Bind the Soul (39 page)

Ash didn’t answer, kindly allowing her delusion to continue.

She hugged his arm closer. “I hope Miysis does a better job protecting the Sahar from Samael than he did from you.”

“Miysis is an overconfident, spoiled fool. He hasn’t got a damn clue. He thinks his sheltered, pampered life is the way the world works.”

Piper nodded even though she wasn’t sure that was accurate. Miysis had seemed to know what he was doing during that battle, for the most part anyway. Then again, compared to Ash, Miysis was ridiculously coddled. He didn’t go anywhere without a horde of bodyguards. Ash had been on his own since day one.

Zwi’s head came up. A moment later, Zala trotted out from behind the boulder they were leaning against. She jumped into Ash’s lap with Zwi and chittered a greeting.

Gravel crunched under approaching feet. Seiya appeared as she circled the rock, her black eyes searching. Piper sucked in a breath as terror rushed through her; Seiya hadn’t put her glamour back into place. When she spotted the two of them, tail flicking side to side, the tension visibly released from her shoulders.

“
There
you are,” she said. Her daemon voice was alien but beautiful.

The second set of footsteps revealed Lyre as he came into sight after Seiya. At least, Piper was pretty sure it was Lyre. He wasn’t in glamour either.

Her heart started to pound and she completely forgot about Seiya’s Nightmare Effect.

Lyre’s hair was the same tousled, pale blond, nearly white, but it shone, almost radiant. Bangs swept across his forehead, almost in his eyes, and a thin braid of longer hair fell alongside the left side of his face, the end brushing his shoulder, with a gold band and a red jewel decorating it. Gold loops pierced his pointed ears. His skin, honey-gold, seemed to glow, utterly flawless. A dark design was tattooed beneath his right eye over his cheekbone.

His clothes had changed too but her befuddled brain only skimmed past them before focusing on the bow in his hand—polished wood with red and gold designs. A quiver hung over his shoulder, three feathered arrows left. She tried to observe more but her eyes were drawn irresistibly back to his face. His black eyes were like magnets, sucking her in. He was luminous, beautiful beyond description, perfect, too compelling to resist—

Seiya stepped between her and the incubus, spreading her wings to block him from view.

“If you keep staring at him,” she told Piper, “you’ll end up completely in his power.”

She blinked, feeling as if she were waking up. “Huh?”

Seiya rolled her eyes. “Incubus aphrodisia. Without glamour, it gets you just from looking at them.”

“It—oh.” She blinked again. Fear kicked back in from the Nightmare Effect, clearing her head.

“Lyre?” she asked hesitantly.

“Hey there, beautiful.”

The voice that drifted from behind Seiya’s wings was the softest murmur, beautiful as music. A subtle, impossible layering of harmonics transformed his words into sounds more like an instrument than anything a human throat could produce. His name suddenly made a lot more sense.

A hard tug on her arm. Her butt hit the ground, jarring her out of a daze. She blinked at Ash. She hadn’t even realized she’d started to stand, drawn irresistibly toward Lyre’s voice.

“He’s not going to say anything else until he’s back in glamour,” Seiya said firmly. “Same reason.”

“Oh,” she said weakly. Between Seiya’s Nightmare Effect and Lyre’s aphrodisia, her brain felt like mush.

“We need to go,” Seiya said. “It’s not safe here.”

Piper looked between them, her heart squeezing. They were leaving? Already? She swallowed hard.

“Will you be able to stay safe from Samael?” she asked, trying to sound neutral.

“I’ve been preparing hideouts for years,” Ash said. “I have dozens set up here and in the Underworld. I hadn’t planned on fitting four people in them, but we can make it work. Lyre will have to come. After all the soldiers he obliterated, he’ll be on Samael’s hit list too.”

She nodded, chewing her bottom lip. Ash shifted and she felt his gaze fall on her.

“Piper?” A pause. “You’ve changed your mind.”

