Page 54 of Realm of the Wicked

My eyes flew open. ‘That’s what you think I’m upset about?’ My anxiety was gone, leaving me with a simmering anger.

Damien blinked, confused.

‘You lied to me. You told me you brought me here to give me a chance. You touch me and tell me I’m beautiful and it’s all a lie. You brought me here as some kind of pawn in a fucked-up power struggle you have with Clarissa.’ My anger cracked behind every word.

Damien shook his head. ‘No. No. None of that is true. I brought you here to save you.’

I wrenched my wrists out of his grip. ‘You know, I believed you in my bedroom.’

‘Good. Because it’s the truth!’ Damien’s voice echoed through the hallway. ‘Every fucking word of it.’

For a moment, I hesitated. He sounded genuine. His eyes flashed, desperately wanting me to believe him. For a brief moment, I thought of him on his knees in front of me. ‘I don’t know what to believe any more.’

I wanted to turn away before the tears fell, but he caught my wrist before I could run.

‘I meant every word in your bedroom, Stella. And I’m sorry none of this is easy. But I’m not sorry you’re here.’

I didn’t know what to believe. The Devil at the dining-room table, cunning and cold, or the man in front of me, open and vulnerable. I didn’t know which side was real.

For the second time, I pulled away. ‘I think I just need some time alone right now.’

And before Damien could stop me, I turned and headed back to my bedroom, where I could finally, finally, break into pieces.

19

DAMIEN

The blood dripped off my hands, a ceaseless and grim reminder of who I was and who I’d chosen to be.

The same blood dripped from the man strung up to the ceiling of my dining room. When I threw my fist into his side once more, he let out a low keen of pain.

‘I’m surprised at how weak you really are. I expected more of a big tough man, no?’ Another punch, this one directly to his kidneys.

I didn’t normally get my hands messy like this. My role was fairly straightforward. Weigh the souls. Collect the souls. Deliver the souls to Hell. Keep track of the delivery. Listen to Clarissa complain about the Balance. Of course, nothing was really ever as seamless as that. Sometimes, there was a delay, and the person in question ended up in my custody for longer than anticipated. Usually, when this happened, I let them suffer in my dungeon. Enough things lived down there that it didn’t take long for their sanity to slip.

In fact, it was disturbing how little pressure was truly required to fracture one’s mind.

Other times, I’d feed them to the Nihil. The numbers still added up that way, and they were out of my hair.

But Jack had gotten on the wrong side of me, on the wrong day, leading him here, to my dining room at the mercy of my fear and self-loathing.

‘I swear—’ Jack choked, spitting out a mouthful of blood. ‘I swear I didn’t do whatever it is you think I did. I was set up.’

Fuck, he was annoying. Did he need to run his mouth this much?

‘Set up. I’m sure,’ I purred, thinking back to my tidy ledger, where Jack’s sins were neatly laid out in black ink, weighed up against another. As much as we tried, none of us could outrun the truth in the end.

I swung my arm back, ready to throw my fist right in the middle of his even, white teeth, but I paused.

This was exactly why I was no good for Stella. The fact she thought she wanted me…

Didn’t she see everything was just an act? A poor excuse of decoration to cover up my rotting husk of a self? She didn’t want me. And she’d realize that all too quickly, but by then, it would be too late. I knew myself well enough to know that.

One taste of her lips and she’d be mine.

I growled, angry at myself for even letting it get this far. What had I been thinking?

And after Clarissa’s dinner, there was no way she would trust me again.