At this, Darius stepped forward, capturing Sebastian’s attention without a word. Darius crossed the room to the mahogany bar and helped himself to a glass of whiskey, no ice.
Keeping his eyes locked on Sebastian’s, Darius raised his glass and nodded. “Please. Continue.”
“She… she is demon sworn,” he said, collecting his anger and settling back into his chair. “Sworn tome. And has been for a very long time.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Sebastian,” I said. “She did what she had to do, and now she’s gone, body and soul.”
“Body?” Sebastian went damn near purple with rage again. “You’re telling me she’s stillalive?In the fucking Shadowrealm?”
“That is our understanding, yes,” Darius said.
“But that’s impossible. The prophecy—” He cut himself off abruptly, suddenly busying himself with the wet papers on his table. The P-word hung in the air between us.
Darius caught my eye, giving me a slight nod. He’d heard it too. Wondered.
Centuries old and mistranslated many times over, the prophecy itself had become little more than a spooky folktale trotted out on Halloween, complete with all the usual superstitious flair—take a third daughter of a third daughter of a third daughter, mix in a witch born under a full moon at the stroke of midnight, add in a little doom and gloom about the end of the world and a pinch of dried batwing, and stir.
But from its alleged origins in the Silversbane scrolls—some of the very first records of the craft—the core of it had remained the same. Strip away all the trappings and misinterpretations, and here’s what you got: a powerful Shadowborn witch foretold to unite the fractured covens against a devastating threat.
Sebastian had always said he didn’t believe in the Silversbane prophecy, or that it had anything to do with Gray. His reasons for wanting her soul had more to do with what others believed, and the power he’d gain from owning something perceived as so highly valuable.
Or so he’d claimed.
I’d always had my suspicions. From the moment I’d first seen her, it was clear she was born for more than a life in the shadows.
But with that one little slip-up, Sebastian had just shown us his cards.
He believed the prophecy was about Gray. And he couldn’t wait to claim her soul—to put a powerful witch to work tohisends.
My hands clenched into fists at my sides. No matter how many times a day I thought about her damn contract, I still couldn’t accept it.
When Sebastian finally looked up from his table again, his face was a mask of forced control. “In any case, I don’t see why you insist on raising my blood pressure, son. So she’s in the Shadowrealm. She’ll finish her trials and be delivered straight to me. Nothing can break her contract.”
“I used to believe that, too,” I said. “But she is, after all, a Shadowborn. Quite unpredictable. Extremely powerful. If I’d known that when you’d first assigned me to her, this whole scenario might’ve turned out differently.”
“This is not acceptable!” he bellowed, stabbing his finger into the glass table. “Demon sworn cannotmake deals with any other being. She is mine, no matter what your so-called natural order dictates.”
“If you’re quite finished,” Darius said, taking a fresh glass from the bar and pouring Sebastian another drink, “we’d like to discuss our options for bringing her back.”
“There’s noourin this, bloodsucker. Gray is mine.”
“Really? Then by all means.” Darius handed him the drink and bowed over his desk. “Retrieve her.”
He blustered awhile longer, but eventually, he came around and shut his mouth.
Just like I knew he would.
“We need passage through the hell portal,” I said. “Once we’re in the Shadowrealm, we’ll track her down and help get her back to the material plane.”
“I want my property returned,” he said. “Or there will be hell to pay.”
“Why do you care so much about one witch’s soul?” Darius asked.
“Asidefrom the fact that she’s my property?” Sebastian sipped his bourbon. “Let’s say you rescue her from this fate, and bring her back to the world alive and unbroken. Well, you’ve just made her a martyr and a hero. The witch who sacrificed her eternal soul to eliminate one hunter, and then returned, resurrected. What a PR story! And what do you suppose the other witches will do when they hear of this hero? They’ll…” He trailed off and shook his head. “That kind of power—real or perceived—is dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“The covens have all but disbanded,” Darius said. “Witches are nearly extinct. They have no real power, Sebastian, and haven’t for a long time. One untrained, undisciplined witch isn’t going to change that.”
What a joke. Darius and I both knew that one witch could change a hell of a lot of things—Gray had already done just that. But Sebastian’s mind didn’t work that way. He’d slithered his way to the top of Hell’s food chain, but deep down he was the same small-minded, short-sighted demon he’d always been.
