Their blood vow prevented him from doing what needed to be done, but he knew a way to circumvent it. “I recognize that you can’t stay here indefinitely, much as it might convenience me. I will allow you to return to Earth so you may assure your coven you’re okay. And when I’ve solved this problem and am ready to try again, I’ll come for you.”
“I—But—” She swallowed and searched his gaze. “Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
“Careful,” he warned, unable to quell the strange nausea still roiling in his stomach. “By that tone, one might think youwantto stay here with me.”
Her features froze in an unreadable expression. Then she shook her head. “No, you’re right. I need to go back. I need to tell everyone I’m alive before they plan my funeral.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Go now and gather your things. I’ll return you to your home.”
“Okay.”
They stared at each other.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked softly. “Your eyes …”
He was seized with another gripping spasm in his gut. “I’m fine. Get your things. We’ll leave now.”
Suyin almost couldn’t believe it as they stepped out of the hellgate into an empty apartment. The drywall had been mostly torn out, and wherever it wasn’t, it was riddled with holes. The kitchen in the next room had been gutted down to bare wires and pipes. The old hardwood floors were scuffed and filthy.
But she was onEarth, and it was glorious.
“How did you find this place?” she asked Murmur, turning to face him where he stood behind her. She flinched slightly when their eyes met. Or at least, she thought they met. She couldn’t tell where he was looking.
“It wasn’t difficult,” he replied distantly.
He was even creepier now with his solid-black eyes and those spidery veins cascading down his cheeks. She was worried about him, if she was honest. He looked even deader than usual, and he’d been strangely detached since waking up. He probably needed to take it easy for a few days to recover, but she knew he had no intention of doing so.
You’re a fool, Suyin.Fifty years old, and she was still falling prey to the I-can-fix-him mentality. Murmur could take care of himself. He’d been doing it for millennia, longer than she could even conceive of.
“How do we get outside?” She looked around for an obvious exit. Surely he hadn’t been using the front door.
“Follow me.” He strode toward the kitchen, beckoning with his claws.
They stepped over rotted floorboards and chunks of drywall. He slid aside a loose piece of plywood covering a broken window, and they climbed through onto the balcony outside.
The air in the city was hardly fresh, but the moment she was outside, she gulped in great lungfuls. The apartment was moldy and dusty, and she hadn’t noticed the difference fromHell. But now that she was outside, it felt like she hadn’t breathed fresh air in weeks.
“There are no stairs,” she said, eyeing the precarious metal roof of the garage below them.
Murmur answered her question by suddenly unfurling a massive pair of leathery black wings. They spread as much as the confined balcony would allow, and her eyes widened.
They were exactly how she’d imagined his wings would look. The black skin stretching between the slender bones appeared supple and soft. The top of the wing, the “thumb,” had a curved black claw, much like the ones on his hands. The bones separating the segments looked delicate and strong at the same time.
He held out a hand, and without a second thought, she placed hers in it. Sometime during her little escapade in Hell, she had started to trust him.
Time would tell if that got her killed or not.
He pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her, making her feel positively miniscule. And then he picked her up, climbed over the edge of the railing, and leapt off.
His wings snapped out, and he pumped them several times before landing gracefully in the alley below. Anyone in the surrounding apartments could look out a window and see her standing beside a seven-foot-tall demon with horns, a tail, and bat wings.
“Can you shift into human form?” she hissed, looking around for signs of people.
“No,” he replied as if offended by the suggestion. “You know how the Sight works, Suyin. Humans can’t see me anyway.”
“Unless they have the Sight, yeah. In which case, you’d terrify the ever-living shit out of them.”
“Sounds like a good day to me.”
