“Then what did I do?”
He smiles, but it’s thin and stringy, unlike the violent need coursing through his stare.“You unleashed her.”
I shake my head, not understanding.Adrenaline floods my body as I process his words.
She’s not dead?
I didn’t murder the woman I love?
“Unleashed?Wh—what is she?”
He smiles, though it’s sad, his eyes softening.“She is the source.”
I frown as I lean against the bedside table.“What does that mean?I thought she was the contract?”
“Physically, she was the embodiment of the contract.The manifestation of it, until you broke it.Broke her.You essentially tore the contract up.”
He lets that hang in the air as if it explains everything.As if those vague words mean I’ll suddenly understand, when in reality, I’m more confused than before.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t,” he snarls.“You have no fucking idea what you did.What you unleashed.”
“Then tell me,” I plead, my fists balling at my sides.
“How do you trap an angel, Midnight?A fucking heaven-sent celestial being?And then keep them there… Even if they want out?Do you have any clue what it would take to do that?”
I churn his words over, tossing and turning everything he’s said to me, everything I’ve learnt and heard.“Power.It would take an extraordinary amount of power.”
He nods and the furrow between my brows deepens.
“She’s power?”
“The most pure and raw form.Half angel, half demon.She is neither and both.There is a reason angels and demons don’t mix, don’t procreate.She is more powerful than all of us combined.Before she was constrained inside the contract, and now…” His expression turns grave, his skin paling.
“Now she’s unleashed,” I breathe to myself.This is it, my one chance to convince him.“Let me help…”
It hangs between us.The offer.A promise.Perhaps even a new deal.
“You owe me a debt,” he growls.“Why the hell would I let you help me when by rights you should already be dead and your soul mine?”
“Because…” I trail off, trying to work out which is the best path to go.Do I barrel in and insult him?Do I fawn over him?Play to his ego?However I work this, my goal remains the same: get out of my contract and save my soul.Lucy didn’t care about the impact me reaping her would have.So why should I care now?If saving her is a means to an end, then so be it.
It worked earlier, so I try again: truth.Brutal, savage and totally honest.
“Because you’re on your own.You have no one to help you fix this, and… and you need Lucy.Right?”
His eyes flash with a glimmering darkness.I’ve got him.
“You’re right… I do want Lucy.Arcadius won’t care as long as the Veil is repaired and the city under control.I can use Lucy to trap Interitus, or Architecti, or perhaps I’ll imprison both of them for screwing my reputation.”
Use Lucy.
The words are so crass.A line of sweat beads on my upper lip, my throat tightens.The growing awareness that Lucy made me reap her to get away from him builds in my gut.Being tied to him again is the worst thing I could do to her.
My gut hardens.She’s already done the worst thing she could to me.
Ignatius rounds on me, boring his pitch-black eyes into me.“Bring her back to me, Midnight.”
