Free Dead Drop by Carolyn Jewel

beating heart removed, with the demon fully conscious the entire time. In the seconds that followed, the demon’s life force was imprisoned in whatever container the mage or witch had elected to use. Something small since a talisman was used to boost the magekind’s power and so needed to be easily carried.
    There wasn’t any question that Palla’s bonded partner had died a brutal physical death. How could anyone live knowing that had been done to someone you loved? Knowing every day they were still suffering? She shuddered.
    Palla turned up the heater.
    She looked out the window, devastated by his throwaway gesture. Why? Why did he have to do something thoughtful like that? Doing nothing was impossible. Thoughtful gestures had no bearing on her decision. It didn’t matter what he’d done. What mattered was someone else’s suffering. “I said I didn’t want your money. I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you.”
    “What the fuck does that mean?”
    “God, I do not like you.”
    “Feeling’s mutual.”
    “I’m shocked.” She glanced at him, and saw nothing but the same cold profile as always. He wasn’t someone she could like. Not ever. They had nothing in common. “I don’t know why you want me involved in anything to do with you.”
    He took the next right and pulled over. The tension between them got worse, and she reached for her center of calm when he turned toward her. “First you say no, then you say yes. Make up your mind instead of jerking me around.”
    “I am not jerking you around.”
    Palla opened his mouth then didn’t say anything. Not right away. He leaned over her. “Explain. Explain so I understand what the hell is wrong with you.”
    “I don’t have to like you to help you.” She leaned away until her back was against the door. “Just like you don’t have to like me to ask for my help. I think you’re asking the wrong person, but that’s not the point. You asked me. So, yes, I will help you.”
    Yellow flecks snaked through his eyes. “What do you mean about the money, then?”
    “I don’t want it.”
    “My money’s not good enough for you?”
    “No.”
    “It’s the same as everyone else’s.”
    She tipped her head back until it touched the window. Her chest was tight. She wished she’d stayed quiet. It wasn’t too late to take it all back and be safe. Except, damn it, he wouldn’t have asked her if there were anyone else. He wouldn’t. On his list of people to ask for help, she had to be near the bottom, if not dead last. “I mean, no, you are wrong. If you think for some insane reason you need my help with this, then all right. I’ll help you. But I won’t take money for something I’d do for anybody.” She looked at him, but it was dark, and all she could tell was that he was listening. “If you want to pay my expenses, fine. That’s fair. I’d be okay with that.”
    He settled in his seat. “All right, then.”
    Wallace touched his arm, and he flinched. Okay, well, she wouldn’t want him touching her either. That was fair, too. “When did it happen?”
    He stared out the front window. “Winter 1505.”
    “Five hundred years?”
    His attention snapped to her. His lips thinned, and his eyes glowed enough that her spine turned to ice. “Fuck you, human.”
    She held his gaze. “A year ago, I didn’t know demons existed. Or witches. So give me a break.”
    “Why do you think it’s been that long?” He stared straight ahead again, and she got a sick feeling he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to know. There was only one reason for that, and it made her hollow and sick. Five hundred years. “You weren’t free.”
    A mageheld demon was a slave. There wasn’t any other word for it. If you were mageheld, you did whatever the mage or witch told you to do. No matter what. You had no will of your own. No freedom. No control over what happened to you. How could she not help him?
    One thing she’d learned early in her work with Maddy was