As the remaining men started to spread to the corners of the room, I stalked closer to them. My skull tingled as I felt the horns rising from my forehead.
Another arrow soared for me, and my blade deflected it.
Then—from above, a gunshot rang out. Bloody hell. They did have a gun.
Luckily, the shooter’s aim was off, and the marble floor erupted to my right.
The sooner I rid this library of the threat, the better. I moved with a speed I hadn’t felt in centuries, too fast for the arrows to hit me. A godlike speed. Before my fall, when I commanded the heavenly horde, I’d moved like this—a hurricane wind of death. Each pivot, each whirl, each strike was precise, served a purpose.
Because I had a purpose, didn’t I? For the first time in centuries, I had clear meaning. My thoughts blazed with a single clear directive, one that rang out like a bell: protect Lila.
Every other thought in my mind went silent as I drove my sword through the body of one Free Man after another.
My gaze flicked to the stairwell, and I saw Lila running away from me.
Unfortunately for me, I also heard the door crashing open behind me, and more soldiers rushing in.
Lila
The hunger corroded me from the inside out, taking root between my ribs. I rushed up the stairs.
Only the book would fill me, and it was moving away from me. In my visions, I had seen it on the bottom floor, glowing like an ember. But now I felt it slipping away. The book wanted me to come with it, to fulfill Lilith’s oath. To cleanse the streets of the vermin …
Another gunshot echoed through the hall, snapping me out of my haze. Who the fuck had a gun? They were incredibly hard to get in Albia, thank God.
Part of me wanted to run back and see if Samael was okay, but the other part told me to keep going, sprinting higher up the stairs. Once I got my hands on the book, I could end all this. Sever my ties to the Free Men completely. I was their greatest weapon, and without me it would all be over.
Cleanse the streets. Fulfill your oath. The voice rang in my skull, and I wanted to drown it out. It was the voice of pure evil.
I bounded farther up the winding stone stairwell. Once I got to the second-level balcony, I glanced back down. Fear crackled through me as I saw dozens of Free Men surrounding Samael, more Free Men spilling into the room. He was wildly outnumbered, and blood streamed from his neck.
Not ten feet from me, an archer was nocking an arrow. Fury snapped through my nerves, and a blazing need to protect Samael. Lilith’s magic raged in me like a storm, and a low hissing sound filled my ears.
I grabbed a few greenbrier berries from my pocket, and tossed them at the archer. Before I ran for the book again, I watched as thorny vines wrapped around him, strangling him. So that was why Lilith had prompted me to take the berries—so my vines wouldn’t have to fight through six floors of stone to get to my victims.
In the stairwell again, the starving ache settled in my ribs once more. I felt as if I were skin and bones, wasting away.
The tug of the book gripped me, and I found myself flying up the stairs after it. One story after another, I was closing in on it.
But who was moving with it? Alice? The Baron? Were they one and the same?
At last, as my body hummed with power, I reached the fifth and final floor.
Lilith … come and get me.
The book called for me in my mind. My thoughts flickered with a vision of pages flipping, beaming with light.
I could rule the world, the Iron Queen. Empress of all that lived and died. All I needed was the book in my hands.
I scanned the dark shadows of the upper floor until I saw her—pale blonde hair disappearing into the shadows.
Alice.
Right now, I would kill anyone and destroy anything to get that book in my hands. The book contained the secrets of the universe. That book was mine.
Up here, on the top floor, there was no way for her to run. At last, I’d get answers from Alice.
I moved like a tempest wind over the balcony.
I found her standing between dark bookshelves, a window behind her. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of her. After all this time, I’d found Alice again. This was never how I’d imagined it.
Her eyes looked wild, cheeks pink, strands of blonde hair waving around her head.
In one hand, she held a gun. In the other, she gripped the book tight. Her hand was shaking so much as she pointed the gun at me, I wasn’t sure she’d hit me even at this distance.
She flashed me a twisted smile. “Hi, sister.”
