“Well…thank you for not eating him,” I said. My voice was cold and sharp, and I hoped he didn’t notice the little tremor of fear that lilted at the end of each word. Thallor turned slowly, levelling me with a look that I was half sure would result in my instantaneous combustion.Gee, I said ‘thank you,’ didn’t I?
“What… What are you doing?”
Thallor sighed, positioning his open palm in front of the plant closest to him as if presenting it to me. “Taking care of these plants. They haven’t been fed.”
“I fed them yesterday,” I snapped back a little too quickly, Mortimer’s betrayal doing an absolute number on my emotions.Do you not remember the terrifying demon man, Quincey? Why are you pushing your luck?
“They were all on the verge of death and now they are not.” Mortimer meowed a few times as Thallor stood up. He sighed again, a deeper sigh than the previous time, before moving to hold Mort in his arms, giving him the same icy glare he alwaysseemed to give me. “You were right, she came back. There is still no food for you to be found here.”
Thallor set the black cat on the floor before approaching me slowly. The scent of smoke wafted toward me, thick and warm and akin to cosying up under a blanket near a fire with a good book. I ignored the smell, keeping all hints of intoxication from my face as I stumbled backward away from him and into the kitchen counter.
“You came back.” Not a question. Just a statement. A fact. He didn’t say it as if he had been worried I wouldn’t. Thallor didn’t say it as if he cared or was even bothered if I did or didn’t. Even if he had, I would have known better. His entire existence now depended on whether I decided to go through with the wishes or not—something I wouldn’t do until I had a chance to actually do some research on the subject.
I shrugged, trying to feign as much nonchalance as possible. “This ismyapartment. And I came back for Mortimer, but his loyalties seemed to have changed.” My voice was still cold as I looked at him.
He cocked his head toward me slightly. His brows were ever so slightly raised, and his eyes were set in a half-lidded gaze that made it seem like he was simultaneously mocking and dismissing me. The faint smirk that tugged on the corner of his lips made my blood boil.
“Are you jealous of me…or the cat?” he taunted.
“I don’t care about you at all?—”
“And yet you summoned me,” he cut in before I was even finished speaking.
“That was a mistake. You can crawl back to the depths of hell for all I care.”
But we both knew he couldn’t. Thallor was well and truly stuck with me, and I think that sentiment terrified him as much as it did me. His jaw clenched and I saw the reds of his eyesignite.Shit.“I would gladly return. Hell is a breath of fresh air compared to you.”
So just leave.He was a powerful demon, wasn’t he? He could use whatever powers or magic he had to fix this? I didn’t need him here and, more importantly, I didn’t want him anywhere near me. And yet, he was the answer to everything. I took a breath, steadying myself against the wave of thoughts that crashed into me. When would enough be enough?
I’d suffered, hadn’t I? Dead parents? A professor dedicated to making my life a living hell? A brain that made every situation, every decision feel like it might kill me. A landlord who couldn’t give a shit if I froze to death in the winter. A possible stalker situation at work. A grandmother who was so unbelievably ill that I flinched every time my grandfather called, because I feared the news at the other end of the phone, and now this? I let out a shaky laugh.
Now I had to exist in the company of a demon that would rather crawl back into hell than exist in the same room as me. My heart began to pound against my chest, the tightness coming from nowhere until…It’s getting harder to breathe under the weight of everything.Tears pooled at the corner of my eyes and I tipped my head upward.
Do not fucking cry. If you cry, you look weak, and if you look weak, he will take advantage of you.I willed myself to hold back the tears. Hold back everything that was threatening to swallow me whole. All the feelings I hadn’t dealt with over the last few months rearing their ugly heads.
Thallor’s eyes roamed over me for a second as if trying to work something out. As if looking over me for injuries that didn’t exist. Because it’s impossible to see cuts below the skin and wounds that bleed from the inside. I swallowed back the lump in my throat, digging my fingers into my palms and hissing as my nails pierced the cut that has just about scabbed over.
“Sorry…I…”
The jarring ding of my phone pulled my attention away from my own thoughts. I wiped at my cheek as one stray tear tracked down my face, betraying everything that I was feeling. Taking a deep breath, I looked down at my screen–illuminated with a name that never failed to make me smile.
Nick: We just opened and that creep is back in.
Nick: He’s even making Brent uncomfortable which is saying something.
Nick: What do you think his serial killer alias would be?
Nick: The Tailored-suit Torturer? The Executive Executioner? The Boardroom Butcher?
Nick: Just thinking about how much hair gel he uses makes me want to vom.
Nick: If I’m still alive, I’ll see you Friday xx
Thank god for Nick and his impressive ability to make me laugh, especially at a time like this. When he didn’t know I needed it. I looked up from my phone to find Thallor still staring at me. Staring at the wet track left by a few additional tears that came streaming down my face. I wasn’t sure what his expression was. Pity? Confusion? It was like he was trying to make out the thousand other emotions I’d experienced in the last two minutes. Trying to work out what I was truly feeling on the inside.
Good luck with that, pal. I have been trying to do that for years. You’ll need more than demon powers to achieve a feat like that.
A little while later,I had washed all the soil and sweat off my body and slipped into a different pair of pyjamas. They were black and covered in clouds and stars, and I had pulled a long cardigan around me. Once I had finally brushed my hair, I stalked back out into the main living area, where Thallor sat on the sofa and rifled throughThe Malediction Codex.Mortimer had already disappeared from my apartment, off doing what cats do best.
