What the Hell was happening?
Arc lifted his head and pained to open his eyes.
“Lola—” I fought myself not to hold on to the bars again. I wanted to get in. To hold him and help him out. To apologize for thinking, even for a few minutes, that he was somehow responsible for all this. He coughed, bronze blood sputtering from his mouth. “Lo-Lola…”
I strained my ears, trying to understand the mumbled, frantic words coming out of his mouth next. Focused so much that I didn’t hear the door opening and closing behind me.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Chapter 39
Lola
My eyes widened as I turned abruptly, standing up and nearly falling back again.
Dimitri stared at me with an unreadable expression, his swirling eyes looking…strange. More settled than they usually were, but angrier.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, leaning discreetly on the broken table in the middle of the room, my back to Arc. “What’s going on?”
The muscle in his jaw twitched and he sighed through his nose.
“I warned you about coming here.” His steps were slow and lazy, circling one side of the table, one of his hands grazing the surface distractedly while the other was a closed fist at his side. “Why don’t you ever listen to me?”
“Because you’re my mate, not mykeeper,” I answered, confused. Dimitri never forced or forbade me to do anything, respecting my free will despite the poor choices I tended to make. “Now tell me what’s going on, because you’re acting real shady now…”
He averted his gaze, casting one quick look at Arc who started moving and grunting behind me, fighting against his chains.
“Want to know what’s going on, huh?” He paused, looking back at me. When he finally answered, his voice turned cold. “You sold your soul and got duped in the fucking process.”
I frowned. “First, fuck you. Are youstillstuck on that? And second, what does it have to do with what’s happening here?”
“It haseverythingto do with it!” he snapped. “I promised to protect yoursoul, Ania. And you went around andsoldit?” I opened my mouth to speak but he lifted a finger, silencing me. “Did you know Archdemons and lower Hellriserscan’tcreate new species? Do you have any idea who you sold your soul to?”
His name was on the tip of my tongue, but it kept dying in my mouth. I remembered him. Tall, blond, wearing some weird clothingthat shouldn’t have been around at that time, blue eyes—wait.Blue eyes? Why didn’t I remember that detail until now? Demons couldn’t—their eyes were always dark.
“Asmodeustrickedyou,” he continued. “Turned you into a creature of sex when you barely knew anything about pleasure. Ripped the soul from your body right as our link started to form, taking my sanity with it.”
Asmodeus…It had been him, not any random demon…
My instinct made me retreat, the red swirling dangerously in his eyes.
“Dimitri—”
“I’ve spent fifteen hundred years trying to fix what youbroke. Trying to fulfil my binding promise and get your soul back.”
I fought against the new wave of dizziness and closed my hands into fists, nails digging into my palms.
“Nothing you’re saying answers my question,” I pointed out through gritted teeth.
“Oh, it does. Everything I do and have ever done is connected to you and how I’ve always felt about you. To your missing soul. To the promise I made.”
“Thentell mewhy the fuck my mate is locked in a cell? Areyouthe one using him to control the demons? Are you—”
I stopped talking, interrupted by his deep laugh as he looked away in disbelief.
“You thinkheis the one controlling the demons?Zhizn moya…He’s far from being powerful enough to do such a thing.”
I took another step back, trying to maintain a safe distance between us. “It was you? All this time?” He tilted his head to the side as I paused, taking it all in. “Your guards are shit, if you ask me. Can’t even hit an unmoving target at short range.”
