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He looks at Harok with big wide eyes. Is he real? Is this real or another vision? More of the filthy abieum in his blood. Or another trick from the demon that would destroy him?

“Irgorye,” Suskara says in a soft voice. He sounds scared but also so sweet that Harok is sure this is him. This is real. The demon seems too quiet, as if it is looking at Suskara too. Watching him. Knowing him.

Suskara stands and puts his arms around Harok. And Harok knows he can hold on. He can hold that creature back. Not forever. But for a moment more and then for a moment more.

“How did you free yourself from your bindings, Suskara?” Harok says.

Suskara strokes a hand along Harok’s arm to the iron cuff at his wrist. He pushes a finger into the cuff, between the iron bracelet and Harok’s flesh. “My friend Darvo, do you remember him? One of your men broke his arm. He would perform escaping tricks with the circus. He taught me a few things. But really, I just asked him to show me those things because I enjoyed it when he bound me.”

Harok gives a dry laugh. He feels it. The way his kushir changes everything. Suskara is more than a weapon to kill the demon Diazuul. He always was. His kushir calms the demon, pushes him back. His kushir is balm. “You are quite the wanton, Suskara.”

“I used to be. Before you. Darvo could get free of chains too, but he never taught me that and I think there was always a trick. A hidden catch or a secret key.” Suskara runs his hands around Harok’s chains, as if searching for such a trick.

“Suskara, these chains have been used by the Ambolk to sacrifice to Diazuul for two hundred years. There is no trick to getting free. If there was a way to escape them, one of Diazuul’s tributes would have found it by now.”

“I thought they went willingly,” Suskara says, looking up at Harok. His pretty face licked by torchlight.

“Not all of them,” Harok says grimly. “Not when the abieum was in their blood. And you must remember, I have been bound to this stone before, the first time around.”

“I saw the demon,” Suskara says softly, “In my visions. He told me something. I do not think he wants to possess you. He wants something else. Something that involves me.”

“You?” Harok shakes his head. “No. He wants me. I know he does. He will take control of me and destroy the world.”

“And he has not taken control of you in twenty years.”

“I have fought him, Suskara. I have held him back.”

“No. You have not. He has always been strong enough to take over. No man is strong enough to have done as you have unless the demon wished it. He has been waiting. This was part of his plan. Me. Coming here. All of it is part of his plan. He wanted you to bring me here.”

Harok’s voice drops low. “Then please, Suskara. You are free. You did not listen to me before, but you must now. You must run. Run, Suskara. Get away from here. Find your beast in the forest and return to your own people.”

“I will not leave you, Irgorye,” Suskara says.

“You must,” Harok says. His tone is low. It is the voice he uses when he does not expect to be disobeyed.

But Suskara simply presses himself closer. “I will not leave you.” Suskara looks up at Harok. His grey eyes burn with such determination. Harok does not know how he ever found himself in possession of such a kushir. “I do not care what Diazuul means to do to you,” Suskara says, sounding almost angry in his grim determination. “Or to me. I love you and I will not leave.” Suskara presses in even closer and kisses Harok. Suskara’s mouth is sweet. Harok sees bright colours flash before his closed eyes. His mind feels clearer. The visions all around him in the dark fade.

Suskara kisses Harok again. Each kiss seems to cool the demon’s fire inside him. “I love you.” Suskara murmurs against his skin. “I cannot leave you. I love you.”

“I love you too, Suskara,” Harok says softly.

Suskara curls around Harok’s ankles. He feels like a pet. It makes Harok feel warm inside to see it. How sweet it would be to spend more of his nights with his Suskara curled around him.

But his heart is heavy. If Suskara is right and Diazuul wants him here, plans something else, then Harok has no idea what could be coming. For both of them.

35

TOBI

Tobi wakes with startled shock. There are guards crowded around them in the grey light. Drums beating. Heavy low bells are ringing.

Dawn.

Time for the final trial. Tobi is still curled around Harok’s legs, but hands are on him and he is dragged up. He is cold. His body aches and the bitter taste of the abieum still fills his mouth.

The sun is rising, it’s light soft and pale as buttermilk. The grove looks strangely ordinary. Just trees and earth and the dusting of snow. Not the strange otherworld Tobi saw when his blood was full of Abieum.

Tobi is held, waiting, as Harok’s chains are unfastened from the stone. His wrists are pulled back and chained behind him as he is led by a dozen guards of his own, towards Tobi and past him back into the courtyard behind Urynwud.