The following day, Crimson and Len slept in the back of the cart as Reign drove it forward. He swapped Missy (the cart horse with the hurt ankle) with Herbit (the horse Len had been riding) and let Missy have the day with no mount and no cart to pull.

  Reign had to keep his eyes open and all his senses alert as he drove through the forest. It should have become denser the deeper inward he drove, but the forest stayed sparse. Meadows appeared every so often. In the daylight, the forest looked more stripped than ever. It seemed hard to believe that people were living within it successfully.

  Occasionally, Reign would turn his head around and see Len and Crimson lying out in the back. Well, he didn’t look at Len much. Crimson was an eye-full. Why hadn’t he noticed before? He knew exactly why he hadn’t noticed. It was because her eyes consumed all his attention whenever he saw her or spoke to her. As she slept, she had a hood pulled over her eyes, which left her nose and mouth free for breathing. Without her eyes messing it up, she was breathtaking. Every curve and point of her body was beautiful, and Reign truly had a difficult time keeping his eyes on the road.

  Just like Olive, he thought. Then he proceeded to wonder if they were cousins or sisters, or if Frondwick had the best-kept secret when it came to the women they produced. He hadn’t seen much to compare with in the other lands he’d traveled.

  Crimson woke up before Len and groggily pushed herself up to the front of the wagon to sit next to Reign. “While he’s still asleep,” she said, almost choking on her words. “Tell me what you thought of my little display last night.”

  Reign weighed his words carefully before speaking. He thought over what the demon had said. “I think your red eyes are more than just a little curse someone dumped on you.”

  “Do you think there’s a way to reverse it?” she asked quietly.

  “Is your body coated with that stuff?” he asked gravely.

  “What stuff?” Crimson asked.

  “The dimensional barrier?” he elaborated under his breath.

  “Yes. It’s very thick,” she murmured back, rubbing her fingers together. “I bring things into my space like my knives and my arrows, and they become part of the barrier, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be harmed by a demon who has the same invisible cloak.”

  Reign sucked in his breath. “Barriers break sometimes. They’re not absolute. They’re stronger when they’re first formed. Thus, it is crazy impressive that you were able to match the demon last night. Barriers erode sometimes, and that would bring you fully into our dimension and end your curse, but I don’t know why you’d want that when your curse gives you such a wild advantage in battle when one of those beasts is summoned. Can you travel to the Astral Plane?”

  Crimson shook her head. “I might be able to, if I had the foggiest idea how, but I don’t know what they do. From what I saw last night, the priestess of Taurus summoned him, and that opened the gate between their plain and ours. Then he stepped through it, seemingly with the permission of his god. I don’t know a priestess who would open the gate for me, and I don’t know a demon god who would welcome me.”

  Reign tipped his hat back and tried to keep his voice light as he offered his next piece of advice. “If you ask me, you should avoid entering the Astral Plane at all costs. If you are taken there, your barrier will slip, and you’ll be just like any other girl. Granted, you’ll be a girl who knows how to fight, but that invisible cloak that keeps you safe will be gone. If you annoy too many demons, that is a definite risk. They might know how to bring you home with them.”

  Crimson frowned. “What do you think I should do to break my curse?”

  Reight scoffed. “I don’t think you should break your curse, but I think it would be helpful to you if you learned more about it. Were you born on this plane? You call that man your father, but is he your actual father? What about your mother?”

  Crimson told him the story of her blue eyes turning red when she was an infant.

  Reign gulped. “It’s strange. Normally, when a demon god makes a pact with a human from this world, they do it in a sacred pact between the priest (or priestess),” he added patiently under his breath. “They grant the priest a beast form that the priest can assume after they’ve completed a ritual. It’s not endless, though. Depending on the situation, the priest can keep the form for days, perhaps weeks, but only in moments of severe threat, like a war. If the priest is not in danger, their beast form will dissolve, and they’ll become human again. When the demon god sends a demon, who knows what they look like without the cloak the demon god gifted them? We don’t know who they are in their own dimension. They could be anyone. The thing about you is that you don’t have a beast form. Or do you?

