I can probably trust her as far as I can trust Emil.
Before Halle can make it within ten paces of me, my hands fly up, my claws fully extended. “Stop!”
Halle pulls to an abrupt halt, eyeing my hands warily.
The first time she and I met, I broke her bones and very effectively cut up her face with these claws. Not that she didn’t heal almost instantly. But I’m certain she remembers the damage I can do.
“Veda?” she asks. “Do we have a problem?”
“I’m not here by choice,” I say.
She arches her eyebrows at me. “Well, of course you’re not here by choice. Nobody visits hell because they want to. Most creatures do everything they can to avoid meeting me.” She sniffs loudly. “But I did invite you to come find me. So naturally, I assumed you were here on that invitation.”
Before I can respond, Emil speaks up from behind me, his voice clear and strong. “I brought her here,” he says. “Without her permission.”
Halle cranes her neck and narrows her eyes, her forehead creasing in a way that tells me she can’t quite see him very well in the distance. Given the color of his silver hair and white clothing and the brightness of the icy storm behind him, I’m sure she’s struggling to make him out. She doesn’t have a wolf’s perception like I do.
“Youdid, keeper?” she asks, her shoulders tense. “I can’t help but wonder why?”
I have the same question.He was present when Halle told me to come and find her—but why he, as my enemy, would choose to bring me here is a concern.
I don’t want to take my eyes off the four hellhounds, but I risk a quick glance back at Emil, hoping to discern his intentions from his expression.
He still hasn’t raised his head.
“Take a look at her feet, Hel,” he says, the baritone of his voice sounding like a warning now.
My feet? What the fuck is wrong with my feet?
I glance down, suddenly focusing a little to my left.
The Book of Dark Magiclies only a few paces behind my left heel.
Halle gives a soft exclamation. “What happened to the book?” she asks, her eyes wide as she appears to fixate on it.
Technically,The Book of Dark Magicbelongs to her.
Because of her affinity with the underworld, she has the ability to resist its power. Like me, she is one of the few creatures who can read the book’s pages and not lose her mind.
She’d protected it for millennia until her brother stole it from her and gave it to my father.
Now, I’ve stolen it back.
And for some reason… which I struggle to believe is related to my continued wellbeing… Emil has brought meandthe book back to Halle.
Behind her, the hounds appear alarmed, all of them shuffling and glancing at each other.
Halle’s question this time seems directed at me.
“What happened to the book?” I ask, opting for the simplest explanation. “I broke it.”
“You…broke… it?” Halle asks.
“I clawed it apart.”
It occurs to me now that none of my pack members have paid any attention to the book until this point. They all know how dangerous it is and would never willingly touch or read it.
Lucian, more than the others, understands how destructive the magic in the book can be. Our father forced Lucian to read the book to confirm what it showed about me. When I needed Lucian to recount what he saw in its pages, the memories caused him significant pain. He barely got through the retelling of them.