“Alice. I thought you were dead. So did Mum. She hasn’t been doing so well, you know.”
Her lip curled. “You thought I was dead? I thought you were human. I thought you were one of us. An Albian. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Mum found you crawling from the dirt. A little monster invading our city.”
“Is that what I am?”
Her face shone with sweat. “Your whole life is a lie. Your kind is a pestilence. A blight.”
I reached into my pocket for the greenbrier berries. “Alice, put the gun down. You don’t belong here.”
The gun rattled in her grip. “No, you don’t belong here. That’s the whole point. You are not one of us.”
I fought the urged to lunge forward, to snatch the book from her. “Where is Sourial?” I asked quietly. “And Oswald?”
She let out a strange little laugh. “You have no idea what the fuck is going on, do you?”
“No, I don’t. But I know this, Alice. I know that your life is a lie too. You pretended to be a good person. Mum said one of us was good and one was evil, but I think she got it a little backwards about which was which.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Even when it comes to Mum, you don’t know what you’re talking about. See that’s the thing, Lila. She always loved you more. You always got the special treatment, the extra attention, the brand-new dress. Do you know how often I got in trouble, while you got away with things? And I went with it, because I thought you were my sister. I thought we belonged together. I thought I was looking after my own. Then I find out Mum loved a little monster more than she loved me.”
I shook my head. I knew she was wrong about this. “You destroyed her when you disappeared. She loves you, and you ruined her life. I might be a demon, but you’re the fucking monster, Alice. I saw what the Free Men did to those women. They cut them up, ripped their lungs out. The murderers who did that are your people, Alice. Not mine.”
She clutched the book tight to herself, and tears ran down her pink cheeks. “They do what needs to be done to restore Albia to its former greatness. Once I thought you were like me. I thought you understood things were better long ago. When the Raven King ruled—”
“The Raven King married a demon!” I yelled. “Lilith. The Raven King is not who you think he is. He doesn’t hate demons. And things were not better long ago. That is a lie. Long ago, witch hunters burned people in the town square. The king hunted holy brothers for differing theological opinions. People with diseases had to live outside the city gates until they died. Does that sound like a good fucking society to you, Alice?”
She shook her head, her eyes wild. “Albia was great then, and maybe some people needed to be burned. Our golden age was long ago. That’s all I want. Another golden age. But what do we have now? Slums, violence, whores, the streets infested with vermin, with people and monsters who never belonged here mixing with us. Polluting our society. I hardly know what it means to be Albian anymore. Half the people in Dovren don’t even speak our language. And that’s the reason why we grew up in a grubby little room with Mr. Wentworth. Our society is degenerating with your kind infecting it. The more people mix with the monsters, the more we will degenerate.”
Once, I hated to see Alice cry. Now, I felt nothing but rage. Maybe it was Lilith rising in me, but I could end this now, rip her to shreds with the greenbriers.
Except then I might never learn where Sourial was.
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“We’ve always had slums,” I hissed. “Streets full of the poor ruled over by kings dripping with gold. The demons and angels didn’t invent that. That is a mortal creation. Tell me where to find Sourial and Oswald, Alice. You’re smart enough to fear me, aren’t you?”
“But they were our kings, weren’t they?” she shouted, ignoring my question. “And I deserve to be one of them. I told you I’d be queen one day, didn’t I? And I meant it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You don't really give a fuck about anyone in the slums. You’re fine with them existing, as long as you’re not in them. Is that about right? It’s fine for us to have kings and queens, as long as the gold rings are on your fingers. Are you the Baron?”
“No. But he will make me his queen.”
“You sad cow. It won’t happen, Alice. I don’t know who the Baron is, but he doesn’t seem like a stand-up guy to me. And if he’s an elitist twat like the rest of the Free Men, he’s not going to want a peasant on the throne with him. Tell me where to find Sourial.”
