In this neighborhood, the buildings were old, timber frame. This part of Dovren had survived the great fire centuries ago. On one side of the square was a hospital, a thousand years old and made of stone.
On the shadowy road beneath me, my demonic animals prowled, restless. I could feel where Lilith wanted me to go—not down to the square, but into a little home crammed in between two taller buildings. Wooden frames crisscrossed over white. A sharply peaked roof tottered above it, looking like it could tumble into the street at any moment. Ancient. Cozy.
Through the mist, gold light beamed from the windows, inviting me in.
I landed on the cobblestones before it, and sniffed the air. Someone inside had cooked stew.
Lilith’s soul was rising in me, wrestling with my own. Now, I dwelled in a twilight between demon and mortal. A dusky realm of her soul and mine. But why here?
My shoes clacked on the stones as I crossed to the door. When I tried the knob, I found it locked. I kicked the door, and it swung open, splintering a little around the doorknob.
My pulse picked up, and I stepped into a hallway painted a cream color. My wings brushed against the walls as I walked, sending a rush of sensations through my feathers. Familiar sensations. The scent of cooking came from around the corner, and I slipped into a kitchen. A man sat at a simple wooden table, his brown hair curling down to his chin.
His shirtsleeves were rolled up to the elbows, revealing muscular forearms. He was enormous, with a square jaw and a neatly trimmed beard. And right now he was staring at me, his spoon hovering halfway between his bowl and his mouth. I felt a hot jolt along my shoulder blades as my wings retracted.
“Are you an angel?” He lowered his spoon. “I’ve heard people say the count is an angel, and the wings …”
I smiled at him. “The rumors about him are true. Untrustworthy. Duplicitous. Violent. He calls himself a reaper,” I said in Lilith’s voice.
“Is that what you are?”
I folded my arms. “No, I’m not an angel, thank God. They’re awful.”
He hadn’t blinked since I’d come in here. Just big hazel eyes trained on me. “What are you?”
“Demon.”
He dropped his spoon. “Demon,” he repeated.
“I was born from the ground. And yes, you should be terrified.” I flicked my hand at him. “You can run now if you like. This is my home.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized it was true. This had been Lilith’s home. And it had hardly changed, even after all these centuries. The ceilings were low, with rough-hewn wooden beams, and dried herbs hung from them. An enormous fireplace was inset into the wall, and a cauldron hung in the hearth. Wisps of steam curled above it.
But weirdly—I knew where the bedroom was, up a narrow set of stairs.
This was home.
I hadn’t had a memory of this place until I came in here, and now I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to sleep here.
I turned back to the mortal, baffled to find him still here.
“Was I not clear?” I said. “You can run along now. I am the Iron Queen, and dark magic runs through my blood. I am Lilith the Spurned, Lilith the Vengeful, and I grow thorns of spite in a garden of bitterness.”
With a resolute set to his jaw, he leaned back in his chair, gripping the edge of the table. “That may be true, but this is my home.”
Rage snapped through my body, and I considered killing him with his own wooden table.
I breathed in deeply, marshaling a sense of calm. Maybe I liked that he didn’t run.
I sighed. “Do you live here alone?”
He nodded. His knuckles had gone white.
Fine. As long as he kept his mouth shut and let me think, he could stay.
I stepped farther into the kitchen, then turned to cross to his front window. I stared out at Sanguine Square, the cobblestones dusted in snow like little iced cakes. My wolves prowled over them, leaving tracks. I watched as two elks broke away from the army, running out of the square.
No matter. I’d find a way to get them back.
Here, from this window, was the view that I’d always liked. I used to spend hours looking out onto the square outside, watching the mortals butcher cows.
I pressed my hands against the glass, and my breath fogged up the old window panes. The manacles still chafed at my wrists.
Beyond the animals, I saw something burst into view like a torch lighting: a beautiful woman bound by chains to a stake. I held my breath until the illusion flickered away again.