She nodded again, staring at her lap.

“The Consulate isn’t safe for you. Samael wants you dead.”

“I know.” She exhaled slowly. “My father already set up a safe place for me. A school for rich kids with top notch security. I think—I think that would be the better place for me.”

When Ash didn’t answer, she squeezed his arm.

“It’s not that I don’t want to come with you. I just—I’m afraid I’ll put you in danger. Again,” she finished in a whisper. “Samael used me to try to kill you. It almost worked. I’m not strong enough, Ash. I’ll get you killed protecting me.”

“I can keep you safe.”

“But you don’t need to. You three can move faster and hide better without me. You’re all tougher and stronger. I’ll slow you down and limit your options and make everything harder. This school has the best protection available; it’s where politicians and billionaires send their kids. I’ll be perfectly safe, especially since Samael doesn’t need me anymore. How can I put you all at risk when I have a safe place to go already?”

He watched her, his eyes searching hers. “Are you sure?”

She bit her lip. No, she wanted to cry. No, she wanted to go with him. Be with him, know he was safe, guard his back. Once he went into hiding, he would be gone. People hiding from murderous warlords couldn’t pop by for social visits. If he went into hiding without her, she wouldn’t see him again. Possibly ever again.

But how could she justify going with them? Raum had been right: she wasn’t strong enough for their world. Ash would get hurt or killed protecting her, or his enemies would use her against him like Samael had. He was safer without her to protect and for that reason alone she would let him go.

“You’ll have to figure out a way to send me messages,” she whispered. “So I know you’re doing okay.”

He nodded. Heaving a sigh, he shooed the dragonets out of his lap and got painfully to his feet. Piper forced her weary body to stand as well. Ash had deemed the puncture wound in her back shallow and non-life-threatening but it still hurt like—well, like she’d been stabbed in the damn back. She hadn’t mentioned the broken bone in her hand; she didn’t want to make him feel even guiltier about hurting her.

Zwi and Zala suddenly looked toward the unseen half of the battlefield and let out warning chirps.

“Someone is coming,” Seiya said. “We should—”

Before she could finish, Miysis and six of his bodyguards appeared from amidst the crumbled remains of the bridges. Seiya sighed in displeasure, their departure now delayed. When the Ras drew level with Piper and the three daemons, Miysis stopped. His gaze moved across the leveled expanse of ground that stretched for a hundred yards, nothing but gravel and blood.

“Is that—?”

“Samael’s army?” Ash cut in tonelessly, sounding disconcertingly like Raum. “Yes.”

Miysis faced the draconian. His face was studiously blank. “We killed at least fifty. That leaves one hundred and fifty elite knights.”

Ash’s expression didn’t change. “Yes.”

“You used the Sahar.” Miysis exhaled carefully. “I see you’re following in your ancestor’s footsteps, Ashtaroth.”

Piper stiffened. “Ash wasn’t killing innocent townspeople,” she snapped. “You should be thanking him.”

Miysis ignored her, locked in a staring contest with Ash. She rolled her eyes. Men.

“Where’s the Sahar?” Miysis asked abruptly.

She folded her arms. “I dropped it over there somewhere.” She nodded toward the field of gravel.

Shadows slid across Miysis’s eyes as he checked her truthfulness. He glanced in the direction she’d indicated then back to her. “Do you need a healer? There’s blood on your face and arm.”

She touched her head where something had hit her during the fight. Her hair was matted with dried blood. “Yeah, but not this second.”

Miysis turned to Ash. “Piper said you were probably dead.”

“Probably was,” Ash retorted tonelessly. “Why do you care?”

Miysis pressed his lips together. “You stole the Sahar from me.”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Needed it.”

“For what?”

Ash raised his eyebrows and shot a pointed look at the wasted remains of the battlefield. Miysis’s jaw clenched.

