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Drexel’s face twisted into something unhinged, desperate. Menacing eyes growing wide, he ran his fingers through his hair until it stood on end. “You think I like bargains, Deyanira? Death loves them more. He made me what I was, gave me power that wasn’t owed to me for a night with my sister. I did his bidding and look where that got me. I’m done. I want to be freed from this purgatory, and I won’t go back to that castle. I won’t be locked in the pit again. You will free me, or you know what’s coming.”
I inched forward, yanking myself from Ezra’s hold as I swiped two throwing knives from my chest. Drexel’s laugh and his fucking smile as Hollis feared for his eternity ignited a torrent of fury within me.
“If you think the pit is bad, wait until you see what I have planned for you.”
“You would never,” he sang, the voice of a performer coming out. “You’re too pure.”
“Put the weapons down, Deyanira. They do you no good here,” my father ordered before turning to Drexel. “I can promise you she’s always been the thorn, never the rose. Don’t hold her to standards. She’ll only disappoint you.”
I studied our surroundings for an answer. Help of any kind. But only the shadowed branches of dead, gnarled trees loomed above us. My shoulders fell as I looked to see Paesha struggling against Ezra while he hauled her backward.
“Let him go!” she screamed. “Take me this time, Maestro. Take me.”
“Beautiful Huntress,” he purred. “Happy reunions. How was our little Quill last you saw her?”
She froze, slowly standing upright. “Why?”
Drexel’s grin became maniacal. “One doesn’t make enemies of Death’s Maiden without certain… safeguards in place.”
“What did you do?” Ezra asked, the growl in his voice terrifying.
He lifted a shoulder. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? We’re here, and she isn’t. Though I do hope to see her again in my next life. See how she fares with her new troubles. Don’t you, Hollis?”
“Let him go,” I warned, wondering what I truly would do if he didn’t comply.
“Go ahead, Dey. Give him another chance at life so I can find a way to kill him slower next time,” Paesha said through gritted teeth.
His doubt of my conviction to damn a life was twisted. The war within me had already ended. I was just like everyone else. Not all good, not all bad. Existence wasn’t black and white. It was gray. I was gray because some deaths were warranted. Still, I took a step backward, and he followed, moving slightly away from the edge of the water. Another step, and again, he followed. Predictable.
“Throw your little knife, Maiden. It makes no difference to me. I’m already dead.”
“Oh, this isn’t for you.” I lunged, snatching the front of Hollis’s perfect white shirt, ripping him from Drexel grasp as I twisted and blasted the throwing knives into the branch of the dead tree now hanging above us. We tumbled to the ground the second the crack echoed through the night and the limb fell, crashing into the Maestro’s stomach, where Hollis had been. He stumbled backward, sheer panic on his face as he reached the slippery edge of the Lake of Lost Souls.
He yelled, throwing his arms out to catch his balance. Only then did I notice how close he’d been to my father. The Maestro reached for him, scrambling, snatching his sleeve. I tried to get up. Tried to get to them. Even when neither deserved it, I still tried. But it was too late. In a breath, they both crashed into the murky water, though it didn’t splash. Didn’t ripple or wave. Simply… devoured them.
I held my breath, guarding my heart as I prepared for the guilt to break me. Nothing came. Only a calm numbing. Only a pulsing sense of justice.
Still, Hollis laid his hand on mine as we sat on the decayed ground. “I’m so sorry, Little Dove.”
I shook my head. “Don’t apologize for them. They made their own choices.”
Ezra and Paesha came to help us up, but the color had completely washed from her face as she stared into the murky water.
“P?” I whispered.
“I’m fine.”
“Hey.” Ezra spun her until her back was to the water, holding the sides of her face tenderly as he forced her gaze to his. “It’ll never be you, Kitten. I’d drain the fucking lake before I let that happen.”
She smiled, nodding, though her fingers trembled along his. He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before leading us away from the water.
“Do we sleep in hell?” Paesha asked, stepping around a fallen branch.
“We do whatever we want until he calls,” her lover answered. “And he will.”
“Apart from the lake and the pit, what else do we need to be aware of?” I asked.
“Death has had an eternity to twist this realm into a place of pure pleasure and unmatched torture. If I began to list them, we’d be here for hours. Just stay close until we can figure out a way to get you home.”
