The Trouble with Demons (18 page)

I did.

And so did Tam. The tension in the room went up a notch none of us needed.

I exhaled slowly. “I’m not willing to take that risk.” My chest and throat felt tight and the Saghred didn’t have a thing to do with it. “I don’t want to hurt anyone—especially you or Tam.”

Mychael’s calm blue eyes held mine. “Raine, it is you who will be hurt if this bond is allowed to continue unchecked. I promise you that I will do whatever I can to keep that from happening—and I swear on my honor that I will not hurt you.”

Unless it’s necessary, my inner pessimist said.

Mychael’s steadfast and reassuring gaze wasn’t helping things any.

“Please, let me help.” His voice was low and soft. It wasn’t his spellsinger’s voice. Mychael didn’t want to compel my cooperation; he wanted that decision to be mine. But I knew if I said no, his duty wouldn’t just let me walk out of here. One way or another, he was going to do whatever it was he felt he had to do.

I glanced at Tam. With our umi’atsu bond, Mychael going inside of my mind would essentially be him doing the same to Tam. This wasn’t just my decision.

Tam hesitated and then nodded.

“You’re just taking a look around, right?” I asked Mychael.

“Yes. For now.”

I took a deep breath. “Do it.”

He stepped forward, close enough to kiss me, and placed his thumbs against my temples, his strong hands wrapping around my head, his fingertips a warm pressure against the base of my skull. Mychael held my face gently cradled in his hands, those tropical sea blue eyes gazing into mine, then the intensity of the gaze increased, and he looked inside of me—and he saw what was coiled there in the dark, waiting and growing, malignant. It hissed in anger and in warning.

The hiss wasn’t only from the manifestation of the Saghred in my mind.

It was Tam.

I hadn’t heard him move, but I felt him, standing directly behind me and in my mind, with me and with Mychael. Tam stopped just short of touching me, but even though my eyes were locked in a soul embrace with Mychael, I felt the heat of Tam’s hands behind me, feverishly hot, eager to touch, his black magic desperate to take me away from Mychael. Beyond Tam was the Saghred. Neither one of them liked what Mychael was doing.

My breath suddenly came shallow and fast. Mychael in front of me, Tam behind me, both of them and the Saghred inside my mind. Our powers were brushing, touching, melding, flowing from me to them and back again in waves of ice and fire that left me gasping. My heart threatened to pound its way out of my chest. I couldn’t breathe. It was too much.

It was not nearly enough.

It was the Saghred speaking, and more. It was my darkest self, the self who had enjoyed what I’d done to the demons, reveled in it, who wanted to do it again.

I tried to pull away from Mychael, but his strong fingers held me immobile; and behind me, Tam’s hands went around my waist, tight and unyielding.

I heard Mychael’s voice as if from a great distance. “It’s moving too fast. I have to post a sentry.”

“What is—”
The question passed from my mind to Mychael’s. My lips couldn’t form words.

Tam clutched me tightly against him, and I felt the growl vibrate low in the goblin’s chest. This wasn’t Tam; it was his black magic fighting for survival.

“If I don’t, you know what will happen to her.” Mychael’s voice was rough with exertion—and with something else. “Her link to the Saghred could be broken right now and it wouldn’t make any difference. Soon you’ll be too far gone, and you’ll drag her down with you. Is that what you want for Raine?”

Tam didn’t respond.

“Is it?”
Mychael’s eyes were blazing, the irises enormous, the white all but gone.

“You know I don’t!”

“Then help me. Help her.”

Suddenly the sense of Tam in my mind became less. My mind’s eye could see the unbelievable effort it took for Tam to hold himself back, to contain his black magic. Mychael’s essence filled me completely, overshadowing Tam, overshadowing the black magic—touching the Saghred.

Touching me.

I couldn’t take it; it was too much. A scream rose in my throat. My body couldn’t move, but my hands were free. I had to stop this. I put one hand on Mychael’s chest, the other on Tam’s, pushing them both away.

