“Will this… this sanctuary truly stop him?” She looked at him through fanned lashes, the intensity of her gaze making him glance at her out the corner of his eye. She looked so vulnerable his instincts reared up hard, desperate to soothe, to prove to her that she’d made the right decision when she put her faith in him to keep her safe.

“The contract he made me sign… he… thinks he owns me.” She shuddered.

Kain’s looping thoughts came to a screeching halt, his eyes widening as he whipped around to stare at her. “You signed a fucking contract? Fuck!” He slapped both hands against the steering wheel so hard the car swerved before he caught it again.

“Is… is that very bad?” she squeaked.

Only the spike of fear in her scent made him take a deep breath before answering. “You signed a contract with a demon! Yes, it’s bad. Dark skies above! What exactly did this contract say, Selma?”

“T-That I… That my soul is his,” she whispered. “You don’t understand… I had to sign. It was my only chance at escaping him. I—”

“I understand,” Kain ground out. It suddenly made a lot more sense why a demon as old and crafty as Marathin had let a Breeder he wanted to claim out of his sight long enough that she could escape. A contract on her soul meant he’d be able to track her—and that he most likely was.

“What happens now?” she asked, the tremble in her voice more than evident that his reaction had alerted her to how completely fucked they were. “Can… Can you not help me after all?”

Kain rubbed the bridge of his nose. No. He couldn’t. Nothing and no one could break a contract, and there was no escape. Even if this sanctuary turned out to be more than just his mother’s desperate pipe dream, the magic in any contract made with a demon was binding and final. Somehow, some way, she would end up in the hands of her captor.

He could break the law and help her disappear—but even a demon Lord couldn’t break contract magic.

But if he abandoned her now…

He glanced at her again, and clutched the steering wheel at the ache blooming in his chest at the desperation in her brown eyes.

He knew what demons did when a human tried to break a contract. He’d carried out such punishments himself more than once.

But what was he supposed to do? Kill an ancient demon and start a war in a doomed attempt to right a wrong that could never be undone anyway? Saving this little thing would not bring back his mother.

But as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye, saw her scared face and smelled her fear at the memory of the man she’d run from, he knew he would try, consequences be damned.