  Crimson shook her head.

  Reign continued his train of thought. “The only indication that there is something otherworldly about you is your eyes. It doesn’t make sense. The beast form declares which demon god the priest of the demon is serving. Taurus is bulls, rams, bucks. Tigrix is feline. Spideck is spiders and crabs. Swaneve is birds. You are a woman.” His eyes travelled from her boots to her eyes.

  Crimson blushed.

  “I don’t know of any demon god who blesses anyone with a permanent shape. If you didn’t have parents, I would wonder if you were actually a squirrel somewhere deep inside that woman’s body.”

  Crimson laughed. “I have never had any other body than this one, and it grew with me. I was a little girl who grew. This is the only body I have.”

  He smiled at her. “What do you know about demon gods? Have you ever spoken to one of them?”

  She shook her head, grinning under his attention. “I haven’t met any.”

  “It’s too bad that all this happened when you were so young. If you could remember anything that happened when the fairy cursed you…” He suddenly hesitated. “Did anyone see the fairy that cursed you, or is that just the explanation they came up with to explain something inexplicable?”

  Crimson trembled, crossed her arms, and huddled over her knees. “When you put it that way, it’s terrifying. So, it wasn’t a fairy, and we actually have no idea what happened to me that day?”

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  Reign put a gloved hand on her back to comfort her. “I don’t know that much about fairies. I don’t know that they’re capable of something like your curse, so it’s still a possibility. I know more about demon gods. They’re the only ones capable of something like this, but… I don’t see why they’d want to.”

  Crimson turned to look at him. “Aren’t they demons? Evil? Wanting to hurt people just for the fun of hurting them? Isn’t the why a demon was summoned last night? Because all they want to do is hurt people?”

  Reign took his hand back and wobbled it back and forth. “Demon Gods are masters of self-interest. It seems impossible to believe that one of them would gift you a dimensional barrier for nothing. It provides near invulnerability to the people of this dimension, so it’s worth a lot, hence all the priestesses and priests and rituals, and praying. So much praying.” Reign put his palms together in prayer for dramatic emphasis.

  Crimson smirked.

  Reign enjoyed her reaction and went on. “When demon gods amass followers in this world, it gives them power and resources in the Astral Plane. Since none of them are making any requests of you, that’s what creates the mystery. However, if you fight the demons when they’re summoned, they’ll consider you a threat. If they hear you’re called Angel, some of them might think you’re bucking to replace them. Honestly, your normal name, Crimson, might be bad enough.”

  “My name is part of my curse,” she said under her breath, before asking brightly, “Isn’t there anything I can do to avoid getting involved with them?”

  “You could gouge your eyes out and wander from village to village begging for bread. That would probably fix your problem.”

  Crimson waves away his gruesome joke. “You are saying I should hide,” she sought to confirm.

  “Well, either that or you could wait for that demon from the other night to show up again. He might want to go for another round, and if you kick his tail as triumphantly as you did last night, that could cause a ruckus. It might bring Taurus himself to your door.”

  “You’re saying that I should pretend to lose?”

  Reign eyed her seriously and then shook his head lightly. “Oh, I don’t think that will be an option. That demon will kill you, and probably everyone around you, just for spite.”

  Crimson weighed her options. “What if I still beat him, but make it a closer fight than last night?”

  “I’d warn you against that. You shouldn’t let him hurt you. Not at all. That’s why you shouldn’t fight at all and why you should hide. It’s easier to avoid the fight altogether than to avoid strikes within the fight once it’s started. Hide.”

  “And how would you do that?” she asked in exasperation.

  He smiled under his mask. “I’d make myself look like the very opposite of what I am.”

  She couldn’t resist him and looked down to hide a blush. “Is that what you’re doing now with the necromancer mask you wear under your plague doctor mask? Hiding?”

  He glanced at her with a grin, and for the first time, she realized that his eyes were green, a very dark green.

  “I actually can’t hide. If I could, that would be the first thing I’d try.”

