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The two demons broke apart in less than a minute. I wondered if that’s how much time had elapsed when Kurtis and I had done it. I’d relived an eternity in my mind while it happened.
Luis and Noelle stood there, gasping, staring at each other. Both looked ready to pass out.
“Holy shit,” exclaimed Luis. “You did do it.”
Noelle frantically shook her head, black curls swaying, as she tried to hold on to the wall for support. “No, no.” She looked desperately at the crowd. “He’s lying! He’s lying!”
Luis was visibly trying to recover himself. He grabbed nothing for support, but he had the look of someone who’d been gut-punched. “You want to let someone else look and prove me wrong?”
“No!” she cried. In power, she was second only to Luis here. None of the other gathered demons could actually force her as he had. She would have to allow it—unless an outside demon was summoned. “You can’t prove anything, Luis. You’re lying. You’re—”
“I can prove it,” he interrupted. “You showed me. I saw it inside you. I know where to go and—”
“No, don’t. Don’t.”
He shrugged. “Your call. You tipped me off. I know how to get evidence now and prove it. I’m the one passing judgment. Make me go hunt down the proof, and your sentence will be…bad. Or, confess now, and your sentence will be…less bad.”
A silent battle took place. I had no idea what evidence Luis had seen inside her, but her expression showed that she did not want it made public. Realizing she was f**ked either way, Noelle finally nodded.
“All right. All right. Yes, I confess. I did it. I killed Anthony and set the others up. There. Are you happy? Are you f**king happy?”
Those gathered went crazy. They loved the new turn of events. It might have even been better than a flaying for them. As chaos broke out in the room, I heard Kurtis chuckling behind me.
“Sweet,” he said. “I am so out of Belgium.”
“What, for helping with this?” I asked.
“Yup. Well, that and I hear there’s an archdemon opening in L.A.”
Chapter Thirteen
Seth and I flew back to Seattle the next day. A lot of demons had wanted to talk to me, but I needed to get out of that hotel as soon as possible. In fact, I’d hightailed it out of the ballroom once Starla and Clyde had been freed. I hadn’t stuck around because I had a feeling Noelle was simply going to be swapped into their place for the evening’s entertainment.
Sitting beside Seth for the two-and-a-half hour flight home brought all the other events of last night back to me. As we held hands and recounted the bizarre trial events, he in no way acted as though he’d faced temptation and won last night. I in no way acted as though I’d been the cause of that temptation and had subsequently lost the one chance we might have had for physical intimacy. The fact that my exploits had led to two demons’ freedom was little comfort.
“She really killed him?” asked Seth in amazement.
“Yup.”
“But she loved him…or something, right?”
“Yup.”
“Then how could she have done that?”
I stared at his profile, at the cheekbones and brown eyes I loved. I thought about losing him, how I would feel if he chose another woman. I wouldn’t be driven to kill him, of course, but…well, I could empathize with the pain.
“Because people do stupid things for love,” I murmured sadly, thinking of my own sins.
He turned and met my eyes, compassion shining in them. “You okay?”
I hesitated, and for a brief moment, the instinct was there. I almost spilled everything I’d done in my silly Beth obsession. After all, Seth and I had recently had big discussions about honesty in relationships. He was a big believer in telling the truth, and I wanted to live up to his ideals. Yet, the words stuck in my throat.
“Fine,” I said instead. “Just worn out…long week.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I hear you.” His gaze turned inward, and I had a feeling he was thinking of the condo. He opened his mouth, like he too might say something, then closed it. I was pretty sure I knew what had been about to come out.
“So,” I said carefully. “Where’d you go this morning?” He’d gotten in some writing before our plane left. “The pig café?”
He smiled faintly. “No. I went back to that diner…”
“Oh?”
“Yeah…weird thing. That waitress you saw…she was working, and I told her I was leaving and…”
My smile was frozen on my face as I attempted to play blasé. “And?”
Again, I had the feeling he was about to tell me about last night, and again, he held back.
“I don’t know. Just weird. She was acting really strange when I talked to her…”
Like, say, when he talked to her about events she had no clue about?
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He shook his head, letting it go. I wondered if he’d tried to apologize to her. He probably thought her obliviousness was feigned as retaliation. “I don’t know. Like I said, she was just being weird.”
He squeezed my hand, and we settled back into our seats. Both of us held our own secrets, our own guilt. Neither of us had the courage to bring them up. I wondered if that’s how all couples were, hiding small, silent sins.
Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist asking, “Weird, huh? Wait…didn’t you say she reminded you of me? Are you saying I’m weird?”
Seth laughed. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “Thetis, there are no adjectives for you. And the two of you are nothing alike.”
“Really? I mean, you acted like we were twins or something.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You did,” I teased. “It was like you couldn’t tell us apart.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes at my joking. “I told you, you’re nothing alike. You don’t act alike. You don’t think alike. You don’t talk alike.”
“Or look alike,” I added.
“Right,” he agreed. After another squeeze of my hand, he released it and opened up his laptop.
Watching, I figured I should be glad he didn’t suspect anything. I’d gotten away with my blunder, my test of his fidelity. I should feel glad. Except I didn’t.
“People do stupid things for love,” I muttered under my breath.
Seth glanced at me. “What’d you say?”
“Nothing.”
