“What else?” His voice was soft, gentle, but I could see anger in his eyes now. They were darkening into pure, obsidian voids.
“The witch finders made it into a carnival. That’s what mortals were like in those days. They had spectacles of suffering. It was a festival, day after day … Hurting Lilith, then watching as she healed.” I cocked my head. “It went on for a very long time. After that, she stopped feeling completely. And she didn’t feel another thing until she came alive again in my body. When you killed her, she was mostly numb. She felt a sense of loss, and she felt alone. But she didn’t feel any pain.”
A low growl rose from his throat, and copper whorls moved over his skin. “I want to kill those witch finders very slowly and very painfully. I want to hear them scream.”
My lips quirked in a smile, and I found myself reaching out to touch his clenched fist. “They died a long time ago. If you want to kill anyone, focus on the Free Men. They’re the same.”
His eyes started to clear, the shadows fading. His gaze flicked out the window again, but his jaw was still clenched tight. “I didn’t know any of that. When I was with Lilith before, I didn’t understand her at all. She didn’t tell me things.”
“She’s complicated.” I glanced outside as the train rushed out of the city, into the countryside. In the icy fields, one of my wolves was running alongside the train, his body glowing with pale blue magic. He sprinted over the barren, frozen landscape, past the dark silhouettes of skeletal trees.
Was he following me? I didn’t think so. I thought the Free Men were luring my beasts to them also. They wanted us all in one place for what they had planned.
“Samael? Would you mind walking to the other side of the car? I want to see if the book is in the library now.”
He nodded and stood, and as he walked away from me, I could hear them calling to Lilith.
I leaned against the window, closing my eyes. It burst into life before me—a book full of magical words—power that could be mine. For what the mortals had done to me, Lilith could burn their world to ash. The vengeance she’d always dreamed of would be at her fingertips. It was in the library now, spread out across a table on the ground floor. The words on the pages glowed with sublime, golden light.
Mine.
I gripped the table hard, overwhelmed by the book’s allure.
Come to us … they whispered. Leave the angel behind, and join us. This is your destiny, and he cannot come with you. The angel is your enemy. Only without him can you be queen.
I opened my eyes again, but I could still see the book, as if it were right in front of me.
With the Mysterium Liber you can have complete power. You can have your revenge against the mortals. Samael plans to leave you and marry the mortal. This is your chance to take him down, to thrive as the dark queen that you are. Become the master of them all.
I glanced at the window. I felt what they wanted me to do—smash the glass, pick up a shard. Carve a jagged red slash through Samael’s neck and escape through the shattered window …
Become the queen and master of them all.
“Are you okay?” Samael stood in the aisle, his brow furrowed. I hadn’t even seen him approach.
“Stay close to me!” I said, my voice strained. “The book is there already. It’s in the library right now.” I stared out the window at the land of ice that spread out into the darkness. “The Free Men are very persuasive when you’re not near me. And they are very adamant that you cannot come with me. We will need to be careful. I wouldn’t be shocked if they tried to kill you on the way.”
“What are they saying?”
“They reminded me that I’m on my own. That I need to look after myself. They are appealing to how much Lilith wants revenge and power because of what happened to her in the past. And they want me to shatter this window, grab a glass shard, and plunge it into your throat.”
He sat next to me, his warmth enveloping me. “No throat slashing until the third date,” he murmured.
As he wrapped his arm around me, I felt myself melting into him.
A loud boom shot through my bones, rocking me awake. Besides the sound, the first sensation to hit me was the sting of cold air, and fragments of glass ripping through my skin. I shielded my face, and Samael covered me with his body.
Then, a scorching blast of heat slammed into me. The scent of smoke curled into my nostrils, my lungs.
I coughed into Samael’s shoulder. When I’d cleared my lungs a little, I stole a glance at the train car. Not twelve feet away, flames rose high into the air, through a ragged hole ripped in the ceiling. Bent and contorted metal bars jutted into the night sky, gnarled like a crone’s fingers, and smoke filled the car.