At the instant of contact, my breath caught and froze. White-hot light exploded before my eyes and inside my mind, and I saw everything, stark and clear as if outlined. I saw Mychael and Tam as if for the first time, completely, their souls laid bare to me.

I had seen Tam’s magic before, under the elven embassy. It was a dark well of power, potent, rushing up from the deep, primal core of him. His black magic was like a caged beast, wild and untamable, tormented by its imprisonment, desperate to escape, its true nature denied for too long. The bars of its cage had been solid and impregnable, but no longer. Some of the bars had faded; a few had regained their power, glowing with renewed strength, a testament to Tam’s efforts to control, to contain. The beast paced, eager yet patient, knowing it would be freed, and knowing it would be soon.

I had glimpsed Mychael’s magic before, but never like this.

His power shone like a burning sun. Bright, but not pure. I saw towering strength, felt the lethal magic of a warrior who had killed before and would kill again. There was no joy when he took a life, but a solemn acceptance, a sadness that tainted the fulfillment of his duty. Mychael Eiliesor glowed like an avenging angel, unrelenting, bloodstained and singed, beautiful and deadly.

That was the Tam and Mychael that the Saghred saw. It was what the Saghred wanted.

And through me, it was what the Saghred took.

 

 

When I came to, I was on the floor, on my stomach, gasping to drag
air into my lungs. I slowly raised my head. Mychael was stretched out on one side of me, breathing deeply, his pulse beating rapidly in his throat. Tam was on my left, lying on his side, lips slightly parted, the tips of his fangs visible, panting softly. He was looking at me, his black eyes enormous and gleaming. If he were a cat, he’d have been purring. Me? I felt tingly in places that hadn’t tingled in far too long. I blew out my breath and rolled over on my back.

This was wrong in every way possible. An involuntary shiver ran through me. Wrong that felt really good, which made it even worse.

The three of us were fully dressed, but what we’d just done sure didn’t feel like it. What we’d done gave whole new meaning to the word threesome.

Tam swore and pulled himself up to a sitting position and winced.
“Or foursome, if you count the Saghred.”

As if I could forget the rock.

“Raine,”
Mychael demanded, his voice worried.
“Are you all right?”

I sat up. I was a little shaky, but I got there.
“What did you do?”

Then I froze. I didn’t just hear his worry, I
felt
it; a strong and tangible thing, concern real enough to reach out and touch. It was Mychael and Tam and me, all of us speaking in my head—and in theirs. Each of us could use mindspeak; most magic users could to one degree or another. This was different. Way different. Mindspeak was someone talking to you inside your head. Mychael and Tam
were
inside my head as if their thoughts belonged to me—and mine belonged to them.

I quickly turned to Mychael and my head swam. Too fast, Raine. Slow down. I reached a hand up to my forehead to steady myself. When I opened my eyes again, Mychael was watching me closely, seeing me as I could see him, inside and out.

“I was successful,”
he said, his blue eyes still huge and startlingly vivid.

I felt a wave of disorientation, and forced myself to stop looking at him. “At what?” I snapped out loud. I had to clear my head of the emotions and sensations still surging through me. Snapping helped. Saying to hell with mindspeak worked even better.

Tam leaned back against a chair, his breathing returning to normal. “He left a sentry.”

Tam’s face had no expression, but I could feel his emotions, all of them strong, so strong it made me dizzy. I fought it, taking one deep breath after another until it went away.

“I’m just a magically ignorant seeker.” The woozies were gone, and my anger was arriving under full sail. I hadn’t asked anyone to leave a damned thing. I had enough things that weren’t me living inside of my head. “Just what the hell is a sentry?”

Mychael sat up slowly. “It means that I’ve left you with a part of my magic, my essence, if you will, to stand guard.”

I didn’t need to ask what his magical self inside my mind was standing guard over or against. He was guarding me against Tam, against the Saghred—and against myself.

“Basically, Mychael has joined our umi’atsu bond,” Tam finished. “A three-way umi’atsu bond. I believe that’s a first.” He hesitated, his expression grim. “And forbidden for a paladin.”

