Kirin dragged himself back to where Valerien lay. He sank to the floor next to him, utterly exhausted. The bastard was still not moving. He pushed the bloody hair away from the demon's face and flinched in horror. The ice shards had scratched it almost beyond recognition.
No breath came from the mouth or the nose. Was he really dead? Had his soul left without Kirin seeing it?
"Damn you! Wake up!" he shouted, shaking Valerien's armoured shoulders.
Nothing happened.
The pain of torture and humiliation was still burning his body and mind, and Rhian's last warning still rang in his ears. Dead or alive, all Valerien ever brought was danger and misery. He should just leave him here and run as far away from him as he could.
"It would serve you right, you treacherous waste of magic," he said vengefully, but he could feel tears filling his eyes.
For all his faults, the demon had once again protected him with his own body. He thought back to the small kindnesses and the warmth of his embrace. He thought back to the gentle voice that had brought him back from a nightmare and the way Valerien had stood up for him at the market.
The tears fell. With the fury of desperation, he hit the armoured chest with a fist.
"Don't you dare die on me like this, you useless piece of pottery!"
Valerien jerked up, and water shot from his mouth. Kirin flinched back, but then turned him on the side. The demon coughed up more water, his whole body shaking.
The bard wiped his own eyes and raised the convulsing body. It still felt as cold as a corpse when the scratched face fell onto his shoulder.
"Lioren," the demon whispered between two ragged breaths. The tone was almost childlike and pleading.
"Get up!" Kirin demanded, feeling unreasonably irritated that he was calling someone else's name.
There was no answer, but the cold body sank against his as if seeking protection.
"Damn you," Kirin pressed out between gritted teeth.
With his last strength, he dragged Valerien across the wet ground, through the waterfall and back into the sunlight. It felt like crawling back from the Otherworld into the world of the living again.
He let the demon fall into the grass and collapsed next to him. Getting the horses and hiding between the trees would have been wiser, but he had no strength left to do so. Just a few moments of rest.
A shimmer caught his attention. He propped himself up on an elbow and watched in wonder while fine golden threads rose through earth and grass and enveloped Valerien. The demon's armour became fluid and retreated into the cuffs and torque, letting the magic in.
Was he imagining things, or was the demon's face healing?
The dried blood rubbed off as he touched it. He gently cleaned all of it off with his wet sleeve. The skin underneath was soft and undamaged. It struck him how young and vulnerable Valerien looked in this state.
Such deceptive beauty. Seren's spawn. As beautiful as he is rotten. There were so many questions he wanted answers to. And he would get them, even if it killed him.
He slapped the smooth cheek in anger. The green eyes fluttered open. They were filled with panic and disorientation. They fixed on Kirin's face, then slowly went back to normal.
"Where is Rhian?"
"Dead."
For the first time since he'd met him, Valerien seemed speechless. Something akin to respect flashed up in his eyes. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. Instead he just touched Kirin's cheek and caressed it tenderly.
"I am glad you are not," he finally said.
The unexpected gentleness in his voice sparked even more fury in Kirin. He knocked the hand away.
"You almost let him take me!"
"Don't be silly, bard. I had it under control until you went mental," Valerien replied stubbornly.
"Liar! You let him torture me!"
Kirin raised his fist to punch him, only to find himself pulled down into the demon's arms. Hot breath tickled his neck as Valerien buried his face in his shoulder again. He tried to break free, but the strong arms squeezed around him like those of a possessive lover.
"Kirin."
The bard stopped struggling in sheer surprise. The demon had never addressed him by his name before. Sometimes he'd wondered if the bastard had even bothered to remember it.
The familiar scent of spring meadows and cut grass mixed with the smell of dried blood, but the embrace felt warm and comforting. It somehow felt like home. He relaxed into it for a moment, then froze in shock as he felt something hard throb against his thigh.
Even worse, his own body responded. Surely those feelings were not really his, but just another side effect of that bond he had never wanted. Why, of all the people in the world, did the gods bind him to this infuriating bastard?
"Let me go," he managed to say.
Valerien opened his arms, and Kirin sat up, feeling utterly mortified. He pressed his thighs together and hugged his knees, trying to hide his predicament, hoping the demon had not felt it.
But it was futile. The demon's full lips curved into an amused smile.
"Don't ruffle your feathers, little bird. It's just a normal physical reaction, especially when one so nearly escapes death."
"I am not your little bird!"
"Well, you are certainly not little where it counts," Valerien replied with a grin that drove the heat of embarrassment to Kirin's cheek.
"Is that all you can think about after you almost got us both killed, you pervert?"
"Me? You are the one who attacked one of the most dangerous Fae ever created. And yet you are still alive to tell the tale," Valerien retorted and sat up.
Kirin swallowed nervously. He should have run while he had the chance. How was he to explain what had happened?
"It was just luck. He was blinded by iron," he mumbled.
Valerien raised an eyebrow.
"He was a centuries-old warrior surrounded by his element. He didn't need eyes to expel all the air from your lungs and fill them with water like he did with me. The amount of energy he released would have been enough to do that to any Fae in the vicinity, let alone a human."
"So why did you try to save me if you thought we would both die anyway?" Kirin asked with a beating heart, trying to get more time to think of a convincing lie.
A flicker of uncertainty crossed Valerien's features. The bard tried to rise to his feet, but the demon's arm shot forward again. The next thing he knew, Valerien had tackled him to the ground, his long fingers on Kirin's throat.
"What are you hiding from me, bard?"