Familiar

Magical familiars are supposed to be the perfect summoned servants - loyal, obedient, unquestioning, and conveniently vanish when their time and task is complete. A witch's best friend. And one particular Familiar has always been all those things to Sylene, his conjurer. He never even minded being a hulking seven foot tall brute with leathery wings and a face that could crack granite. When your main job is to kill people, looks don't matter that much. But that all changes when he's...
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Magical familiars are supposed to be the perfect summoned servants - loyal, obedient, unquestioning, and conveniently vanish when their time and task is complete. A witch's best friend. And one particular Familiar has always been all those things to Sylene, his conjurer. He never even minded being a hulking seven foot tall brute with leathery wings and a face that could crack granite. When your main job is to kill people, looks don't matter that much. But that all changes when he's sent to hunt down his latest victim and instead finds a beautiful beggar woman. He experiences feelings he's never supposed to have, and is totally unprepared for. But how can he befriend her when he looks the way he does, and only exists for a few hours at a time at that. And to make matters worse, he discovers that Sylene is on the run from a death sentence imposed by the very Witch's Guild she belongs to. Her execution would mean he could never be summoned into existence again - unless he can find a way to do the impossible and break the laws of magic. As the Guild's search draws tighter, he knows he has little time to solve the dilemma. When he finally finds the man he's supposed to kill, his victim bargains for his life with the very knowledge the Familiar is seeking - a possible way to break free of Sylene's domination. But how can he make the deal, which will allow him to be with the one he loves, when he cannot disobey his mistress' order to kill?