Chapter 8
“Hello, Maeve.” The Devil gave me a smile that turned his rugged features wolfish, as the gold flecks in his eyes swirled in a dizzying eddy.
He wore the same sleeveless black tunic from earlier, with just a hint of silver at the collar, though his crown was missing.
The skin on his bare arms gleamed in the firelight, and the room instantly felt ten times smaller than it had before.
I froze. Part of me had stupidly thought I’d be safe from him as long as I was in Death’s castle, but he’d just proven that he could get to me anywhere. So much for my bedroom being a sanctuary.
My nails bit into my palms. He’d walked out of the damn shadows like he owned the place.
I knew he’d want to use my curse for his own gain.
He lied to me about who he was when we first met, presumably wanting to establish a connection between us that he could use to manipulate me.
Except his plan had backfired, because it only made me distrust him more.
At least he wasn’t pretending to be human this time. I felt his power like a buzz in the air.
“What do you want?” I asked, my tone glacial.
“To help you.” His gaze was unrelenting, unaffected by my glare. “After what happened today, I’d say you need it.”
I flinched, wishing I could go back and erase what he’d seen. Accepting his help would be foolish. He’d trap me into using my curse to his advantage by offering assistance, for a price. “How noble of you.”
He chuckled, the sound deep and resonant, making me shiver. Maybe it was the cramped quarters, but he was bigger than I remembered from the balcony. Had his shoulders been that broad before?
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I’m here to offer you a deal.”
My eyebrows rose at his admission. I didn’t expect him to get straight to the point. Crossing my arms, I tried to project a confidence I didn’t feel. “What are you offering?”
He mirrored my stance, his biceps flexing in a way that snagged my gaze.
I pressed my lips together, sure he did it on purpose. It was probably why so many of his tunics were sleeveless.
His smirk only confirmed my suspicions. “I’ll help you by teaching you how to use your newfound powers.”
Powers. The word sent a different kind of shiver through me, one that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I didn’t have powers. I couldn’t. That was for gods like Death and the Devil, not human souls.
“You mean my curse. I don’t want to use it.” I bit my lip, regretting the words as soon as they left my lips.
His eyes narrowed and I resisted the urge to squirm. “Control it, then.”
“And what do you want in return?” I couldn’t hide the tremble in my voice.
He regarded me for an uncomfortable moment, as if weighing his next words. “For you to spy on Death for me, report on everything you see and hear about her or in her rooms.”
A weight settled on my chest, the idea making it difficult to breathe.
Death watched my every move. She already thought I was hiding something, and I’d never been a very good liar.
If I refused, the Devil could reveal my secret to Death, but I wasn’t sure that was worse than making a deal with him, if it meant he could force me to use my curse for his own gain.
I might prefer annihilation to whatever he would do with it. With me.
“No.”
His mouth tightened the smallest fraction. “Why?”
“I don’t trust you.”
Was that hurt I saw in his eyes? I couldn’t tell. It wasn’t the first time something had flashed across his face too quickly for me to be sure I wasn’t seeing things.
“Because I’m the Devil.”
“Because you’re a liar and I don’t trust anything you say. You lied to me from the moment we met, when you didn’t tell me who you really are.” The surprise on his face sent a warm ripple of satisfaction through me.
“I didn’t—” He broke off, his jaw working.
His eyes blazed with vulnerability for a moment.
I didn’t imagine the hurt this time. It was impossible to ignore.
So was the resignation I saw there, potent enough to make me regret what I’d said for a moment.
Then his expression shuttered. A colder, more calculating look descended on his features.
I pressed back against the door, my blood rushing in my ears as he seemed to grow in stature.
His power swirled in the air, the shadows in the room thickening.
This was the Devil as dark god. The one I’d watched seize souls for his Dungeon once they’d been judged, not the more human iteration I’d seen only moments ago.
Watching him flip between the two so easily was more frightening than anything else, because it confirmed how manipulative he was.
I couldn’t trust anything that came out of his mouth.
“There’s no one else who can help you. It’s only a matter of time before Death sees what you can do.” His tone was icy and sharp.
I shivered again, chilled by his words. He was right. It was sheer luck that Death hadn’t found out by now. If I didn’t work with him, my only other choice was to learn by trial and error. The risk that Death would discover my curse before I could get a handle on it was high.
