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"She turned to another man, whom she had saved from a damning choice many years before. She was convinced that this man would be able to create a ritual that would strip her of her angelic nature," he said quietly. "Turn her to a demon. It was a tremendous sacrifice, and dangerous, but she thought that if they were both demons, no one could keep them apart. She dared not tell her beloved of her plan, because she knew he would try to stop her."
Luca's voice dropped to a whisper. "The man had owed her a debt for her aid—one he felt he could never repay. Although he feared the consequences, he agreed. They met in the dead of night, in a place no one could find them, the lovesick angel and the fallen mortal. They performed the ritual. They turned an angel into a demon." He fell silent.
I caught my breath. "Did it work?"
Luca didn't answer for a long moment. Finally he huffed a breath that might have been a laugh. "Oh, it worked. But the pair had overlooked one important fact. The moment she became a demon, the chains of her new office snapped into place. The bond with her new overlord was forged, and her presence shone like a beacon, alerting the forces of Hell to her location. Olryg was upon them in seconds."
I gasped. "Oh no."
"Yes. The penalty for their transgressions was death. Olryg and his minions attacked. The chapel where the ritual had taken place was razed in a storm of hellfire. But at the very last moment, the man acted to save the newly-turned demon. In the instant before all was lost, the man used another forbidden ritual to bind her to an object, protecting her and hiding her by sealing her inside the first item he could call to hand."
Luca looked up, meeting my gaze for the first time since he'd started speaking. The green of his eyes shone like emeralds.
"A book."
25
My skin went cold.
"No," I whispered.
The smooth black leather, supple beneath my fingers. I had hardly touched the book before I felt that heat—like flames licking up my arms, filling my chest. There had been the flash of light—blinding white against my eyes, and there had been—
"I remember," I said.
I barely felt Theo's hands on my arms, barely registered his worried face hovering inches from mine. I felt hollow. And I was hollow, wasn't I? Hollow like an urn, a vase, a vessel—a vessel that had been filled the moment my fingertips brushed that book.
"What?" I heard Theo say. "River, what? What do you remember?"
There had been a voice. How could I have forgotten?
The ring on my finger was scalding my skin. I curled my fingers into my palm, welcoming the pain, for I knew, now, what it meant.
"River." Luca was at my side, his hand on my elbow. "Stay with us."
But I was drifting, floating away on an ocean of fire.
Theo again, as though from a vast distance, his voice thin and barely audible.
"River!"
Darkness. Darkness, and stars.
I was falling into the velvety black, the pinpoints of distant lights sparkling like ancient jewels as I plummeted. Someone catch me, I thought vaguely.
But then I realized my back was damp. I was outside. Where was I?
"Oh," I said, blinking—and yes, I had eyes, and hands, and legs. I took a deep breath, feeling cool air rush into my lungs. Had I always breathed like this? How strange.
Faces in my field of vision, three of them.
"I know you," I said to the first one.
"She's talking," the face said. It looked happy—happy? That wasn't the right word.
"Noodles," I said. "Teddy."
Theo closed his eyes in relief. "You're you," he said, putting a hand over his chest and rocking back onto his heels. "God, River. God."
