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Tobi looks at the sword and shakes his head. “I will not,” Tobi says. “I cannot.”

In response, Yaelin simply lays the sword on the bed beside Tobi. “You are his kushir. Bound to obey him. Only you can protect him from being taken by that demon, kushir. Only you can destroy what lives inside him. And save him.” She turns away and walks to the door.

Tobi stares at her back “You really expect me to kill him? He came for me. He saved me from the Exceli.”

Yaelin turns in the doorway. “And why do you think he did that? He saved you so you could do this for him,” she says. “He always knew, this was what you were here for.”

As the door closes, Tobi looks at Harok.

Harok’s eyes open.

28

HAROK

Ashaking voice says, “Irgorye?”

For a moment, Harok feels like he is climbing from that pit below Susal-ur-Bellan all over again.

But that voice calls to him. Cuts through everything else. Suskara.

The figure leaning over him is a blurred shape, before Suskara’s face swims into a recognisable form.

Everything hurts. His mother’s magic is as cruel and unpredictable as the forest that fuels it. He feels like it takes a great force of his will to reach out and stroke the side of Suskara’s face, “Kushir,” he says. Then in Artemian, “My sweet, beautiful, kushir.” He takes a breath.

“My Irgorye,” Suskara says back. “Your mother was here.”

Harok feels a strange sensation roll through him. He knows it instantly. There is only one reason his mother would come here, to his bedchamber to speak with his kushir.

Harok can feel the demon, roaring for control like a wild, rough sea inside him. A voice in his head that had grown as loud as a gong.

He does not have long. It is good that Suskara knows. He is ready. He knew Yaelin was waiting for some sign. Some signal that Suskara was bound to the forest strongly enough that he could use its magic. The beasts, the tree and the earth, bound with his fae blood. As Yaelin always said it must be.

Suskara looks at Harok. Harok cannot imagine what Suskara thinks of him now.

His kushir knows what is inside his Irgorye. The type of creature whose bed he has been forced to warm. “Suskara?” Harok says. “You know the truth. You fear me?”

But one of the things about Suskara that had surprised Harok from the start had been his fearlessness. Harok is well used to being feared. He is a man who is part demon. A man who cannot be killed. A strong Irgo.

With that demon powering him he had taken control of the Solwen in a bloody coup that had horrified many. He had slain Irgo Vahul and executed the Blood Priests. He had condemned any who still worshipped Diazuul to death. He is soaked in the blood he has spilt. Spilt fighting. Spilt in a long and exhausting battle to try to stop Diazuul growing stronger. To stop men from worshipping Diazuul as the demon screamed inside him, contained only by the mark his mother carved onto his chest.

And Harok’s own will.

But the power in that mark faded. And Harok’s strength to fight what he is becoming has grown weaker and weaker. He feels grotesquely weak sometimes, despite what those around him see. But now his own Suskara knows all. Knows his secrets and all he is. The demon and the man. Sometimes he wonders if there is truly a difference. Or if the man is any better than the demon he hides inside him.

The only thing that had ever calmed that demon had been when he had lain with Suskara. Suskara made him feel like that demon was sleeping. The first night the feel of being without that demon raging inside him shocked him so much he could barely stand it when he woke the following morning. All he could think about was that he had found this sweet peace with the man who had to kill him.

“She told you the truth?” Harok says, “My mother? She told you why she had me bring you here?”

Suskara nods. In his careful Ambolk, he says, “She told me when you attacked Diazuul, you killed the demon’s body but you could not destroy its essence. It is trapped inside you. Eating at you. Killing you. You are part monster. Cursed. Why didn’t you tell me before?” Suskara says. “After you rescued me? When we grew close? Why didn’t you tell me what was happening to you? How could you let me love you when you knew I would have to do this?”

Harok says, “I never wanted it to be this way. There was a time when I thought it would be easier to lie with you but treat you harshly, so you would hate me. Then it would be easier for you. When you discovered what I would have you do, you would relish it.”

Suskara looks solemn. His face is hard. “And you thought that would be better? You thought I would ever delight in killing you out of anger and vengeance?” He pauses, through tight teeth, he says, “You thought I would act like you?”

Harok nods slowly. “Before I knew you, yes I did. I thought that would be how any man would act in your situation. I had never known a man like you.”

Suskara shakes his head. His sadness is painful to see. “How did you live with a demon inside you? How could you bear it for so long?”