He snorted. “Demons have no rivalry with ghosts.” He saw I was unmoved by this declaration and dropped his haughty grin. “But perhaps it’s different here?”
“It is believed that a long-dead king haunts the remains of his castle there. The problem is, the ruins are so decayed often travelers don’t realize they’ve stumbled into them until it’s too late. If the tales are to be believed, he doesn’t take kindly to trespassing, even hundreds of years past his reign and death.”
“Go on.” Seir’s eyes grew wide, and he struggled to contain his smile the more I told him.
“People who venture there often go missing or end up mysteriously dead. There are some rumors about those who survived but then suffered a lifetime of bad luck. Every child knows the stories, mostly to discourage them from wandering too far from home but also as a warning.”
Instead of being put off by mysterious and gruesome deaths, unexplained bad luck, curses, and much more, Seir had grown positively starry-eyed with excitement.
“How thrilling! I’d love to meet such a wonderfully vengeful spirit.” After that, he was suspiciously quiet, eyes narrowed in thought as he looked over the map. One of his palms made small circles against his chest, right over his heart.
Seir’s expression went blank again, and he was suddenly impatient with his breakfast, inhaling large bites one after another.
“Are you alright?” I asked, watching with horrified fascination.
He paused, bowl held up near his mouth, spoon suspended mid-motion. “Fine. Why?” he mumbled.
“You seem to be in a hurry. Should I be worried?”
“Ah.” He set his bowl down very gently, something like chagrin crossing his face. “Just anxious, I guess. I’ve never been on a journey like this before.”
The admission took me by surprise. “No? I thought you said you were a traveling demon?”
He shook his head and licked the last bits from his dish with his tongue. I found it difficult to swallow for reasons I didn’t want to think too hard about as I watched him efficiently clean his bowl.
“I’m used to portals, or jumping. Sifting. At the very least having functional wings. Walking long distance will be a novel experience for me.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about that. “We don’t have to walk the whole way, do we?” I asked, calculating the kind of time that might add to the days I’d spent in the wagon, not to mention how taxing it would be to do so.
He shrugged and rose, collecting our dishes and taking them into the kitchen to wash. “I don’t know. But I promise to get you home as quickly as I can.”
“Thank you,” I said, glad he couldn’t see my face. If he did, he might see that I meant for more than the breakfast or the dishes. For more than offering to travel with me, even after I basically told him I didn’t need his help. Twice. Especially for helping me escape Ignus. Not that I was ashamed over what I’d done, but he might see how thankful I was to him for allowing me to get revenge on those men for all the torment they put me through. He might see too much, and he’d already seen more than most, despite our very short time together.
The list of things I could owe him for—even just a “thanks”—was far longer than I liked, especially for someone I basically just met. I hated owing anyone anything.
And while I’d already protested needing his company, I wasn’t completely ungrateful to have him willing to travel with me. Making my way all the way to Ravenglen on my own was a daunting task. I could do it, but it would be easier with someone else there. Especially someone as quick to take care of things as this demon was.
“Shall we?” He reached out to help me up once he’d shouldered his own pack, and a flush ran through me from head to toe at the contact. “I suspect if we get going, we’ll be able to make it to that little settlement near the river by nightfall tomorrow. Eddington, I think the map had it marked. Perhaps we’ll be able to find a horse there.”
“Ignus sometimes traveled to Eddington,” I agreed. “I recognize the name. He was never gone more than a few days.”
“He did business there?” Seir asked as he led me back down the street the way we’d come, my eyes warily watching for any familiar faces.
“Yes. He bartered grain for making liquor. I’m sure he peddled my healing services, too, given the number of strangers that came through the house just for that.”
Seir’s expression went stony again, and he grunted. His fingers flexed against my skin, his hand warm and still. After a beat, he turned and walked out the cabin door. I followed him, silently thanking the cabin for its hospitality, wishing things were different and I could just stay there in the nice bed for as long as I wanted.
As I walked out into the brisk morning air, I realized again that summoning Seir had changed everything about my life, and I was only beginning to see what all that might mean.
Chapter 6
Seir
As we walked away from Olinbourg toward Eddington, the morning sun warmed our backs. Steam rose from the tall grass as the heat thawed the soil. We’d missed the sunrise thanks to some heavy fog, but it was shaping up to be a lovely day with a cool breeze. The change in foliage from the woods around Olinbourg to more grassy open areas as we traveled the well-worn road was nothing short of wondrous. I always missed the vibrancy of color that places outside of Hell had, and seeing all the wonderful things morning had to offer was an excellent reminder of just how dull the underworld could be.
Unfortunately, this section of the road was mostly barren aside from some distant groupings of pine trees and an occasional passing wagon, none of which were going the same direction as us and all seemed to have horses that couldn’t give us a wide enough berth. My polite greetings to the drivers had been met with frustrated glares as they tried their best to control their beasts, though one did begrudgingly tip his hat to Hailon when she raised her hand in a wave.
I’d managed to start several short conversations with the interesting woman walking beside me, but she seemed focusedpurely on putting one foot in front of the next, even after I finally managed to get her to pass over her pack for me to carry.