  “So, if you were going to try to hide me, how would you do that?”

  “It’s too late. There’s no hiding from the demon from the other night. If you get attacked again, I recommend killing him. Do not play games where you try to show him mercy. Go for the kill shot and kill every last one that comes after you. If you kill enough of them and refuse the human praise that could turn you into a goddess, you will probably only earn a nasty reputation among demons and not people. In time, both groups are bored with you. Smite their ruin on the mountainside, and do not let anyone watch like you did the other night. It should work out… eventually.”

  Reign turned and looked into Crimson’s eyes. She did not look afraid. She looked like the blood in her eyes was merely foreshadowing the hell she would unleash.

  He patted her head with his gloved hand. “Don’t die, because I rather like you.”

  “You do?” she asked, tracing the stitching on the boot she was resting on her knee.

  “Yeah,” he answered, as if liking her was a common thing.

  She took a deep breath in. “What if I were to tell you that I like you, like a lot?”

  “Hmm?” he answered absently.

  “What if I told you that the whole reason I came on this journey was that I want to spend time with you, make sure that you are well, and introduce myself to you so that you might one day like me with the kind of favoritism with which I favor you?”

  Her voice was not loud, but steady, and so wonderful to Reign’s ears that he hated to hurt her, which he inevitably was going to have to do.

  “Angel,” he said, using the name Len called her on purpose. “You are really something. Something amazing and terrible. Do you know I am a bad candidate for a lover because it is my job to be around sick and dying amputees, where the plague runs rampant?”

  “I don’t care about that,” she whispered, her breath almost wasted. She knew what he was going to say next, and he knew she knew it.

  “You are an even worse candidate,” he said slowly. “You let that demon go last night. He’ll be back, and I don’t know who he’s going to bring with him when you meet him next. You will have sparked his interest. I want to help you, but I can’t tour around, turning you into a moving target. I have to stay where the plague is and save as many people as I can.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me to kill him?” she asked hoarsely.

  “I told you to run. That was good advice, and you would not be in this kettle of fish if you had.”

  “I couldn’t let him kill you,” she hissed painfully into the space between them.

  Reign locked his green eyes with her red ones. “He would not have killed me,” he said with unwavering conviction.

  She glared back at him, and she did not need to say why she had fought. Reign saw it all over her face, even in her eyes. She did not like him as a passing attraction. She would have died for him, but why? Why would she have formed such a steadfast love toward him? He had only known her for a few days!

  His stare bore down on her. “This is because of my mask, isn’t it?”

  “No. I think this is because of my eyes,” she said in a furious snarl.

  They glared at each other for a total of two seconds, but each one of those seconds seemed to last a very long time to Reign and Crimson. They didn’t go on because their noise had woken Len.

  He sat up and put his head somewhat between them. “What are you guys arguing about?”

  “Nothing,” Reign replied.

  “The injustice of discrimination,” Crimson snorted.

  “Oh? So the usual, then,” Len said happily. “Reign, do you want me to drive?”

  “Yep. I’ll walk for a bit,” he said, handing the reins over to Len and hopping down.

  “You’ll get left behind that way,” Len said, drawing his eyebrows into a line.

  “Nah. There’s a brook up ahead, and you’ll let the animals have a break to drink. I’ll catch up with you there.”

  “Not worried about angry woodsmen?”

  “No. They’re not going to bother us after what happened last night.” He waved, and they trotted on, giving him the break he needed after what Crimson had just said. Looking at her, he noticed that the love bites on the side of her neck had vanished. How could he possibly believe her when she was getting that kind of attention so recently from another man? The idea helped solidify the negative response he had already given her.

  As the wagon moved on without him, Crimson turned around in her seat and watched him the whole way. He didn’t like to admit that her gaze gave him the shivers, but it did. The truth was, she was exactly the kind of woman who was usually attracted to him, and though she was the most delightful of that type he’d ever met, he wasn’t even willing to entertain the idea. He knew too much about himself.

  Besides, he had a chance for a new life.

  He wanted to be with Olive.