I shrieked when I caught sight of it, my hand going to my mouth.
“I can see you’re acclimating well,” the devil said. His feet were propped up on the table, crossed at the ankles. He sipped wine from an opulent chalice and somehow he managed to not look completely ridiculous while doing so.
Five minutes ago he’d telepathically rung me to come to dinner. Idiot that I was, I’d actually been eager to see him again. Whomever I thought he was earlier, I was wrong.
The body on the table moaned.
That man was … alive?
He was laid out on his stomach, a pole running through the length of him. His hands and ankles were tied behind him, and someone had gone through and added what looked like cranberries and leafy greens around his body. He appeared uncannily like a spitted pig. Worst of all was his singed skin; someone had roasted him over an open flame.
“Why is there a bloody man on the table?”
“Archdemon,” the devil corrected, swirling his glass of wine. Gone was the caring Asiri I’d spent time with. His eyes now challenged mine. “He disobeyed me. Now he’s to be eaten alive.”
I almost gagged. Nope, nope, nope. I’d go hungry. Whatever I walked into I was walking out of. Immediately. I swiveled on my heel and headed for the door.
The devil appeared in front of me, blocking my exit. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m not eating a freaking demon.” I gestured to the charred thing.
The devil gave me an indulgent smile. “You misunderstand.” He clasped my upper arms, and my skin crawled at his touch. “You won’t be eating him. I’d never allow you to partake in something so barbaric. No, the lesser demons will be.”
Now this was the devil I remembered. I needed to commit this to memory.
In spite of myself, I smiled. “You slipped up.” I was embarrassed that tears pricked my eyes. I’d been so easily had.
The devil’s eyes flickered and his face contorted in anger. “You want me meek? Loving?” He pointed behind him. “That’s what happens when I soften. Demons rebel. Take a good look, my queen. The more kindness you ask of me, the more you will see this.”
I sat on my room’s balcony, my back to the wall. The flames that surrounded the castle crackled, the shrieks of the damned blending in with them. I hummed below my breath, not ready to call the devil’s attention to me, but also unable to ignore all these souls’ pain.
I cradled my head in my hands, waiting out the last of my time here for the evening. The devil had finally let me go, but not before he had me swear to join him the next time he hosted such a dinner. I wasn’t banking on being here the next time such a dinner occurred.
The entire castle shook. I lifted my head from my hands.
What in the world?
The tremors increased, getting more pronounced by the second. A minute later, the doors to our room slammed open. Dinner must be over.
Then the click of heels. The devil could move places instantaneously, yet he chose this entrance.
The balcony doors flew open. A shadow fell upon me.
“Are you trying to scare me again?” I asked.
“I have enough fear to prey upon. I want something else entirely from you.”
I wrapped my arms around my knees. “I just want to be alone.”
“And I want to be near you,” he said.
Much to my dismay, he sat down next to me. “I scared you earlier?”
I looked over at him. “I don’t understand you. At all.”
He smiled, staring off at the fields of fire beyond the balcony. “That is because I am a god. We aren’t meant to be easily understood. But one day you will.” He turned to me. “I await that day.”
My throat worked. “Why do you have to be like this? Just let me hate you.”
“Little bird, I know you won’t believe me, but I am all bad, and once I was all good, and I can be everything in between all at the same time.”
“That makes no sense.”
“In time you will understand this too. It is the logic of the gods, and you have only just come into your power. It will take eons to grasp this.”
I watched his lips move, fascinated by them. On a whim, I reached out and traced them. My heart pounded faster and faster. He nipped at my finger, then took my hand in his.
“I enjoy your tender heart. It must survive much to live here. This will not be the last terrible thing you behold. And I will admit a part of me craves your terror, because it is yours.” He leaned his head back and sighed. “Everything about you excites me.”
Chapter 18
Gabrielle
This time, when I crossed over to earth, I felt water. As my body was forced upwards, the soil had gotten softer and softer. I’d cracked through the hard shell of the earth and was shoved into … this.
Water.
After I released enough air to tell which way was up, I kicked my way to the surface. I gasped in a lungful of air, my hair plastered to my neck. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of sulfur.