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He returned his focus to the road, speeding up on the winding highway. “The amount of people I’ve killed doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is why I did it. Why they deserved it.”
The blood rushed from my face. Was he trying to scare me? Was he trying to intimidate me? To show me that his world was as dangerous as he claimed it to be?
“So why did they?” I asked. “What did they do to deserve it?”
He pulled the car to a halt. There was nothing around us now besides a few trees. “Get out of the car,” he said. “I’ll show you.”
I clenched my teeth and stared back at him. He wanted me to be afraid. I could tell by the way he stared at me—powerful and domineering. He wanted to be in control of this situation.
But I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. It would take a lot more than a demon to scare me.
I had lived through enough fear.
“Fine,” I said. I pushed my door open and crawled out of the car.
“Follow me,” he ordered. And then we began to walk.
I followed him into the woods, deeper and deeper until we were swallowed by the trees. The road was long gone behind us, along with any hope of being found.
An eerie feeling washed over me. Every single one of my senses was on high alert—even though I knew Alek wouldn’t hurt me. He may have wanted to scare me, but he didn’t have the guts to hurt me. Especially after everything he told me last night.
We walked for a while, long enough that the clear dirt path disappeared entirely.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked when it seemed like he was trying to make us disappear. Maybe he was trying to make us disappear, sink deeply into the forest until we could both forget about all of our problems.
If only it were that easy.
“Almost there,” he said.
I followed behind him. He walked quickly, clearly more agile than me, but slowed his pace enough so I wouldn’t get lost.
At least he cared that much.
Seconds later, a dimly lit cabin came into view. One lantern outside the front door was the only visible light in the area. Alek waited for me at the front door.
I was only slightly out of breath when I caught up to him.
But he didn’t wait.
He twisted the doorknob to the cabin and pushed the door open.
“After you,” he demanded.
Everything in my body told me this was wrong. That I shouldn’t be here. Natalie and I had seen enough horror movies to know how this situation ended.
But I couldn’t back down. Not in front of Alek. Not now.
I ducked my head and stepped through the door.
“What is she doing here?” a male voice seethed. “Alek, take her home!”
“She needs to see this,” Alek retorted sharply, shutting the front door behind us.
My eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lighting. “What is this?” I failed at keeping the horror from my voice. Two bodies hung from chains in the center of the room. I couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive. Two demons—Night Ravens—watched Alek and I carefully as we stepped closer to the hanging bodies. “What’s going on?”
Alek stepped inside. The Night Ravens straightened as he entered. “This is the price we pay, Lyra. We aren’t good men.” One of the demons handed Alek a knife. “We aren’t good people.”
For emphasis, Alek turned and sliced his blade across one of the men’s torsos. He barely flinched. I was surprised he was even still alive with the amount of blood pooling on the wooden floor beneath him.