I froze. “Forbidden how?”

Mychael was silent for a little too long. “In posting a sentry, I have placed myself in direct contact with both you and Tam. While that contact remains, I am exposed to both Tam’s black magic and your bond with the Saghred. For obvious security reasons, there’s a law against that.”

I didn’t need to be told; I could see it. Mychael’s essence, shining and steadfast, standing between Tam and me and that which sought to destroy us both. Mychael wasn’t just standing guard over me.

He was protecting Tam.

Tam went utterly still, a statue encased in silvery skin.
“Why?”

That single word, that one question echoed in my mind, in all of our minds. Anger, suspicion, confusion, and disbelief all contained within that one word. Another emotion stood out above all the others. Gratitude.

“Because you are worthy of saving, Tamnais.” Mychael’s voice was formal. “I will not stand by and watch you fall when there is anything that I can do to prevent it. You have come too far from who you used to be.”

Tam hesitated and then inclined his head slightly. The thank-you remained unspoken but not unheard.

I wasn’t about to ask my question out loud.
“And if someone like Carnades found out?”
I knew I didn’t want to know the answer, but I had to ask.

Tam’s voice in our heads was as hard as stone.
“No, you would definitely be executed.”

Mychael had just laid his career and his life on the line to protect me, to protect Tam—and he was a dead man if anyone on the Seat of Twelve found out.

“In nearly nine hundred years, your father never succumbed to the Saghred’s temptations,”
Mychael reminded me.
“I do not plan for any of us to be connected to the stone for much longer. This is a temporary arrangement until we can find a permanent solution.”

It didn’t matter if it was temporary or permanent, it was the most noble and selfless act I’d ever witnessed, and there was absolutely no way in hell that I would allow Mychael to go to his death because of me.

“Carnades believes that the two of you are working together,”
Mychael said,
“but he doesn’t know about your umi’atsu bond.”
There was fear in his eyes, not of Carnades, but for me.
“If he knew, he would immediately petition the Twelve to sign your execution order—and he would get it.”

One fanatical mage was enough, but I didn’t need the Seat of Twelve lining up to take out Tam and me, or to imprison, convict, and execute Mychael.

“Mychael, you took one look at us and knew,”
I said.
“Could Carnades or the Twelve do that?”

I swore. “This is just getting better all the time,” I said, and I said it out loud. “Can we stop with the mindspeak right now?” I rested my head in my hand. “It’s too crowded in here, and disorienting.”

“We can do that,” Mychael said, using his speaking voice.

“Thank you.” I slowly raised my head. “So if the three of us don’t have a date night in front of Carnades and the Seat of Twelve, our problem should stay our problem.” I realized something and froze, but not before I sucked in half the air in the room.

“What’s wrong?” Mychael demanded.

“Uh, an umi’atsu bond is kind of like a marriage.” I looked from Mychael to Tam and back again. “Does this mean I’m kind of married to both of you?”

Neither one of them made a sound, but I could literally feel the laughter—from both of them.

“To goblins, an umi’atsu bonded pair is considered the same as a married couple,” Tam told Mychael solemnly. “What do elves think?”

“Officially, we defer to goblin law in such matters.”

“Law?” I choked.

“Though I don’t know how that would apply to an umi’atsu bonded
trio
,” Tam mused, his eyes alight.

Mychael’s mouth tweaked up at the corners. “I imagine it would set a new legal precedent, to say the least.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Mychael!”

He actually snickered. “Raine, the thought of the three of us legally married is the funniest thing to happen to me all week.”

“Your funny could get us killed.”

“Yes, it could,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t see the humor in it. And believe it or not, I have been in far worse circumstances.”

“There’s worse than this?”

Mychael smiled like a man with a secret. “There was. And I’m still here.”

“Well, I can guarantee you this isn’t going to tickle Carnades’s funny bone.” And it wasn’t doing much for mine, either. “It also doesn’t get rid of the price he has on my head by now.”

“There is no price on your head,” Mychael assured me.

“But he said ‘lock—’ ”