What the hell was she doing here? Why was shealwaysin the midst of danger?
Des scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sword, unable to understand what he was seeing. The demon, still snarling, was circling Aurelie. But it should bedead.Des had never known a demon to survive direct contact with iron before. Jasper looked to Des as if he had some idea what to do next, but he was at a loss. The demon would attack Aurelie far faster than he could reach it.
As if things weren’t dire enough, Daisy and Gareth came running into the courtyard then, distracting the demon momentarily.
“Why did you abandon your post?” Des demanded as he waved them over to his side, never taking his eyes off Aurelie.
“We tried to stop Aurelie from coming in, but she wouldn’t listen,” Daisy said.
“She hit it with that blade,” Jasper said, joining them. “It should be dead.”
Meanwhile, Aurelie and the demon were doing a strange dance. She was unarmed. The demon should have finished her by now. But it seemed to be warring with itself, taking a step forward and then backing off again.
“A little help here?” Aurelie said out of the side of her mouth.
If an iron blade wasn’t enough to kill this thing, what would be? He was going to have to decapitate it, and the only way to do that was to approach and risk Aurelie in the process.
“What do we do?” Daisy asked, her voice tinged with a slight edge of fear. She was a good soldier, but she obviously cared about Aurelie.
“The well is filled with salt water,” Aurelie said, still slowly turning as the demon moved around her. “I’m going to try to lure it there.”
“Aurelie, I am ordering you not to—”
“Do you have a better idea?” she hissed at Des. To his dismay, she was already moving toward the well, the demon keeping pace.
It was a ludicrous idea, but if Aurelie could at least get the well between the demon and herself, he might have a shot of getting to it before it got her. He began to make his own slow movements in their direction. As he got closer, he could hear Aurelie saying something under her breath, though he couldn’t make out the words. The demon, as though somehow understanding her, was cocking its hideous head from side to side. As she skirted the well, the demon approached, placing its forelegs on the edge as though to leap over it toward her.
It was now or never. Des rushed forward with his sword raised. By the time the demon realized what he was doing, he was upon it. He drove his sword up through the demon’s chin, releasing a spray of green blood that hissed and steamed as it landed in the snow. Caught off-balance—though still not disappearing like it fucking should—the demon toppled over into the well with an ear-splitting screech.
They knew the moment it hit the water, because a massive green cloud of toxic air rose out of the well, causing Des and Aurelie to reel backward.
Before he’d even had a chance to process, he was running toward her. “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes skimming every inch of her for signs of damage.
“I’m okay,” she said, taking a step back, and he realized that he was crowding her.
He forced himself to move away. Somehow, she appeared perfectlyfine. It was a miracle she’d been able to throw a blade at all, considering the shape she’d been in earlier.
Which begged the question, where the hell had she learned to throw a blade like that?
Then Gareth, Jasper, and Daisy were all there, crowding around them, Gareth peering into the well and noting that the demon was gone. As if that hadn’t been obvious already.
Jasper was patting Des on the arm, and Daisy was doing her own assessment of Aurelie, but her eyes never left his.
“Come on,” Des said when his heart rate had returned to normal. “You have more explaining to do. And this time we’re doing it in your uncle’s cottage. I’m guessing he has a bottle of something a little stronger than tea.”
While Aurelie went to turn on a few gas lamps in the otherwise dark cottage, Daisy started a fire in the sitting room. Jasper and Gareth went to find something to eat, and Des glowered into the kindling flames.
“You could at least look a little relieved,” Daisy said as she joined him on the settee. “The demon is dead and Aurelie is alive. And at the moment, no one knows what happened here besides us.”
“A guard is also dead, Daisy. We’re going to have to report it. He probably has a family, maybe even children or grandchildren.” It was never easy to pass along such news. He dragged his hand down his face. “What if he has grandchildren?”
Daisy patted him on the back. “Well, at least I found this.” She pulled a bottle of amber-colored liquid off a nearby bar cart.
“First good news I’ve heard all day.” Des yanked out the crystalstopper while Daisy fetched two glasses. “What are we going to tell Commander Yew?”
“Why do we have to tell him anything? Can’t Aurelie do it?” Daisy asked, though her tone lacked conviction.
“Aurelie must decline that particular suggestion.”