Page 137 of Bedeviled

I stiffen a little.

“He said you were a badass.”

“Did you really need Kane to tell you that?”

She laughs, then seems to choke on a sob. “Selene, I thought the nightmare was over when we took down the Fortunas.”

I swallow. “The nightmare with the Fortunas is, for the most part, over. This is something else, something that has to do with my first life.”

“You obviously need to elaborate,” she says, echoing my earlier words.

And I do. I tell her as much as I can about Eislyn and how she derailed my life as Roxilana, and how she’s still alive and still interested in murdering me and using Memnon.

“So she’s the one who sent all the demons then?” Sybil says. “Why would she have them attack our coven sisters?”

“Because she could,” I say. “And she probably got off on the thought of terrorizing the people who were important to me.” For that reason alone, I’m thankful that Sybil is safe with the Marin pack.

“That’s absurd.”

I crouch again in front of the box of books. “Sybil, when Memnon was king, Eislyn advised him to gather together nations to fight Rome—and he did it. He genuinely could’ve taken on and defeated Rome, but while she was counseling him on war, she was secretly turning Memnon’s closest friends and allies against him. Hell, she had his mother and sister killed on the night she entombed him.” Old grief rises in me. “She didn’t need to do that. All she had to do was take Memnon away from the rest of us to fulfill her own plans. But she wanted to break everyone and everything in the process. The woman is fucked in the head.”

“So what are you going to do?”

I pull out the next two books from the box. “What I always intended to do,” I say. “Take down the broad.” I glance down at the book in my hands, and my heart seems to still. “I’ve got to go.”

“See you on Friday?” she asks.

My stomach turns. Friday is the last day Henbane is open. I’ll have to return to campus then to pack up my room.

“Yeah,” I say distractedly, “Friday.”

I end the call and tuck my phone away, my eyes never leaving the book in front of me.

The Old Ones: Folklore and Firsthand Accounts

The Old Ones. That was what demons called the entities that lived beneath the earth.

Swallowing a misplaced rush of fear, I open the cover, and I begin to page through the book.

Most of what’s inside are quotes about the Hungering Ones recorded over the last several thousand years. There are also regional myths and legends that incorporate these entities in some way or other. But the book is lean on real, true information about these creatures. In fact, part of their allure seems to be how no one knows much about them.

There are definitely no accounts of them stealing away souls, which is a relief…I think. Regardless of the lack of information, it is clear the Hungering Ones are powerful, mysterious forces of nature.

I set the book aside and glance out the far window.

More than anything I found in the book, I think if I want true answers, I’ll need to speak to these beings myself.

CHAPTER 32

I stare out at the dark forest that surrounds our house as evening falls. Somewhere out there Nero is lurking.

Other things lurk in that darkness as well.

Opening the French doors at the back of the living room, I step out onto the patio.

The stone beneath my bare feet is chilly, but I hardly notice as I pass the couches and firepit arranged out here, then the grill and bar.

Water drops cling to the grass as I cross to the edge of the lawn. Beyond it, the shadowy forest looks particularly ominous.