Back in the Middle, I’m perched on a barstool in the tavern that’s probably developing a permanent print of my ass after how much time I’ve spent here over the past few days.
I’m becoming a regular, and I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing. Leaning toward bad, but that could just be the miasma of misery hanging around me.
Even the weather is in a mood tonight.
Drizzling rain when I arrived in this realm, which has developed into a deluge over the last hour, pounding down on the tavern’s tin roof. My cloak could barely keep the wet out, and my clothes are damp and itchy against my skin. My hair is drying in the worst possible frizzy waves, and yes, I know I have bigger problems, but it’s all really stacking up to make me wonder what the hell I’m doing here.
It’s been a few days since I stopped by and met with Callum’s boss to pay off his debt, and my demon mate hasn’t come for me.
I don’t know if it’s because he hasn’t found out yet, or if it’s because hehasand he’s mad I went and meddled in his life.
I give the bond in my chest a tug.
There’s a bit of resistance and a glowing, warm presence somewhere on the other end. It’s bright enough I’m sure I could seek it out if I wanted to. I could follow it across realms, walk along the path it makes from me to the demon I want to see more than anything.
Only… Callum said he would come to me.
Besides, it’s not exactly easy for me to make my way from one end of a realm to the other. I don’t have my own portal magick to draw from, so Goddess knows how long it would take me to find a demon who would be amenable to taking me wherever Callum is.
I thought the Middle would be as good a place to wait as any.
But I’ve come to this tavern for the last few nights, and… nothing.
No demon.
Maybe I should do what he suggested and get on with my life.
I’ve got a handful of coins and a few jewels left after I used the rest to pay off the debt. They won’t be able to buy me much, but depending on who I can get to buy them off me, maybe it would be enough for the deposit on an apartment.
Or something.
Honestly, thinking about all the logistics of setting up a life back in the human realm is enough to bore me to tears. There’s nothing I want to do less than start making plans before I get the chance to talk to Callum and figure out all those plans together.
I don’t want to do anything but tug on that bond again—still so warm and alive in my chest—until it… it…
Until it tugs back.
Faint, at first, then a hard lurch just beneath my ribs that nearly yanks me off my barstool.
I look wildly around, scanning the faces of each patron, like there’s any way in hell I would have missed a six and a half foot tall bearded demon Viking sitting amongst the rest of the crowd.
He’s not here. I knew he wasn’t here.
But that tugtugsagain, and I whirl around just in time to see the tavern door swing open.
My heart leaps into my throat.
Callum fills the entire doorframe, dripping with rainwater and looking every bit as intimidating as he did the last time we were here.
Leather armor, wild shaggy hair, a formidable frown beneath his beard as he scans the bar looking for—
“Witch.” I can’t hear the word from all the way across the room, but I read it on his lips.
He must have talked to Myron.
He must know what I did, what it means for him.
“A friend of yours?” the barkeep asks, brow raised as she takes in the demon standing in her doorway and the way he’s looking at me.
