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“Here.” I flip my hand, only moving it slightly instead of shoving him away as I intended. “This isn’t my room.”
Hunching his shoulders, Cassius pinches the bridge of his nose. “Only you would fight me on the fact that I brought you to my rooms when you are half dead.” He disappears and reappears in seconds, placing a damp cloth on my forehead. “We will talk if—whenyou get better.”
Exhausted and weak from pain, I quit fighting, letting my body go limp.
Cassius cups my face with both hands. He closes his eyes for a moment, and when he looks at me again, they are filled with regret.
“I cannot heal you, little bird. Your eyes are solid black, and that can only mean one thing—a demon’s power flows through you, and it’s not Asmod’s or Cherno’s. Our demon’s powers cannot oppose another’s. Was—”
I don’t get a chance to hear the rest as darkness offers me a respite from the unbearable pain, and I sink into oblivion.
* * *
“He is lost to you,” Varin’s voice calls out to me in the dark.
I feel around blindly for something to tell me where I am, and find nothing. The stale scent of damp straw wafts up as the demon moves closer, swirling up a soft draft of air.
“No, he’s not,” I bite out, fighting back a wave of sickening panic. I refuse to believe that—refuse to accept that… not after everything.
Varin sighs obnoxiously loud. “You are a stubborn fool,” they say. “It would be better for you to let him go now, before things get worse.”
I laugh sharply. “How could things possibly get any worse?”
Long, bonelike fingers trail down my arm. “Things can always get worse.”
“I could die?” I offer a little too eagerly, considering I am dying now. The reprieve from pain is welcome, no matter what it means.
“Take the ring, Clara. Let me help you. You cannot do this alone.”
I want to argue, but I know they are right. Agreeing to a deal with a demon is not as straightforward as Varin would have me believe.
Taloned fingers wrap around my throat with a flash of red. The demon’s face appears in the glow as their power rushes through me like an icy river, so cold it sears my nerves. In seconds, the light fades.
Varin grips my shoulders to hold me up, then whispers into my ear. “You have to wake up now.”
* * *
I pull in a deep breath and open my eyes, frowning as I try to remember what happened. The musty air and mildew of the lower levels slowly fades.
Varin.
The harder I try to remember my encounter with the demon, the more it slips from my memory. It wouldn’t be too hard to guess—every conversation the demon begs me to take the ring and bind myself to them.
I try to sit but find myself pinned down to the bed by an arm encircling my waist and a leg over my mine. The warmth my half-asleep brain thought was a blanket, is actually a vampire.
Demons and saints… Not again.
I pry Cassius’s arm, but he clings to me in his sleep as if his life depends on it. “Shuuush,” he mumbles sleepily, snuggling in closer. “Don’t move yet.”
Twisting within his death grip to face him, I plant my hands against his chest and push. My sore arms lack the strength to budge him. “Get off, you demon’s ass or—”
One of his green eyes pops open, as the sleepy grin falls away. “Do not talk.” When I open my mouth to defy him, he presses his finger to my lips. “Clara,” he says sternly. “You need to rest.”
I wrinkle my nose, hating that he’s right. I am exhausted. Waking up to his arms around my waist fills me with unease. I don’t like how familiar he’s become with me.
“The gold in your eyes is brighter in this light,” he murmurs.
“Let me go,” I hiss ignoring his attempt to flirt.