Ash tilted his head to one side, popping his neck. “Look, Ra,” he said, “it wasn’t personal. I needed to borrow it. Saved the damn day, so I don’t know why you’re complaining, but I can pay you back for the loan if it’ll comfort your ego.”

“Pay me back?” Miysis repeated suspiciously.

“Yes or no, Ra. I’m not waiting all day.”

“What—”

“Yes,” Piper interrupted. “Ash will pay you back. Something
nice
.”

Ash made a face at her as though she’d foiled his plan. Facing Miysis, he stepped forward. Miysis stepped back just as fast. His bodyguards tensed.

“Grow a backbone, cat-boy.”

Ash reached out and hooked two fingers through the magic-dampening collar around Miysis’s neck. The Ra’s eyes widened. Magic sizzled the air, sparking around Ash. A quiet popping sound accompanied by the smell of scorched metal. With a fizzle, the collar crumbled.

Ash dropped his hand. Miysis pressed both hands to his throat.

“It’s gone,” he stuttered. “That’s it? That’s all it took? I’ve been wearing that thing for
six goddamn weeks
and you could have had it off in
ten seconds
?”

Piper snorted back a laugh at Miysis’s expression, all signs of princely composure gone.

“Go get your Sahar, Miysis,” she told him. “You can complain later.”

Still muttering, Miysis turned and stalked away with his bodyguards. Piper shook her head and turned to Ash.

“That was a nice thing to do,” she told him.

“Don’t say that. You’ll ruin my reputation.”

“Your reputation sucks anyway.”

Seiya glanced toward Miysis and his searching soldiers. “We
really
need to go.”

Ash nodded, then glanced at Piper. “You two get started. I’ll be right behind you.”

Seiya scowled but turned. Piper caught one more glimpse of Lyre—his mesmerizing black eyes making her knees go weak—before they quickly moved toward the trees. Ash turned back to her and stepped closer. His thumb brushed her cheek, wiping away an escaped tear.

“Did I ever tell you why I wore that piece of red silk?” he asked softly.

She shook her head.

“After I tried to escape with Seiya and we were caught, Samael decided to keep us separated. As his soldiers dragged us apart for the last time, I grabbed a handful of her dress and that piece tore free.” He touched a hand to the braid along the side of his head. “I started wearing that piece of silk so she would see it and know I hadn’t given up. It was my promise to her that someday we would be free. She started wearing her own so I would see she was still fighting too.”

“That’s why you aren’t wearing it anymore,” she guessed. “Because you fulfilled your promise.”

He nodded. “Now I’m making a new promise.”

He unbuckled a narrow leather belt that secured three throwing knives to his upper arm. Detaching the sheaths, he took her hand and wrapped the belt twice around her wrist over her armguard before buckling it.

His eyes darkened. “I promise to keep you safe from Samael. You will never be in his power again.”

To her embarrassment, tears sprang into her eyes. She gave him a wavering smile, trying to hide the swell of emotion in her chest. His fingers curled around hers, warm and comfortable. His gaze flicked past her.

“Are you going to give the Stone to Miysis or make him search the whole field for it?”

“Well.” She took a deep breath. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the Sahar. “You and I both agree that Miysis isn’t a good guardian for this.”

He nodded. Considering Miysis hadn’t even suspected her deception about where the Stone was, he definitely wasn’t the right person to protect it.

She extended her hand to Ash. “Since you’re going into hiding anyway, you can hide it with you. It’s no danger to you without me around to trigger it.”

His gaze darted to Miysis then back again. He surprised her by huffing in amusement. “Fine. But only because Miysis will lose his shit over it.”

She snorted as he took the Sahar and stuck it deep in one of his pockets. His gaze drifted toward the trees and she knew what he was thinking. If he planned to get away with the Sahar, he needed to leave now. Her heart jumped into her throat. No. She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for him to be gone from her life again. This time maybe forever.

His hand around hers tightened. He slid the other around her waist and pulled her close. She tucked her face against the side of his neck, eyes squeezed shut against the ache in her chest.