If I didn’t know better, he was pleading with me silently too, the conviction in his gaze enough to sway me.
“So… I get a bath, food, and clothes,” I started slowly. “And you get the whole night to do whatever you want to me?”
He nodded once. “That’s my price.”
“And you’ll bring me right back here tomorrow morning? Early?”
“Tomorrow morning, early. Right at this spot.”
“How can I trust you?” My jaw hardened on the question. “How do I know you won’t trap me there until my time is up?”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “You don’t.”
His honestly made my stomach twist into knots. He’d let me go once before. Could I trust him to do it a second time?
His hand skimmed up my arm, his eyes focusing on his fingers as if he was transfixed with the mere notion of touching me. “What’s your answer? Time is not our friend, little human.”
“Okay, it’s a deal. But if you backstab me…” I trailed off. I wasn’t really sure what I’d do.
He stared at me, amusement banked in his stormy orbs. “You’ll what? Kill me? I can’t die.”
I twirled his dagger earring between my fingers. “I’ll cut your giant dick off and wear it around my neck like a trophy. It will be a warning to all men not to fuck with me.”
He blinked. For a second I thought I’d fucked up, and he’d rescind his invite to help. But he threw his head back and laughed. For the first time, it sounded genuine—happy.
“If I break my promise, I don’t deserve to hang from such a beautiful neck.” He leaned back to gesture at my pierced nipples. “Especially if I get to be so close to these on a daily basis.”
“You’re really fucked up, you know that?” I laughed, but the humor in his eyes was gone. When he spoke again, the bend in his voice turned my blood cold.
“Oh, little human. If I know anything, it’s that.”
Chapter26
RAYVEN
"Hold tight,"Belial instructed. A tiny squeak left me when he scooped me up in his arms, and my own instinctually banded around his neck.
He stared down at my small frame cradled against him, and the blush from my cheeks instantly spread down my chest to my breasts.
The human instinct to cover myself immediately ebbed when I caught the way his eyes danced over my bare body. I was wearing only my boots and a thin layer of my own sweat and blood, but I felt like a goddamn goddess with the way he looked at me.
There was a swirl of blue, glimmering magic whirling around us, bouncing off my skin and blinding me. One second we were in the middle of the maze, the next we were standing in his bedroom.
The familiar castle smell washed over me, along with a wave of relief. I never imagined being so happy to see this place. Then again, a night spent in a luxurious cage was way better than a hellish garden filled with man-eating monsters.
At least, I hoped it would be.
Belial pulled his cloak off, slung it over the chair beside the roaring fire, and strode toward the bathroom. My eyes went to the bed, my breathing turning short and sharp as memories came surging back.
It really was a beautiful bed, with its elaborately carved posts, and the canopy draped over it. Even with the wisps of old spider silk, heavy with dust, clinging to the swathes of fabric, there was no disguising its grandeur.
The sheets were black, silken, and something told me he hadn’t changed them since I’d been in them last.
The thought of him smelling me as he slept had my heart clenching.
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth when my attention landed on the heavy chain still bolted to his headboard, now looped around one of the posts.
"Rayven…”
