“Yes,” Adelia said as she tore the fabric she’d wound around her head away, revealing her face and the filed-down nubs of horns upon her head only partially obscured by her mane of black hair.

  Connor opened his mouth as though to ask a question but closed it again just as quickly. He found himself shaking his head slowly from side to side as every part of him wished to wake from this nightmare.

  First Vadik… and now you? He thought.

  The two people he’d trusted more than anyone, with the possible exception of Victor, were anything but what he’d thought them to be.

  It felt as though reality itself dropped away beneath him into a yawning chasm that swallowed him whole.

  He took in more of her with a feeling akin to being in a waking nightmare and at last noticed the demonic tail coiled around her left leg as though trying to hide itself from view.

  He opened his mouth again to ask a question. To ask how she could’ve hidden this. How he could’ve not noticed a tail.

  A tense moment of silence followed between them before Connor could at last begin to put his thoughts into words.

  “How?” he asked, “how did you hide it so well?”

  “Makeup,” Adelia said, “and magic.”

  A dark, almost manic laughter bubbled its way up Connor’s throat.

  “You can do magic too?” he asked.

  “I try not to,” she said.

  He shook his head, remembering all the times he’d complained about being unable to find someone to teach him.

  That must’ve been hilarious for her, he thought bitterly.

  Time was running out. Another patrol would come by at some point and he still had more of the ship to investigate before making his escape.

  He knew what the right thing to do was. He knew he should turn around and walk away. It wasn’t as though it were merely prejudice on his part, as badly as he wished for that to be the case.

  No… he’d helped the army hunt down demonspawn over the years. Often the offspring of idiot cultists and their demon masters. Demonspawn were monstrously evil. It ran through their veins. It was simply their nature. Not unlike the grych.

  Yet, very often far more powerful.

  He’d followed in the wake of the horrors they unleashed while tracking them. He’d seen what it cost in blood to put one down.

  It was not without good reason that most every decent civilization advised their citizens to notify the army on sighting such creatures, to ensure their extermination.

  Fury and a strange kind of grief throbbed in Connor’s skull as he stared at her.

  Anger not only at her… but at himself. It wasn’t as though there hadn’t been signs. He’d witnessed her perform feats of strength no human should’ve been capable of. He’d known about her enhanced senses. Her thirst for blood and… flexible morality.

  He’d assumed for a while now that she had some form of darkness within her. His greatest suspicion was that she’d been some kind of werewolf. Though she’d never seemed to be effected by the moon, he’d thought perhaps she had some way of counteracting the effects.

  A werewolf he could’ve accepted. Had, in many ways, already accepted. But, for her to be the child of a demon? With that same liquid evil pulsing through her very being?

  It would be insane. Unreasonable. Utterly irresponsible and a gross dereliction of duty not simply to Lestria, Vigil, or Victor but to all that was good in the world to allow her to live let alone to even consider freeing her.

  So why then. Why did his legs root him in place like great blocks of dark iron welded to the floor?

  And if being the child of a demon, with all the horrific impulses that would undoubtedly imbue in her wasn’t bad enough… he recognized that faint blue skin. And the race it belonged to.

  “Your ears,” Connor said.

  Adelia swallowed hard, unshed tears glistening in her violet eyes.

  “Show me. Your. Ears,” Connor said.

  Adelia closed her eyes and the tears that she’d been holding back spilled down her cheeks. She reached up and lifted her black hair out of the way, to reveal pointed, elven ears.

  “Ice elf?” Connor asked.

  Adelia nodded, confirming his suspicions.

  Connor sighed heavily, the emotion in his chest so thick he could taste it in his breath as he exhaled.

  Ice elves were renowned for their ruthless ambition and while that alone would not have made him turn her away… he couldn’t imagine that the influence of demon seed did anything positive to their typical behavior.

  “I see,” he said. Though something nagged at him.

  Adelia let her hair fall back down, covering her ears.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “I’ve felt your body heat,” Connor said, “was that more of your magic? An illusion?”

  “No,” Adelia said, “I’m warmer than they are.”

  Connor nodded. No doubt the result of her demonic bloodline altering her natural one.

  “I was going to tell you,” Adelia said, “after we got Victor back.”

  Connor remembered the promise. It tasted like ash now.

  “I thought…” Adelia said as she looked down and to the side as though unable to meet his gaze, “I thought maybe then I would’ve earned your trust enough for you to accept me.”

  I’d be a fool to ever accept you, Connor thought. But even knowing that, his legs remained frozen in place.

  “What was it all for?” Connor asked.

  Adelia turned her violet eyes on him then as her eyebrows furrowed together.

  “What?” she asked.

  “What did you want my trust for?” Connor asked.

  Her tear stained cheeks sparkled in the light. She looked so vulnerable it made Connor’s already aching heart feel like it was being crushed in a vise.

  She opened her mouth to reply, exposing predatory canines on her lower and upper jaw. All four of which looked more akin to a vampire’s fangs.

  Her lips remained parted as though there was something she couldn’t get herself to voice as deep emotion played over her face.

  “I…” she said. The word was choked off as though even saying that much had been nigh impossible.

  She closed her mouth, her lips pressed into a trembling line.

  Connor looked down at the keys in his hand as his time with Adelia raced through his mind. All the times she’d saved him. All the times she’d been there for him. The deal she’d made with the High Priestess of Panacea to save his life. The way he’d trusted her… perhaps more than anyone.

  More than Victor.