The tears were still flowing down her cheeks, and for just a moment, I thought I saw a glimmer of recognition. She knew what I said was true.
Then, she bared her teeth. “Funny thing is, Lila. It doesn’t really matter what you think. Because Lilith made an oath, and it’s time for her to pay the piper.”
A sharp pang of hunger ripped through me, maddening in its intensity. I crashed down to my knees, staring at the book with longing. It glowed with an unearthly light.
“Give me the book,” I breathed. “I need it.”
She arched an eyebrow, and her lips curled in a dark smile. “Are you finally ready to do what Lilith promised? She promised to cleanse the city, and now the time has come for her to act.”
I could hardly process her words. I only knew that hunger was ripping me apart, and the book would feed me.
Muttering chants under her breath, she offered me the book. I reached out for it, desperate. As soon as my fingers touched the spine, my own thoughts went quiet.
Now, Alice’s muttering grew louder, like a chorus in my brain. I could hear only the voice of the Free Men.
Slaughter the enemies of Albia. The time has come to clean the streets with fire.
Lila
As I held the book, a vision rose in my mind—out of darkness, flames. My army of demons would pour through the streets, tearing the angels limb from limb. When I read these words out loud, my beasts would know who to hunt. They’d run through the flames, slaughtering the nephilim, the angels, the women they’d bedded … Only the untouched mortals would remain. The pure. This was my oath.
Slaughter the enemies of Albia.
The words were like a toxin spreading in the soil of my thoughts. I opened the book to the page, the place where it would all begin. All I had to do was read the words …
All I had to do was speak them out loud, and this maddening hunger would stop.
Slaughter the enemies of Albia.
But as my mouth started to form the first word, I went still. A terrible thought hit me like a bullet to my brain.
Where was Samael right now? There had been more Free Men rushing into the atrium downstairs, and strong as he was, he was wildly outnumbered.
The lure of the book was powerful, but my bond with Samael was stronger. His unearthly beauty beamed in my mind like a star, his light washing away the gruesome visions in my mind.
And with his face in my thoughts, my own voice began to rise, drowning out the Free Men.
“I am yours and you are mine.” I thought of the engagement ring on my finger. “I am yours, and you are mine.” As long as I spoke those words, I couldn’t read the spell, I couldn’t hear the commands of the Free Men.
With a fierce will, I forced myself to stand. But when I was only halfway up, my lovely sister pressed the gun against my forehead. Hunger ripped through my gut, making my muscles seize up. I was a skeleton, a spirit of famine. I felt as if I were wasting away. I couldn’t move anymore, even if the gun were no longer there.
“Lilith!” she shouted. “The book commands you to fulfill your oath. And like it or not, we can control you.”
My skeletal arms were shaking, pure bones. I tried to rise again, to pull myself away. With Alice chanting, I could feel the power of the book intensify over me. I wasn’t able to use my magic—not unless I did what it wanted.
I stumbled, falling to my knees. Two men appeared before me, and one of them wrapped his large hand around my throat, his whisky-blond hair hanging before his eyes. He started to squeeze. “Your demon friend won’t be coming to save you.”
It took me a moment to realize who he meant—Samael. Not an angel anymore, then.
White hot panic seared me. What had happened to Samael?
He squeezed harder. “We will torture you until you do what we want. Sadly for you, little demon, you won’t be able to move. That’s what happens when you make an oath. You are bound to it. Very nasty of you to think you could break a promise to us. Very nasty little thing indeed.”
The second man ripped the book from my hands. “Little demon. You must read.” He flipped the book open before my eyes, forcing me to look at the spell. I scanned the words, so hungry now I thought I’d surely die.
The blond released my throat so I could speak, but he pulled out a knife. He pressed the tip right between my breasts. “Read the words, little demon, or I’ll start to cut this evil heart out.”
Alice chanted louder behind me. She kicked me hard from behind, her boot slamming into my kidneys. My body jerked forward, and I was lucky the man yanked the knife away just in time. He gripped me by the hair to keep me in place, and pointed the knife at me once more.
