Page 56 of Grave Devil
You belong to the Wishing Tree, and the Wishing Tree belongs to me.
He calls to me, the devil’s siren, beckoning me from between the trees. His voice crackles like branches swinging in this unforgiving wind. My heart skips. It races. I moan into Bones’s mouth, opening up to him like a flower. He explores with his tongue, ravenous.
“He’s close,” I murmur.
Draven twists me away from Aries and pulls me flush against him. “I changed my mind. I’m taking you home so we can ravage you instead.”
Invisible threads tighten around my neck.You can’t escape me, dark one. Don’t make me rip you out from under their sleeping limbs.
I push Draven back and spin away from all three of them. “No. He can get to me anywhere. Tonight, I go to him. It gives me the control.”
Bones purses his lips, the vein in his neck bulging. “She’s right. You two didn’t see what he did to her that night I found her at the garage…” He nods his head toward the trees. “Go. Find him, then.”
Aries throws up his hands in protest. “Even more reason to lock her in my apothecary. He’s fully out from behind the veil now. But that motherfucker can’t walk through walls.”
Bones snarls, baring his teeth. “Careful, Ries. Don’t be saying motherfucker in the same sentence about my brother.”
“You’re right. Sorry. Forgot the connection for a second.” Aries shrinks back, not something he does often. But when it comes to Bones, he will put his ego aside if it spares his feelings.
Draven wraps his hand around my already-constricted throat. “This is too dangerous.”
I clasp his fingers in mine. “No. He won’t hurt me. I mean… not like that.”
Draven’s nostrils flare. “Maybe not, but the devil enjoys making your bloodline suffer.”
“Which is why I have to go to him on my own. The same way Willa Harker did. I have to fix what she broke. You have to let me go, Slick.” I bite my lip and choke back my tears before they fall.
Aries and Bones each rest a hand on his shoulders. And he lets go. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me, Trouble. You’re not allowed to.”
I smile and place a gentle peck against his trembling lips. “I promise.”
He nods and pulls me in for a last embrace. “Check your dress when you’re out of Bones’s sight. I left you something to help you if you need it.”
I do my best to stifle a gasp.My dress has pockets. Fuck, yeah. I’m so excited I almost forget about my potential impending doom. It’s the little things that can make a girl happy.
I give each of them a nod before I spin on my heel and stalk toward the tree line where the marsh is the thickest. A familiar path. Back to the Wishing Tree…
Armed with nothing but a gin-filled flask and pockets full of poison, I follow the sound of his voice. He hums low, an ancient chant. A sacred calling that thrums through my blood in remembrance.
The connection strengthens as I cross through the Circle, remembering Bones’s fight that I watched here. The sweat and blood and adrenaline energized the space like spell work. It was the first night I realized how badly I wanted each of them. That was also the night that they chased me through the woods and defiled me.
As I near the Wishing Tree, I remember Aries’s warning to me that night.Don’t get lost in the woods again, little lamb. We’re not the only wolves out here…
I, of course, thoughttheywere the most dangerous things I’d ever encounter. Even after knowing Nox. But there’s far deadlier things that lurk in these woods. Of course, it had to bemybloodline that pissed off the devil. That pretty much tracks for my life. I roll my eyes, annoyed with myself and my family’s shitty luck.
“Hello, dark one.”
My breath hitches when I hearhisvoice.
Fuck.
That was definitelynotin my head.
I turn around slowly. His eyes glow like embers, peering out from behind the deer skull, like two fireflies. He wears a pair of low-slung leather pants over his perfect fucking abs. No shirt, just a hooded brown cloak around his shoulders, tied to his neck with a blue satin ribbon. Like the ribbon I found in the cabin in the woods.
“It’s… you,” I murmur.
His brown skin is so smooth. So fucking pretty to look at it. He’s carved like a bronze statue. Like a god. I swallow hard as he stalks forward until we are inches apart. He towers over me, at least six foot four. And that’s before the antlers, which extend up another four inches above his head.