I was still trying to shake off the fog of sleep, stunned at what I was looking at. Samael grabbed me by the arm. “Let’s go.”
The smoke stung my eyes, and I couldn’t breathe. The heat was scorching my skin, ashes filling my lungs. I covered my mouth with my arm, and we hurried through the hot car toward the door. My heart slammed as I breathed in the scents of burnt rubber scorched metal, leaving me with the terrible feeling that this thing could blow up again at any moment.
When we got to the train door, Samael reached for the metal handle. He sucked in a sharp breath and pulled his hand away fast when he touched it. We were going to cook alive in here.
And Lilith knew what it felt like to be burned. Panic started to rise in me, and I kicked the door—once, twice, until it slammed completely off its hinges. It fell into the snow, sizzling.
“Nice one,” said Samael.
We jumped down, avoiding the smoking door. Instantly, an arrow whizzed past Samael, and he just barely managed to dodge out of the way. It seemed to come from the dark forest before us, but we had no other option than to run in that direction. If we tried to run around the long train, it could explode at any moment.
“Run!” Samael shouted.
Sprinting, we kicked up snow, rushing for the tree line. Two more arrows skimmed past Samael, but his path was irregular, making it harder. Neither of the arrows found their mark. Around us, snow and ashes rained down. We reached the forest’s edge, careening fast between the trees. Moonlight filtered in between bare branches, lighting our way.
Up ahead, Samael ripped someone out from behind a tree. He snapped the man’s neck, killing him in an instant. He dropped the man’s body in the snow, scanning the trees for more assassins.
“Was that it?” I asked, catching my breath.
Before he could answer, a boom rumbled over the horizon, shaking snowflakes off the boughs. The ground shook, and I fell forward. Heat scorched the air, and I scrambled up again. I turned to see the flames recede toward the train.
A few of the branches by the forest’s edge blazed in the night sky like torches, and blooms of smoke coiled above them. My throat and lungs felt scorched, and I coughed into my arm.
I turned away from the explosion again. We’d made it out alive, at least. I wondered if the driver had.
Smoke still clogged my lungs. Through coughs I said, “That was the Free Men. They like explosives.”
“But how did they know we were here?”
Dread danced up my spine. “I don’t know. But I can see where they are. They can probably see where I am. The train would be distinctive, and they’d know exactly where we were heading. They probably took the same train just an hour ago. If they can see where we are—”
“We will have to get there in a way they won’t recognize,” he said, finishing my thought. “We’ll have to keep to the forest, or to little paths that they wouldn’t have seen before.”
Coughs wracked my body.
“Are you okay?” Samael asked.
Tears streamed from my eyes, and I wiped them away. “I’m fine. Just inhaled some smoke.” He studied me closely, eyes gleaming bright as jewels. “The little glass shards cut your face.”
I reached up to touch my cheeks, and my hand came away streaked with blood.
>
Moonlight illuminated his high cheekbones and eyes as he peered down at me. “I’m going to get some of the pieces out if I can. Close your eyes.”
As I shut my eyes, I felt his smoldering magic radiating over my body. It dulled the sting of the cold air, and the sharpness of the glass in my cheeks.
After a moment, he pulled away again. “I want to get you somewhere safe and warm. We can’t walk through the forest through the night, or we’ll freeze.”
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” I asked.
“Not really.” A smile ghosted over his lips. “But I will keep you safe. I promise.”
Lila
Shivers wracked my body as we walked, and my toes stung with the cold. The snow soaked into my thin leather boots. “I have the body of a demon now,” I said through chattering teeth. “Why am I freezing? I should be indestructible.”
“But you also have the body of a demon with poison in your system,” Samael said.
From the tree branches, icicles glistened in the moonlight. Heavy snow had collected on the boughs. It was oddly peaceful out here, but somehow a bit unnerving to a city person like me. I’d hardly left Dovren before.
