Page 10 of Demonic Affliction

“I don’t have a second.”

Dagny doubles over, bracing her hands on her knees as she struggles through her healing injuries. “Just… wait. I’m trying to help your mate.”

I raise a brow. “You want to help her?”

“In exchange for an explanation about what the hell just happened… yeah. Anything.”

My shoulders ease, some of the tension bleeding out. “What do you propose?”

She straightens, her feathered wings rustling gently at her back. "Our home isn't far from here. It's warmer, and it has everything a human would need. I think she would do a lot better with some comforts from her home." Seeing the look on our faces, she adds, “Not that you haven’t been taking care of her! I am just saying that she might enjoy having a pillow and a pair of warm socks.”

Pillow… socks… the words tickle at some long-forgotten memory, but I can’t grasp them or remember what they mean. Still, they make me hesitate. Willow needs human things like a soft bed, good, nutritious food, and a space that’s not cold and drafty. If these demons are willing to offer it after everything, why not accept their kindness?

I gaze down at my mate, at the way her eyes refuse to open. “Okay,” I agree. “Okay. We will go to your home.”

Before we leave, Rhune scratches a message into the ice near the cave mouth, letting Cin and Dravik know where to find us. It's not much, but it will suffice.

Right now, we have to worry about Willow’s health.

With one last look at the small human in my arms, I spread my wings, and we take off into the raging storm, following Dagny and her six mates to their home. I keep Willow pressed close to my chest as I fly, her frigid skin the only thing I can feel through the ice tearing at us from every direction.

Rhune flies close beside me, wings nearly brushing mine, and neither of us says a word. We don't need to. I know exactly what he's thinking, because I'm praying the same thing to all the gods that either of us has ever believed in.

Let her be okay. Let her be okay.

Please, let her be okay.

4

Willow

I feel like I got hit by a bus.

I struggle to open my eyes, and shock pulses through my veins as I take in the sparkling blue ceiling. Its faint shimmer reminds me of the ice rock in my mates’ tunnel home, but this ice is darker and practically hums with wild magic. I don’t like it. Not only is it unfamiliar, it feels… wrong. Like my skin is crawling with ants.

A shudder works through me, and I slowly rise into a sitting position, cringing as my body protests with the slight movement.

Make that two buses.

Blinking away the fog of sleep, I take in my new surroundings. The room is surprisingly nice. I’m lying in an actual bed with a carved bedframe and a nightstand, equipped with a “lamp” powered by a strange glowing rock instead of a light bulb. Now that I’m lucid, I realize I’m lying on a handmade pillow, too.

I wiggle my toes, then pull the fur covers aside and see that someone has put socks on my feet. And they’re really comfy and warm.

Where am I…?

Pain lances through my temples, and I reach up to clutch my head, biting my lip to hold back the scream that wants to be released. Images flash through my mind, but they don’t linger long enough for me to see clearly, and I can’t make sense of them or what they might mean.

What the hell happened to me?

I try to remember how I got here, but I have no memories past Dagny and her six mates showing up.

Although there was that voice…

The harder I try to recall the memory, the further it slips from my grasp. The only thing I can see clearly is that glowing ring of silver around her irises. Then the voice said something; there was pain, and then… nothing. Everything is black.

Panic races through me, and my eyes sweep the room, searching. It’s only now I realized there’s no comforting warmth at my back and no reassuring palm on my thigh. My mates are nowhere to be found.

Oh God… are they alive? Did something happen to them?