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“Gah!” He tore his hand free, stinging my jaw, and stomped back to the boarded window. “I found this place while snooping around this pathetic shithole hotel. Is this where you keep the bodies of all the people you kill? Yeah, I fuckin’ know you’re not as cute as you have everyone believing. You’re a psychopath. That’s what I hear. All cutsey and sweet, but you fuck people up just like Cain does, just like the rest of us have to. You’re nothing special. Does Zodiac know you’re a murdering cunt?”

I huffed, and slouched on the wooden chair. “You got me all figured out. So let me go, and we’ll go chat with your master. You know, the one holding your leash.”

“You stupid fuckin’ whatever you are, you’re not calling the shots here, I am.”

“Really?” I winced. “I don’t think so. Still seems as though you’re dancing to Gideon’s tune. You’re scared of him. That’s okay. It’s alright to be scared of someone more powerful than you.”

“No, I’m fuckin’ not,” he laughed.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to pretend with me.”

“I’m not—the fuck?! You should be scared of me!”

I shrugged. “It’s just, you’re not very scary, Seb.”

His face scrunched with disgust. “Are you crazy? Have you lost your cunt-fuckin’ mind?!” He flicked out his right hand, showing off shimmering nails. “You know I can gut you from dick to nipples, right? These pretties aren’t just for thrilling hand jobs.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “It’s just, honestly, the shadowbeast behind you is a whole lot more frightening.”

“What?” He straightened fast, like a rod had been shoved down his back, but didn’t turn.

“Shadow is real hungry since he’s not been eating gremlins. And you, with all your shiny shoes and tail bling. You kind of look like . . .” Trailing off, I shrugged my good shoulder.

“Like what?”

“I shouldn’t say it.”

Seb’s eyes shifted. “Say what, fuckface?”

“Bait.”

He swallowed, then coughed a nervous laugh. “There’s nothing behind me, you dumb fuck.”

“Okay.” If that’s what he wanted to believe.

“There isn’t. You’re trying to make me look—trying to distract me! I’m not an idiot.”

“Okay.” I shrugged again . . . not easy with my wrists bound to the chair arms.

“I’m not the stupid one here, you are.”

“Sure,” I repeated. “I’m the stupid one.” I rolled my eyes.

He folded his arms and glowered. “You can’t trick me.”

I smiled. “Nope.”

Seb’s right eye twitched. He so wanted to turn. But if he did, he knew it would be a win for me, whether there was a shadowbeast behind him, or not.

His eye twitched again, and slowly, he lowered his arms. He’d felt something—maybe a change in the air, a tightness across his chest, a chill down the back of his neck? I couldn’t feel a darn thing, being human, but I had eyes.

Seb snorted. “You’re stalling. After Cain kills you, Zodiac will come crawling back to me, begging me to take him in.” He stomped forward. “He’ll be back on his knees, sucking me off whenever I want, like your stupid twinky ass never existed.”

I tilted my head, and focused on the space behind him.

“Fucking fuck! There’s nothing behind me!” He spun on his heel, and barked a laugh. “See, nothing fuckin’ there! Oh, you’re gonna get it good now⁠—”

He twisted, turning back to face me and came face to face with a wall of humanoid darkness.