“At least, not anywhere I can’t reach you.”I gasp as his voice caresses the inside of my mind, not prepared for the feeling of him brushing up against my consciousness again. He taps the side of his head with a smirk of his irritatingly perfect mouth.“Those hooded fools left us both a parting gift. You have a back door in your mind now, and I hold the key. I can possess you anytime, in any realm.”
“Then why weren’t you there when I woke up?” I blurt out, still slowly backing away. If I could get away from him, then that would absolutely be my first choice. But if he’s right about me being stuck with him, I want to get as many answers as I can. If he’s in the mood to share, I’m more than willing to work out what defenses I might have against him.
“I can’t hold the connection if you lose consciousness,” he answers, a slight smile still playing on his lips. “But that doesn’t really help you.”
Fuck.That was the same thought I just had. Can he hear everything I’m thinking?
He takes a few steps toward me, the edges of his cloak flaring slightly. That’s when I notice the strange flicker of shadow at his back, the light not quite falling right around his shoulders.
“What is your name, human?”
The moment he stepped toward me, I could feel that same power that crackled above me in the sorcerers’ chamber. He’s strong. And not just in the way that his broad chest and muscular frame suggest. It would be highly unlikely I could best in him a physical fight, but I have absolutely no hope of protecting myself from his magic.
I’ve got nothing to rely on other than my wits. But that’s hardly new.
“Rose,” I answer, testing something out. “Rose Radley.”
He nods, accepting the answer without question.
So I can lie to him. Which means he can’t readeverythought I have. Perhaps he only hears the ones I consciously speak into whatever corner of my mind he’s lurking in.
“I imagine, Rose, that you might be wondering why I’ve brought you here.”
“To hand my soul over to your masters?” I ask, wanting to test another theory of mine.
His eyes trace my features, calculating. “It’s not mine to give.”
I exhale with relief. Sure, maybe he’s not telling the truth, but I don’t see why he’d bother deceiving me when he holds all the cards.
“I thought maybe when I asked you to free me…when I blacked out at the rift?—”
“You thought youdied?”His smile is back, sharp and unforgiving. “Are humans still telling that silly tale about Infernum being part of the afterlife?”
When I don’t answer, he gestures to the city below with a sweep of his hand. “You’ll find that everyone here is very much alive, Rose Radley, including you. And a soul snare needs to do more than just answer a cry for help before he gets to claim you.”
Something about the way he says those last few words makes me swallow hard.
He extends his hand toward me, his fingers beckoning impatiently. “Now come, I have a job for you.”
The arrogance of his manner punctures my fear. He’s sononchalant, as if he’s an acquaintance I ran into on the street. As if I’m not still coated in the sticky, half-dried remnants of the bloodheforced me to spill. Just thinking about it has me mentally replaying the screams, the smell—an iron tang fresh in my nostrils because the blood hasn’t gone anywhere. It all makes my hands shake. I clench them into fists.
“I’m not doing anything for you,” I bite out. It’s the horror speaking, the disgust at what I’ve done. What hemademe do.
The demon’s face drops abruptly, the slight smile he was wearing replaced by a serious, straight line. Not bothering with subtlety, I scramble backward up the slope, gut twisting in warning.
“I was afraid you’d say that.”His voice scrapes lightly across my mind like talons preparing to clamp down. I don’t have a plan, there’s no logic to the way I break into a run, yet I sprint away from him as fast as I can—which is pretty quick by human standards.
But of course there’s no outrunning him.
His presence unfolds from that spot inside my head, licking its way down my neck and curling across my shoulders. It slips through my body like a specter, making my nerve endings quiver as it wraps around my legs.
By the time I reach the top of the plateau, the demon has seized my muscles, forcing me to a complete standstill. I try to fight him, try to claw my way out of his grip, but it’s like I’m trapped in my own body. No matter how much I push back, my own limbs won’t answer my commands. I might as well be shouting into a void.
I hear his footsteps behind me, almost as close as the brush of his presence against my mind.
“I’d hoped we could do this without a demonstration. But since you want to do this the hard way…”
My feet shift, turning me toward the opposite edge of the plateau. I can’t move my neck, but I can slide my eyes over enough to see his face. His expression is placid but for the faint lines where his brow furrows in concentration.
