Page 14 of Into the Abyss
“I wasbornbehind aseal,” Ireminded him impatiently.
When he lowered his hand, I almost snatchedit back to place it against my face again. For some reason, theloss of contact inexplicably saddened me, but I restrained myselffrom reaching out to him again. Getting closer to this demon was aneven worse idea than bringing him here in the first place.
“And none of the jinn told you about it?” heasked.
“Why would they? I never expected to see it,and why would they torment me with things I could never experience?The jinn told me about the Abyss because I could feel it insideme.” I placed a hand on my chest. “And I had to know what it was Ifelt, so they explained it to me. Once we were free of the seal,the jinn told me what I needed to know about other demons, thevarcolac, craetons, and palitons, but there was no point inlearning about Hell when we wouldn’t be returning to it.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t tell you aboutwhat you were missing behind the seal for the fun of it; I thoughtjinn feasted on cruelty.”
“You know nothing about my kind. Some ofthem can be cruel to those outside our species, but wedon’tinflict hurt on each other.”
“Some of themcanbe cruel to thoseoutside the jinn? Are you saying there are jinn who don’t enjoytorturing others?”
“I already told you there are some whodon’t,” I retorted, growing annoyed with the stubborn demon. “But Iknow you won’t believe me, so what does it matter?”
His eyes ran over me in a leisurely perusalthat escalated my pulse and made my breasts feel heavier all whileI resisted kicking him for his constant skepticism.
“I suppose it doesn’t,” he finally said.
“Then you’d suppose right.” I couldn’t stopthe twinge of disappointment I felt over his continued inability tolook pastwhatI was towhoI was, but then, I knewhow manipulative many jinn could be, so I couldn’t blame him forbeing a stubborn asshole.
“Where are we?” he asked and turned hisattention to the meadow.
“The Abyss.”
“Butwherein it?”
“I… ah… I’m not sure. I didn’t expect tofind anything like this here, but then I’m not sure what I expectedto discover here.”
“You’ve really never been here before?”
“Do you have difficulty hearing, or are youpurposely being obtuse?” I demanded. “I already told you I haven’tbeen here. And now you’re going to accuse me of lying, so let’sbypass the bullshit and start walking. If we climb to the top ofthe hill, we should be able to see more.”
I didn’t look back at him as I startedthrough the soughing grass. The ends tickled my arms, and when Iran my fingers over the tips, some of the seeds spilled free. Icaught them and lifted them to examine the tiny, deep purple seeds.When I poked at them, I discovered they were hard to the touch.
The unfelt breeze moving the grass stirredthe seeds in my palm but didn’t take them. Stopping, I lifted theseeds close to my lips and blew on them. They danced before me,swirling higher while the currents of air spun them.
When I turned to watch them floating away, Icame face-to-face with Magnus. He glowered at me as he folded hisarms across his chest. He looked formidable in a way he hadn’tbefore.
For the first time, a trickle ofapprehension ran through me. I was in an unfamiliar place with ademon who was stronger than me. This was my world, but I knew howto use it to my advantage as well as I knew this man.
He didn’t trust me, he feared my kind, andthough he’d acted easier going than the other palitons, and Iperceived no murderous intentions from him, anyone could change inan instant.
I almost stepped away before rethinking theaction. I refused to be intimidated by him.
“Are you creating this?” he asked.
I blinked at him in surprise. “Creatingthis? How could I possibly do that?”
“Perhaps a jinni’s ability works in much thesame way as mine.”
“And how does yours work?” Leaning forward,I inspected his horns a little more closely. They were so shiny,but there were plenty of demons with horns and none of them hadcaptivated me this much. “What type of demon are you, or whattypesof demon? I know many demons are mixed now.”
Hence, my Fault.
“I’m not a mix,” he said.
Oddly entranced by them, and determined toknow what they felt like, I stretched my fingers toward his hornsbefore coming to my senses and snatching them back. I despised theheat creeping into my cheeks when I glanced away from him.
