I stumble back as the room shakes, and a portal—a black swirling vortex—takes over half the wall.
A portal. He can summon aportal.
I know Tony said he can go back and forth between here and Hell, but a fuckingportal? It would take me three steps to go through it and end this madness—I’d return to my regular position, away from this dead girl, and things would go back to normal. The link would break. The tension would be no more. I could move the fuck on.
Against everything in me screaming to run to it, I stay put, watching Tidus huff one more time before vanishing through the vortex—which closes as soon as his tail disappears.
As soon as there’s silence in the room, my gaze drops to Sable. “What the fuck are you doing?”
She scoffs and goes to walk away, but I grab her wrist. She tries to fight me off, slapping at my arms and scratching my hands, but I pin her to the wall, holding her in place with my fingers wrapped firmly around her throat. She finally stops, breathing heavily.
“He could’ve killed you. You could’ve summoned something much worse than fuckingTony.”
A laugh breaks out of her, and I frown.
How the fuck is this funny?
Nothing about the entire situation we’ve been stuck in is funny.
She stops laughing, eyes still dancing with humor. “You were worried about me. Just there. Even though you murdered me,and hate me, and loathe my very existence. When your friend turned into a dog?—”
“Hellhound.”
“You… you were worried.” This time, when she says it, there’s no humor, just sad, confused disbelief.
“Don’t mistake any of that for me being worried, dead girl. You being ripped apart by that beast only makes my day a little bit harder. I don’t give a shit about you.”
The line of her shoulder hardens. “No?”
My teeth grind. “No.”
Her angry gaze flicks down, and the corners of her lips curl into a disapproving scowl. “Your dick says otherwise.”
Every fiber of my soul wants me to push her more, to drag her to the other side of the manor, far away from Tony potentially reappearing, and shove her to her knees.
Imagining her beneath me, waiting and eager and begging for my cock, does nothing to soften the growing appendage. I know what she smells like, and I can almost taste it on my tongue—I could fuck her with my mouth, bring her to the brink of orgasm and stop. I could continue the process for the rest of our existence.
Given the way her chest rises and falls, and the scent that reaches me, I think she’d let that happen.
Instead, I back away from her, turning to break our eye contact, then head straight to my room.
13
Sable
I’m dead.
I know this. I understand this. But it never fully set in until now, and I think it’s time to do something about my body. It’s just been lying in Ella’s room, dust collecting on the white sheet.
I’m unsure what precisely triggered the shift into accepting my fate; whether it was the failed summoning two nights ago, the passage of time, or the lone spider I found resting on top of my mortal chest this morning.
Grandma used to say that spiders see everything. They learn human patterns; adapt for their safety and survival. They hide away, then come when we’re gone.
I’m decaying and rotting and I’m never coming back from the dead. I’m gone. And it’s time to put myself to good use.
Ourah ma, my grandma from Mother’s side, would’ve had a second heart attack if she knew anything about my current situation. She’d probably twist it, saying I should’ve prayed to God while I was alive, or that it isn’t too late to repent.
Can’t say she didn’t warn me I’d go to Hell for my lack of holy deeds—praying before eating, attending Mass every weekend, communion and community and the whole nine yards.