“What are you doing?” the man asked from behind me.
“I’m remembering things,” I said. “Things from long ago, from another life.”
The illusion appeared again. There she was—twined in tendrils of mist, arms chained behind her, her neck bent at a strange angle. Broken, but alive. My body went cold as I stared at her. A long-buried anger started to rise.
She was screaming in an ancient language. I could hear it dimly through the glass, and I could understand it. The demons had been hunted. She was one of the last remaining. The mortals were her enemy, and she wanted the angels to help her. She wanted them to come to her aid, to save her. They were the same—demons and the Fallen. I stared in horror as the men surrounding her lit the fire at her feet, and the flames started to rise.
“You’re scared.” I jumped as the man spoke from behind me.
I turned to face him and tilted my head, reading the curiosity in his expression.
“Mortals like you haven’t been nice to my kind.”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I didn’t know that demons were real. I thought demons were imaginary. And evil.”
I crossed my arms. “Oh yes. We are real. And we are evil.”
Mortals had hunted us nearly out of existence, then forgot we were real at all. Like the giant wolves they’d hunted to extinction, we were now little more than legends.
“But what’s more,” I said, “we are powerful. In the fairy tales, there’s a powerful hag who sits in a castle, working her magic all alone. Little girls aren’t meant to look up to her. We’re meant to like the little mortal woman with pale skin and rosy cheeks, the weak one who needs saving. Pure of heart. Innocent. Untouched. But what if I want real power? What if I want to be as terrifying as the angel of death?”
He cleared his throat, looking at me with a mixture of awe and fear. “Okay. I don’t … Was that a rhetorical question?”
I lifted my iron cuffs, and I plopped down into a chair across from him. “You’re a butcher, yes? Can I have two of your thinnest butcher hooks?”
He nodded. “To get your cuffs off?”
“Part of me used to be a thief. Yes, I can use them to pick the locks if they’re the right shape.”
He stared at me. “Why were you chained up?”
“Because people fear women with power.” I sighed. “How about those butcher hooks? This may be an absolutely terrible idea, but I think I need to be free.”
What was the worst that could happen?
Lila
He rose unsteadily, then stumbled back to one of his drawers. With shaking hands, he pulled out two thin butcher hooks, then handed them to me.
I took them from him, inspecting them. “These will do.”
He watched as I slid a thin hook into the first lock on my left wrist. I had to awkwardly hold the second hook in my left hand, which wasn’t quite working.
I looked up at the man sitting before me. “Mortal.”
“My name is Nico.”
“Nico, I need your help.” I handed him one of the butcher hooks. “I need you to slide the end of this hook in the keyhole, okay? Hold it straight up, just like that, at the bottom of the keyhole.”
He leaned over the table, pressing one thin makeshift pick in just where I needed it. I slid the second pin into the hole, mimicking the movement of a key and turning it clockwise until the metal cuff popped off.
It clattered to the table, and I lifted my wrist, grinning.
“We did it, Nico.”
He still looked dazed. “Oh, good.”
I nodded at him to help me with the second one, and he slid the pick in again.
“I don’t know why anyone thought I could be chained. I’m too powerful. It only works if I’m willing.” I turned the second lock, until that one too popped open.
His eyebrows rose. “Why would anyone be willingly restrained?”
My mind flashed with the memory of Samael tying my hands behind my back with the silk of my bathrobe.
“There’s a time and a place for everything, Nico. I can work on the manacles around my ankles by myself.” I brought my knee up, resting my foot on a chair to work on the ankle lock. As I did, I muttered to myself, “But maybe I should stay chained. I have a feeling this could all be a terrible mistake.”
My first ankle cuff clattered to the floor.
“Why is it a mistake?” he asked.
I lowered my leg. I realized he had a lovely curved mouth, with full lips. He also had enormous arms. Since I was newly single, I really hadn’t come to the worst place in Dovren.
