Ely gripped the back of the chair. “What happened?”
His chest rose as he inhaled a deep breath, seeming to bring his anger under control. “I was shot as a child. Aba saved me.” He leaned against the low wooden windowsill. “Azgor’s an old demon who collects unattainable things. He has a craving for anomalies that shouldn’t exist—be it a person or creatures—but especially symbionts.”
“Like the demon, Mammon, had? The one from whom you took the symbiont and saved Shadow?”
“Yes. But Mammon won them from Azgor. It was supposed to be delivered to him. I stole them. I wasn’t going to let Shadow die.”
“Why won’t this Azgor let you pay off Aba’s debt and leave?”
“Because he can.” A tic worked his jaw. “Nothing is straightforward in the Dark Realm, Ely. And it’s not about money like it is in the human world, but about souls, blood, and power. When Azgor found out what Aba had done to save me, he didn’t kill my sire but took his soul instead, forcing him to do his bidding for the rest of his life. Aba hates violence, but he did it anyway…”
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and finger as if to remove whatever gory images he relived. “My sire was trapped into servitude because ofme. And that I refuse to have. I took over his job…” A bark of dark laughter suddenly broke free, causing a slide of ice to trickle over her skin. Nate shook his head and prowled the length of the open-plan room.
“The adagewhat you sow, you reap?” he said, pausing near the destroyed table, “holds a world of fucking truth. I should have listened to Aba and not gotten drawn into senseless fights whenever in Ys—that’s Azgor’s territory in the Dark Realm—and called attention to myself. But assholes down there like stepping on my toes. And Azgor witnessed my destructive beast form during one of those fights.”
Oh, shit. “Is that why he bound you?”
Nate’s expression hardened. “I decimated my foes, and he revels in that. But he will wait a helluva long time to see me fully shift!”
Ely drew in deep gulps of air, unease constricting her gut. “So he took you on as a fighter? And now you must work for him for the rest of your life?”
“No, he bargained. The bastard doesn’t do straight-up negotiating. He’s out for all he can get. If I fight in his matches for a human decade, he’ll return my sire’s soul at the end.”
Her anxious heart eased a little. More so, she was relieved there was an end to this nightmare. “You love your father, Nate. And Azgor used it against you.” She ought to know. Emotional blackmail was the pits. While her situation wasn’t nearly as terrifying as Nate’s, it had also kept her trapped for a time.
“We are your parents, Elytani. We only want what’s good for you. But you won’t see it that way by running off to another realm,”hermaterihad pointed out after the guards had captured and returned her to Ademéras the first time.
Nate picked up the broken table parts and carried them to the door in the kitchen, and Ely slowly followed him. “So, it’s just fighting for this Azgor?” she asked.
He didn’t respond, stacking the pieces against the wall, then he faced her. “Why do you want to know more about my fucked-up life, Ely? It’s just shit and more fucked-up shit—”
“Because I care about you!” she shouted.
He blinked. And a smile started, chasing away the anger burning in his red-streaked eyes, causing them to become warm and tender. “And I do, too, about you, so damn much. Butcareis too weak a word for whatever these feelings in me are for you.”
Her heart tripped at his admission, and happiness spread like light through her.
“As to the question you asked me?” he said, leading her back to the living room. “No. Azgor also wanted me to continue with Aba’s work.”
She stopped, forcing him to stop, too. “Doing what?”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Anything he wants. Procuring symbionts from the hearts of rare creatures, tracking runaway minions, killing his foes—and his so-called allies when he wants—etcetera. I’m an assassin, Ely. A killer.”
Gods, Ely rubbed her temples, hating that damn demon.
Yes, Nate was cold and dangerous when he went after his enemies, and with the beast he housed, even more so. No wonder Azgor would use him in that way, but it was also destroying him. She could see it in his weary expression, and she’d glimpsed it in his spirit the rare time he let his guard down.
Ely blew out a troubled breath. These fights were causing his symbiont to get darker and darker and more violent, stealing more of his soul. “Can’t you remove the symbiont?”
He leaned against the kitchen counter separating the rest of the place, hands braced on the edges. “You think I didn’t try? It’s a part of me, Ely. If I do, I die.”
Ely searched his hard, handsome features, a facade that hid his torment so well, wishing she could ease his agony—
Wait. Maybe she could.
“Nate…” she began slowly, closing the distance between them. He wasn’t going to like this. “Maybe there is a way. I come from Empyrea…” His expression instantly hardened, and he was already shaking his head. “No!”
“How can you say that?”
