Nose.
Blood.
Ignatius’s head ricochets off the wall, making a godsawful thunking sound that rattles against my teeth.
His body slides to the floor.
But Arcadius snaps and kicks him square in the face.
“ANSWERS,” he shrieks, losing any sense of decorum or patience.
“Sh-he’s the contract,” Ignatius chokes out, spraying the floor with blood the same way I did.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It’s an ancient form of magic, derived from both demonic and celestial sources.Lucy is the embodiment of the contract I made with Architecti and Architecti was never imprisoned… she agreed to be trapped.”
“Agreed?”Arcadius’s voice takes on a shrill tone.“You told me you tricked her into it.What the fuck do you mean she agreed?”
“What use is it telling the world an angel agreed to entrapment?What good would that do for my reputation?For our rule?”
Arcadius’s neck throbs so violently I’m certain his veins will burst.His teeth grind like a horse gnawing hay.His voice drops so low the warning rumbles right across the room to me.“And you didn’t think that was suspicious?”
“I was perhaps distracted by the benefits this would bring me.I thought she was the problem, what did I care for her reasons agreeing to be imprisoned when I knew the situation would boost my career and demonkind?”
Arcadius’s eyes pool with a viciousness that is lethal.He launches forward, thrusting a frustrated boot into Ignatius’s chest.There’s a cracking sound that makes me wince followed by a series of groans.
I move in the bed, the covers shift over each other.Ignatius’s eyes flick to where I’m lying.I freeze, praying he hasn’t realised I’m awake, but the way his expression glowers at me… yeah, I made a mistake.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.He knows.I can sense it in my bones, in the way my demonic magic fizzes to life, coiling in my gut and brimming at my fingers, static and warm and filled with the urge to protect me.
I stay stock-still, praying he stops looking at me.
It’s Arcadius that breaks the silence.“You and your fucking reputation.I want to know exactly what Lucy is.”
Ignatius finally turns his attention back to Arcadius.He wipes the slowing blood from beneath his nose and stares up at him.
“To imprison an angel, even a willing, fallen one, takes an enormous amount of power.No normal prison could trap her.It needed fail-safes upon fail-safes.I needed pure power.”
Arcadius stumbles back.“The contract you used was born of you both?”
Ignatius nods.“Lucy was both the source and the fail-safe.Her essence was the power that created the prison and the runes were the lock that kept it sealed.”
“Then why is Architecti back?Where the fuck is Lucy?”
“Gone,” Ignatius says and there’s a crack in his voice that makes my throat thick.
He’s a shit of a father, awful to Lucy, and yet, he still loves her?I swallow the hard lump in my throat down, refusing to believe he can be anything but the giant cunt he is.
“The only way to let Architecti out was for Lucy’s soul to be reaped.Her personal lock, so to speak.It’s why I kept her so protected, so close to me, because while she kept her soul, Architecti would stay trapped.”
Arcadius sneers.“And you couldn’t even do that.”He reaches down and picks Ignatius up by his throat as if he were nothing more than a five-year-old boy.It’s astonishing given Ignatius is far taller than the average human and must weigh a shit ton.May I never cross Arcadius on a dark night.
He drops him and leans into Ignatius’s face.“We know what Interitus wants…”
Ignatius dabs at his nose.“The end of fate?”
