“You will—”
Small and irate, Lenora cuts him off with a bold stab of her finger against the glass.
“No, you will not. I understand that we made a bargain and I’m honor bound to comply, but that doesn’t mean you will treat me or Marcus—”
Before either of us can see it happen, the swatting tendrils snap around Lenora’s waist. I only have a second before she’s yanked through the glass.
And I don’t pause.
I don’t give myself a chance to weigh the consequences.
I leap after her, expecting to smack into solid foundation. Expecting to get cut into shards. But none of that matters when Lenora vanishes with a strangled cry. The dark surface ripples around her like a lake disturbed by a rock. My arms fly up to cover my face as I take a running lunge. My body braces as the cold intensifies as if I’ve fallen into a deep freezer. Bits of glass nick my arms. My cheeks. Shallow nips that I know are drawing blood, but I don’t open my eyes until I’m dropped unceremoniously to the ground. My knees smack into concrete and I have to throw up my hands to catch my face from doing the same. Pain burns across my palms and tears down my legs where stone tears back flesh.
“Marcus?”
Biting back the annoyance, I shove to my feet.
The heavy musk of mold and age assaults me before I even have my eyes open. It slams down my throat, choking me on the filth.
I know I’m in that damn dungeon before I even see the uneven incline crudely built into the side of the wall or the disgusting altar Lenora sits upon, legs tucked beneath her. Eyes wild with fear.
Ignoring the hot run of blood trickling along my calves, the bits of dirt clinging to the shredded skin of my palms, I sprint down after her.
Her arms are up, waiting when I leap onto the dais. I scoop her up and off the filthy table.
“What is this?” she breathes, eyes sweeping over the dust and grime clinging to every surface.
Deep at the back of my mind, I’m confused by her reaction. We’ve been here multiple times yet she’s clutching at me like none of it makes sense.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say instead, my hold firm around her even as I pull us down the steps in the direction of…
A wall.
The black curtains separating this cesspit from the rest of the house are gone. There is no exit, except the black hole I’d fallen through.
“You awakened me.”Steel sliding across stone, the voice hisses through the very marrow of my soul.“Called me to this place to fulfil a task no human could possibly and I have. I have done that and more and asked for so little.”
“Veyn, just tell us—”
Lenora’s attempt to negotiate with the demon is silenced by the thundering vibration that echoes through the chamber. It rolls beneath our feet, an earthquake that snaps deep gashes across stone. It snakes up the incline and the open maw where smoke billows free, thick and rancid.
“He lives because I allow it.”Another slam and crack.“He breathes because I allow it. With a single thought, I can tear him from his flesh. Have his organs exist outside that worthless husk. Without my blessing, he would be nothing but food for my brothers, but I allowed you to keep him. I allowed him to touch you because it amused me. But the utter lack of respect cannot go ignored.”
Lenora and I have but a split second to exchange glances when we’re torn apart. It’s so sudden, my brain has no time to process the loss of her when I’m bound and restrained by miles of serrated tendrils. They twist around the soft tissues of my wrists. My ankles. Bits of glass and razors that slice open gashes and anchor into place.
Feet away, Lenora is handled the same. Her cries are ignored as the barbs dig into her flesh. Puncture. Thin lines of crimson ribbon down her arms to soak into the bunched sleeves of my top.
“Stop it!” I snarl at the hole behind her. “You’re hurting her.”
My own sleeve is soaked. My shoes are filling with my own blood. But all I care about is her. Protecting her. Even as I fight the hold, digging the barbs deeper, it’s only her I see.
“You should worry about yourself, human,”the demon drawls.“I still need her. I have no use for you.”
“I don’t care what you do to me. Let her go,” I shoot back.
There’s a moment of silence, a stretch where I think maybe he might actually do it, but I’m proven wrong when stray wisps coil up from Lenora’s ankles. They twin around her sprawled thighs. I know they reach her sex when she gasps. Beneath the fabric of her top, it continues up the center of her torso to loop around her throat.
No barbs, I note with some gratitude. He may be furious, but he’s still careful not to truly hurt her.
