Chapter 25
C assia
Selena and I had moved into the little alcove under the stairs. Well, maybe “little” wasn’t the best word, not with the cushioned benches and pretty table that sat in the space. It was almost a whole, separate room of its own.
While Lukas continued to terrorize the locals, the two of us were becoming fast friends. It was great to meet another girl in nearly the same shoes as me, but I suspected her vampire was generally much better received than my own.
“I have to tell you, just to get it out of the way, but he’s tasted my blood before. It didn’t mean anything, he was just being a dick and plus he didn’t even know who I was, but it happened,” Selena said, grimacing slightly.
I waved a hand at her. “Doesn’t matter, I’m sure there’s been thousands of women.”
An enormous crash broke up our conversation as a spinning whir of black fell to the floor. Next thing I knew, Lukas was standing over Ramone, laughing at him while blood dripped down his face.
Samantha looked horrified and her big eyes welled with tears.
Juliet slapped a hand over her face before putting a hand on her hip and turning her head. “Boys,” she muttered.
Elijah stared at Lukas and Ramone with his eyebrows stuck somewhere up by his hairline.
“Thank you for your service,” Lukas purred at Ramone while he struggled to right himself.
Ramone dipped his head to Lukas and gave him a mock salute before turning to his wife. “Grab the books, we’re leaving.”
Samantha walked into another room and came back out, carrying several leatherbound books. Neither of them looked at the rest of us as he took her hands. Suddenly, the two of them were gone.
“For fuck’s sake,” Juliet mumbled. “Elijah—this is your fault. Clean this up.”
She stomped off, letting the door slam shut behind her.
“I don’t know what to say to you. Or, what to do with you,” Elijah said to Lukas.
He walked over to the shattered debris and waved a hand over it.
With fascination, I watched as broken pieces fit back together, knitting themselves into the beautiful paintings and pretty decorations they had been several minutes ago.
It was a slower process than what Lukas did, and I had to assume the difference was in their power and positioning.
Unlike Elijah, I knew what I wanted to say to Lukas and what I wanted to do to him. When he stole my eyesight earlier, I was truly terrified. It was scarier than when Annalise placed the sword in Lukas’s outstretched palms.
Not only did I need my eyes just to walk around in the manner in which I was used to, but I also needed them for my drawing and painting. To make me think I’d gone blind and lost my ability to bring the beauty I saw to life was beyond fucked up.
Selena piped up, “You can always kill him. Nobody here will mind.”
“Forgive her,” Elijah said to Lukas. “She’s a little spicy.”
“Hey, was that a generalization about my ethnic heritage?”
He blew her a kiss. “No that was an observation about your tongue.”
Elijah’s gaze dipped to her mouth, and I watched his irises go from brown to blue. Selena pressed her lips together and stared at the floor.
Lukas caught my eye and I stared back at him with a hard gaze. His eyes flickered and I saw his puzzlement. I wasn’t going to give an inch.
Elijah beckoned him and the two men walked deeper into the house.
“C’mon, let’s go find Juliet,” Selena encouraged me. “She makes really good stew and tea. Are you hungry?”
Selena led me through the door everyone kept using earlier.
Murals were painted on the walls and ceiling depicting images of fierce battles and dark forests, all illuminated by a beautiful crystal chandelier that hung overhead.
It was a grand dining room, luxurious and full of textures and deep colors.
Small shelves lined the paneled walls with potted plants and curiosities, with gilded paintings interspersed every few feet.
“This is beautiful,” I said, in awe.
“The devil has fantastic taste, apparently,” Selena replied.
We walked past the table, to the other side of the room and then down a hallway to the kitchen.
It wasn’t as fancy as what we passed on our way here, but it was well-appointed and very nice.
A large table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by windows, crafted cabinets, quartz countertops, and heavy-duty appliances.
Juliet stood by a fireplace big enough to cook an entire cow whole. She wiped her hands on her pants and turned around. “Get her some water, Selena?”
“Thank you,” I said.
Selena walked over to a tall cabinet and when she opened it, the entire thing, at least ten shelves, was full of bottled water.
Seeing my dumbfounded face, Juliet said, “The devil had a weird thing about water.”
“I guess...” I cracked open the lid and gulped the entire thing down.
“So, you just, like, stole his house?”
Selena laughed. “He abandoned it.”
“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. “So, nobody gets in trouble? What if he wanted to come back?” I paused. “Wait. When you say devil...”
