“I’d like to watch you try.”
He heads for the door, so I use an illusion to slam it shut.
Asmodeus looks at it with a raised eyebrow. “They can manipulate objects?”
“When I concentrate hard enough, they can.”
“How fascinating.”
He then grabs my illusion in a headlock and throws him over his shoulder, tossing him away and scurrying off, leaving me in the room alone.
My illusion is lying on the floor, probably having given up on life after the assault.
“Good lord,” I mutter, realizing that with this man, I’m never going to win.
CHAPTER TEN
DEUS
“You want one?”
I freeze when I realize that she’s speaking to me. She’s holding out a sucker and I stare at it, bewildered. “This is a lousy way to poison someone.”
Her eyebrows scrunch. “Why would I poison a sucker?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“What? Did you hit your head and wake up confused or something? Do you think I’m some covert assassin?” Then she laughs like she thinks this is hilarious as I stare at her.
She’s obviously trying to kill me.
Her laugh tapers off, and I can tell she’s feeling anxious about this situation she’s found herself in. “What’s your name?”
“Asmodeus.”
She blinks then cocks her head while her blue eyes watch me. “I’m going to be honest… I’m going to struggle with that one. How about I call you Mo? Or Momo, when I’m trying to be cute. Like ‘Momo, come open this jar of pickles for me.’”
There is something quite wrong with this girl of about eighteen. Is she one of the ones my family told me to be wary of? She certainly must be.
“So…” She runs a finger along the windowsill. “What do you think about letting me go free?”
“I have no say in what happens to you.”
She rocks back in the chair as I stand guard at the door. I would be disciplined quite severely if an elder caught me speaking to her, so I’m not sure why I’m engaging. She hugs her legs and peels the wrapper off a second sucker before sticking it in her mouth. I’m surprised they even allowed her to have it, but it seems to be giving her some comfort.
“Will you please let me go? I’ll give you a sucker.”
“You’re offering me a poisoned sucker in exchange for your freedom? Which part of that deal makes it seem like I’m coming out on top?”
She smiles at me. “All parts. Especially the part where you take everything from me.” She falls onto her side, blood pooled out around her. “Why did you kill me, Mo? Why did you take everything from me? You’re the reason I’m dead. You’re the reason we’re all dead.”
I jerk awake, panting while I whip the sheets back and quickly get out of bed, as if the bed itself is what caused me to have that dream, even after staying here two weeks. That wasn’t how that memory ended, but my fucked-up mind decided it needed a new ending.
I decide it needs to get fucked and hastily get dressed.
“Pocket Lint the Third, Esquire, let’s go mess something up.”
Pocket Lint trots off the bed, using the steps I got for her last week, and hurries after me into the kitchen where Ellison is sitting in his suit.
