HAS A PRICE

“Who wrote this?” Adrian asked.

Nyra didn’t look at the inscription. She was sitting on the edge of the broken circle, wiping blood off her fingers with a strip torn from a dead man’s cloak. “I don’t read human.”

“It’s not human. It’s in the common script.”

“Same thing.”

“Nyra.” He held out the cramped little message. “Someone ordered you to kill the boy whose body I’m wearing. That is not what you told me.”

She said nothing for a moment. Then she shrugged, a slow, careless lift of one shoulder.

“I told you the man who summoned me was an idiot. That’s true. What I didn’t say is that the circle had a second hand in it. Two sets of commands. One from the boy, who wanted a servant. One from the voice that spoke to me through the stone while he was busy being proud.” Her mouth twisted. “I never saw who. Only the order. Kill the heir. The contract made me obey.”

“And you did.”

“I did.” She said it without apology, and without pride either. It was an observation, like noting the weather. “That’s what contracts are. I do not enjoy them.”

Adrian nodded slowly and tucked the information away. Somewhere in House Vale, a person had a voice that could reach through a summoning circle and speak to a demon, and had used it to kill their own family. That person was going to be a problem.

Later, he told himself. Chains first.

“All right,” he said, and stood, which cost him more than he wanted to admit. “Let’s talk about your wrists.”

The remaining chain still clung to her right arm, thin and silver and humming. It ran along the floor and disappeared into the largest of the six crystals, which stood in an alcove directly across from where the door had been. That one was bigger than the others, and brighter. It was set in a ring of runes that spiralled outward like the roots of a tree.

Adrian circled it slowly, activating Insight. Golden lines flickered across the stone.

His first instinct was to smash it. He had already smashed one, after all, and it had worked, and it was a great deal of fun.

No. That was a distraction. This one’s different.

If he broke the central crystal, he had no idea what would happen to the demon attached to it. The first one had only been a node, a support beam. This was the foundation. Knock it out carelessly and the whole structure might come down on top of the thing it was holding.

So he did what he used to do with broken spreadsheets. He stopped trying to force it, and started reading.

The runes were not random. They were arranged in nested rings, each one feeding into the next, and at the very bottom, almost hidden under dust, a single small symbol sat apart from the rest. It looked like a closed door.

“Nyra. What’s this one?”

She came over reluctantly and squinted. “A lock.”

“What does it lock?”

“The link. Between the crystal and the circle.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Because it’s the only rune in the entire arrangement that isn’t connected to anything else,” Adrian said. “Everything else loops back on itself. This one just sits there. Which means someone put it in as a way out, in case they needed to undo the binding.”

She stared at it. “That’s a fool’s door. Anyone could use it.”

“Anyone who knows it’s there.” He crouched, ran a finger along the edge of the symbol and felt the faintest vibration. “Whoever built this didn’t expect a stranger to sit down and read it.”

“And you can open it.”

“I can try.”

“If you’re wrong?”

“Then you’ll probably be annoyed with me for about a second before the room collapses.”

She made a small, exasperated sound. “I’m beginning to understand why you died.”

“I was hit by a truck.”

“What is a truck?”

“A very large cart with ambitions.”

Nyra opened her mouth, closed it, and folded her arms. “Do it.”

Adrian placed his palm against the closed-door rune and traced the pattern backwards, the way he’d seen it done in the memories at the back of his skull. He couldn’t cast. He had no magic. But the original owner of this body had spent a year studying forbidden texts, and some of that knowledge had come along for the ride.

The rune warmed under his hand. The nested rings hesitated.

Then the whole structure sighed, and let go.

The last of the silver chain dissolved into drifting sparks. The crystal went dark. The circle flickered once, twice and gave up entirely, leaving behind nothing but scuffed lines on a stone floor.

Nyra stood very still, staring at her own bare wrists. She turned her hands over, then back. She flexed her fingers. Slowly, as though she didn’t quite trust it, she drew a long breath.

The air in the chamber shifted. It was a pressure, a weight, like the moment before a storm. Candles bent toward her. The stone beneath her bare feet seemed to hum.

“Free,” she whispered.

Adrian couldn’t help it. He smiled. “Yes. Free.”

Her head turned.

Her eyes were the colour of an open furnace. She crossed the room in two strides, so fast he couldn’t follow it, and the point of her dagger settled gently against the hollow of his throat.

“Hello again,” Adrian said.

“I told you I’d never serve a human.”

“You did.”

“Our agreement was that you would free me.” The blade didn’t tremble. “It was not that I would be grateful, or loyal, or pleasant. It was not that I would become your friend.”

“I wasn’t expecting a hug.”

“Good. Because I’ve kept my word. I did not kill you when I had the chance. I fought your guards.” Her voice was low and flat. “We are even, little corpse. Do not mistake that for kindness.”

He could feel the metal against his skin, cold and precise. He thought about flinching. He thought about the fact that she could have done this at any time in the last twenty minutes, and had not.

“Understood,” he said, carefully. “Where will you go?”

“Home.” She said the word like it tasted of something. “The demon territories. There’s an old score to settle.”

“With the person who spoke through the circle?”

“With someone older.” Her eyes went distant. “Something that was taken from me a long time ago. I intend to take it back.”

“Alone?”

“Always.”

“Right now?”

A flicker. “…Soon.”

“Nyra.” He kept his voice quiet. “Can I look at something?”

“No.”

“I’ll be fast.”

She hesitated. Then, with a disdainful roll of her eyes that suggested she was humouring a particularly slow child, she lowered the dagger by an inch.

Adrian activated Demon Insight.

[Target: Nyra] [Condition: Contract severed. Demonic energy unstable.] [Injury: Severe depletion due to prolonged binding.] [Estimated combat capacity: 31%.]

He let out a long breath. “You’re hurt.”

“I am fine.”

“You’re at about a third of your strength. That fight in here took more out of you than you’re admitting. If you leave now and run into anything bigger than a deer, it’s going to be a short trip home.”

Her face went blank. When she spoke, it was with great, controlled quiet. “You looked inside me.”

“I looked at what you’re running on. That’s different.”

“It is not.”

“Fine. It’s not. I’m sorry.” He meant it, more than he’d expected to. “But you’re going to get yourself killed, and I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I’m a coward, and I’d like someone dangerous standing between me and everything else.”

That startled a bark of laughter out of her. It cut off almost immediately, as if she had caught herself doing something forbidden.

“Here’s my offer,” Adrian said. “Travel with me. Not as my servant. Not as my pet. Just as someone who needs somewhere safe to heal. I’ll find food, and a place to sleep, and whatever else you need while your strength comes back. And in return, you keep me alive.”

“You are asking a high demon to guard a human.”

“I’m asking a high demon to protect a business partner.”

“You have no business.”

“Give me a week.”

The dagger came down. She stood there in the wreck of the circle, silent and unreadable, and Adrian let her think. It was one of the few things he had learned how to do well in his last life. You made the offer. You let the silence work.

“Three conditions,” Nyra said at last.

“Name them.”

“One. I go where I please. If I leave, you do not follow.”

“Agreed.”

“Two. You do not lie to me. About anything. If I catch you lying, I take a finger.”

“That seems extreme, but fine.”

“Three.” She stepped in close, close enough that he could feel the heat radiating from her skin. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “If you ever, even once, try to control me, I will tear out your heart. And I will do it slowly.”

“That’s the part I’d like to avoid.”

“Then we understand each other.”

She turned away and began walking toward the door, rolling her shoulders as if to test them. Adrian exhaled and followed.

He had made it three steps when a pane of pale light blinked into existence in front of his eyes.

[Potential Covenant Partner identified.]