Page 28 of Grave Devil
Nox slithers his tail around his legs. With his black leather pants, bare chest, his brown skin decorated with thick black tattoos, his black hair flowing across his shoulders, and two smooth ebony horns protruding from the top, he looks like a demonic rock star. An ethereal fallen angel of death and heavy metal.
“How long have you not been able to leave the house?” I ask. Seems like I’m not the only one keeping secrets these days.
He sighs, his furrowed brow making him look more human than ever. This place wears on all of us. It ages even the prettiest monsters of my dreams. “A few months… I’m guessing it started around the same time the Skelker started coming through. Something happens in my head when I try to step off the porch. It’s like a command that my body obeys even if I try to fight it.”
Fuck. This is all my fault. I’ve set him free from one prison only to confine him to another. What did I do wrong? “I don’t understand. I made my sacrifice. A soul for a soul. We got Nox out, and in return, I can never enter the After. I gave up my soul’s salvation. My redemption. I turned away the gods to make this deal. Why ishedoing this?” I feel like I’m on the verge of hysteria. It’s crawling up my throat, threatening to push my sanity over the edge.
“Because he’s the devil, Mia,” Aries states. “He twists and tricks until you have no idea what you first agreed to. Trust me, no one knows this better than my family. We Thorns are still paying heavily for the bargain we struck with him during the Poison War… just ask my sister Libra.”
Bones squeezes his arm in response. “They will all pay, Ries. You’ll make sure of that.”
Aries grits his teeth, his jaw muscle flexing as he gives Bones a little nod. “Yeah. I’m going to send all those fuckers right backto where they came from. I hope the devil makes plenty of room down there.”
It occurs to me that we are all more tethered than we think. These ties between us are old and deep. Our family histories are intertwined with so much darkness, poison, and bloodshed that it’s hard to discern how much of our DNA is even ours. Never ever has there been a town with a more sordid past than Ever Graves.
“The poison keeps him out of my head. But I’m building a tolerance… I need more and more every time to numb myself.” I push my trembling fingers through Nox’s, interlocking them for support. He steadies me, but the glare that burns on them from Draven’s heated ire is palpable. I almost feel like my hand is ablaze. It’s not jealousy. He loves Nox as much as I do. No. It’s fear. And self-loathing. He’s told me many times that he doesn’t think he’s good enough to care for me the way the others do.
I cross the room to go to him. His throat bobs when I slip my hand in his and squeeze. “I need you too,” I whisper. The devil is after me, and yet I want to comfortthem.
“I don’t think you’ll need the poison for much longer,” Draven mutters.
My stomach knots. “Why? Is there another way to keep him away?”
They all exchange a knowing look before stepping in closer, surrounding me. Nox strokes my cheek with a long, pointy claw. “When you used the raven’s blade… and wiped your blood on the Wishing Tree… it awakened something.”
Draven pulls me into his side. He grips me tight as if I’m more his protector than he is mine. “You’re not the only one with a new friend.”
I gulp down a deep breath, inhaling scents of gin and cigarettes. Oh, no. Fuck.
He lights one up as soon as I think it. After taking a few shaky drags, he continues. “A dark presence has been hovering around me in my room at Blackwell Manor. And in some of the other rooms too. I think it’s my mother’s nightmare man… my real father.”
We gasp collectively. “Oh, fuck. Draven…”I did this.
“Perhapsyoushould move in here then,” Nox offers. It’s not a dig. I recognize the genuine concern in his tone.
Draven shakes his head. “I won’t be driven out of my own home. Besides, it will just follow me. It’s getting more brazen. But I would like to stay here more often, I think.”
“Of course, you know I miss you when you don’t spend the night.” I press my forehead to his cheek. I wish I could wrap all of us in a bubble. One made of magic so strong that nothing and no one could ever get to us.
Aries hands him a fresh drink. “Have you talked to your half-nightmare cousin Maureen?”
Draven snickers as he shakes his head. “Not yet. But I can assure you that Riot, Atlas, and Valentin will have our fucking heads if there’s anything wrong with her, and we’re to blame.” He gives Bones a look, a fierce warning. “But your brother Felix knows better than to piss me off.”
Bones nods in agreement. “Hopefully, he remembers where his loyalty lies.”
Great. The last thing we need is a war with Nocturnus. “This is all my fault. If they are pissed, they can take it out on me.”
If tension could be a color, it would be bright red because it’s all that these four can see right now. They move in even closer, a wall of immovable force around me. But the Skelker takes precedence over the four Nocturnus psychos.
“According to lore, the Skelker were unleashed during the Wild Hunt. They were the devil’s soldiers, guarding the woods while the Four Horsemen collected virgins for sacrifice. That isuntil the ritual was put to an end.” I love how Aries can flip a switch and go from feral to stoic in seconds. An inherited trait, I’m sure.
“I believe this Skelker will come out during our Wild Hunt festival. It would be exquisite irony,” Nox murmurs.
“That gives us what? Three days?” I ask.
“You continue as planned and go to the festival. Once we can find out who he used to be and what he wants, we may be able to manipulate him or even stop him for good. Then we find a way to keep more of them from coming through the tree,” Nox continues.
“I was so scared when I found you like that, baby girl… You were there but not there. And your body… my god. All those black marks on your skin. Some looked like fingerprints. Was he touching you?” Bones looks as sickly as I feel.
