I risked losing this.
I glanced away, the sight of him suddenly making the pain of that future more acute.
As I laid there, letting my happiness slip through my fingers like grains of sand, the notes of some haunting song drifted in from beyond the walls of Andre’s room.
I pushed out of Andre’s bed and slipped on the clothes left for me earlier.
That painting of Andre clad in his crusader gear watched me as I moved throughout the room and pulled on my boots. I swear those troubled eyes beseeched me, but to do what, I had no clue.
Why does the spider weave its web?
Why do the fates spin their thread?
For you. For you. For you.
The song’s lyrics drifted out from behind Andre’s bookshelf, and I stiffened at them.
I knew that voice. I’d know it from anywhere.
My mother.
She wasn’t using her glamour, but her voice was still lovely enough to convince me of anything.
Without thinking, I moved to the shelf and drew the trap door back. The bookshelf swung out, revealing the passage that led to Andre’s secret library, his equivalent of a panic room.
Light spilled up the stairs from the room below. I couldn’t for the life of me remember if those lights came on when the passage was opened. If they didn’t, then Andre’s hidden library wasn’t so hidden after all.
I closed my eyes, letting my other senses take over. As far as I could tell, nothing living was down there.
I crept down the staircase, drawn by the music.
Why does the morning lark find me dead?
Why does the devil want you wed?
It’s true. It’s true. It’s true.
The hairs on my forearms rose as I entered the room. To anyone else, these lyrics were eloquent gibberish. But to me, they actually meant something. I could swear she was singing to me.
Why do we lay in prophecy’s bed?
Why does the world want your head?
If only they knew. They knew. They knew.
I crossed the room, heading for the source of the music. An iPod sat on one of the shelves at the back of the room. Attached to it were two speakers.
You can’t run from destiny
You can’t run from history
Fate will find you.
They will find you.
He will find you.
My forsaken one.
The song ended there, the notes echoing into silence. The effect was haunting.
“It is lucky for you that I am benevolent.”
I yelped and whirled around. The devil stood on the opposite end of the room, blocking the passage out. The shadows gathered around him, darkening the already dimly lit room. And, uh, the dude looked pissed.
His eyes narrowed and he folded his arms. “You fucked the vampire.”
I flinched at the devil’s words. I didn’t shy away from cursing, but something about the word used in its true context and spoken with such casual venom shocked me.
A chill entered the room as we stared at each other.
“Not that I should be surprised,” the devil continued. “The fates didn’t fashion me some lilywhite saint for a consort—though that would’ve been fun to corrupt.”
He stepped forward, and I backed up, banging into the shelf I stood next to and jostling the iPod. There was nowhere for me to go.
Best get used to this, a small voice inside me said. The thought sickened me.
“I warned you not to get intimate, and I don’t make idle threats.”
“Then why didn’t you stop me?” He could have, just like last time. I wasn’t sure it would’ve made a difference.
His unflinching gaze unnerved me. “You keep crossing me, as though I have not built my very reputation on punishment and pain. I figured it was time to remind you. You needed to be taught a lesson.
The devil’s quiet menace had unease unfurling inside me, and my siren responded. My skin began to glow. “What are you going to do?”
He took another step forward, beginning to close the distance that separated us. “Oh, I have a few things in mind.”
My breathing quickened and his stare dropped to my chest. I closed my eyes against the expression he wore.
“I could kill your friends—the ones that so dutifully protect you. That seer and I do have unfinished business. I’d torture them slowly, make it clear with every painful injury why they were receiving my wrath. That they put their loyalty in the wrong woman. All she had to do was remain chaste. But she didn’t, and her betrayal caused their suffering.”
Trapped as I was between the bookcase and the devil, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t escape.
He stopped just short of me. This close to him, I could see his dark beauty. It scared me that his presence no longer caused the same sick reaction it normally did. I could still feel a dull ache around him, like something vital was being sucked from me, but the sensation should’ve been sharper, more powerful.
Hestia had called me tainted. Somehow, somewhere along the way, I’d become immune to the devil’s wickedness. Or, more likely, he’d poisoned my soul.
“Or I could kill your adopted mother,” he said. “That’s the one I’m leaning towards.”
My mother. Oh God, he would too. This needed to end.
“What do you want?” My voice came out harsh.
He cocked his head. Amusement twinkled in his eyes. “I thought I made that very clear from the start. I’ve lived for an eternity and waited for you for nearly as long.” He came up close to me, his eyes traveling over my body. “It’s almost too much. The waiting.”
A cold sweat had broken out across my body.
His form seemed to flicker. Whatever force allowed him to visit here, it was running out. “I was there the moment you took your first step. The moment you spoke your first word—‘da,’ in case you were wondering. I heard your wails when your mother never returned home, drank in your fear the night your father entered my kingdom.