Chapter 22
Ruadan
This time when I opened that unmarked door in the dark alley downtown, it didn’t open into a restaurant kitchen.
Part of me had still been expecting clattering pots and bickering staff, fragrant steam and structured chaos.
Instead, I found myself face to face with a deathly silence and clinging darkness that seemed to breathe with a living pulse all its own.
My heart was racing, palms sweaty where I clung to the doorframe, staring down the rough stone steps descending into shadows.
Love made me a desperate man, and that meant risking it all, no matter the cost.
When I first accepted this case, it had seemed such a simple thing, to track down a criminal and see them punished. But now, here I was, with a much different outcome. I was here to ask for her help…
Everything inside me screamed that this was a point of no return.
I knew that if I fucked this up, I would never see Ulysses again.
And it was with my mate in mind, held tightly in my heart, that I forced myself to descend the carved steps.
The door slammed shut behind me with a chilling sense of finality.
One way or another, I would not be walking out of here today.
The air grew damp the deeper I descended, and somewhere in the shadows I heard the scuttle of claws on stone as unseen creatures scurried to hide.
Torchlight flickering ominously across the bare stone surrounding me, but the goosebumps that pebbled my skin had nothing to do with the bracing chill.
It was the sense of wrongness that raked its claws over me—into me.
I could feel her there, digging ever deeper and taking my measure.
And as if she could sense the desperate man I’d become, I could feel her rippling pleasure.
Yesss, she seemed to intone, come closer, come to me. You’re mine now, you belong to meeee…
My steps nearly faltered, but somehow, I kept going. I had no earthly clue where I’d been transported to as soon as I crossed through that threshold, though it was obvious I was no longer in Valleywood. Was this the underworld, some private level of Hell?
At the bottom of the stairs, the ground flattened into an uneven stone terrace, broken by stalagmites reaching for their counterparts above, glistening in the firelight. And across the terrace… I swallowed my gasp.
Apate was a sight to behold, sitting on her throne, dressed as delicately as any doll, and yet her power battered at me like a fist. Even now that I’d been granted access to her hidden cave, there was no point in fighting her.
There was no way I could win against her, not if she could simply poof me straight back out of here.
Her face was disguised beneath a black lace veil, revealing only the sheen of her eyes, clever and assessing.
“I’m so glad you accepted my invitation, Ruadan,” she said, her voice echoing through the vaulted chamber, rough and otherworldly.
“It was fated to happen sooner or later, though I bet these were not the circumstances you were anticipating.” She reached over to a small delicate table beside her throne and picked up a copy of the dreaded magazine, The Mischief Daily, and fanned herself with it.
“Quite the little mess you’ve made for yourself, juggling two men. I never knew you had it in you.”
I didn’t need the reminder. I knew exactly what that trashy paper said about me.
I’d seen the story splashed across the city about Valleywood’s hottest bachelor, the district attorney turned homewrecker, and the messy public breakup.
Since last week, the story had been picked up by several online celebrity news sites.
“I didn’t do anything!” I snapped, fists balling instinctively at my sides as rage flared inside me.
“I would never betray my mate like that, could never even think about touching another man, but he… he left me anyway.” I shut my eyes tight, hating the words as they passed my lips.
“He won’t give me a chance to explain, won’t even answer my calls. ”
“And so here you are,” she drawled, throwing the magazine aside. “What would you like me to do about your little dilemma?”
“Please, I need your help,” I rasped, my throat tightening, threatening to cut off both my words and breath. “I need him. He’s everything to me.” Not a single word of what I said was a lie.
“I could fix it, make it so he takes you back…” Even though I couldn’t see her face through the veil, I could feel the smile twisting her lips, cruel and scheming. “And what will you give me if I do this for you? I’m not a charity, I don’t do anything for free.”
“Whatever you want. Anything!” I dropped to my knees right there on the stone floor, crawling forward to set my hands upon her feet. “Name your price.” I just hoped it was within my power to pay it.
She leaned forward and ran her hand down my cheek in a tender caress that had my stomach threatening to empty itself right here in her lap.
“So handsome,” she cooed, “and so powerful.” It took everything in me not to flinch back from her touch.
“I would have a taste of it. That is my price, consider it a small snack. You will need to let me in, of course, just temporarily. And by the time I’m done, your mate will once more be yours. ”
“H-How?” I stuttered out.
“Just a little magic,” she purred as she peeled off a glove, revealing skin of midnight-black, eddying and swirling as if it were made from liquid. With her other hand, she withdrew a glinting needle and pricked a finger, a single bead of black blood welling on the tip.
I hated this entire scenario. I knew how she worked, I’d seen the evidence.
She dealt in chaos. Her deals were likely worded carefully to leave loopholes, much in the way a djinn twisted the words of a wish.
Revenge turned to murder, wealth became armed robbery.
The things people wanted to have without earning them could not be achieved without bloodshed.
But what would a wish for love look like?
I would never forgive myself if she hurt Uly.
“Do we have a deal?” she asked in that awful rasp of hers, reaching out a single finger toward my forehead.
I flinched back before she could make contact, even as I knew this was my only option.
This was what I’d come here to do, to make a deal with the devil, but now that I was faced with the dreadful reality of it, my heart seemed to stutter in my chest, balking at what I knew must be done.
“Swear to me you won’t hurt him,” I begged.
“I won’t lay a finger on him,” she said, and the words seemed to settle over me, the ripple of magic adding the clause to the contract, binding her to them.
For Uly. He was all that mattered. Letting my eyes drift shut, I nodded, bracing myself for whatever came next.
Her finger had barely touched my forehead before blinding pain seared into me, like a red-hot poker stabbing into my brain, turning my whole vision white.
Screaming filled my ears, and I was surprised to find that it was coming from me.
I tried to yank myself back, but I was rooted to the spot, glued to the single point of contact.
All I saw, felt, heard was pain. Until suddenly—
It stopped.
Everything went black.
I floated in the ether, bodiless, mindless. But not soulless.
“Mmm, lust,” I heard my voice murmur, detached from me entirely, now belonging to the dark goddess Apate.
“My favorite of all the sins.” I was distantly aware of my body, no longer under my control, as she walked back up the stairs.
“You really should have read the fine print of that contract, Ruadan. I promised I would not lay a finger on your beloved mate. Your fingers, however… I’ll make sure to leave my mark. ”
And floating in that sea of darkness, I screamed.