“I do some thingsextremelywell,” he said.
The throaty timbre of his voice, his pointed look, and the innuendo of his words caused my belly to tighten in anticipation.
“You do realize we’re in the middle of a crypt, right?” I asked when I could speak again.
“Hell was a giant crypt too, and so is Earth, if you really think about it. There are a lot of dead on this planet.”
He had a point there. I just wasn’t going to acknowledge it.
“So, how did we get out to the island?” I asked.
“We rode Zorn to it. He’s an excellent swimmer.”
“A horse of a thousand talents.”
“Just like his rider.”
I wasn’t going to acknowledge that comment either. I already knew too much about some of those talents.
“Do you consider yourself Zorn’s master?” I asked, curious about their strange relationship.
“Zorn is part of my abilities and a part of me, but I’m not his master. He has a mind of his own, and he uses it freely. He chooses to stay with me because we are loyal to each other.”
“It sounds like you’re friends.”
“He’s the only friend I’ve ever had.”
That admission made me feel sadder than I would have liked for my enemy. I was probably better off not knowing more about this man, but he was a good distraction from all the death surrounding us. If I looked closer at the statues, I might find some friends amongst them, so I didn’t look any closer.
“What did you do behind the seal?” I asked.
“We fought, we fed on the scraps of wraiths we got, we watched the hellfire out the windows, we went a little insane, we hibernated, and we fucked. Lust was more than accommodating in that way.”
I somehow managed to keep my face impassive at these blunt words, but jealousy seethed inside me like a rolling pit of hellfire. He was locked behind a seal for twelve thousand years with Lust; of course, he hadn’t gone without, but I’d never considered that they’d screwed their way through twelve thousand years. If she weren’t already dead, I would have gladly killed that bitch, and, once again, I was extremely tempted to smack him.
“At least you had her to keep you entertained,” I muttered.
I felt his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him. I was afraid he would see more than I was willing to share if I did.
“Yes, she was quite the diversion,” he said.
I almost turned my head to glower at him but managed to stop myself. He’d realized he struck a nerve with his revelation about him and Lust, and he was trying to pluck it more. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing I was jealous. He would use it against me, and he already had far too many weapons to use against me.
“What do you mean, you hibernated?” I asked.
“One or more, and sometimes all of us, would slip into a sleep-like state for… I don’t know how long. Hours, days, weeks, years. When I couldn’t take another second of being trapped behind the seal, staring at the same things, and theendlessmonotony, I would simply slip away. And after a while, I would come back.”
As unexpected sorrow filled me, I almost rested my hand on his arm but kept my hand restrained. If I touched him, I didn’t trust myself to stop, but I hadn’t expected this sudden rush of pity.
He deserved to be locked behind the seal.
While that was true, it didn’t fortify my walls against him like it did in the beginning.
“That sounds horrible,” I said honestly.
His eyes were shards of black ice when they met mine. “It was a torture I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The varcolac should have been courageous enough to face us and kill us, instead of being a coward who locked us away and never bothered with us again. None of the varcolacs ever bothered with us again. Once we were locked away, none of them had the balls to face us again and see what they’d done.”
“Kobal did.”
