The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,38

do it again."

"I'd rather not die to find out," I teased. "Too soon?"

He reached over and grabbed both of my ribs. "Succubus," he hissed, that being their favorite insult for me. Then he stopped, his head snapping up. "Looks like the guys are up. How about I go work on this bubble, and you see what you can do with Ron?"

I nodded, staying where I was as Nick slipped off the bench and headed toward the edge of the bubble. Over at the house, Ron had peeked his head out and gestured to Nick, but his eyes were on me. I just waved him over.

But watching him walk made me regret that. Ron's limp was back, and the grass wasn't as smooth as the halls of Hell where I'd last seen him like this. Then there was his right side. That arm was withered and twisted, but the wing was worse. Centuries of disuse had caused it to atrophy, the muscles contracted so it was held closed against his body. He could open it, but not the same way as the other. And when he winced, it killed me inside.

"I want to try healing you," I said, gesturing for him to sit down. "Not skinning, but healing."

"Is the rune permanent then?" he asked.

I moved to squat before him, letting him use the table as a backrest. "It's not, but taking it out won't be a quick process. That means I can test my new and amazing abilities, right?"

Ron found my hand. "Sia, I'm more used to being crippled than not. I'd prefer you don't feel bad for me."

"I don't like it when anyone hurts," I told him. "Doesn't matter if that's a splinter, a wound from an angel, or an ache from a twisted joint. I don't want you to have to suffer that. It's sympathy, Ron, not pity."

He chuckled once. "Ok. I'll accept that. But aren't you supposed to be resting your sculpting?"

"Nick seems to think this is ok," I assured him. "He also just left to add the protections to the bubble, which means he'll be a while."

So the lavender demon leaned back and flicked his tail toward me. "You seem smaller without wings," he teased.

"This is me," I said, unsure what he meant.

"Yeah, but..." His tail slid around my leg, holding it casually. "You're missing the best parts."

I just stuck my tongue out at him. "I'm so tempted to make you strip for this."

"Healing doesn't make heat," he teased. "Do your best, Muse."

So I did. Then I tried again. Of course it couldn't be that easy. At some point, Luke came back with coffee for everyone and a few dozen donuts. Eventually, Sam and Bel got up. I still hadn't made Ron any better. In truth, it felt like all of my efforts were going right through him. Like I couldn't touch the body I was trying to fix.

We took a break for lunch, then tried again. This time, the pair of us laid out in the grass between the table and the cottage. Somewhere in there, I realized I wasn't even using aether. It actually felt like when, during my training, I'd pulled out a glob of my own aether to shape like a flower or sprite and then resorbed it. There was definitely a transfer, but my internal level wasn't decreasing at all.

That led to a discussion between us about the how and why of altering him. I thought it had to do with this body being a copy of his real one on Daemin. The resonance of particles on this plane wasn't the same as where he was from, so the changes I made weren't in the right pitch - or maybe it was called a key? - to touch him. He theorized that since I couldn't even completely alter his body in a skin, that maybe healing wasn't possible. Ron wondered if I'd need to do something a lot more drastic, like change him from the inside out.

I didn't like that option as much because there was too much of a risk for messing it up. And if I messed up the real him, could I kill him? They kept saying they couldn't die, but no one had tried this before, and killing my best friend was not how I wanted to find the limits of that. He just insisted that it would be worth it.

But the sun kept moving across the sky, and I was pretty sure that Tyrnigg days lasted longer