“Why should I be chained? I’m evil, Nico. I wasn’t born. I crawled from the dirt, reincarnated from one of the most terrifying demons of all time. A killer.” My second ankle cuff clattered to the floor.
His throat bobbed. “If you are the real predator, why did you seem so scared looking out the window? You were shaking.”
“You are a very curious man, aren’t you?”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I don’t really get many visitors. Especially not women. Do you want some stew? It’s venison.”
I crossed my legs, leaning back to study him. “You really don’t think I’m evil, do you?”
“No, I don’t think you are.”
Hunger gripped my stomach. Once again, I could feel the Mysterium Liber calling to me, and it made me feel famished. “Yes. Please. I’d love some stew.”
“I can heat it a bit.”
While he started to get my lunch ready, I turned to stare out the window again, transfixed by the illusion of burning flames in the city square outside—Lilith's memory rising to the surface in front of me.
But why had she made her home here? This home must be six hundred years old or so—made after the time she was burned. She’d moved in here, to a spot overlooking the site of her torture. Why would she want to dwell on it?
As I watched the dancing flames, I started to understand. She wanted to remember. Revenge drove her, gave her meaning. She wanted vengeance against mortals. Now, I thought she wanted vengeance against Samael. It was at the very core of her being.
But what did I want?
Through the old warped glass I could still see the flames rising higher. What sort of people would do that to another person?
The Free Men would. The men who’d tortured Lilith were their predecessors.
And that was when I knew exactly what I had to do—not Lilith’s goal. Not Samael’s.
I turned back to the mortal man. He’d laid out a bowl of steaming venison stew and a glass of wine.
I started to eat, filling my belly with the rich soup. I tasted onions and garlic cloves. Frankly, it was delicious.
He picked up his spoon again, eating with me. “What’s your name?”
I opened my mouth to speak, then hesitated. Who was I?
“I’m Lila,” I said decisively. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt my chest unclenching. I was still Lila.
But as I took a sip of the red wine, I felt something unnerving shuddering over my skin—a familiar, dark magic. I knew that magic all too well.
My body tensed, and I rose from the chair to peer out the window. No longer was I hallucinating Lilith’s memories of fire. But something equally nightmarish appeared: the angel of death. Snow fell in swirls around his enormous form, and his wings were spread out behind him. Clouds hid the sun, and is ice-cold gray eyes pierced the gloom.
“What’s wrong?” Nico asked.
I heaved a sigh. “My former fiancé has arrived. We are not on good terms.”
As I crossed to the door, I felt Lilith’s fury rising again.
“You could always stay here,” said Nico.
“I might be back.”
I pushed the door open into the foggy air, and freezing wind whipped over me.
Embers started to burn in Samael’s eyes. Was I making him angry? Because there was his true face. He was beautiful. And yet when I looked at him, I felt as if icy thorns were growing in my heart.
As he stepped closer, I saw the golden tattoos shimmering over his cheekbones. Shadows whipped around him, and his body had gone completely still. He wore an emotionless mask, as if his feelings were a million miles away.
Hello, reaper, my dark friend.
He wore his cloak without a shirt underneath. Somehow, he didn’t seem to feel the cold. Metallic whorls snaked over his muscles. My throat tightened. He looked ready for battle.
My beast-soldiers prowled around him, wary, snarling. Ready to rip him to shreds if I flicked my wrist. I hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. We were, after all, on the same side. Weren’t we?
My fingers twitched. “Oh, I see the reaper has found me. Don’t you have a wedding to prepare for?” I looked down at the gold ring on my finger. “You can have this back, now.”
I pulled it off and tossed it onto the cobbles. It rolled around, then settled in a crevice between the stones.
“Who am I talking to now? Lilith, or Lila?” His voice—deep and silky—sent a shiver of dread up my spine.