But Lilith? She knew this wood. The Weald …
Long ago, this forest had been alive with cave lions and bears, with elk and reindeer. When Lilith had crossed through here, wild boar and wolves ran between the trees, and eagles flew above them. “Is this the Weald?” I asked.
“Yes. It has every kind of oak and yew, some of them thousands of years old. What it doesn’t have, as far as I know, is a lot of lodging. But I do happen to know a soothsayer who has a sister. And the sister lives somewhere along the Bryne River. I think I can hear the river from here, distantly.”
I winced. “Is this the soothsayer who claims I’m going to turn evil unless you marry that mortal twat?”
“That’s the one. If we don’t find her sister specifically, there might be other houses along the river. I just want to get you warm for now. I don’t like the sound of your teeth chattering.”
As we walked farther, I could hear the sound of the river, too. I strained my eyes in the dark until I saw it come into view—rushing water filled with chunks of ice.
Samael stopped short, peering into the distance. “I see a house, I think.” He pointed at an enormous house, made of a pale sandy stone—more like a small palace than a house.
We picked up the pace, eager to be inside. It looked dark, but it had walls at least. A gust of icy wind blew the snow off the branches into my face.
As we drew closer, I saw that it looked like an abandoned cathedral—one of the remnants of the king’s war against the holy brothers long ago. Nowadays, abandoned monasteries and abbeys littered the kingdom.
Samael nodded at the building. “I’m not sure if that’s where Thura lives. If it isn’t, maybe we can make a fire in there.”
My teeth chattered. “Hopefully, whoever is watching my thoughts can’t find us here.”
His gray eyes shone in the dark. “I think it’s a risk we have to take. We can’t leave ourselves vulnerable to the Free Men by freezing half to death. We need to get you strong again.”
We approached an old wooden door in the cathedral, and Samael pushed it open into a dark hall. We stepped inside, and my breath caught. This place was gorgeous.
Moonlight streamed in through stained-glass windows, casting silver light over the interior. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that someone had converted this abandoned church into a home. On the dais where an altar would be, a bed stood—neatly made, covered in warm-looking furs. A dinner table sat in the center of the aisle, with candles standing unlit in the center.
Dried flowers and herbs hung from the walls, and a row of shelves was lined with cups and plates. An alcove near the altar had been converted into a fireplace, and someone had broken through the wall there, creating a makeshift chimney. A tea kettle and cups were laid out over a stone mantel. A draft of air rushed through the chimney, carrying with it little sparkling flakes of snow.
While I was taking in the hall, Samael had started lighting candles. “This place doesn’t smell recently lived in. I don’t know that anyone will return to interrupt us.” He crossed to the fireplace, and threw some logs into the fire.
A few wildflowers grew through the cracks in the stones. I exhaled, my breath clouding in the air. I could see why this place would be abandoned. It would be hard to heat a space this large in winter, but with the gorgeous tall windows, it would be a perfect home for summer.
As he lit the fire, Samael turned to look at me. “Go thaw out under the furs. The more you rest and stay warm, the better condition you will be in to help me kill people.”
“So romantic.”
Beautiful blue and red light streamed in through the stained-glass windows over the dais. I crossed to the fur-covered bed. Sitting on the edge, I pulled off my snowy boots, then my snow-dusted cloak. I hung the cloak on a hook by the end of the bed, and slid into cozy felt sheets.
The fire started to crackle, and it lit up the stone floor with golden light.
Samael rose, and when he turned to smile at me, the flames were dancing in his eyes. “I’m going to make tea.” He plucked the kettle from the mantel.
Of course. Of course he was going to make tea.
When I’d broken free from the Iron Fortress, I hadn’t imagined that this would be happening—that he’d be making me tea again, sharing a bed with me. I had to remember that I couldn’t get too used to it.
I watched as he crossed outside, and it took me a moment to figure out that he would be collecting snow for fresh water.