  His breaths came hard and fast, almost panting as his muscles tensed with anger.

  How could I be so stupid? He thought bitterly.

  All of it had been a lie. Just like Vadik. All just another manipulation to an end she didn’t even have the decency to admit. All toward some sick, twisted, demonic goal.

  It wouldn’t be good enough just to leave her. Gods only knew what the Syndicate would do with a demonspawn. What horrors they would unleash on innocent people with the monster standing in front of him.

  The right thing to do, the only thing to do, would be to not simply leave her to rot in this cell but to kill her and forever rid the world of her demonic influence.

  He wanted to tell himself she was an exception. But he couldn’t. Had there ever been such an exception before?

  Even through his anger, he knew he couldn’t take her in a fair fight. He never could. But, he knew where to find an enchanted crossbow. He could fire bolt after bolt at her through the bars. Perhaps that would be enough of an edge for him to slay her. Though even that may not be enough.

  But killing her even at the cost of his own life would be worth it. It was what duty demanded.

  Connor squeezed the keys so hard they bit painfully into the skin of his hand as he closed his eyes and accepted what he knew he must do. For him, there could be only one choice to make.

  He opened his eyes as conflicting emotions raged within him. He brought a key to the first of the locks on Adelia’s cell. It didn’t fit.

  Adelia gave a hiccup of surprise. He saw her staring at him out of the corner of his eye as he stared hard at the lock, his lips pressed into a firm line.

  He ignored her, unable even to look at her as he selected the next most likely candidate and it slid in easily. The bolt of the lock retracted with a click.

  He tried a key on the second lock and it went home easily.

  He unlocked the third lock. The fourth. Then, the fifth, and final lock.

  As the bolt retracted, the gate of her cell swung open slightly. Connor stepped back and allowed himself at last to look at her.

  She stared at him with wide, astonished eyes.

  Adelia looked between the open cell gate and Connor.

  “You’re saving me?” she asked as the tail coiled around her leg loosened its grip and flicked uncertainly at the air behind her.

  She walked tentatively up to the gate of her cell and pushed it open wider.

  Connor drew a throwing knife in each hand from his bandoleer, his hands shaking with emotion. His entire body was drawn tight with tension.

  “Oh,” Adelia said as her shoulders slumped and her tail drooped slightly. Her gaze fell to the floor.

  She stepped out of her cell. “I understand,” she said softly, “do what you feel you must.”

  Connor flipped the knives in his grip around until he held them out hilt first toward her.

  Adelia looked at the offered knives and then up into his eyes, her expression forming an unspoken question.

  Connor swallowed hard.

  Adelia’s slender fingers wrapped around the hilts of the large throwing knives and took them from him. Her eyes studied them as though she were inspecting a priceless artifact as the tension and hopelessness melted from her face. Replaced by a tentative smile as her violet eyes flashed back to him.

  She flipped the knives into a reverse grip and reached out toward Connor.

  Connor braced himself for the bite of enchanted steel. But she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to her. Adelia planted her ruby lips on his and kissed him fiercely as she pressed her body against his, pinning him against the wall with her feminine curves.

  Connor’s mind went blank as incompatible emotions and thoughts screamed through every fiber of his being in a wild hurricane. His arms moved on their own, one wrapping around her waist while the other reached up behind her and cradled the back of her head.

  Freeing her had been a stupid, insane thing to do. But for all that she was. For all that he couldn’t trust a demonspawn. For all that he couldn’t trust himself…

  He couldn’t bring himself to leave her. Couldn’t bring himself to kill her.

  Despite the fact she had to be evil. Despite the fact he should never trust her… he couldn’t let go of all the times she’d been there for him. All the times she’d saved his life. All the times they’d fought together against impossible odds.

  If it’d all been a lie then it’d been a damned good one. Better even than Vadik’s.

  He dared to hope. To stupidly hope that perhaps at least some of it had been true.

  She was so close that every breath saturated his lungs with her scent. She smelled like exotic spices that made his thoughts swim and swirl around in the chaos that was his mind in this nightmare.

  After a moment that could’ve lasted a handful of seconds or an eternity, she broke the kiss. He couldn’t stop expecting a knife in the back. If it hadn’t come yet, it had to be soon.

  She leaned in closer, her lips so close to his ear that he felt the heat of her breath.

  “You won’t regret this. No matter what happens. I swear it,” Adelia whispered in his ear.

  Connor didn’t know how to respond to that. He doubted he could’ve even if he had.

  “We should go,” he said, his voice little more than a firm whisper, “I still want to check the rest of the decks.”

  Adelia stepped back from him and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Of course,” she said. She smiled widely despite her tear stained cheeks, exposing her larger than normal canines.

  He walked past her and locked the gate of her cell so nothing would look amiss. It took an effort of will to turn his back to her. But he focused on his task. He’d made his choice. If she decided to betray him, there was little he could do against her demonic strength.

  Especially without his potions.

  But as he finished locking the cell… no attack came. She stood alertly at his side with not a shred of visible hostility toward him. Not that that meant much. Some demonspawn delighted in waiting for the most painful possible moment before betraying someone and ripping out their heart in more ways than one.

  “I’ll lead the way. Try not to kill anyone unless we have to. I don’t want anyone realizing something is wrong until we’re too far away for them to do anything about it,” Connor said as he looked at Adelia, unable to tear his eyes from her face.

  Adelia nodded then raised an eyebrow at him when she noticed him staring at her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” Connor said as he gripped the handle of the door, “you ready?”

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