AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Through the flames, I saw a world with red earth, black trees, a large moon, and enough heat wafting off of it that it warmed up my entire room. Compared to the morning chill, the heat is oppressive and thick, though none of the other demons seemed to notice that.
Me? I nearly choke on it—though there’s a good chance it’s more the surprise I experienced walking in on this scene than anything else.
Because Sammael… not only is he facing off against the other two, in the time since I went downstairs before coming back up to check on him, he got put in a pair of gleaming golden chains, complete with a heavy-looking cuff on each wrist that kept the links connected.
Then, after telling the scowling one that he was willing to take my memories, he had the other one seal the cuff and then that was it. He was gone, leaving the portal thing and the demon with the double set of horns to watch me closely as I don’t know whether to cry, faint, or leap forward and jump after him.
I’m stunned. That’s for sure. Being with Sammael was like a high, but as soon as those cuffsclinkedshut, it was almost as though someone took that tie between us and looped it into a damn knot. I couldn’t reach him even before he disappeared, and it takes me a second to understand that that… all of that… just happened.
I remember it all. Not one second of the last few days is missing from my memory which is saying something since it’s usually such shit.
Shaking off my stupor, I finally react. Rushing forward, I shout his name.
That was my mistake.
He obviously wanted the other demons to think that he was going to make me forget all about him and Sombra. I don’t know why they came for him—nothing in his essence makes me think that he’s a bad guy, or a demon on the run—but I do instinctively understand the chains.
He’s a prisoner.
Of the duke he used to work for?
Most likely.
Do I know why?
Not even a little. Honestly, I don’t really care, either. That’s the best thing about an essence exchange, I guess. I know every inch of Sammael’s soul intimately, the same way I was able to discover his body. If he was, like, a demon murderer or something, I’d know. If he was lying… if telling me that he was my mate just I’d fuck him was a cruel lie, I’dknow.
This is one of the first times in my life where my anxiety isn’t putting bad thoughts in my brain. The old Hope would easily believe I’d been duped.
The Hope that impulsively promised herself to Sammael?
If the purple-eyed demon—Loki—hadn’t shifted his shadowy bulk to stand in front of the portal to stop me, I would’ve hopped in right after my demon, grabbing him by the chains to drag him back to Earth myself.
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for those I love. I might have only just gotten to know Sammael, but it doesn’t matter. Fate gave him to me.
I want him back.
Though Loki is a shadow, I bounce right off of him. I wasn’t expecting him to block me, he wasn’t expecting me to bum rush him, and the result was that I slammed into his billowy chest, hitting the solid layer beneath the shadows, and fell backward on my ass.
It stings, but I shake it off. As quickly as I can, I hurry back to my feet.
“Move,” I tell him.
I’m so pissed, I use English. I noticed one of the two demons before obviously had no idea what I was saying when I spoke before, but I guess it wasn’t this one because he actually answer me in the same language.
“I cannot, Sammael’s female.”
His voice is more stilted than Sammael’s. My demon has an obvious American accent, due to my download and the massive amounts of television he watched these last couple of months, teaching him my language. Loki? He says each word carefully, and though he knows English, I get the idea that it’s not one he uses often.
Oh, well.
“Yes, you can. It’s real easy. You go over there and I…” What? Burn myself to a crisp in the flames?
I’m not a demon. I’m human. Would it even work for me?
As I’m hesitating, second guessing my impulsivity, Loki shifts shapes. Instead of the shadowy demon hovering in front of the hole, he is more than seven feet of deep demon, with a barrel chest, rich black hair that’s nearly as long as Sammael’s, those same double pair of horns only infinitely sharper now, and…
And…
