Wren trails his knuckles down her cheek. “I remember, Zee.”
She tilts her head to lean into his touch. “Besides,” she adds with a drowsy grin. “I knew I was safe. The three of you wouldn’t let me die.”
Her confidence in us humbles me, and I am not a man easily made vulnerable. But here I am, flayed open right down to my bare nerves. Exposed. Raw. Especially when she turns away from Wren and places her little hand on my cheek.
I bite down hard on my lip to hold back words that leap onto my tongue, Words I don’t dare speak because…because despite her tender touch and sweet declarations, it can’t erase what I’ve done—the bargain I made.
Where I’m bound once this life is over.
Rapunzel frowns when her gaze falls on my lip. “You’re bleeding.”
I lick away the salty tang. “I can’t.”
The divot between her brows deepens. “Can’t what, Quinn?”
I shake my head. “Rapunzel…”
She sits up and buried her hands in the mess of my hair. “Quinn, talk to me.”
“Fucking fine.” Suddenly, I’m keenly aware of the weight of Wren and Dax’s stares. How they’re able to hear what I’m about to confess. And yet, I need to say this to her because tonight, we nearly lost her, which changed everything. Weallcould have died, and she would have never known how important she is to me. “I may not be a man of many words like Dax or pretty ones like Wren, but it is a truth, Rapunzel, that I love you.”
There.
The truth.
I love this woman. Love her so fucking much, and when I lick away the remaining blood from my lips, Rapunzel’s captivating green eyes go wide as my tongue disappears back inside my mouth. Then a choked gasp whispers from her as an unseen entity tosses her from the bed. Wren tumbles after her as if shoved off the mattress. Dax is out of the chair and diving for his sword that’s somewhere discarded on the floor.
And me…
Oh, my fucking God.
Agony tears through me, stealing the breath right out of me. I gape, furious…yes, even terrified….at the shadowy figure that emerges like smoke across the room. My first instinct is to protect. Protect Rapunzel. Protect Wren and Dax. But I can’t fucking move as that massive gray body shuffles toward the bed. Ominous. Bringing with it the acrid stink of Hell. The demon tilts its head, regarding me with those onyx eyes, and all I can think is,‘No, not now. Not yet. And not while I’m sitting here naked.’
How undignified.
This prick could have at least given me the honor of dying with my sword in my hand—and with breeches covering my bare ass.
“Couldn’t wait, could you? Couldn’t let me be fucking happy,” I grind out, every part of me but my mouth locked in place by the demon. “You had to kill me right when I was finally fucking happy.”
The demon laughs in my face.
I scan the room and catch sight of Wren and Dax shielding Rapunzel on the far side of the chamber. At least someone thought to give her Wren’s shirt to cover her nudity. My only solace is that the demon will spare them. The beast is here for me, not them. Once it takes my soul, it will leave them unharmed. Why? Because a deal is a deal. I’m the only one who owes this creature a damn thing.
Literally.
My damned soul.
“If you think I’m going to make it easy for you to torture me, you’re as foolish as you are grotesque.”
“Temper, temper, Quinn Redgrave.” The demon calmlytsksme, its cloven feet banging against the stone as it paces a U-shape around the bed. “It seems I’ve no need of your putrid soul.”
“You lie,” I growl.
The demon ceases its pacing and cuts me a glare. “I may not be above trickery, but I am no liar.” It shifts its hellish gaze to Rapunzel, and my blood runs cold. “Isn’t that true, Queen Rapunzel? Am I not honoring our bargain?”
“What?” My roar rebounds off the stone walls as the appalling image of Rapunzel being torn to shreds in Hell flashes through my mind. “Rapunzel, what did you do?”
Rapunzel shrinks back, but not even Wren and Dax can protect her. With a wave of its hand, the demon shoves them away without physically touching them. “Two truths to redeem his soul for a single strand of my hair. That’s what was promised, and that’s what was given.”