“It's literal.” Holy shit . I stared, trying to absorb that information while Juliet pulled a stack of bowls from a cupboard, the porcelain clinking together. I heard a drawer open and silverware chimed against each other. She brought it all to the table.
Selena handed me a bowl. “He left it for God knows how long so Juliet and her husband live here now. I did this back home, too.” She grabbed a spoon and placed it beside my dish. “I was homeless in the Third and just took wherever I could find, whatever was abandoned.”
Juliet scooped the stew with a large wooden ladle. “Yeah, until you were killed. It's safer here in so many ways.” She gave me a pointed glance. “Usually.”
Shifting in my seat, I drew the bowl closer. Fragrant steam wafted around my face and my mouth watered. “You were killed? Then how did you end up here?”
She tilted her head and blew on a spoonful of food.
“Well, I ended up in the Second, in the beginning. Then your lovely, very much not-abusive boyfriend kicked us out. Super against the law for Elijah, who is part pure blood, to fall in love with a human. So, your honey stripped him of the kingdom and told us we were never allowed to come back. Made us do it immediately, too. I left friends behind.”
“Really, Selena? Are you forgetting about how Elijah shredded your fingers with razor flowers?” The ladle smacked against the side of the pot.
She scoffed. “That’s different than taking my eyesight away.” She slurped some soup. “Or making it so I can’t talk.”
I leaned back in my seat. “It's normal for Lukas to take my voice away, I’m almost used to it at this point. I’m fucking pissed at him over my eyes though. All because I said ‘wow’ when that guy, Ramone, came out.”
Selena and Juliet glanced at each other and they both laughed. “Okay, so good luck with that,” Selena shook her head.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Juliet lightly slapped her friend’s arm. “Territorial. They are very, very territorial. Other men cannot exist for you. No such thing.”
I knew this. I extra knew this, especially after Kiam helped me with my makeup. But the last thing I was expecting was Satan himself making an appearance, neither was I expecting him to be hot. I have eyes, sorry.
I scoffed. “You both saw him.”
Selena snorted. “Yeah, but I kept my observations to myself.” She tilted her bowl, draining the last bit of liquid. “That was delicious, wasn’t it? I told you.”
Nodding, I said, “It was. Thank you, Juliet.” I glanced at Selena again. “You were telling me how you died?”
“I wasn’t, but I will. My parents’ assassins shot me point blank in the head.” She made a finger gun with her hand and pointed it at her forehead, making a shooting sound. “I woke up here. But I’d been coming here in my dreams, so it wasn’t all completely foreign.”
My mind immediately went to my artwork and my heart started pounding in my chest. “So, I’m an artist. I paint and I draw and I was painting the First Realm before I ever saw it.”
Juliet stilled, our dirty dishes in hand. “Really?” She glanced at Selena. “That’s kinda like her. Did you dream of it too?”
My head shook. “No, I don’t think so. That’s pretty cool though, how we both saw this place however we did and then we’re here.”
Juliet handed me another bottle of water. “How does that happen, I wonder?”
Selena’s chair leg creaked against the floor. “Let’s go find the guys. I don’t know what they’re planning but I plan on finding out.”
I stood, shoving the chair back in. “I’m going with you guys,” Juliet announced.
We found Elijah and Lukas in an office lined with bookshelves. A desk sat in the corner with papers piled, and scrolls perched precariously on the edge. A laptop computer sat in the middle of the mess.
There were two long couches facing each other and a low coffee table set between them.
The couch closer to the door was bracketed by end tables, and the other side of the room had a small bay window with a cushioned seat to relax on.
Dark, rich autumnal colors and gleaming mahogany wood gave the large room a much cozier feel than it should have had.
Elijah and Lukas both sipped on an amber color fluid I guessed was whisky or bourbon. He seemed much more relaxed around Lukas, now, and I had to wonder what had changed. He was lounging, an arm on the side of the couch and resting an ankle on his knee,
Selena went over to him, and he trailed his glassy fingernails over her neck as he kissed her, deeply.
When Juliet said, “Charles should be back soon,” I remembered that this wasn’t Elijah’s house. They lived in the castle.
“Who’s that?” I asked, lingering halfway between the doorway and the couches while she slid past me.
She walked over to the desk and tapped the laptop’s keyboard. “He’s my husband,” she answered with a smile.
Lukas beckoned me with his fingers and I swallowed. I was very much not okay with him blinding me, but I didn’t want to make a scene—I’d done enough of that earlier.