#decisively

Tris’s heart leaps in his chest. This must be what it feels like to be a master demon hunter. Tris was made to have magic pulsing through his veins, and Avi was made to feel air rushing over her feathers, and mage and bound demon were made to work together.

The greater demon is between them. At the flash of Tris’s magic, he twists aside, his injured arm leaving a streak of black smoke in the air. He avoids the magic, but now he’s right in Avi’s path. Tris can feel her intense focus, the practiced flex of her wings as she spreads them, reaching her clawed feet towards the demon.

Tris is already gathering power for another attack, forcing the little spirit he has left up into his palms. When the demon dodges away from Avi, Tris can catch him with another bolt of magic.

But instead to trying to avoid Avi, the greater demon lunges suddenly towards her. With lightning speed, he reaches up and seizes her, his fingers digging viciously into her feathered throat. He wrenches her from her flight and slams her onto the ground.

Pain pulses through Tris and he collapses, the breath knocked out of him. The demon’s movement was so sudden and so forceful that it takes Tris a confused, painful moment to even realize what happened. To realize exactly how easily his plan was destroyed.

Avi lies where the demon threw her, a feathered huddle, her wings splayed crookedly and black smoke leaking from her body. She’s breathing shallowly and the predator’s edge is gone from her three eyes, leaving only dull blackness.

Tris shudders. He pushes to his knees and reaches for Avi. When he touches the iron collar around her neck, her form starts to dissolve, her white feathers melting into black smoke and the adamant gem glowing bright red. The ring shrinks back to its original size, and Tris gingerly slips it back onto his finger.

He’s aware of the demon standing in front of him, watching him, but he doesn’t dare look up.

Finally the demon reaches down and grabs Tris’s chin, forcing his gaze up. “Well, mage, have you learned your lesson?”

Tris stares at the demon. There’s something regal about him, serene in the moonlight, glimmering with gold and jewels like some ancient king before a kneeling supplicant. There’s no obvious sign of the power and violence that destroyed Tris and Avi’s hopes so easily. But Tris can still feel that violence hidden away within the demon’s elegant limbs, lurking behind his cool, considering gaze.

Tris’s heart skitters in his chest. He’s truly, completely out of hope now. His whole body aches and his spirit is drained. The greater demon is just too fast and strong to be threatened by anything Tris can manage.

The demon can do what he wants now. He could bite bruises into Tris’s skin until more of Tris belongs to him than to Tris, and there’s nothing Tris can do about it.

The thought sends a desperate, guilty rush of heat through Tris’s body.

The demon, watching him, and tilts his hand and brushes his thumb softly over Tris’s mouth. Tris shivers. He can’t help his lips parting, his breath coming quicker.

For a moment, the demon teases Tris’s lower lip, his touch gentle but heavy with the weight of everything the demon can do to Tris, now that Tris is defeated. The simple friction of it is magnified until Tris can feel the vibration of it through his whole body.

“What should I do with you now, I wonder?”

The demon’s eyes track slowly over Tris, past his flushed face, over the shudder of his chest, then lower still, down to where Tris’s body is already eager to know what the demon will do to him.

The demon’s gaze lingers there between Tris’s legs like a physical touch. Tris shudders, the mortification of being seen like this mingling hotly with the need that pulses through him under the demons’ gaze.

“I could be nice to you, my little mageling.” The demon’s eyes slip back up to Tris’s face, and he drags his thumb down Tris’s chin, slow and wet, suggestive. Tris shivers, helpless. He thinks of last night and he can’t help wanting that again.

But then, as quickly as he seized Avi from the air, the demon’s hand jumps up to Tris’s hair. Tris flinches, his breath catching as the demon curls his hand in Tris’s hair and jerks his head back, arching his throat.

The demon’s voice is cold. “But then again, you haven’t been very nice to me.”

The point is emphasized by the gouges in the demon’s forearm, which spill thin lines of black smoke into the air between the two of them. Tris remembers the resolve he had felt, back when he still thought he stood a chance.

His voice comes out hoarse. “W-why should I be?”

“Because, ungrateful boy, I’m trying to give you want you want.”

“I... I don’t want –” tries Tris, a final desperate denial, but he can’t even manage the words.

“This is why I could never stand mages. So many rules to follow to keep people from what they want.” The demon’s voice suddenly sharpens. “Here in my world, we take what we want.”

His hand tightens in Tris’s hair as he says it, and Tris gasps, his eyes falling shut.

He does want this. He wants it so much he can feel it throughout his whole body, like desire is taking the place left by hope and filling up the emptiness where his spirit should be. He wants it so much it hurts.

Recognizing the force of his desire only makes it stronger. He feels like he’s burning up, feverish with need. The demon holds Tris’s head tilted back and brings his other hand to Tris’s cheek, and Tris gasps, trying to lean into the demon’s cool touch.

For a moment the demon holds him like that, as if Tris is entirely his to play with. He traces the line of Tris’s jaw, and then finally his fingers find Tris’s lips and Tris can’t help breathing out a small sound, low and eager.

“Will you admit it, enkileth? You want me to touch you.”

“Yes,” gasps Tris, desperate, leaning up into the demon’s hands.

There’s a moment when Tris is sure the demon will pull him close and press his cool, hungry mouth to Tris’s parted lips. Desire thrums through him. His hips push forward helplessly, his knees spreading a little in the grass.

But then the demon lets go of him and steps back.

Tris opens his eyes. The demon is gazing down at him coolly. “Why would I, when you’ve wasted all your tasty power?”

Tris’s heart lurches. “I… please...”

“Maybe you’ll be wiser next time we meet, mage.”

And the demon turns and slips back into the ruins beside the river. Tris watches him go, his heart pounding, breathing hard, still ready for something to happen.

But nothing does. Tris is suddenly alone again, with the river rushing uncaringly beside him and the purple sky arcing huge and featureless above him.

Slowly he raises his hand to his neck. The bruise left by the demon’s mouth aches when he presses it, like badge accusing him of a sin he never actually got to commit.