Chapter 35
Chapter thirty-five
Seraphina
She hoped Al was still asleep. Ever so slowly, she turned the metal doorknob to their room. As soon as the latch clicked open, the door was practically ripped from the hinges.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Al growled at her, almost pulling her arm out of its socket as he jerked her inside.
“Hey!”
“I swear to every fucking god I’ve ever heard about, Seraphina…” He was pacing the bloodred carpet. Shirtless and pacing and angry. “Where the fuck were you? I woke up and you were gone.”
“I told you I had to go see what he wanted.” She folded her arms around herself, her organza puff sleeves bunching uncomfortably. She couldn’t wait to get out of this gown.
Alistair stilled. “And what did this lord want from you?” Snik jumped up on the bed and growled at Alistair, his giant ears pinned back.
“I think you need to calm down.” She backed up a step, her hip hitting the writing desk behind her. Snik snorted in agreement.
“You want me to calm down…” He placed his hands on his hips.
A deadly look crossed his face. “I am surrounded by my weakness. I almost died yesterday, and when I woke up, you were gone and I was covered in these…” He turned, and Sera saw that his entire back had broken out in hives.
“From your little pet over there. Sera, I thought you were dead.”
Oh, she was not going to stand for it. Who did he think he was, speaking to her like that?
“You leave Snik out of this.” Sera rose her chin and met his gaze.
“In case you don’t remember, I did that to save you.
And I am not dead.” Her dark magic snapped to her palms. Both of them needed to calm down.
He looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel. “Turn around.”
“What?”
“Alistair Alcott, turn around.”
His jaw fluttered in irritation, but he listened at least. Sera swiped a fork off the tray, which had been left there overnight. She felt a little bad for making him worry, but not enough for that tone to be considered appropriate.
He gave an exaggerated sigh but didn’t say anything.
She inspected the nasty patches of red hives on his back. And what a beautiful back it was. Planes of thick muscle cradled his spine. His shoulders were clearly defined. No surprise there, with how tense he was. She lifted the fork and began to scratch.
Alistair groaned. Something deep and primal. She’d be lying if she said the sound of him didn’t instantly make her squeeze her thighs together. “Can you be calm?” she asked, continuing to scratch.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be if you keep doing that.”
“Good boy.” Al shot a look over his shoulder, and she decided then and there that she would absolutely use that phrase again. “Now, if you’ll stop bellyaching, I’ll tell you what the demon lord wanted.”
His muscles rippled under the fork she kept raking across his skin. She wished she could use her nails… her teeth. But Sera was terrified, knowing what that would do. She shared magic with a demon lord, which made being around Al infinitely more complicated.
“So, what was the price for my life?” His shoulders flexed as if he were ready to take a blow.
Sera sighed and dug the prongs into a red patch on his ribs. “All he wanted was to see my magic.” Alistair spun to face her, his brows up to his hairline. “And before you ask, ‘Why would he want that?’ the answer is, I have no idea. He didn’t share his reasoning, and I didn’t ask.”
“That’s all? You’re sure?”
She hated lying to him, but the brand on her spine burned. “That’s all.”
“I don’t trust him. The minute I can travel, we’re gone. You hear me?” He was back to pacing. Snik’s head followed him back and forth, a weary look on the goblin’s face.
“There’s only one problem with that.” She placed the fork down. “I still don’t have the doorways marked.”
They’d found Ophelia. His job was done… but hers? She wished the oracle had told her something more. The only thing Ophelia had told her was that Vasso would help her. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was a plan. She could try to convince him to give her some locations.
Part of her wanted to mark the map where this manor was, just so she could say she’d found a doorway. She’d be punished for the lie, but it was entirely possible that it wouldn’t be one. There could be a doorway somewhere deep in this manor.
“We can figure that out once we’re not under this roof.”
Sera crossed the room and sank into the mattress next to Snik. The goblin brushed his claws through her hair. “Or I was thinking maybe I could ask Lord Vasso?”
“Over my dead body you will.” That rage was back in his face.
“This is my mission, Al. I should get to decide how I want to complete it. Regardless, unless I come back with at least one doorway, the Council isn’t going to send a team to save Nora. You know this.”
“Minnow, you don’t…” He softened his voice. “You don’t have any magic to protect yourself.”
Her blood boiled. She should have known he’d be the same as everyone else.
Would think that she was incapable of taking care of herself.
That she needed help—protection. She had prevented Vasso from killing him in the first place.
She had made a bargain with a demon lord to save him a second time.
And here he stood, self-righteous, thinking he needed to protect her.
“This is my only chance. I won’t give up saving Nora because you’re uncomfortable. My sister needs to get out of the underworld, and if this is the only way for me to do it, then so be it. But you’re not going to stand in my way.”
He pressed his fingers into his temples. “I’m going to bathe. We’ll have this conversation later.”
“I mean it, Al!”
All she was met with was a slammed bathing room door.