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“Do you believe me now? That it wasn’t me who unlocked Abel’s cage?” she desperately pleaded. She grabbed at my hands once more, clutching them closely to her chest.
I realized that I did. I believed her. I’d felt the devil’s pull for me and how very much he wanted to hurt me. Under no circumstances could I ever allow myself to be taken by him.
“I do.”
“Good,” she breathed, her relief softening her features.
She gathered herself for another minute before she took the cloth from me and wiped at the still fresh traces of blood on her face. She straightened and at once, her moment of weakness was gone. Her eyes showed an inner strength that bordered on timelessness.
“I will prepare your collar. It will be ready in a few days,” she said.
“Thank you, Tituba,” I answered.
For a moment, I simply stared at her and decided to ask the one question that had been on the tip of my tongue for so long.
“Why are you helping me? What’s in it for you?”
Her eyes flashed as she stared back at me. There was something she knew that she wasn’t telling me, and I could see her decision to hold back all over her face.
“I see visions of the future, things that may come to pass and some things that might not. My gift for prophecy is dangerous and too much knowledge in the wrong hands could change how certain events choose to unfold,” she began evasively.
This witch woman was far more complicated than I realized.
“My decision to help you will ensure that both of us are granted such power that we will be invincible. Lucifer will never touch us. No one will ever be able to take us down. That’s all I can say without threatening what must come to pass,” she continued.
With a certain uneasiness, I stared back at her.
“In time, you will come to understand,” she finished.
“I hope I do,” I replied.
“My queen,” she said softly, dipping her head in deference, “until we meet again.”
I nodded tersely, before turning away and walking out the door.
* * *
Several days later, a small box was delivered to my chambers. Inside it was the simple metal collar. I traced my fingers along its edge, and it warmed beneath my fingers. It tingled with magic and it grew stronger the longer I touched it. It had been designed to answer to me and my power alone.
When Cain came for me, I would be ready for him. He thought he could put me on my knees. He wouldn’t expect that I could do the same to him.
Just as I was gliding my fingertip along the metal surface, the floor beneath my feet started to quake. I stilled, feeling a distinctly mystical aura on the gentle breeze. I knew what it was. It was him. I could feel it. He had finally come for me.
My core cramped hard and I whimpered, pressing my fingers to my belly in an effort to quell what had awakened within me. He was close and my body was calling for him. It was the sire bond or maybe it was the mark that tied me to him, but either way, a powerful sense of arousal sliced through me like a hot knife and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I grasped the collar in my fingers, and I looked out the window to find the city that I ruled on fire. In horror, I watched as demons and monsters alike screamed in agony as enormous spheres of fire rolled down the streets. That fire kept burning through their flesh, no matter if they threw themselves to the ground or even if they doused themselves with water. It would keep burning and I slowly realized it would never stop. It would ultimately result in their death. There were whispers of its existence throughout history, instances where Cain had released his fury through magic. No one had known it was him and it caused enough devastation that it had been granted a title. I knew what it was, but I’d never seen it before in my life. No one had for several hundred years, perhaps even longer.
It was called demon’s fire and it would continue to burn until he decided to put it out. It would burn until he was satisfied with the devastation he had wrought, and I had a feeling it would burn for as long as it took for him to find me.
Based on the origin of each and every terrible raging globe that blazed into the city, I knew he was coming from the north. My army battled on the walls, trying to engage in defensive formations that I knew would ultimately fail. Cain ruined every one of them, no matter how many came at him. If he didn’t kill them with fire, he ripped them apart with a different kind of magic. He was invincible and the only one who could fight back against him was me. That was becoming more and more clear as I looked down on the city that I had been calling home.
Blood ran down the streets. The scent of it was heavy on the air.
I licked my lips and my core pulsed again painfully. I pitched forward, crying out at the powerful surge of pleasure twisting through me. I didn’t know if it was something that Cain was purposefully doing to me, but it sent a very distinct message. He was angry and he wanted me to pay for it. He wanted to punish me.
I tightened my fingers around the collar. This time, I wasn’t going to go quietly.
I had prepared for this day. I had trained and now that the sire bond was complete, I had full access to my magical abilities. It was my time to fight.
