Page 82 of Dancing With Demons

“Doing it would free my sister from danger. If I die”—I threw Ronin off, glaring into his eyes—“all you bastards will stop using her as a pawn to control me.”

Neither Lucifer nor Ronin had a thing to say to me.

I heard a noise on the other end of the call. Dora whooshed back into the bathroom.

“Cleo!”

“Dora!”

I shoved Ronin aside, rushing to hug her.

She squeezed the stuffing out of me. My sister may not have her memories, but she knew who was there for her—and she knew it was me.

“Your play worked this time.” Lucifer’s frosty hiss stole the smile off my face. “But never make the mistake of thinking I’m easy to manipulate. The next time I call, I want the identities of the other three hallows.”

“When are you going to—”

“And one more thing,” he sliced in. “Your little vampire boyfriend can give all the warnings he wants—”

My jaw, my legs, my soul fell out from under me.

“—but don’t you dare think of double-crossing me, Charlotte Hunter. The power of the All Hallows is mine. You can either give it to me willingly, or I can rip it out along with your beating heart.”

“H-how—? How—?”

“You have a nice chat with those dryads, darling. Talk soon.”

Click.

I NEVER MADE IT TO class that day.

I was too busy stuffing blankets in the vents and rigging boobie traps for the doors. Dora read in Ronin’s room while Ronin stared at me in mine.

“Why so tight-lipped?” Ronin asked. He reclined on my bed, uncaring of his dirty boots on my sheets. “What did Lucifer say to you? Why’d you threaten to kill yourself?”

“You know what he said.” I focused on my task of filling small, individual vials with the bath oils. From then on, I’d dump the oil by the doorway so anyone speeding in my room at night would have a nice trip. “I’ve told you all of this already. He wants progress on my search for the hallows. He wants names, identities, and items in hand. And he’s threatening Dora to get it.”

“So you threatened him right back.”

“It’s not a threat.” My voice was calm—steady. “It’s a promise. I’m not letting this go on anymore. Lucifer is done hurting Dora to get to me. My sister is innocent in all this, but she’s been suffering worst of all. Her childhood was a lie, her mother killed her, her bio father gutted her mind and personality, and now, she’s being tortured in her sister’s name.

“No more.” Setting down the vials, I faced him. “And that goes for you too.”

If I expected a big reaction, I didn’t get it.

Ronin merely raised a brow. “Why are you mad at me? In that list of suffering, I don’t even make the top ten.”

“Don’t feign innocence, demon. It doesn’t suit you.”

Ronin laughed.

“Stop laughing, you jerk, and say it! Say that you won’t use or hurt Dora to manipulate me again—”

“I won’t use or hurt your sister to manipulate you again,” Ronin rattled off without the slightest hesitation.

I froze, mouth still open. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy at all.

My eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re lying.”