“The witch is yours, Beelzebub. So what are you going to fucking do about it?” she asked finally, smirking when I pushed past her and made my way to the stairs.
Minutes had passed since I’d lost sight of Margot, for the entirety of my world to be turned upside down. The black massI’d thought existed where a heart should have been didn’t seem to care that she was a witch and I was a demon, that I’d gone to Hollow’s Grove fully intent on condemning all the witches to the Hell I’d lived in.
I blacked out, seeing red as I took the steps two at a time in my haste to get to her. To stop her from doing something she would regret and that would hurt me now that I understood what this feeling was lurking beneath my anger.
It was pain. The kind of pain I’d only heard of in stories from people who were foolish enough to fall in love. I’d never thought to join their numbers, never thought I could be dumb enough to tie myself to another being in such a way when I knew all too well how disappointing people could be.
I made my way to Amelia’s room, because even though I couldn’t see the doorway to know that’s where Margot had gone, I knew her well enough to anticipate that she would go somewhere that was familiar to her. In a place that was entirely new, she would go where she’d already begun to feel comfortable over walking into an unknown.
I slapped my hands on the door, shoving forward with a force I would have taken back if I could. The door burst open before me, revealing Margot standing behind the chair where the man she’d grabbed sat. He gripped the side of the chair as he turned to look at me, his mouth popping open in shock as I took a few steps into the room and surveyed the situation.
Margot held a piece of rope within her grip, her intentions clear. It should have eased some of my tension that she felt the need to restrain her chosen partner, when I’d been allowed to touch her on and off, however casually, since we’d come to Hell.
Instead, it only filled me with anger that she hadn’t simply chosen me in the first place. That she’d been so anxious to avoid me that she’d been willing to subject herself tothis.
I didn’t give either of them time to react as my anger dictated my actions, driving me to the center of the room. Grasping theman’s head in my hands, I stared him in the eye as I twisted his head sharply to the side. The resounding crack filled the room as Margot dropped the rope to the floor and scrambled forward in an attempt to intervene.
The man’s body swayed to the side, toppling off the side of the chair and falling to the floor, forgotten by me. I turned my stare to where Margot swallowed and stared at me with wide eyes.
“What iswrongwith you?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch. It drew Amelia to the door to her bedroom, having followed after me.
She stared down at the body, a grin of glee spreading across her face as she leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. “This is about to get very entertaining,” she said. I glared at her as I spun and stalked to the door, giving her a gentle nudge into the hall. I swung the door closed in her face, completely uncaring that it was her room Margot had chosen to hide away in.
“Tell me, songbird,” I said, twisting my body and strolling toward Margot. I kept my body languid and casual, working to shove down my anger as I worked through the revelations that had rocked my world. I stepped around the edge of the chair and lowered myself into the space the other man had occupied, facing Margot where she stood behind it as I kicked the body out of the way with a sneer. “What exactly were you planning to give him?”
Margot couldn’t seem to tear her eyes off the unconscious male on the floor, her eyes wide with shock. “What have you done?” she asked, floundering for words as I looked at her over my shoulder.
“Were you fond of him?” I asked, studying her response. She turned those wide mahogany eyes to me, watching as I kicked him again. It didn’t matter to me that he couldn’t feel it in that moment, if she kept looking at him, I would desecrate his body and leave nothing more than ashes.
“You killed him!”
I scoffed, leaning forward to pick up the rope from the floor where Margot had dropped it in her haste to scramble back. “You can’t kill what is already dead, songbird. Give him a few hours, he’ll wake up eventually. Though he will stay away from you when he does so unless he wants me to do far worse the next time I catch him looking at you.”
She gaped at me, those pretty lips spread wide as she sputtered for a response. “There was no reason for that.”
I shrugged, keeping my seat even though I wanted nothing more than to close the distance between us, pin Margot to the wall, and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. Knowing that what I felt was genuine had changed everything for me. There was no denying our inevitability now.
“I disagree,” I said, quirking my head to the side as I ran my tongue over my bottom teeth.
“Fuck you,” she said, gathering the steel in her veins. She shook her head once, striding past me in an effort to reach the door. I reached out with my wing, blocking her path and then grasping her forearm, yanking her to a halt at my side. “Let go of me,” she snarled.
Placing the rope in her hand, I kept my wing in her way as I raised my arms over the back of the chair, leaning into it and putting them in place so that she could tie me to the legs. Her eyes bounced over my form, lingering on my chest as I arched back into the seatback, making my intentions clear. If she wanted her partner bound and unable to participate, if she needed that to find her pleasure, then I would gladly allow her to tie me up for an eternity if it meant I got to feel her skin against mine. The desperation she’d filled me with knew no bounds, sinking deeper within me with every minute that passed. I wondered how I hadn’t seen it.
I had somehow fallen head over heels for this woman I’d thought I hated.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
“What’s wrong, songbird? You were so ready to take what you wanted fromhim.I am here, and I’m perfectly willing to let you have your way with me,” I said, smirking as I peered up at her. She fumbled for a response, her eyes darting around the room as if she couldn’t bear to meet my gaze. I knew she was confused, but I also knew it was too soon for me to explain the shift in my behavior.
Margot wasn’t ready for me to tell her how I felt.
“He isn’t you,” she said finally, shaking her head again.
The notion that she would prefer anyone else to me was laughable, and I grinned at her as I spat the words that weren’t fair, that would push her too far, too quickly. I knew it, but I found myself saying them anyway. I wanted to make her come undone; I wanted to tear her apart until all she could see was me in the same way she’d infiltrated my mind, embedding herself in my skin like a blessing and a disease that I would never be rid of.
“Careful. That sounds dangerously close to an admission that I scare you, Margot,” I said in challenge, grinning when she twisted the rope in her hands and finally stepped up behind me. Her fingers brushed against my wings as she worked quickly, tying my arms to the legs of the chair with quick, deft movements that made me wonder how many times she’d done this. How often she’d had to do this to survive her upbringing in that fucking Coven that would have made her face her greatest fears all in the name of magic and power.
“How do you carry your head so easily? It must be fucking heavy with the size of your goddamn ego,” she said, stepping around to stand in front of me. I tested the bindings, tugging at the ropes gently with small enough motions that she didn’t notice them.
