Reader Believes

Chapter 2

            Rika tried to back up, but a table had her blocked in. She leaned against it, her eyes dropping to Ahisu’s chest, his gaze too much for her. “What kind of offer?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t notice the faint trembling of her hands.

            “Join me.”

            Her head snapped up and she stared at him. “Join you? You want me to join you? You’re planning on throwing my country into civil war at best! Why should I help you?”

            “You would be my partner.”

            Shetton chuckled but Rika ignored the demon in favour of his master. “Why? Why would you want me to be your partner? We both know what my magic’s like. I’m hardly up to your caliber.” The words came out far more bitterly than she had intended, but Rika didn’t apologize. They were the truth.

            “You have magic. You know this world. You are part of it. Others of this world will look upon me more favorably with you as my partner.”

            Rika felt her chest constrict. “You want me to join you so I can explain this world to you and because it’s a good move, politically? What happens when you don’t need me anymore? And what possible reason could I have for wanting to do that?”

            “You can’t win against me,” he said, his eyes boring into hers. “Oppose me, and you will suffer. Join me, and I will make you my partner in truth. Your words would have precedent over anyone else.”

            She froze. Her heart was surging upwards, racing at the thought of him needing her, of her being able to stand by his side legitimately. But her mind brought back every memory of him from the last two months. Rika bit her lip. She had to be sure about this before she answered. “You’d really listen to me? Like, if I told you not to kill someone or not to do something, you wouldn’t do it?”

            “Within reason.”

            “You still haven’t said what’ll happen when you don’t need me anymore. Are you just going to toss me aside?”

            Shetton laughed again, moving so he stood beside Ahisu and had a clear view of Rika. “He is suggesting you pair-bond. Hard to break that without both partners’ consent.”

            She frowned. “I don’t understand. What’s a pair-bond…” She trailed off as she watched the demon bring his two index fingers together. He grinned as her face turned nearly a bright a red as his skin. “You’re saying…we’d be…”

            Glaring at Shetton, Ahisu didn’t answer her. Not that Rika needed him to.

            Inhaling raggedly, Rika did her best to sort through the myriad of contradicting thoughts and emotions flooding her. On the one hand, she knew Ahisu was nearly emotionless, more than likely saw her as nothing but a tool, and had plans to take over the whole country. On the other, she’d get to stay beside him. She’d be closer to him than she had been during her time in the other world. And here, he’d promised to listen to her. With time, she might be able to get him to feel for her as much as she felt for him. Crazier things had happened.

            Like a book sending her to another world.

            Emotion fighting logic, Rika looked back at Ahisu. “You could easily find another female mage here. Shay said it already. I can’t be the only one, so why me?”

            “I know you. You will complement me.”

            Four words. Four words from his lips decided her inner struggle. Her eyes dropped to the ground, unable to handle his black gaze as she nodded. “If…if you’ll really listen to me, if this’ll be a real partnership, alright.”

            Cool fingers tilted her chin up, so she had no choice but to look at him. “You will be my partner?”

            Her cheeks flared red again. “Yes.”

            “And I will be yours,” he said, hand dropping away.

Ahisu reached into his other sleeve and pulled something out, laying it on the table that lay behind Rika. She stared at the strip of silvery black metal. She couldn’t think what it was for, or why he had decided to bring it out now.

The feel of his fingers on her skin again, made her jump and jerk to stare. He held her gaze steadily, his hand returning to her forehead. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, but what emerged instead was a yelp. She rubbed her scalp and glared at him.

He ignored her, laying the hair he’d yanked out of her head onto the metal before pulling out one of his own and putting it on top. “Shetton,” he said.

Grinning, the demon sauntered over. He pressed one red digit against the metal, the colour seeming to contaminate the strip. It took Rika a moment to realize he was heating it up. The two hairs sank into the half-liquid metal as she watched, until they were no longer visible.

Shetton then pulled up the malleable strip and rolled it into a circle. He touched a finger against the two edges, that spot glowing until the seam disappeared. Only then did he put it back on the table. In seconds, all trace of orange was gone from the strange material.

Rika stared at the circle, then Shay, then Ahisu. “What?”

The mage picked up the metal ring and slid it over his middle finger. “A seal for the bargain.”

She opened her mouth then shut it. She had bigger things to worry about than whatever magic Ahisu was working. Not only was the full magnitude of what she’d just agreed to do sinking in, she’d forgotten an important fact in the excitement of Ahisu’s arrival.

She’d been gone for two months.

Rika winced. “I think it’d be best if I went home. As quickly as possible.”