Page 97 of Hellbound

“That wasn’t a fight,” Marian grumbled. “You just took me out. What was that?”

“Taekwondo. Sorry. I thought you would dodge.”

“As did I,” came a low voice from behind Marian. Every head in the room swiveled to the source.

Vale leaned in the entryway, hands in his trouser pockets. Marian couldn’t tell where his shadows ended and his black collared button-up began. Terse silence fell over the room. Tori’s expression hardened at the sight of him, her full lips thinning in a scowl.

Vale met the traveler’s fiery stare. “You’re quite agile, Miss Lawson.” His eyes flicked from Tori to Marian.

“You, on the other hand—”

“I don’t want to hear the rest of that sentence.” Marian winced as she shook out her right leg. “Nobody said anything about me needing to win a fistfight with Verinne.”

Marian stopped herself as she noticed Vale scanning her body, making her feel like she was being dissected in front of an audience.

“Don’t look at me like that with those spooky eyes.”

Tori looked at Marian quizzically. The mat squeaked as Paul walked across the room.

“Spooky eyes?” said Paul.

Marian glanced around the room at each face in turn as a question occurred to her.

“You all see this, right? The shadow tentacles, the crown, the face stuff?”

“No?” Tori replied. “He just looks like a creepy white guy to me.”

“Yeah, same,” Paul added.

Paul and Tori stared at her as a slow smile spread across Vale’s face.

“And do you have any idea why that might be?” Vale said teasingly as he approached.

Marian smoothed her hand down her face and inhaled patience. She was so out of her depth with all this, but she’d always known the handsome human Vale was a ruse. Death had peeled back the first layer of the lie.

“This another perk of being bound to you, isn’t it? I get a collar, and I get to see what you really look like.”

Vale scoffed. “What you see is a palatable version of the truth. My complete form would break your human mind.”

Marian muttered “try me” under her breath as Tori quietly crept away.

“Would someone care to explain to me what I’m looking at?” Vale addressed the room.

“I was trying to help Marian summon the knife,” Tori answered from the distant safety of the wall.

“It’s only ever appeared for me in fights,” Marian added. “Both of which were with the Remnant. It was Tori’s idea.”

Tori flashed her a close-lipped smile that may also have been a grimace.

Vale’s brows lofted. “I see. Clever, Miss Lawson.”

“Thanks. Can I have my phone back?” The traveler crossed her arms.

Vale didn’t respond. He thumbed his chin, the dark stubble along his jaw giving his inhuman appearance a rugged edge incongruous with the alabaster of his cracked guise as he considered her.

Marian only had seconds to recognize that something was wrong before shadows coalesced behind him. They circled her limbs, coiling around her throat and bringing darkness with them.

Logic and reason collapsed. Fear rose up in its place, raw and wild. Run, it commanded, but Marian was stuck. The sound of her own name screamed in different tones came through distant and muffled as she teetered on her feet, eyes darting frantically in the dark as shadows overpowered her.