But he wasn’t here in the dungeon with us, and I didn’t sense that he was dead. In fact, he was close by, because otherwise, my chest would burn. Wherever he went, I went too, unless I wanted to stay at his house as a guard cat.
“Val was there when I met with his father to discuss our alliance. He knocked me out, and I woke up here. I’m not sure what has happened to my village, but Valentino likes to taunt me with not having a village to return to.” The man who hadn’t taken his eyes off us moved closer to the bars of his cell. “I’m Winston.”
Fuck.
I cleared my throat, the sudden ball of emotion threatening to choke me. How had Val done this?Whyhad he done it?
“You didn’t know.” Nico was watching me closely.
“I didn’t.”
The silence hung heavy in the cell, broken only by the occasional drip of water in a corner. I flexed the muscleswhere my arm had been, pain shooting up through my shoulder and into my chest.
Losing my arm would severely limit my ability to protect Val—not that he deserved my protection if what Winston said was true.
Did Val betray us? The thought felt like a knife twisting in my chest. I’d protected him and continued to turn to stone every night for him when I could have so easily ended my curse like every other man in my line had done.
With death.
And yet here I sat in a dank cell, missing a limb while Val roamed free.
I traced the stone where flesh should be. My curse had saved me from bleeding out, but would I still be able to shift properly? Could I still fight? These thoughts spiraled through my mind as I processed what this meant for me.
“Was it quick?” Nico’s voice startled me from my dark thoughts.
I glanced up to find his jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin. And his eyes? He looked like a man barely holding himself together, like one wrong word might shatter whatever fragile control he’d scraped together.
Was it quick?
The question hung between us, simple and terrible in its directness. He wanted to know if I’d suffered when they took my arm. Part of me appreciated that he cared enough to ask. The part that was still reeling from Val’s possible betrayal wanted to snap at him that it didn’t matter, that the physical pain was nothing compared to the rest of it.
“Yes. Thankfully, the blade was sharp. Painful as hell, but quick.” I rotated what remained of my arm, examining it from different angles.
A choked sob escaped him, his body hunching forward asif punched in the gut. Confusion rippled through me at his extreme reaction to my injury.
“Didn’t think you cared that much about me, squirrel. Not to worry, I’m ambidextrous, so it won’t take me long to adjust.” It was a lie, and I attempted a dark laugh that sounded hollow.
Nico’s head snapped up, his eyes wild with grief and sudden rage. “Sammy. How did she die?”
My brow furrowed. “Die? She didn’t die.”
“What?” His voice cracked and went up in pitch.
I stared at him, understanding dawning that this poor man had been led to believe that one love of his life was gone before he had the chance to tell her how he felt.
“Is that what they told you? That she was dead? When the guards attacked, she went to Earth.” I didn’t know if she was safe wherever she’d been transported to, but something in my gut told me she would survive whatever Earth threw at her.
Nico’s face transformed, grief giving way to shock, then fury. He lunged forward, grabbing my shirt with both hands, nearly lifting me. Quite a feat of strength considering we were sitting. “What do you mean she went to Earth?”
I glanced at Winston, who was listening intently. He knew about Lilith and her plans to take demons to Earth, but I didn’t want him to know it was as simple as Sammy touching dried angel blood.
“We can’t talk here, but the three of us escaped from the castle dungeon that way, and when we returned, I was shot with a poisonous arrow. That’s when she escaped.”
“If you’re fucking with me right now—” His knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip, trembling with barely contained violence.
I didn’t move to defend myself. “She’s alive, Nicolas.”
His grip loosened marginally as hope and disbelief warred across his features. “You swear it?”
