Page 127 of Endless Terrors
I pulled up my hood, gazed at Lyari for another moment, then turned and left. I jogged down the stairwell and tried to loosen my muscles as I went. I wasn’t going to use the sword, not if I could help it, but I knew this could go wrong in about ninety different ways. Just before I pushed the outer door open, I stopped and took a long, shaky breath. I caught myself wishing Collith and Laurie were here. Heilel knew how much they meant to me, though. I needed to keep them far away.
It was raining when I stepped outside. Raining, just like the last time Heilel and I were together. Only, then, I’d been in his arms, and I’d actually believed he loved me.
Apparently God had a pretty twisted sense of humor.
“Over there,” Gil said, startling me. I glanced at him. The vampire wasn’t leaning against the wall anymore. He stood still, his head turned.
Following Gil’s gaze, I turned toward the driveway. Surprise shot through me. Not just at the sight of Heilel—he stood at the edge of the lawn, his hands shoved in the pockets of an elegant coat—but also the fence that hadn’t been there before. I was guessing Damon or Cyrus had put it up to stop Matthew from wandering into the road. My nephew loved playing in the yard.
Thinking of Matthew pushed out some of the fear, and my grip tightened on the sword.
“Summon them, Fortuna,” Gil said just as I was about to start walking.
I darted another glance at him. His expression was probably how I’d looked the first time I met the devil. That day felt like a hundred years ago now. I reached up to rake my damp hair back and asked, “Summon who?”
“Everyone.”
Gil didn’t take his eyes off the figure in the distance, but I could still sense his urgency. I hesitated. Anyone that came with me would be putting their life on the line, and I refused to lose a single member of my Court. Even before Savannah had performed the binding spell, the thought of it had been devastating.
Now it was unimaginable.
Don’t hate me, Gil. I turned slowly, putting my back to Heilel so I could focus solely on my friend. It took Gil an extra beat to notice. I waited until his gaze met mine to say, “I want you to go inside with everyone else, and stay there. We put a protection spell down a few months ago, and it could still be active. Keep our family in the boundaries. Keep them safe.”
After I’d fallen silent, Gil looked at me with no emotion in his pale, pointed features—he knew I wasn’t making a request. I felt his mind working. Considering. He wanted to defy my command and stay at my side. Would he force us to cross this line? And if he did, who would we be on the other side of it?
“I’ll listen, then,” Gil said finally. It was the same thing he’d said earlier, word for word. This time, there was no confusion in his eyes. No hesitation. It was a promise in a language only we understood.
If I stood here a second longer, I would slip up and Gil might see how scared I was. With a calm nod in his direction, I set the sword on my shoulder and turned away. I walked toward the road alone. My left hand flexed of its own volition, as if part of me were still trying to reach for Finn’s fur. I clenched it into a fist and forced it to be still.
Just as the sun crested the horizon, its brightness hidden behind hordes of roiling clouds, I raised my gaze to the figure waiting for me. When those blue eyes met mine, it felt like I was going to my death. The sound of the gravel had never been so loud. It crunched under my sneakers as I closed the distance between me and Heaven’s most infamous fallen angel, gathering my power to me with every step. I skimmed my mind along the bonds like fingertips on harp strings, taking comfort from them. Memorizing where they were, so I could reach my Court quickly if the need arose. No matter how this ended, I would protect our family.
I drew to a slow halt. Without the noise of the gravel, I realized how silent it was. Even the birds had retreated, as if they sensed something evil was here. The light that streamed over the naked, twisted treetops was dim and hesitant. Rain still pattered onto the ground.
The devil and I stood on opposite sides of the fence. Neither of us spoke. I stared at the water clinging to Heilel’s eyelashes and noticed how full his lips were in the silvery light. In that moment, I hated beauty. I hated that it had no rules, and even the cruelest people could still look like an angel.
“How?” I said finally.
Heilel’s expression didn’t change. He knew what I meant, of course. What I was really asking. How had he known what I could do, even when I hadn’t? How had I made him corporeal?
“The knowledge was lost throughout the generations. Persephone’s abilities formed when fear was born, but that was only its activator. Its switch. If a Nightmare is powerful enough, she can bring her dreams to life. She just has to believe it can be done, or feel something strongly enough that a part of her believes. Emotions like terror, rage, or …” He stopped.
“Love,” I finished for him, my voice even softer now. I searched Heilel’s face, and in that moment, I swore I felt another crack run through my heart. “You were telling the truth about possessing me. You didn’t want my body—you wanted one of your very own. You used me.”
“Yes, I did.”
I waited for him to go on, but Heilel didn’t lie or make excuses. I wasn’t even angry at him, really—it had been my choice to fall for him. My choice to tell Lyari about it.
“That’s why you tortured Collith when he went to Hell. You wanted to learn about me. To figure out the best way to worm into my heart,” I said tonelessly. This might’ve seemed random to Heilel, but it had always bothered me, the fact that Collith had ended up in a cell. Hell was a miserable place, but the ones being held beneath the tower were there for a purpose. Part of me had known, I supposed, that it was Collith’s connection to me that had gotten him an afterlife sentence worse than death.
For once, Heilel misinterpreted my silence. “I feel compelled to tell you that it wasn’t his fault. Truly. I broke him. Half of the words that came out of his mouth were meaningless. The half I did understand, I found … captivating. The faerie spoke of a dark, beautiful creature. A queen that loved fiercely and lived recklessly. By the time we actually met, I was half in love with you myself.” His voice softened. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Fortuna.”
His little speech didn’t move me, and I looked back at the devil with utter contempt. “Don’t flatter yourself. Life is full of disappointments and I just added you to the list. Now that you have your precious body, what do you plan to do with it?”
As usual, Heilel took my rejection in stride. He gave me a faint, sad smile. “I plan to go inside and secure Thuridan of the Sarwraek bloodline,” he answered matter-of-factly. “I received word that he was here.”
Out of all the things I’d expected him to say, this wasn’t it. My eyebrows knitted together, and I looked at Heilel with a bewildered frown. “Thuridan? Why?”
“That’s a story for another time.”
