“Did you think I was serious?That I’d actually give up a soul that’s proven to be a useful asset?Demonsake, Midnight, have you learned nothing about me in the last decade?”
“You can’t renege.I won’t let you.”
He holds my cuffed wrists up.“And what’s a little reaper like you going to do about it?”
“This city runs on contract law.You can’t go back on it.”
I hang my head, shaking it.She’s forgotten all the basics from her first term at Finis.
“Ora City runs on demonic law,” I breathe.“And an initial contract always needs to be fulfilled.”
Ignatius cocks his head at me and nods, approving.“This city runs exactly how I fucking tell it to.You will never be free of me, Midnight.I will never give you up, never set you free until I’m good and ready to.Your lover girl here isn’t the only one tied to me.You are too.What a delightful pair you make.Too bad she no longer wants anything to do with you.”
Ignatius is not gentle with me.
He yanks me by the cuffs through the House Inferos corridors and down the stairs.He’s so rough that I trip on one of the steps, and he doesn’t bother to slow down to let me up.I kick my legs at his.He stumbles as my foot gets caught in between his stride and he bashes his knee against the marble tiles.
The hiss he releases is severe enough I realise I made an egregious error.I thought it would give me time to get up and walk dignified by his side, even if I am his captive.
But he’s furious.Canyons carve his skin and he looks older than he ever has.The rage animates his face, each line a trembling reminder that in his mind, I fucked up.
In his eyes, I’m a traitor.
“You left me,” he snarls.
“You trapped me,” I spit, not caring that I am pouring fuel on his temper.I refuse to back down.Refuse to bend and cower, no matter the consequences.
“I made you, daughter.”
“And I am tired of you using that as a threat.So unmake me,Ignatius…” I raise an eyebrow at him as his top lip curls.
He snatches at my hair and yanks me forward, dragging me by my locks instead of the cuffs.
I yelp and then descend into laughter as I realise his dilemma.“Oh, that’s right, you can’t unmake me, can you?You still want to use me.”
That earns me a vicious tug on my hair as he throws me out of House Inferos’s door and into the courtyard.
My head clunks against the ground, my vision woozy and swimming.
He leans down into my face.“I still love you, Lucy.But test my patience and I’ll show you there are fates far worse than the underworld.Think carefully about your next moves.I can make this tolerable for you, and we can get back to some semblance of father and daughter.Or I can take exactly what I want from you and leave you to the wraiths.”
“Go to hell.I can fight back this time.You might not have let Midnight out of her contract, but mine is long gone and I assure you, I will spend every second of life I have left finding a way to make you pay.”
He sniffs and runs a hand through his dishevelled locks.“From your chains?Good luck with that.”
I spit on his shoes.
His eyes fall from my face to the gob of saliva on his overly polished designer shoes.
The sense of satisfaction is short-lived though.He slams his fist into my jaw, and everything goes black… and my mind fills with memories that belong to an angel.
I wake uneasy.It’s odd holding a piece of someone’s soul.I’m not sure I’m enjoying it.Every time I close my eyes, images of her life drift through my mind.But it’s patchwork and I can’t put them into an order.
I know she’s angry.Gods, is she furious.There was a lover.And a repeating image of her and Interitus stood in front of a mirror.
I knead my temples trying to push the memories away.A sticky cold slithers into my muscles.My jaw aches where my father hit me.My scalp is the same, a throbbing ache that is so much more than skin deep.I assume he continued to drag me across the courtyard by my hair while I was unconscious.
Bastard.
