“Almost broke the poor chap’s arm. Oh you should’ve seen Seela’s face when she reprimanded me in private about it! She was so red I thought she was going to erupt like a volcano! And yet she was as beautiful as ever. I told her I didn’t like the way he tried to grab her and that it made me so angry. She was taken aback by how genuine I was. That was the first time we kissed, and I swore I’d been struck by lightning in the best possible way.” Soraya found herself smiling at the tenderness of the story, able to forget, for a few moments anyway, about what was waiting for them behind the door.

Sunny continued: “Ever since I met Seela it’s been my job to protect her, to keep her safe. But how can I protect her from an enemy I can’t see or meet in battle, an enemy that sleeps when I’m awake and who I can’t fight without hurting the woman I love?”

Their situation came flashing back in an instant. “By doing exactly what you’re doing,” Soraya said. “By being here, by supporting her, no matter what happens. By keeping hope in your heart and by lifting her spirits when they’re down.”

It was Sunny’s turn to smile. “You may be young, but you have wisdom in you that most old folks around here don’t. Thank you for being here. For staying your hand. For helping.”

“You’re welcome. Let us hope it is enough.”

“It will be. It must be.”

“I feel different,” Seela said after her seventh dose of godsblood.

The light had all but vanished behind the window’s curtains, shadows dominating the space along the floor until it had grown so dark Sunny had finally lit a lantern that now cast flickering light on the walls.

“Different how?” Soraya asked. Since the fifth dose, she hadn’t left the room, asking Sunny to bring food and water, which they all ate and drank in silence, as though the very act of speaking might shatter whatever magic the godsblood was silently working inside Seela’s body.

“I don’t know…just different. Better, I think. More like myself. Or a better version of myself. I’m not afraid of the shadows anymore. I’m not afraid of myself anymore.”

“That’s…good,” Soraya said, feeling a bloom of hope that she swiftly tempered. This was uncharted territory, and as she’d said before she wasn’t about to celebrate until dawn arrived without so much as a whiskery sniff from the nightdemon.

“That’s wonderful, love,” Sunny said, placing a hand on where Seela’s arm might’ve been, hidden beneath the thick cords and chains that bound her. “Do you think…” Whatever she was going to say was lost in the silence that followed, as though even a warrior such as she feared her hope being misplaced if voiced too early.

“You should rest,” Seela said. “Nothing is happening, and you’ll awaken if it does.”

“If you’re staying awake, then I’m staying awake.”