I rubbed my wrists, my shoulders easing, grateful for Anya’s rasp—our resident, no-good, annoying soul who’d gotten herself thrown in here until her next Judgment Day.
“Are you still planning to rot in here instead of redeeming yourself?”
She leaned her head back against the damp wall and stretched out her legs. “Safer in here than out there.”
“And what would you know about out there?”
Anya was only a human who used to practice divination on Earth. I never believed humans had much skill, or any power at all, really. That was reserved for angels and demons. But then Anya would say something that made me wonder if she did have some foresight.
She shrugged. “Only that it’s best not to get attached to anyone or anything. Things are changing, baby—as you well know.”
I almost indulged her by asking another question, but I caught the mischievous glint in her expression. She was egging me on. She wanted me to get sucked into her words. Even if she did believe it was safer down here, she received little engagement. She didn’t need to eator drink. She wasn’t sneaky enough to require a personal guard, and the closest prisoner was six cells away without the ability to talk. Her socialization came from me.
I didn’t understand how she wasn’t insane after all these months. If I hadn’t had Gabriel, I would’ve lost my mind. I would’ve completely given up.
He was the only reason I was able to escape.
Sighing, I took out a pencil and my piece of runed parchment, tore off the rune to deactivate its connection to the ranking board, and shoved them through the bars. It wasn’t much, but it could help her void of boredom and loneliness, at least a little.
Anya glanced at my offering, then up. “Why?”
“Because I know.” I dropped it in her cell. She could use it or leave it. Then I strode back to Ni.
She smiled the moment I stepped into view, or whoever had control over her did. She crinkled her runed parchment and set it aside.
I sent a shadow into her cell, forced it into a solid, sharp point, and sliced just above her neck. Black gunk oozed out. Internally cringing, I let my shadows absorb the abhorrent substance and brought it to my lips. I entered her mind, standing in the center of the shattered pieces.
Her thoughts and memories resembled Silas’s—even her manic smile. What didn’t was the way she responded.
“Who are you?” I demanded for… honestly, I’d lost count of how many times I’d asked that question.
On the outside, Ni only smiled, but inside, the pieces of her mind collected to form a clear thought:What makes you think I’m one person?
I tried to latch onto the thought and follow it to memories, but it slipped through my fingers as if it hadn’t come from Ni at all. Not for the first time, I wondered if she was still even in there.
We didn’t understand the demon disease. It killed blood-banded. It gave control over the soul. It changed their blood, their appearance, fractured their minds. But that was as much as we had figured out.
“Are you Lilith?”
Laughter vibrated through Ni’s brain, shaking the pieces before coalescing into a thought:Oh, darling, I’m not going to tell you. It’s so much more fun to keep you guessing.
My hands curled around the bars of her cell, squeezing until the Ember Metal dug into my skin.
“How did you get into this circle?”
Technically, we didn’t. Just our infection did. But I know what you meant, and it’s pretty clever on our part. I’m not surprised you or your king have failed to figure it out.
I glared at the whirling colors of Ni’s mind.
Don’t beat yourself up, darling. You’ll figure it out—once it’s too late.
Her thoughts lacked sound, but I could feel the confidence in her words grating against my mind.
“Why do you want to kill Lucille?”
Kill her. Burn her. Steal her. Bleed her dry. So many options, but only one will suffice for our bigger picture.
I gripped the metal bars with bone-crushing force, refraining from unlocking the cell and cleaving her head from her shoulders. Each time I interrogated her, she gave us breadcrumbs—just enough new information to make us keep her alive, but not enough to act on. And each time, she said shit like that to rile me up.
