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“But you’re a demon,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he ground out.
“What kind?”
“Hæmingr.”
Frowning, Hazel looked at Rhun.
He cleared his throat. “Power-stealing shapeshifter demons.”
“What is your name?” Hazel asked of the hæmingr.
He panted, his effort not to answer straining all the muscles in his neck, transforming his beautiful face into a hard mask. “Tallak.”
“Tell me everything,” Hazel rasped.
“Let me go,” he grunted, “and I will explain.”
“No.” Hazel’s voice sliced through the air like a blade. “You will remain under my spell until I am satisfied you have told me all you know. You are in no position to negotiate, and you better not try my patience, demon.”
Well now, Rhun said mentally, Hazel’s not messing around, is she? Never thought I’d see her with zero fucks to give.
You truly have a way with words, my darling demon.
She felt his grin more than saw it.
“Speak,” Hazel growled. “Start at the beginning. How come you had a child with a fae?”
The demon—Tallak—grunted, then succumbed to the force of the truth compulsion. “I saw her—Roana—when she traveled outside of Faerie. I fell for her, courted her, and we became lovers, but she had to return to her people. She was part of the royal court, was called back to serve. She didn’t want to leave me, so she brought me with her. Since demons are forbidden in Faerie, I had to conceal myself. When I couldn’t hide, I would kill fae to take their powers and mimic their auras. It went well for a while. She became pregnant, and we made plans to flee Faerie. We were almost ready to leave when I was caught.”
He panted, pain etching lines on his face. “Demon-fae offspring are a sin, an abomination to the fae. They do not permit them to live. Roana and I had an agreement—she was to run if my cover was blown, in order to save our child. Roana managed to escape before they got to her. They imprisoned me, for they do not know how to kill my kind, and they sent someone after her to bring her back. When the bounty hunter dragged her into the palace, they brought me out to watch before they locked me away again. She was almost at full term, and…”
A heaving breath, darkness pooling around him like a dismal cloak. “Even in my prison cell, news about the delivery reached me. She died in childbirth, and the babe along with her. At least that is what they told me—it wasn’t until I escaped, after preparing it for twenty long years, wanting to take revenge on the whole rotten lot of them, that I learned the baby had survived. I had slaughtered the damned pack in their pompous room of marble and gold, but the last one I intended to kill stayed my hand with her revelation that she’d smuggled my child out. She told me where to find him. My son.”
His voice turned to a rasp, and something fractured in his gaze. “I have come for…my son.”
Silence boomed in the night, only interrupted by Tallak’s heavy breaths.
Is anyone writing this down? Rhun asked. This would make one hell of a story.
Merle poked him in his ribs with her elbow. Shush.
“Where is he?” Tallak asked, focused on Hazel. “Where is my boy?”
“Not here,” she croaked. “He’s gone into Faerie.”
“What?”
She swallowed. “He’s looking for my daughter, Rose, the one who was taken from me in exchange for Basil.”
“Basil…” He frowned, his voice turning into a growl. “You named him after an herb?”
Rhun laughed. Merle poked him again, hard enough to make him wince.
I’m sorry, he said in her mind, the humor in his mental voice belying his apology. This is just too good.
Hazel flicked her wrist, and Tallak uttered a pained sound. “I would expect the father of the bright boy I raised to be smarter than to insult a witch while in her grasp.”