My skull was whirling with Lilith’s memories: flashes of the Raven King, the castle we built by the river. Memories of battles with angels, of hunting mortals. And my own memories—Lila’s—searching for treasure in the mud by the river, always hungry. A scavenger. “We’re both here,” I answered. “Who am I talking to? Samael, or the reaper?”
Around him, the shadows thickened, and the wolves started to snarl. My gaze flicked over them, and a tendril of worry curled through me. There were definitely fewer of my beasts. The Free Men were peeling them off, one at a time.
For just a moment, shadows consumed the fire in Samael’s eyes, and he almost looked like a demon.
“Reaper,” I purred. “That’s my answer. Has it ever occurred to you that you are not all that different from a demon?”
An evil chill settled in the air, like ice against my skin.
He went as still as the stones beneath his feet. I could feel his power even from here.
“You must come back with me to the Iron Fortress,” he said quietly.
“Why?”
“Because you are Lilith, and Lilith can be controlled by the Mysterium Liber. They are taking your army even now. And you will be next. At least until we get the book in our hands.”
I folded my arms, my interest sparking. “What do you mean? What happens when we get the book in our hands?”
“We can sever the control they have over you. The book itself contains the spell for your freedom.”
I smiled. Well that was good news. “Okay. That solves all our problems then. Let’s get it.”
He took a step closer, his magic simmering over my skin. “Except I don’t trust you. If you recall, you recently stabbed me and threw me out a window to be tortured to death.”
My lip curled. “Well the answer is no. I won’t return to the Iron Fortress in chains.”
“It wasn’t a question.”
Anger flickered. “What are you going to do, reaper? Force me? I’m not a weak mortal anymore.”
One of Lilith’s memories ignited in my mind: a war between the angels and demons on an island.
I remembered how angry I was at his kind. I dived for him, bringing my sword down into his neck—
I knew he wouldn’t die, but I cut him into little pieces anyway.
An ache pierced my chest. I breathed in deeply, letting the memory drift away like ashes on the wind.
Samael closed the distance
between us, towering over me. His dark, dangerous magic rippled over me like a warning.
When I looked up into his true face—those eyes of fire scorched me.
I crossed my arms, drumming my fingertips on my biceps. “I won’t be staying in the Iron Fortress with you and your mortal bride. I have a new home now.”
He looked over my shoulder. “You always used to come here. I never knew why.”
“It was my home.” I pointed to the right. “And that was where the mortals spent weeks lighting me on fire.”
His body tensed, shadows viciously whipping the air around him. “What do you mean? What mortals?”
Ah. Lilith had never told him. “Never mind.”
“Who burned you?” A sharp blade undercut his words.
I stared at him. “Mortals, a long time ago. As in—not alive anymore. Look, all you need to know is that I’m not going to be locked in the Iron Fortress, so you can forget that plan if that’s why you’re here.”
He turned, looking at the wolves that stalked from the square. “I want to destroy the book. If you roam free before I do that, you will be the weapon of the Free Men. I can’t allow that. I think I’ve seen how it will turn out, and it’s not pretty.”
I glanced at an elk bounding away from us. And even as I stood here, felt a tug at my chest, an invisible chain that wrapped around my heart, pulling me toward the book. I’d already seen it in my mind’s eye, nestled on that desk in a room of golden stone.
Fuck. Fuck.
If Samael wanted to find the book, he would need my help.
My fingers tightened into fists, the fury of Lilith rising higher. She wanted to be free, and yet here we were. Caught between the mortals and the angel of death.
Lila
I looked up into his divinely beautiful face. Heartbreak splintered my chest, whenever I looked at him. “Yes, the Free Men are trying to summon me. They’re using the book. But I’m linked to that book. You want to destroy it? You have no idea where to find it. I can picture it. I can feel it.”
“And what if they gain control over your mind?”
I shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to stop me. You can always bring backup if you think I’d take you down in a fight again. You know, like the time I chopped you into little bitty pieces. Did that hurt?”
Possessed (Hades Castle Trilogy Book 3) Page 3