Chapter 40
D orian is already waiting for me.
“You’re betraying them, aren’t you? Why?”
Dorian brings a glass of orange wine to his lips and takes a sip. “Do you want the deal or not?”
“Does your betrayal extend to me?”
He lets out a rough, hateful laugh. “You’re nothing for me to betray. We don’t know each other.”
“I mean, are you really going to save my mother? If I make the deal, if I agree to go anywhere you want, will my mother live?” There is no point to this if he double crosses me.
Dorian gives me a long look. “Yes. The curse will be lifted as soon as the deal is struck.”
Walking towards him, I glance down at the ground. Each blade of grass I step on turns to ash. Some trick of hell, I’m sure. “Then, I agree.”
On long legs, Dorian stands from his table of death and walks towards me. In the last second, when his fingers reach out to clasp my neck, I hesitate, pulling back. Just for a second. And then I’m in his hands and I think I might cry.
“For what it’s worth,” he says, tugging me closer, “I’m sorry.”
With a wave of his fingers, darkness descends.