How to Feed your Demon (without dying from blood loss) | bxb

23. I should rename this whole story 'Leo's worst nightmares comes true'

I stared out into the gloomy afternoon as the shadows swirling around me straightened out my clothes and put everything back where it belonged.

I was still soaring, my body light and my mind uncharacteristically calm as I tried to catch my breath and process everything that just happened. I'd probably need a week to do that. Or ten.

But I now had a million new reasons why Raz and I needed to survive this. If we died before I got to find out what kind of things he would allow me to do to him—like me to do to him even—I would come back as a very pissed off ghost and haunt everyone even remotely involved in our deaths.

Whatever we had been doing, we needed to do it again. As soon as possible.

Stepping closer to the newly created door-formed hole in my wall, risking falling out or even worse, being seen by that skeletal monster, wouldn't have crossed my mind but sadly, it was the only way I could see Raz fight so I really had no choice. Passing up a chance to watch my demon make bone dust off that flying nightmare was so worth the risk.

I'd forgotten how high up the library was. From here, I could see all the way to the wall enclosing the castle gardens, separating the castle grounds from the city beyond. The gardens were so filled with night-blooming jasmine, tricked by the dark sky to open its flowers, that for a second, I was sure Raz had somehow sneaked up behind me.

But before I had time to turn around and look, I saw him. High, high up in the air, a dark smudge against the gray clouds. Black wings spread and spears of darkness shooting from him, cutting through fire and bone and claw.

The dragon opened its jaws, spewing fire but Raz had no trouble dodging. He was so much faster. He dived and the dragon went after him, snarling, its burning eyes never leaving him. I didn't just see it, I felt it. My fingers turned white around the edge in the improvised door as I watched Raz pull out of the dive, feeling an echo of the motion dragging in my chest, right before he hit the wall. The dragon was way too heavy to do that so it crashed right into it, sending stones and dust everywhere, roaring in anger.

Raz was too far away for me to see the details of his face, but I was sure he was grinning. And I was as well as I watched the dragon shake its wings to get rid of all the debris. It was probably a combination of the magic bond and the unfamiliar relaxed state of my body and mind, but it really felt like everything would be okay. Raz would kill that monster, we would execute the scheming nobles and then live happily ever after.

But apparently, I am not allowed to feel that way, because in the silence taking hold as the dragon took flight again, shooting for Raz with its jaws wide open, I heard something from the other side of the wall of bookshelves. A voice that sounded strangely familiar.

"...yes my darlings, he's here. Just as they said. Now be quiet so I can..."

I stared at the bookshelves as I heard the ladder move, so slowly it got stuck on its rail every other second, as if the person moving it knew they had to find the exact location. I glanced at Raz but he was busy avoiding bursts of fire and sharpened claws.

I still had the shadows he left me and they picked up on my raised heartbeat immediately, gliding across my skin, more solid than ever before. As if I had become the favorite play-tree for a hundred clawless, black kittens.

I tried to stay calm. Tried to find that feeling of power and control that Raz had given me. I straightened up and moved so I had my back against the round table and could see both a sliver of the sky with the fight outside, and the bookshelf-door.

The ladder slid into position and the click from the lock disengaging rang like a gong in the room. Whoever was out there moved carefully because I couldn't hear their footsteps as they approached the bookshelf, only how they carefully pulled out the books.