“Don’t spite yourself because you hate me. Let me help you.” I straightened at the demand in his voice.
“If you really wanted to help me, you wouldn’t demand anything in return. You don’t need me to do anything.”
“You have no idea what I need.” His expression went from cold to heated in a blink.
My breath caught in my throat, and I found myself unable to look away from him.
The shadows around me felt like a caress on my skin.
Something tugged in my chest, and I was suddenly burning up, tension pooling in areas that made me squeeze my thighs together, desperate for friction.
It faded as quickly as it came, leaving behind an ache of loneliness that brought tears to my eyes.
The Devil looked away, and I sucked in a lungful of air, my thoughts reeling.
“Would you let me help you if I didn’t ask for anything in return?” His hands were on his hips.
I gritted my teeth, unwilling to tell him he was right. It wouldn’t matter.
“I thought not.” He shook his head, a look of disappointment on his face, which both angered and confused me. I didn’t understand why he cared.
The way he helped me through my panic attack the first time we met, or saved the tea tray I dropped and then asked if I was alright made no sense except as a ploy to earn my trust. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here trying to force me into a deal with him.
I’d been here before. I knew what it felt like to be told one thing and then realize it had all been a lie. The Devil was far more dangerous than Colt though, more persuasive. Even now, part of me wondered if his concern had been real. The possibility did funny things to my stomach.
Shaking myself, I straightened my spine. I wouldn’t let myself go down this road again. Not when I knew better.
Reading my refusal in my posture, his expression hardened. “I wonder what Death will think when she finds out your secret. Let’s find out, shall we?” He turned to go.
“No. Wait.” I was across the room, at his side, in a blink.
He looked down at my hand on his arm, his forearm flexing. I pulled away as if I’d been burned, my face hot. I hadn’t realized I’d grabbed him.
My mouth went dry with the realization that he had me. I may have thought I didn’t know which poison I preferred, him or Death, but I’d been kidding myself. I was terrified of Death finding out. Still, I couldn’t quite bring myself to surrender just yet.
“I won’t use it for you,” I said.
His brow creased in confusion.
“My curse. I won’t use it all. I only want to be able to control it.”
“That will always be your decision. I won’t force you.” He sounded so reasonable, but I wasn’t a fool.
“Swear it.”
“I’ll make it part of the deal.”
I took a step back, resisting the urge to pace. “How does that work?”
“We swear an oath and bind it with shadows and soul essence.”
“What happens if one of us breaks it?”
“That won’t happen.” He waved a hand, dismissing the idea.
“Humor me.” I wasn’t agreeing to something I didn’t fully understand.
He tilted his head a little, as if assessing my demand for information and storing it away for later.
I suppressed a shudder.
“We won’t break it,” he said, “because we will be compelled by the oath to fulfill the terms.”
“So, if I swear to spy on Death for you, the oath will force me to? Literally?”
“It won’t drive you to take unnecessary risks, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I glared at him, not wanting to show him how unnerving it was that he knew that was exactly what I was thinking.
“When I ask you what you’ve seen and heard in Death’s rooms, you’ll be forced to answer,” he said. There was no warmth in his eyes, only cold calculation.
The idea made me queasy. Being forced to speak, unable to hide anything. I wondered if it would allow me to choose the words I used, or to hold anything back. “Will it force me to comply if you ask me to find specific information?”
“No. Though your curiosity might.”
I pressed my lips together. There was no way I would be roped into doing anything extra for this damn deal. “And what will it make you do?”
“Drive me to spend time with you until you are able to control your… curse.” The way he pronounced the word was indecent. So was his smirk.
A shiver rolled through me at the idea of him being driven to seek me out. I pushed it away. At least he would be motivated to fulfill his end of the deal. “And when does it end?”
“When I decide the conditions have been fulfilled, I will release you from it. Or when one of us is physically unable to uphold our end of it.”
“Absolutely not. I’m not agreeing to an open-ended deal.”
“There’s no telling how long it will take for you to learn control, Maeve.”
“Define an end or I won’t agree.”
He raised one eyebrow. “And what will you give me if I do?”