Page 86 of Of Monsters and Mazes

“You have to, don’t you.”

I closed my eyes, stealing his window to my soul. Though he’d already parsed his answer. Maybe if I just told him everything, we could fix what never had to be broken. If Sela had taught me one, single thing, it was the value in facing life head on, no matter how impossible the odds and terrifying the potential outcomes.

“When two devils are born on the same plane at the same time, their souls and fates are inextricably linked.” I grabbed Alessi’s hand and moved it down to my chest. I guided his touch, tracing the cross. “When we were kids, Jericho used my own horn to cut these scars into my body. But this one across my chest was from a time he’d dug deep enough to reach my heart.”

Alessi nodded, the slight surprise in his eyes feeling vindicating as he was finally allowed to understand. “He didn’t kill you?”

“No. He just opened the pathway he needed.” I swallowed, but I wasn’t going to let myself back down now. “That day, he took a piece of my heart, and he consumed it. Then he took a piece of his own heart, held me down, and when I refused to open up, he sliced open my mouth and forced me to devour a piece of him, too.”

“What?” Alessi looked positively stunned.

“That’s how a devil seals a bond of fate.” I’d struggled so much to voice that until now, but maybe it was about time I took a lesson from Butterfly, the ridiculous woman who, good or bad, didn’t know how to filter her words. “And when one of those devils fights his way onto the throne and officially ascends as King, this is a bond that can never be betrayed.”

Alessi flattened his hand against my chest, and he closed his eyes for several long moments. He paused there, as if all he wanted to do was sync with my heartbeat.

“I see.” He said at last. “So is this how the game ends? Is this how it will always end?”

With a slow, deep breath, I met his gaze through the mirror. The corners of my lips lifted, and my deep scars created a truly wicked smile.

“No.” I shook my head, enjoying this rare feeling of freedom. “I fulfilled my only duty. I can do anything I want now.”

“Oh?” Alessi lifted a brow in confusion. “And what exactly is that?”

I turned my head to face his, and I nudged the tip of his nose with mine. He followed my lead, tilting back just enough to let me brush his lips. He said nothing. Just accepted that sentiment, and I hoped he understood that this simple, chaste, easy kiss meant more to me than a thousand nights in his bed even had.

“I’m going to be selfish.” I whispered between increasingly probing contact. “Let’s go get Sela and help her through the Labyrinth. We can deal with the consequences during next year’s games, but for now, I’m a free devil.”

Alessi’s grip on me tensed the second before he fisted my hair and took my mouth with every bit of unrestrained passion in his soul. He forced his tongue between my lips, and he walked me back into the shower. When I hit the wall, he completely cocooned me in his body. Fuck did I miss that feeling. Of him. Of us. Of how we fit together. He didn’t pull away until we were both panting and starved for air.

“One more time, into the abyss. Can I count on you?” He purred with a sharp smirk.

I whispered back, slow and resolute. “Until the end of time.”

Chapter 46

I stumbled in a dark room, staying on my feet on luck and miracles alone. I didn’t know where I was or how I’d gotten there, but somehow I was standing in new and abrupt darkness. I tapped my hands against my face, verifying I was alive and my flesh and nerves still existed. I felt along my silhouette, where I seemed to be wearing something stiff in the bodice and large in the skirt. Then I tapped my feet, analyzing the way my shoes hit the floor. If the reverberation in my heel and the ball of my feet were understood correctly, I was apparently wearing stiletto heels. I could barely walk in these things in the real world, but among the many miracles of my right now was the fact that I was moving adeptly through the void.

Where I was headed, I couldn’t say. The last thing I recalled was entering the Red Sector with Rai, Alessi, and Theron by my side, but now I was nowhere, and none of it made sense.

I touched my lips, recalling that explosive sensation as Theron kissed me for the first time. Then I frowned remembering how happy I’d been, and how overwhelmingly full my whole heart had felt.

Then what happened?

How did I end up wherever this was?

I took a few more blind steps forward, only to smash into a warm, hard wall. I felt around, following the contours of this barrier that I was quickly deducing was actually a man. I jumped when steady hands took hold of mine.

Bright lights flared, revealing the room around me in a burst of white. I was surrounded by people in copper masks that obscured their features, then I was swept into a dance with the man in front of me, and I followed on pure instinct, like a marionette on unbreakable strings.

The ballroom sparkled, the lights reflecting off the hundreds of masks, fine jewels embedded in the tile, and golden adornments that accented the swirling black and white patterns on the walls. I kept time with nimble steps, and I swayed with this charming stranger.

“You are as elegant as you are fierce, Sela.” That familiar voice penetrated my fog, and I met his emerald eyes through a golden mask. His covering only obscured the top half of his face, while his expression left no mystery to his identity. He was striking, in a fine suit, and a black and viridian corset. Elegant rivulets adorned with green gem stones snaked around the curled horns of a ram, and his messy auburn hair complimented his otherwise pale skin.

Jericho led me through the dance floor, navigating twirling nobles in elegant dress, securing me against him with one hand on my waist and the other interlaced between my fingers.

“Where am I?” I kept up, though I didn’t know how I did it.

“Exactly where you belong, my queen.” He spun me around, then pulled me close again. We weaved between two men locked in a waltz, then stepped around an older couple who simply hugged and swayed.