Free Demonkin by T. Eric Bakutis

we can't be certain of anything right now.”
    “Because of the trauma.” Kara smiled faintly. “Because we don't know if this is real, or if I only want to jump your bones because I'm freaking out.”
    “Right.” Trell smiled back. “We have time. We'll take it day by day.”
    “You're right. You always are. Honestly, it gets kind of annoying.”
    Trell shrugged. Kara hopped off his bed and planted a kiss atop his head. She walked for his closed door.
    “You're going?” That was what he wanted, wasn't it?
    “I probably should. I did knock you out of your bed.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I'll find a way to save you. I mean it.”
    “I believe you.” If anyone could figure out what was wrong with him, what Life's power had done to him, Kara could. “Now get some sleep.”
    “I'll try. Five guard your soul, you gorgeous man.” Kara blew him a kiss and left. He was alone, again.
    Trell watched the closed door for a time. When he finally settled back on his bed, he knew there was no possible way he could sleep. He was all knotted up.
    His feelings for Kara were impossible to define, and was that so strange? He had died, after all. Life brought him back and made him her champion specifically for the purpose of protecting Kara. Life ingrained that desire deep within Trell's soul and it remained there, even if Life did not. Life made him care about Kara.
    Yet why wouldn't he? Kara was amazing, brave and loyal and smart, and any reasonable man would fall in love with her whether the Five were involved or not. Yet Trell could not be certain of his feelings, not yet. Not with Marabella's death so recent.
    The worst part was that he couldn't remember Marabella. He couldn't remember his own wife. Almost a month ago Cantrall's army of revenants slaughtered everyone in his birth town of Carn. They killed his parents and his wife and left a Mynt flag in the carnage, along with dead Mynt soldiers. Trell knew that now, but had not then.
    He understood why Melyssa had erased his memories — the entire world was at stake — but that didn't make it easier to lose everything and everyone he had known. It didn't make it easier to miss people he couldn't remember.
    It didn't make it easier to know if he was in love.
    Trell stood and practiced steps, working the ache from his joints. If he moved long enough, exerted himself enough, the pain lessened and he could wield a sword. He would be dueling tomorrow in the martialing yard.
    That was something he could still control.
     
     
     
    “ARYN. LET’S WAKE UP now, shall we?”
    Aryn murmured and hunched up. Tamen, his eldest brother, would be after him if he overslept. Tamen always slapped Aryn when he wanted attention, sometimes very hard. Aryn braced for the hit.
    “You're safe, Aryn. Remember me? I'm Tania, the talented and wonderful woman who offered you a free meal. You're in my home. There are no demons here.”
    Demons. Aryn had been a demon but was not one any longer. A cool cloth soothed his head as a soft finger eased his mouth open. A trickle passed his lips, water. Wonderful water.
    Aryn swallowed and remembered why he could not open his eyes. He did not have them. After the water was gone, after the spinning slowed and he grew calm, he took the dream world.
    Tania leaned over him, a blur of dream form orange. She was alive and so was he. “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “You're the one who broke my stoop with his head.” There might have been humor in her tone, but Aryn couldn't be sure. “I'm fine. I splinted my arm. It'll do until we find a Bloodmender.”
    Davazet had broken Tania's arm and tossed her like a scarecrow. Still, with one arm broken, she had dragged Aryn into her home, put him to bed, and splinted her own arm. She was amazing, but if Davazet returned...
    “We're safe,” Tania said. “I have a bubble up, but I doubt we'll need it. Whatever you did set that demon off balance. It won't return until it understands it.”
    “That's