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“Let me go!” I screech, kicking my legs out.
“Damn it, Victoria,” he curses into my ear, before loosening his grip and spinning me around to face him. “Can’t you just trust me?”
“Hell no!” I snap out breathily. “Why would I trust you? Huh? You’re fine with just letting these demons torture and kill innocent humans.Children, River. How can I trust you knowing that you’re fine with all of that so long as you get your holiday?”
He sighs heavily, taking a step back, but still holding my arms to my sides.
“There is more at stake here than you know. I have a part to play, and you might not know what that entails, but you have to trust that I’m not the bad guy. Can you try that, Victoria? Can you give me some time?”
“Do you really plan to take me away from here?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t go. I can’t, River. He’s coming for me.”
He throws his head back in frustration. “He can’t. They won’t allow him in, Victoria. It’s why Heaven sealed the doors. I was meant to find you here and take you home. The queen said so herself.”
“How do you know this? How did she?”
“On my part? Call it a very strong intuition. As for the queen, she knows things that are beyond my comprehension. All I can tell you is that Heaven is trying to keep you safe while also preventing an all-out war.”
“And going to the reaper kingdom, which by the way I didn’t realize existed, is the way to keep me safe and prevent war?” I throw my hands up in the air.
“I believe so.”
“You believe so? That’s not good enough, River.”
“It has to be. It’s all I can offer you at the moment.”
“Detain her,” Nolda screeches, drawing our attention. “She’s assaulting the reaper prince.”
“For fuck’s sake, Nolda, I can handle myself,” River barks.
“Be that as it may, our conversation isn’t over, and I’d prefer she not maim you until I have your oath.”
River groans. “Take her,” he instructs the demons from before. “But if you harm a hair on her head, your life will end.”
“We’re not done here, River,” I yell as one demon picks me up off my feet, hauling me down the hallway. “Now’s your chance to prove how trustworthy you are,” I screech.
“Too late for that. You jumped me. You can calm down in a cell for a while.”
I growl. “Just wait, Riv. I’ll do more than knee you in the balls next time.”
He smirks, but there’s something else in his eyes. Something that looks an awful lot like a dare.
“We’ll finish our conversation in private, Nolda,” he says, as the demon drags me around the corner and out of their view.
“Where are you taking me?” I demand, but the demon only grunts, continuing down the narrow hallway.
Screams and unintelligible moans come from closed caverns, and I thank God above that I’m spared a glance at whatever torturous acts are going on behind those walls.
We round another dark corner and come to a room that’s full of cells. My stomach bottoms out as I take in the scene.
A red-skinned demon has a man chained to a chair. A table next to him is full of various knives and whips. He picks up a serrated blade and runs it across the man’s cheek.
The accompanying scream pierces my eardrums.
I’m thrown into the cell directly across from the atrocity playing out in the room. As soon as the bars are slammed shut, locking me in, I crumple to the floor, bile rising up my throat as I watch in horror.
