Bind the Soul by Annette Marie Page A

mental aura that triggers irrational fear in everyone in their vicinity. It’s manufactured terror but works as well as natural fear.”
    “Wait. So I wasn’t being a coward?”
    Lyre grinned. “Nope. He scares the shit out of me too. He can’t help it though. He’s not doing it on purpose.”
    “Overworld daemons have our own version,” Miysis added. “Underworlders, rather derisively, call it the Fairy Effect. It makes the daemon seem so beautiful and awe-inspiring that it dumbfounds everyone nearby.”
    Miysis sat back in his chair, serious again. “So harpies stole the Sahar from you. Anyone in the Underworld could have hired them. Even an Overworlder could have arranged for their services to throw off the scent.”
    She nodded, nerves trickling through her as his eyebrows drew together. If he thought about it, he would spot the holes in her story.
    “How did you know that draconian’s name?” she asked before he could think too much.
    “Raum? Hard not to. His reputation is as well known as Ashtaroth’s. Raum has been terrorizing haemons and daemons alike on Samael’s behalf for the last decade.”
    “How do you know so much about Ash?”
    “We’ve met before. The first two times were tense but . . . mostly uneventful. The third time we tried to kill each other. Our interactions haven’t been cordial since. What inspired you to shout queries about him to Raum?”
    Hopelessness doused her all over again. “No one’s seen him since he went back to the Hades estate.”
    Miysis shrugged, unconcerned. “He lives in Asphodel, doesn’t he?”
    Her eyebrows scrunched. “Where?”
    “Asphodel. The Hades family estate in the Underworld. It’s more of a small town than a single residence. Hundreds of daemons live there, including Ash.”
    She scowled. “Did you forget the part of my story where Samael sent assassins after him?”
    That gave him pause. He frowned as he put the pieces together. “If Ash failed to complete his mission and deliver the Sahar to Samael, and Samael ordered him killed for it, why did Ash go back?”
    She folded her arms to hide a shiver. “Probably for the same reason Raum has all the emotion of a brick wall.”
    Miysis threw her a questioning look.
    Lyre tapped his knuckles on the tabletop. “You must’ve heard the rumors, Miysis.”
    The Ra daemon leaned back and huffed softly. “That Samael has a personal army of brainwashed draconians? It’s nonsense. How can you call Ashtaroth brainwashed? He has more attitude than all my subordinates combined.”
    Piper pressed her lips together. “It’s true. He makes them obey with threats of torture.”
    Miysis sighed with exaggerated patience. “What makes them Samael’s slaves? Draconians don’t hold any territory. There are groups of them scattered throughout the Underworld. Just because a few dozen reside in Hades territory means nothing. They need to make a living like anyone else and the Hades have a lot of suitable work.”
    Doubt flickered through her. Could they be wrong?
    “On an individual level,” Miysis continued, “the average draconian is more powerful than the average reaper. Not by much, but enough that the Hades family was always resentful of the Taroths’ abilities.”
    The Hades family’s caste was known as reapers; she never knew draconians were more powerful. But a little extra magic didn’t make much of a difference when reapers outnumbered draconians by a ridiculous margin.
    “How could Samael control draconians, who can kill most of his generals?” Miysis concluded. “You’re leaping to the conclusion you fear most.”
    His logic made sense, but Piper’s gut told her he was wrong. Raum’s pitying stare, that look in his eyes that shoved her own naivety in her face, had only confirmed her suspicions.
    She remembered Ash slumped against a wall after Cottus had gored him. “Fucking boss,” he’d slurred. “Hate him.” When he’d revealed his theft of the Sahar and she’d thrown