Page 120 of Demon and the Raven

The demon shrieked as Gwyn dragged it back by its arm, and even as I thought how, I understood. Kamosh was made of shadow now. Corvus could not imprison him, it couldn’t even touch him. It had tried, for me, and would try again, but it was useless. But Gwyn, in normal form, as she was now, was not corporeal. She was made of the ether, no more solid than Kamosh was.

As we watched, the demon tore free of her hold, striking at Gwyn, and she snarled and slashed at him, finally returning to stand between me and Lorne and the demon.

Lorne reached for her, and the moment his hand grazed her, she became solid, his hand sliding through her glossy fur. She always liked it when he petted her, and she would change so he could.

The demon bellowed, Lorne instinctively put a hand up to protect Gwyn, and I put myself between them and Kamosh as I roared no.

Something moved past me, and whatever it was, there was heat rolling off of it in waves. It felt like that blast that hit you when you opened the oven door.

It took me a moment to see it was a trident made of blackened iron, the prongs now red-hot like a brand. Instantly, it speared that which was suddenly corporeal, a wasted gore-covered skeleton. The tines drove through the demon’s head, shoulder, and chest all at once. Kamosh wailed as it was engulfed in blue flame, screaming and burning, pinned to the ground, first turning solid black and then in moments to ash before evaporating.

The fire went from blue to green, and the flames spread, engulfing everything, running in all directions as Gwyn licked Lorne’s face, then mine, and bolted across the grass toward the trees, where she disappeared.

The gratitude rose from the land in waves, and the intensity of the happiness made my jaw clench tight as it rolled through me. Lorne struggled to sit up, and I helped him before slumping sideways against him. When I turned to look at him, only then did I notice that his head was tipped back, all his focus above him. Lifting my eyes, I found my lord Arawn glowering down at me.

I gasped, and then couldn’t breathe and started choking.

Lorne tried to breathe too, and he must’ve swallowed some spit in the process, his body just now remembering how to work, and he started choking as well.

Both of us were trying to get to our knees as fast as we could.

“Peace,” my lord demanded, sounding really annoyed, and we both froze.

When he released the trident, it blurred from sight, disappearing as though it were never there, before Arawn knelt in the grass. I could only imagine how terrible we looked, both of us flushed and sticky with sweat, covered in dirt, with debris in our hair.

Arawn’s brows furrowed, and I had a moment to realize that Gwyn could have never come on her own, that he had to be right behind her. The tears were no surprise.

I wanted to say, Please forgive me, my lord, but nothing came out. It felt like my throat was scorched.

“Demons—all demons—are my dominion.”

We both nodded.

“Never are you,” he rumbled, “to stand against a demon. Hear me?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Pushing his hand into the ground, he spoke in Old Norse to Corvus, and when he lifted it from the dirt, he had made a fist. Relaxing his hand, opening it slowly, there was an enormous bloody, wet, dirt-covered heart there.

“The demon put its own tainted blood in you,” he told Lorne. “Corvus protected you, and in so doing took this putrescence from you and ingested it, poisoning all.”

There could never be a doubt that the land loved Lorne.

“Put your hands there and give thanks.”

Lorne moved brokenly to his hands and knees and gently pushed his fingers into the ground. “Thank you, my land,” he husked, and like me, there were tears.

“Good,” Arawn said before he blew on the tainted heart in his hand, and the still-pulsing organ turned to dust and disappeared on the breeze. He turned to me then, his gaze meeting mine. “A demon cannot be killed on the land. Corvus is powerful, but your gifts, those of your kin, are not enough to cleanse the land of that which is putrid and godless. Do you hear me, Xander Corey?”

“Yes, my lord,” I answered shakily.

Lorne’s plan had been a good one. Together we had managed the seemingly impossible, and the one part I’d been completely certain of was that Corvus could purify itself after taking in the demon. My faith had been absolute, but I hadn’t truly understood what I was asking.

“You will be mine now,” he told Lorne. “As your chosen place is to stand with my servant, you have no choice.”

Lorne was quiet, staring into his face.

“Say yes, my lord,” Arawn demanded, because that was his way.