Page 76 of Endless Terrors
“It’s a spell,” he said without hesitation, meeting my gaze. “The crossroads, the Witching Hour—they’re all ingredients. It was cast by a powerful witch who meant a great deal to me. Her intention was to give me access to your world, so that I might not be so isolated here, but magic is unpredictable at the best of times. The results weren’t quite what the witch intended.
“That spell is also what grants my demons the ability to manifest and harness magic in your world. Unfortunately, the spell doesn’t hold enough power to carry my own. Every time the magic chooses me, I feel a great rush of pain, and then the spell fails. The summoner goes on their way, thinking that their mother was wrong and making deals with demons is just an urban myth.”
“If only,” I muttered. Thinking once again of the deal I’d made, my hatred returned in a rush. The demon had been from this world, where they looked to Lucifer for command. He was their king, their god, and cruelty like that didn’t flourish without encouragement. I needed to remember that, no matter how charming their king might be.
As I sat there stewing, something else occurred to me. “Wait. How did you plan to send me home, if getting there is so impossible for you?” I demanded.
“My witches were prepared to act as an anchor, and when the time came, they could’ve easily pulled you back. But since you arrived here without them, that option is no longer available. It’s a good thing you have means of your own to return.” Lucifer noticed I’d stopped touching my food. “Are you finished, my lady? Would you like a tour of the tower?”
By some miracle, my pulse wasn’t racing, but my mind certainly was. Lucifer had been my backup plan, my failsafe in the event I didn’t figure out a way to activate Savannah’s spell. If he couldn’t help me, and I wasn’t able to find rain in this world, I was well and truly screwed.
After a moment, I realized I hadn’t responded to Lucifer’s invitation. I opened my mouth to turn him down … then I remembered my plan. Truth be told, a tour would be helpful. If I was going to sneak out of here, or have a private conversation with one of the demons living in this tower, I needed to know the layout. The blind spots.
“Fine,” I clipped out.
Lucifer rose. I did the same, resisting an impulse to take the knife off the table. I knew shoving it into Lucifer’s eye wouldn’t kill him, but it was still fun to imagine. I kept the daydream close to me as we left the warm dining room and moved down the cold walkway together.
A door came up on our left, and Lucifer inclined his head toward it. “That one leads to my bedroom,” he said.
I half-expected him to say it in a suggestive tone, or for our pace to slow, but Lucifer just kept going. Halfway down, we arrived at the elevator, and he stopped. As I halted next to him, I noticed another door at the very end of the hall. I looked at Lucifer, waiting for him to say something. His focus stayed on the elevator. He doesn’t want to draw my attention to it, I thought.
Which of course made me more determined to see what was behind it.
“What does that one lead to?” I asked, walking away. There was a flutter of apprehension in my throat as I dared to reach for the knob.
Lucifer’s arm flew out, and in a blink, his palm was flattened against the door. I’d discovered it was locked, but that didn’t seem to matter to him. His breath tickled the shell of my ear as he replied, “Something you’re not ready for.”
I turned my head, even though putting our faces so close made my heart pound harder. “What does that mean?” I asked evenly.
The devil looked into my eyes. He wasn’t searching for anything, or assessing. He just … looked. “Someday I’ll tell you, and I’ll show you what’s behind that door. But there’s still fear in your eyes when you look at me, Lady Sworn. When that’s changed, you’ll be ready.”
His voice was soft, and my body reacted to that husky sound, as if Lucifer had cast another spell on me. In a frantic attempt to outrun the feeling, I ducked beneath his arm and hurried back down the walkway, clasping my hands tightly behind me. Lucifer returned to my side at a casual, unconcerned pace. Once the doors slid open, he led me into the elevator and made a selection on the screen.
“Most of the floors are just office suites,” he told me. “But this one is an exception.”
The elevator moved so quickly that it only took seconds to arrive. The doors opened, and the light hit me first, spilling into the space like dusk-tinted water. It took my vision a moment to adjust. Once it did, I blinked rapidly, half-convinced I was still asleep and this was all a dream.
It was a library. A vast, beautiful, surreal library.
The old Fortuna would’ve been mildly impressed. She hadn’t been a huge reader, and she’d found books about as exciting as doing taxes. But since Collith had come into my life, I’d spent a lot of time combing through ancient texts and stories. Somewhere along the way, I had started to like those written words. To enjoy the feeling of skimming my fingers over a page.
“Are some of these in English?” I asked hopefully, arching my head back to confirm there were more bookcases a level above us, too.
Lucifer nodded, watching me with an unreadable expression. “Many.”
I left his side to move closer to the books, and their wonderful scent teased my senses. Whatever these volumes were made out of, they still smelled like old paper, just like the ones from back home. Part of me wanted to start browsing the shelves then and there. Lucifer was here, though. What if he stayed and asked what I was reading?
There was a painting over the fireplace here, too. A portrait, I discovered as I gave it my full attention. She looked human, but that didn’t mean she was. The female stood next to a rosebush, looking back at the artist as if they’d caught her unaware. She wasn’t wearing any clothing, yet somehow, there was nothing scandalous or forbidden about it. It was as though the female was unaware of her body, or the fact that it wasn’t covered. Her hair was long and pale. Her smile was shy, but there was something bold about her eyes. I have a secret, they said.
Unsettled, I turned and rejoined Lucifer near the elevator. Like the painting upstairs, I wanted to know more about it, but I couldn’t bring myself to invite a conversation with its owner. I felt him appraising me again, probably sensing something amiss. But Lucifer didn’t pry. After the doors opened and we went inside, he touched the screen and sent us downward. Really downward, I noted uneasily. The elevator kept going, and going, and going. When it slowed, the air was notably colder. I felt goosebumps spread all over me. It’s all in your head, I reminded myself, resisting the urge to rub my arms.
“And here is the final stop of our tour,” Lucifer said. It was the first time one of us had spoken in at least a minute.
Ding. The doors slid open. I expected another walkway, or a modern hallway. Instead, an earthen path loomed ahead of us. Looking at it made my pulse spike. The other end of the passage was hidden in darkness, and the rest was lit with torches. Thick, bolted doors lined the uneven walls on either side. There were barred openings in each of them. Echoes traveled through the freezing dim. Far, far away, probably miles beneath our feet, someone was screaming.
It reminded me of the dungeons at the Unseelie Court.
“What is this place? Why are you keeping people down here?” I asked. My voice was stiff; I was thinking of my own time in a cell. I remembered the cold and the pain. The fear and the helplessness.