When he walked back in, he flashed me a smile that made my cheeks heat. Well, wasn’t this cozy for two ancient enemies with a blood feud?
He pulled down a pot by the fireplace and hung it over the flames. “Tea will warm you. By morning, you might have all the poison out of your system.”
I pulled the blankets and furs up over myself, and smiled at him. “And the angel of death needs his nightly tea ritual. A bomb just exploded, and we’re poisoned and hunted. Of course we must have tea.”
But he didn’t smile back at me, and his gaze was on the fire. “I don’t believe Sourial would do this. I’ve never known him to be disloyal, and they killed his children. I can’t figure out how someone would be framing him with that very specific information about the Hunted Friar’s Passage, but maybe it is possible.”
I frowned, the question turning around in my mind. “Is it possible that he has a good reason for what he’s doing?”
“Sourial thinks you’re dangerous. But that’s not a good enough reason to join forces with the Free Men.”
“No. I am dangerous, though.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe he thinks he can take control of them somehow. Destroy them from the inside.”
I bit my lip. “If someone forged his handwriting …”
“It doesn’t answer how they knew about the Hunted Friar’s Passage. But there must be some reason.” He poured tea into the cups, and the steam rose around him. An earthy, herbal smell filled the air.
He turned, carrying the cups to the bed. For a terrifying death angel like Samael, this was all very domestic. And his unearthly beauty and warrior’s physique only made the contrast more strange.
He sat next to me on the bed, and handed me a teacup. “We won’t know the truth until we find him.”
I blew on my tea to cool it, then cocked my head at him over the cup. I could feel Lilith stirring—and she was in a devilish, troublemaking mood. “Are you planning to share this bed with me? Won’t your fiancée mind?”
He pulled off his cloak, then his sword. He quirked an eyebrow. “She doesn’t yet know me. She is agreeing to marry me only because it will give her power. As long as nothing disrupts her access to money, I don’t think she will care about anything.”
I took a sip of the tea, tasting the faint floral flavor. “Might be better just to become a
demon rather than marry her.”
He stared into his cup like he was trying to read the future there, his eyebrows drawing together. His contemplative expression made my heart beat faster, and when he looked up at me—eyes pale gray under his lashes—my pulse was racing out of control. “I am starting to wonder about the same thing.” He drew his thumb across his lower lip, studying me. “I can’t marry that woman. We both know that, even if the soothsayer doesn’t. And yet I still think it is dangerous for you and I to be together. As long as Lilith’s soul lives in you, we will ruin each other, again and again. Will break each other. And if I hurt you again, like I did last time, it would be the end of me.”
“And what’s your evidence that would happen?” I asked. “Dreams? Soothsayers?”
“Lilith cut me into pieces on a battlefield. And I cut her heart out with a knife. We have both thrown each other out of four-story windows. That’s my evidence.”
Disappointment spread through my chest. Perhaps he actually had a good point. “Okay, those are a few real-world examples.”
“She brings out a dark side of me that I’m not sure I can control. And we cannot exorcise her, or you will die. I will not let you die.”
“You can’t control yourself around Lilith?” I arched an eyebrow. “Even with centuries of practice in repression?”
“Maybe I should sleep on the floor.”
I glanced at the cold floor. A draft swept in from under the oak door, carrying snowflakes with it across the stone. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not sleeping on the floor when there is a perfectly good bed here.” I wasn’t sure if this was me talking, or Lilith. “We’ve been poisoned. We are frozen and exhausted and want nothing more than to sleep. I think we can manage sleeping next to each other without murdering or fucking each other, don’t you? And you need to be in good condition for when the next assassins come.”
His brows drew together again, eyes gleaming with innocence. “I’m not sure.” His expression changed, his lips curling in a sly smile. “I can control myself in bed with you, but I’m not so sure you can keep your hands off me.”
Possessed (Hades Castle Trilogy Book 3) Page 8
