“Jann? Jann, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head, but she hurried out of the bed and to my side, gripping my arm just as Lucifer had—yet nothing froze my limbs in place.
“Jann! Talk to me, please!”
I shook my head, but gathered her into my lap, curling her up and holding her, burying my face in her neck, and breathing in the scent of her.
I trembled, and she grabbed for me. “Jann, you’re scaring me. What’s happened? Has someone been hurt? Is it—”
I put my palm to her belly, her belly that was so small my hand virtually spanned it. I choked back a lump that rose in my throat, swallowed it so hard it hurt going down.
“Jann?!” Diadre cupped my face and hugged my head, whispering comforts, reassurances, begging me to speak. And I tried. But what could I say?
Eventually, I croaked the few words I was capable of forming. “Lucifer has… told me he can break the curse. Then he threatened to kill you both if I don’t surrendereverything.”
Diadre went very, very still in my arms.
“And…” I rasped. “I’m afraid I’ll do it.” I lifted my head the moment the words were out, terrified she’d shrink from me.
Instead of judgment or fear, all I found in her big round eyes was grief. “Jann, no.No.You won’t. Youcan’t—”
“I know how it is to grow up without a father,” I hissed. “I know what happens to a mother, left with no Neph male to protect her from the others.” I glared, hissing,raging.But she didn’t flinch. She only looked more sad. “I know what will happen, Dee—to you.”
“Melek—”
“It doesn’t matter how many good, honest peopleresist.Lucifer will remain. He cannot be removed. And far, far too many people would follow the Fallen willingly.” I couldn’t look away from her, pleading with my eyes for her to understand. To hear my heart. “Melek could lead the land’s greatest force against the Nephilimandwin,and I will still wake in a cold sweat with Lucifer standing over my bed, because hecannot be killed.”
“That’s not… it can’t be that—”
“Trapped.Enslaved.You curse me and my people for slaving, Dee, but what abouthim?My only choices are to accept death, and leave my family utterly alone—or bring death to others.”
Her eyes widened. “Has he told you to kill—”
“No,” I mumbled bitterly. “But it’s only a matter of time.” I didn’t pretend to myself that truly giving over to Lucifer—as I suspected Gall had—would be anything less than death and murder. And for me, Lucifer’s first target would be Melek. He knew how close we were. Knew I had access to him. Perhaps I now knew why Lucifer had pursued and persuaded me since my childhood? Because I was a male that others admired, and were likely to follow.
Did he know I’d led them back to Melek?
Melek, the only Neph who stood in defiance of Lucifer, as surely as Lucifer had screamed rebellion against God.
Even if every last Neph was killedexceptme, Lucifer would still want me. Because it was his way. And he would never die, so could never be sated.
He’d offered what he called freedom, and it made me sick. I fell for that line when I was young. Believed it.Admiredthe Fallen. Followed him willingly.
It changed nothing.
It brought nothing to my life except greater fear, and the sense of a sword always hovering over my head.
“Jann, please… What’s going on? How did you—”
A knock on the door shot me out of the chair like an arrow from the bow, sweeping Diadre behind me, I crept towards the sitting room and the door, where the knock sounded again.
Was this it? The beginning? Lucifer himself? Or one of his agents? Someone intended to accept my allegiance, or kill me if I refused?
“Who’s there?” I grunted, one hand on the doorhandle, the other gripping the blade at my hip.
“I understand you have a curse that needs breaking?” It was Hever’s crumbling rot of a voice.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved, or dismayed. But in the end, it didn’t matter. With Diadre at my back, I turned the handle and opened it a crack, to find Hever standing on the other side, hood over his head, hiding his face in shadow, except for those glowing eyes.