Panic unfurled in my mind. I could end this all …
The words seemed to glow brighter. All I had to do was read them, and the hunger would stop. The pain would stop …
From the corner of my eye, I saw Alice hand the gun to one of the Free Men. He pointed it at me. “Fulfill your oath.”
Alice was chanting behind me like a madwoman. The time has come; cleanse the streets. Fulfill your oath. With her words, she was controlling me.
“I am yours and you are mine.” I repeated the mantra again, trying to ignore the hollow ache in my stomach. I’d just repeat it as long as I had to, until they left me the fuck alone or we all died of starvation.
I just needed to tune out her chants, to gain control of my magic, of my body …
The report of a gunshot echoed across the hall, but it took me a few seconds before I felt it. Then, blinding pain ripped through my shoulder, knocking me back. I reeled, but the man gripped my hair again, knife aimed at my chest.
“I am yours and you are mine.” Another gunshot rang out, and pain flamed through my arm. There were more of them now, Free Men surrounding me. Closing in on me.
But a storm was brewing in me, and these fuckers had no idea what they were in for.
They’d picked the wrong demon to mess with today.
“I am yours and you are mine.” I whispered the words like a prayer, freeing my muscles just enough from Alice’s spell.
I shoved my hand in my pocket, grabbed the greenbrier berries, and threw them onto the floor. They rolled across the marble, and I flicked my fingers.
Ropes of thorny vines shot into the air. The gunman fired again, one last time, but the shot went wide, slamming into the bookshelves. Alice started screaming behind me as my vines snaked around the Free Men. Another flick of my fingers, and the thorns ripped the men apart.
With Alice distracted, it seemed like I had a temporary reprieve from the book and her chanting. I snatched it off the floor.
More Free Men were bounding up the stairs, staring in terror at the carnage on the top floor. Horrified shouts rang out, one of them screaming Alice’s name. And behind them—death himself.
His bronze horns gleamed above his head, and his sword carved through two mortals. When I looked up into his eyes, I saw no emotion there, just shad
ows, a creature created for one purpose alone: to destroy. He pivoted at the top of the stairs, taking down every last Free Man. They hardly had time to react as he cleaved their bodies in two.
Silence fell over the hall, and then it was just us three—death, my sister, and me.
“The time has come, fulfill your oath!” she shrieked through her sobs.
With Samael here, the book’s power over me was eroding even more.
“You monster, you fucking monster!” she bellowed. “Look at what you’ve done! Look at who your ally is!”
I stepped away from her, my body shaking. She’d slunk back between the bookshelves like a hunted creature. She no longer had her backup. Only her hatred protected her now.
I hated her down to her core. And yet I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. Not Alice.
Because she was evil as sin, but I’d shared a bed with her, shared meals with her, shared my dreams and nightmares. And I loathed her, but this broke my heart.
Samael stared at Alice. His face was expressionless, a distant mask of death, and he hardly seemed to see me. His eyes were obsidian; copper whorled over his cheekbones. Bronze horns gleamed above his head, and he stood unnervingly still.
His leather jacket had been torn in several places, and red streaked his skin beneath it. But he didn’t seem to notice the blood. For a moment, I could see how he looked from Alice’s perspective: a living nightmare. A creature straight from hell.
When I turned to look at her, I found her face twisted in a mask of fear.
“Who is the Baron?” Samael’s voice rumbled through my bones, the sound a death knell. “And where are you keeping the captives?”
Whoever the Baron was, he was either dead, or he’d left Alice here unprotected. She thought she’d be queen? It was hard to feel angry with her now, when pity overwhelmed me. You sad, stupid cow.
White as a ghost, Alice pointed at Samael. “You tell me that I’m the monster?” she stammered. “And this is your partner? Look at him. He is death. He is death.”
Possessed (Hades Castle Trilogy Book 3) Page 14
