He was in bed, sweaty and gasping for breath. The caress of cold air sent shivers through his bones, but closing the window required getting up and he didn’t feel ready for that task yet. Not until his head stopped throbbing. He cut his eyes from the gloomy sky to his folded clothes at the edge of the bed, realizing as he was reaching for them that his body had been cleaned.
Reign must have taken care of the mess before collecting his soul then.
Noah pulled his legs in, resting his head on his knees. He watched the curtains on both sides of the window flutter with wavelike ripples for a while and then he closed his eyes.
This made no sense.
He reached for his chest, pressing his hand against the left side. He found a heartbeat, steady and definitely there, even though it shouldn’t be. Because he should have died, vanished along with his soul which he had promised to an otherworldly demon.
Confused, Noah checked his pulse again and detected it just as easily this time too, his beating heart not an illusion.
Hewasn’tdead.
How?Why? According to the fulfilled contract, he should be gone, so what was he still doing in Reign’s guest room? His soul should’ve become fuel for the demons of Hell… yet it was still within him.
Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, Noah focused on breathing so he could hold the panic at bay.What did this mean? Why was he still alive? Had Reign… not collected his soul? Had the contract been broken somehow?
Noah didn’t think such a thing could happen, at least not according to what information he’d found out about the ritual. Once a sigil was placed on a human’s body, there was no going back. From the moment it turned completely black, the soul it marked belonged to Hell; all that was left for its prior owner was to welcome death.
And Noah’s sigil had certainly done just that after the most gentle and heart-wrenching sex he’d ever experienced in his life.
So what the fuck was happening?
Legs shaking, Noah stood up slowly, holding onto the wall for support. He needed to find Reign and talk to him. It seemed like something had gone very wrong—
Noah stumbled as he reached for his shirt, barely managing to grasp the back of the chair by the bed to stay upright.Where was Reign?Why wasn’t he here yet, trying to fix…this?
The door opened, hijacking Noah’s entire focus.
“He’s not here,” Barbatos said as he walked in, his copper eyes pinning Noah where he stood.
“Barbatos!” Noah felt a little more grounded in the demon’s presence. He was naked, but he didn’t care, the questions swirling in his mind way more pressing than his nakedness. “What’s going on? Why am I not dead? Where is Reign? I need to speak to him—”
“You can’t.”
Noah gaped at the black man—Barbatos’ human form—not sure why he’d said that. “What do you mean I can’t?” he demanded, his growing confusion turning into agitation. “Look, something went wrong, I think, so I need to speak to him.”
Barbatos leaned against the wall and simply observed Noah. For a few moments, he appeared almost sympathetic, but Noah’s head was still fuzzy, so he wasn’t certain he hadn’t imagined it. “Reign is not here, and you can’t speak with him. Or see him. Your contract with him has been voided, kitten.”
For a second time in such short a period, Noah just stood and stared at the demon, trying to comprehend what was happening. “Voided? What do you mean it’s been ‘voided’? That’s… impossible.”
Barbatos sighed, a muscle in his jaw jumping. He looked out of the window and crossed his arms. “Heabandoned you before the contract was completed.” He paused, shifting his gaze back to Noah. “He broke it.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Noah protested, gripping the chair’s backrest tightly to prevent himself from slumping to the floor. Reign had no reason to do so, especially when the contract was on the verge of fulfillment. Just hours… or even minutes before, in fact. He simply…wouldn’t. “Why would he do something like that?”
Just as the question left his lips, he realized one possible reason for that. For why Reign would leave now when he was so close to collecting a soul he’d been stalking for a decade. Hope flared within Noah, worming its way through him until it climbed his throat in search of a way out.
“To save me?” Noah whispered, his voice emerging raw and trembling.
Barbatos cocked his head to the side, studying Noah like some specimen in a museum. It was unnerving, but he endured it, patiently waiting for the demon to reply.
“You humans are quite the naïve lot, aren’t you?” Barbatos remarked, chuckling, and pushed himself off the wall. “Listen, kitten. He broke the contract because he didn’t want your soul. Why, you might wonder?” He shrugged. “He got bored of you or decided it wasn’t worth it in the end. Who knows? I just came to give you a friendly warning—you’re on your own now. And this”—he pointed at Noah, wrinkling his nose—“doesn’t mean you get your life back. Your contract with Reign might have been voided, but someone will come to collect what you owe once you’ve lived whatever time you have left.”
Noah’s heart plummeted as his body gave up supporting him. He collapsed to the floor.This couldn’t be happening.He blinked rapidly, trying to hold back the tears.Reign had been… obsessed with Noah and, by extension, Noah’s soul, he was certain of that. They had spent so much time together and not just fucking, a testament that Noah’s companionship had also been valued, So, for Reign to give up like this, right at when he would reap the rewards of his ten years of effort… It made no sense. Reign couldn’t have been bored of Noah, he—
Pain radiated from Noah’s chest outward, robbing him of air. Reign’s strange behavior recently, his departure after Noah had drawn him...
“You are wrong, Barbatos! He can’t—” Noah cut himself off, now sobbing because he couldn’t counter what Barbatos was saying.
