Page 51 of Bedeviled

My fierce queen, I am not your thoughts, I am your soul mate, Memnon.

Memnon. Despite my situation, a fluttery feeling rushes through me. Of course.

I can feel your pain. I’m coming for you, just hold on a little while longer.

Someone else is already here.

Another pause, this one laden with some emotion I cannot hope to figure out.

Are they friend or foe? Memnon demands.

Before I can even attempt to answer, the man drops my legs. My eyes roll around as I take in my surroundings. The world won’t stop moving, but I think…I think he’s drawn me deeper into the forest.

Why would he do that?

The answer is just beyond my reach, but there is a sensation, like a long-limbed spider crawling up my back, and it feels wrong. All wrong. Very, very wrong.

Alright, so I take it they’re a fucking foe, Memnon says eavesdropping on my fragmented thoughts. Gods, the number of enemies who think to attack you as though they won’t have to deal with me.

I stare up at the man looming over me, startled by how handsome he is. So handsome…but he has empty eyes.

“Who are you?” I murmur. I feel half dead, and yet my heart is beginning to pound, and colored smoke—no, wait, not smoke but magic—is sifting out of my palms, a few thin threads of it wrapping around the man.

Without preamble, he kneels, then straddles me.

“Oh, my husband is not going to like that,” I say, my head still spinning.

Whatever they’ve done, their death just got slower, Memnon vows.

The man leans forward. “I bet he won’t like a lot of the things I’m about to do to you,” he says. Then, leaning forward, he licks my face from jawline to temple.

His entire body shudders, and when he rears back, I see blood—my blood—smearing his lips.

That’s when, despite all the haziness in my mind, I know exactly what I’m dealing with.

A fucking demon.

A demon? Memnon echoes. His voice sounds particularly scary.

Meanwhile the creature uses his thumb to swipe away the remaining blood on his face and licks his finger clean.

The demon groans, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment. “I haven’t tasted a witch since I came here.”

I stare up at those blown pupils as the demon’s lips curl back to reveal his sharpened canines.

My muscles tense. I think…think this is about to hurt.

Selene! Memnon’s magic presses up to the edge of our bond, where his essence meets mine. Take my power! It is yours! Please, protect yourself until I can get there!

His words have no sooner crossed my mind than I remember the heaviness at my side. I reach for it now, my hand grasping a hilt.

My daggers.

I’d forgotten.

Unsheathing one, I slam it into his side. The creature screams, the sound unholy. I withdraw the blade, feeling the cascade of dark liquid pour onto me.

Then, something crashes into the creature, ripping him off my body.