“I know what you’ve seen because I’ve seen it too. That, and more.” The Devil was the king of deception, but I had one on him. I knew things he didn’t want others to know. A smile spread across my face for a moment when his back stiffened, but it fell short when I remembered what was happening right now.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lied, then finally turned around to face me with bright red eyes. What was once the most beautiful angel in Heaven, was now the most hideous monster in the Underworld, and it was his own doing. Burnt layers of skin covered him, charcoal winked beneath the deep cuts on him. It was as if smoke might start seeping out from the cracks along his chest. “Tell me, Faye, why are you trying to stop the inevitable? You’re a fallen angel, act like one.”
I dropped my head and sighed. “I no longer go by that name because I’m not an angel anymore.”
He smirked. “I noticed.” He walked over to the tiny table and poured himself a glass of liquor. I couldn’t tell you what kind. I didn’t drink to know any. “Any angel that comes into the Underworld risks being tainted, and you chose to come down here, anyway.”
“I don’t regret my decision,” I told him plainly. “Who I was doesn’t matter. You were a fallen angel, and now you’re not. You know by looking at me that my body has long since adapted and changed since my fall.”
He sighed, then propped himself on the table and rubbed one of his dark horns casually as if to remind me that they were there. “Yeah, I see that you’re a witch,Melinda. Is there a reason as to why you came to me about this? Because quite frankly, I’m bored, and you don’t want me to be bored. It’s not pretty.”
This wasn’t working. Time to bring up the girl.
“So, you don’t care that Harvest plans to use Kitty as a power source, and if he succeeds, they all die. Reapers won’t exist in the new world.”
“Why would I give a fuck?” The fact that he got all defensive when he normally kept his composure said enough about the youngest Reaper sibling being his weak spot. Which made sense. I knew what was coming, and I also knew he believed he’d never let it happen.
“Hmm,” I paused a second. “I’m a witch with perks as well as visions, so falling wasn’t so bad when I think about it because… How else would I have known about a certain someone knocking out a certain someone with a sleeping spell so that her family would have no choice but to take her away from what was about to go down?”
A board on the table snapped beneath his fingers as he rose, but I kept on talking, unfazed by his anger. “It doesn’t make any sense. Your actions contradict themselves. Your stalking-slash-obsession with her has gone on this long yet you’re going to let this happen?”
He flipped the table, sending it shattering into the wall. I held my ground. “He’s doing my work for me,” was all he said to me as he turned back to the window.
My shoulders dropped. “You can end everything before it even begins. Those visions you saw are coming for you, regardless.”
He laughed. “Bullshit.”
“Will you be saying that when you’re on your knees?” I asked before I thought.
It was with those words that I should leave.
The Devil had made his choice. Besides, it wasn’t my job to break him. That one was for another.
And I prayed I lived to see the day.
“Leave before I end you right here and now,” he whispered. “Lucky for you, I’m waiting to see if he succeeds, and what’s left of the human world…” He chuckled darkly. “Well, you know how my story goes.”
I caught up to his ruse. We both knew the outcome of tonight, it was his future that remained unclear, and I knew it ate at him. Visions had long since haunted him about it.
“I’m gone,” I muttered sadly. “Just remember, beneath the monster… Beneath the Dark King there lies a man, and he wants out. Lucifer.”
I didn’t stay around to see what reaction saying his name had caused, but I knew my words were sure to provoke the Devil into a place he didn’t want to go.
Twenty-Seven
Sebastian
Ididn’t waste a second. I ran three giant steps, then jumped toward Isabella. Her skin, the skin that I’d touched and kissed over the last few days was marred by the dark moving lines, the ones she was so ashamed about. At least, she had clothes on now. When I had arrived too late at the cave, she had been naked, and I had been furious for her sake. I hoped when this was all over, and I held her in my arms at night, that she had no memories of the last few hours unless it was the one where I was holding her in my arms when she awoke from this nightmare.
Because I was going to return her to normal, then I was going to take her to a beach where she could look up and try her hardest to peer into the sun, the very sun she made me jealous of with the way she had smiled when talking about it. The sun was lucky it wasn’t a person. But that smile, her stories, I wanted more. I wasn’t finished with her, not now, not ever. And I was confident that there was so much my witch wanted to know about me.
So, I’d save her from the darkness. And I’d do it again. Over and Over. Every single fucking day for the rest of forever if I had to.
A storm cloud of darkened magic flowed around her, and when I got close enough, I could feel the sting of rejection. The storm didn’t want me going near her, but I did anyway. When I felt him shimmer in front of me, I materialized my scythe and blocked Harvest’s sword. We bounced away from each other in opposite directions.
It was the first time seeing Harvest. His fucking hair was on fire. Literally. His skin was the palest white, the kind of white humans made vampires out to be. His eyes were the same bright reddish-orange as his hair. The most ominous thing about him wasn’t his stature or looks, or even the level of crazy in his eyes. No, it was the sheer amount of dread he poured out into the room as he walked around eyeing me with a vicious smile. His filth spilled over into the ballroom in gigantic emotional waves while the storm around Isabella wreaked havoc on the castle. Harvest laughed just as the wall behind her crumbled beneath the magic.
Like Fear—Payne’s father—who was also an entity created by the Devil, Harvest carried a certain charge to him as well. In the way Fear brought, well,fear,into a room as he walked,I couldn’t even comprehend what it was this entity brought or what he was after. There wasn’t a word for him.
