Page 11 of Realm of the Wicked

‘And I’m not crazy.’

‘You aren’t.’

‘And you’re definitely not an angel.’

Damien’s eyebrow raised at that comment, but he stayed blissfully silent.

‘So that only leaves a demon.’

He rubbed his jaw, weighing me up. ‘Close.’

‘Close?’ I narrowed my eyes. ‘What do you mean, close?’

‘I mean, Stella, that your guess is almost right.’ He got to his feet, stuffing his hands into his pockets as if he was out for an evening stroll, not conducting a kidnapping in the dead of night. The cool motion was calculated, like everything else about him.

I could barely hear myself think as he drew closer, standing only a foot away from me. His energy was electric, captivating me in a way I hated, singing every nerve ending into ash. There were definitely smoke tendrils curling up from him.

‘I’m a demon, sure. But not just a demon. I’m the only one that matters, when you really think about it.’

My breath caught in my throat, heart pounding; all the while, my brain screamed, You knew. You knew. You knew all along.

Damien gripped my headboard, leaning forward until his face was inches away from mine, his eyes flickering down to my lips, and back up, so quick, I doubted if I even saw it. ‘You sold your soul to the Devil, Stella. And now I’m here to collect.’

You knew.

You knew.

‘I knew,’ I whispered, closing my eyes if only to give myself some reprieve from Damien’s intense stare.

‘Of course you knew,’ he murmured, voice softer now, nearly gentle. ‘You’re much smarter than most people give you credit for.’

My eyes flew open, and a thousand questions raced to the surface. But there was only one that seemed to matter. ‘How long have you been watching me?’

Damien’s gaze shuttered. Something final clicked into place as he pulled himself away, the strange electricity between us leaving with him. He ignored my question entirely. ‘I’ll give you ten minutes to get your things together, and then we need to leave. The sleeping spell your sister is under shouldn’t be used for too long.’

Grace. I had been so afraid of the man in my room, I hadn’t stopped to think he might be serious about taking me away. ‘I can’t… You can’t expect me to leave my sister. She needs me. If I leave, she’ll call the cops. They’ll come looking for me. I can’t⁠—’

‘With all due respect, hush.’ Damien shot me an amused glare, one dark brow raised high. ‘Your sister will be taken care of. She doesn’t need you any more. She’s healthy, and will be for the rest of her life. That I can promise you. As for calling the cops, after you leave here tonight, it’ll be like you never existed.’

‘How?’ I couldn’t make my body move, no matter how hard I tried. The only thing keeping me from breaking down in front of him was that he had held up his initial end of the bargain. Grace was cured, in a manner that left even the doctors shocked. If he wanted to hurt either of us, he would’ve done so already.

Damien absently started opening my dresser drawers, holding up shirts with a grimace. ‘Exactly like it sounds. Once you leave here, I’ll wipe you from the memories of everyone who knows you. It’s a bit trickier to do on the extroverts, but you don’t seem to be the party type.’ He held up a tank top, emblazoned with the band I’d seen the previous summer. ‘Are you attached to your wardrobe, or can it stay here?’

I rolled my eyes. ‘I’m not attached to my wardrobe, but I’m attached to my sister.’

His eyes closed, and he took a few deep breaths. It almost sounded like he was counting under his breath. ‘So attached you were willing to give up your soul, and your very existence to save her. Please don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be. I have no issues knocking you out and dragging you back to my home, but I’d rather not deal with the residual trauma of that. What do you absolutely need?’

I shot a glare at his broad back, my brain warring between the concept that there was no way this could be happening and the idea that this very much was happening and I needed to move. ‘Are you asking me to narrow down my life to a collection of items in the space of ten minutes?’

‘Seven minutes now, actually.’ Damien ran his finger along my necklaces hanging on the jewelry holder. ‘You’re not great at time management, are you, love?’

I stared, unblinking. ‘There’s no way this is real. Literally no way in Hell.’

‘Mmm, that’s where you’re wrong. See, I’m only here because of Hell.’ Damien shot me a dark look over his shoulder. ‘You still haven’t answered my question. What do you need?’

Deep breaths. I just had to take deep breaths and everything would be fine. Maybe the best thing to do would be to go along with whatever he was saying, and figure a way out after. Grace, though… ‘Do you promise Grace will be okay?’

He turned, stuffing his hands into his pockets, cocking his head to the side. A glimmer of the man I met on the trail was back, leaving me wonder which side was real. ‘You have my word.’