“I don’t know. Is there a time limit on thiswhole thing?” I asked, trying to make myself as small and untriggering as possible. He continued to glare at me, settling me with a stare that I was certain was boiling me from the inside. He was terrifying and utterly devastating, and every time I opened my mouth, his beautiful red hair seemed to burn a little bit brighter.
“No,” he snapped.
“Well, okay, then. I guess there’s no?—”
“Make no mistake,” Thallor interrupted. “I have no interest in rotting away on this planet because you cannot make a decision.”
“Okay… Well, I’ll think about it this week, then. Um, and when I do decide. How should I summon you?” I started musing over my question out loud. “Is this like a genie situation? Do I rub the book?” And like word vomit, a disease I was sure I would never recover from, I used my thumb to motion to the candle behind me. “Rub the ‘phallus’?”
We already established that he wasn’t one for jokes.I wanted to tell myself that I saw a ghost of a smile or something tugging at the corner of his lips. But not even so much of a hint of amusement flitted across his face. Like Mortimer, I was a cat with nine lives, given the number of times I’d died from humiliation during our conversation. And if I didn’t die from embarrassment-induced causes, Thallor looked like he would be happy enough to step in.
“Of all the people that have summoned me over the course of my lifetime, you are the least tolerable,” Thallor growled.
This time, I bit back on the urge to ask how many that was (not saying the first thing that came to mind was progress). But something about his disdain hurt. Maybe I was being sensitive. Maybe it was the build-up of one too many awkward moments muddled in with the endless spew of unsettling thoughts that rattled around in my brain, maybe I’d just had a long day, but he pulled that one insecure thought I’d always had about myself from the deepest, darkest corner of my chest and then threw it back in my face.
I wasn’t going to complain or skirt culpability for the fact that I’d summoned him. Regardless of whether I was aware of it, my actions led to this. Whilst I could take responsibility for my actions, I certainly wasn’t going to take his brooding, I’m-better-than-you bullshit a moment longer.
“And you are a fuckingdelight,” I levelled him with the most saccharine smile I could muster, trying not to let it falter when I realised I’d made a mistake. Abig fucking mistake.
Thallor’s voice dropped so low I could almost feel the vibration in the air. He took a step toward me, pinning me between his body and my breakfast table. Under different circumstances, I’m sure this would have had my heart pummelling against my chest for a completely separate reason, but this? This was scarier than anything I could have encountered in my darkest nightmares.
“Let me make something very clear, human. We are not friends. Our relationship will never be anything more than transactional. I do not fucking care what you think about me. I do not wish to spend another moment in this cesspit of a worldwith youa moment longer than I need to. You are a clueless little woman with no idea what the fuck you are dealing with.”
His words burned like venom. I found myself faltering under his gaze and willing any tears that threatened to spill down mycheeks back into my head because I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing what he truly did to me.
“You are naïve. And in the end, you’ll be like all the rest. Putting your feeble thoughts into this won’t make me think any more highly of you.”
All my decisions from the last day came hurtling toward me. Regardless of how he felt about me or how much he seemed to hate me,nothinghe could do would stop me from ensuring that I did this properly. The image of my grandparents seeped into my mind. Mywhy.My foreverwhy.Maybe I was naïve and maybe I was stupid. But my recklessness was derived from nothing but love and an unwavering loyalty to see the people who raised me happy. They were the only reason I would ever consider doing this. They were the reason I found it hard to focus at university, and guilt trickled into every part of me when I was having fun.
I couldn’t focus on anything whilst knowing that the two people I loved most in the world were suffering. The accusations of a male who didn’t know me, as much as they hurt, meant nothing in comparison to the hurt I suffered on a daily basis.He can shove that candle right up his ass.
I followed after him, stalking after where he’d sauntered into the open space of my living room.
“You want to compare me to every other unsuspecting person who suffered through your presence, thenfine.You want to tell yourself that I am selfish and greedy and whatever else you clearly think about humans in general,fine.But don’t you ever—” I spat back, levelling him with a glare that could have rivalled his own, “—evercondescend to assume you know anything about why I do the things I do.”
“Make your wishes,” he snarled at me. I ignored his intoxicating smell, grounding myself in my own rage. “I no longer want to be tethered to you or this world.”
“You know what? Fuck you.” Without missing a beat, Ismiled up at him in mock innocence before breaking into one of those rambling speeches you hear when landing in a new country. “Hey there. Welcome to Earth. The time is 4:37 am. Thank you for travelling with the massive-ginger-cunt airlines. We hope you enjoy your stay!”
The snarl that left his lips wasn’t anything I’d heard before. It was primal. Dangerous and utterly terrifying. But if he wanted to be an asshole, I could be an asshole too.Not an ounce of self-preservation existed within me as I proceeded to leer at the male who could have snapped my body like a toothpick.
“Get out,” I barked at him. “Get out now. I don’t want you here. I’ll summon you whenIdecide what I am wishing for andhow.”
Thallor just started to laugh. Something malevolent and evil laced into each huff of air. And as quickly as the bravado had shot through my body, it was gone. I watched as his body contorted before my very eyes. His freckles and the golden hue of his skin faded into something dark, ashen, and grey. Dark tattoo-like swirls coursed up his arms and across his neck. His skin was pulled taut across his chest, not a single ounce of body fat on his tall, hulking body.
Unlike the smaller horns I’d seen on Halloween, these ones curled from the top of his head backward and ended in sharp points. The colour of his eyes was suspended somewhere between red and black, but I couldn’t fully be sure, given that I’d immediately squeezed my eyes shut the moment his body had begun to morph.
I took a step back, only opening my eyes because, as prey, I had a better chance of surviving if I knew where my predator was. Beautiful wasn’t enough to describe how Thallor looked. Because in his true form, he was so much more than that. He was hypnotising and terrifying, but magnificent too. But his eyeswere glazed over, and I wasn’t sure if the control the human-presenting version of Thallor had afforded to me previously would still be afforded to me now.
He continued to leer at me, breathing deeply as if he was about to peel off my skin and disembowel me. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t fucking move. And this was exactly the reason I didn’t watch horror films. Because thefinal girlalways had to mess with something she didn’t understand at the start of the film, and by the end, all her friends would be dead, whilst she cried about how unfair the world was. Maybe everything he had said about me was right…
He flashed me a wry grin, allowing me to see the two rows of razor-like protrusions that had replaced his normal set of teeth, other than the two canine fangs that were present as they had been before. They were long and sharp and-fuck, I’m going to be sick.My hands shook wildly as I took a step back, and then another, and then, I was stumbling backward, knocking over not one but two plants. I didn’t think about anything as I grabbed my phone and keys from the kitchen table and hurtled out the door.
Quincey Sterling, what the fuck have you done?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ihad never in my life been so fucking cold. But then again, I’d never really run outside in the dead of winter in nothing but some skimpy pyjamas that barely covered my ass and a pair of fluffy clogs that made my getaway mission that much more difficult. I stopped momentarily, just long enough to whip them off, before grabbing them in one hand and taking off toward my car.
