CHAPTER NINETEEN #3
“Mercy was still wrong, you know,” I murmured. “She said there would be four knocks. But there were only three. Just like I told her.”
Collith didn’t answer. I tipped my head back to see his face, and something in his expression made me turn. I looked toward the other side of the barn, where the doorways to the other rooms were.
Lyari stepped into the light.
Her yellow eyes were bright with trepidation, and I saw her fingers twitch, as if she’d been about to raise her hand. Despite the changes in her appearance, I still knew her. I knew she wanted to hide the thorns above her brow.
“I guess that makes four,” I said with a smile.
I paused for a beat before I gave in to the urge to cross the room and hug her.
Lyari froze for a moment, clearly taken off guard.
Then her arms slowly rose, and I felt the light press of her fingers against my back.
I didn’t make her stay like that for long before I stepped away. I couldn’t stop smiling.
“I’m really glad you’re here, Ly. So glad.”
Her throat shifted in a barely perceptible movement. “So am I.”
I clapped one hand on her shoulder and faced the others. “I guess that’s it, then.”
“It wasn’t four.”
For most of the night, Seth had been a quiet presence. At the sound of his voice, I turned to him in surprise. “What, Seth?”
“That wasn’t four knocks,” he clarified. “It was only three. Lyari didn’t use the door.”
I frowned. “Mercy—”
A polite, firm knock floated through the barn.
My frown deepened as a ripple of unease went through me.
But a witch had foretold this. She’d said I would have four visitors.
This was just part of the plan, right? Still, I hefted the sword that Gwyn had left with me, readying myself as I headed for the door again.
When I opened it, my eyes widened in terror, and I almost slammed the door in the newcomer’s face. His thin lips curved into the smile that I still saw in my dreams.
“Well met, Nightmare,” he said.
Prince Samael, ruler of the Fourth City of Hell.
The demon prince stood in the doorway so casually.
As he waited for me to speak, it was all I could do not to recoil.
The only outward indication of my reaction to Samael’s presence in this world—my world—was a slight, barely perceptible tightening of my hand on the edge of the door.
I tried to say something, but I couldn’t move.
I knew that if I did, I might give in to the panic breathing down my neck.
“Fortuna, who is this?” Collith asked.
I was so startled by the question that I glanced back at him. They didn’t know, I realized, seeing Collith’s frown. They had no idea who was standing in front of us and what he’d done to me. Or tried to do.
For a moment, I considered staying silent, because that was what my kind had been taught. Stay silent, stay hidden, stay safe.
But I was no longer interested in being silent.
I met the demon’s gaze with steel in my own and said, “This is Prince Samael, ruler of the Fourth City of Hell. He’s also the guy who tried to sacrifice me on a slab of stone one time.”
From the corner of my eye, I noted the glint of Laurie’s hair as he tilted his head and regarded Samael. His tone was full of mild interest as he mused, “It just occurred to me that it’s been far too long since I’ve ripped someone’s spine up their throat.”
Samael smiled, and the sight was chilling. The demon prince had fangs. Long, retractable fangs. “I’d like to see you try, flea,” he said.
A deadly light shone in Laurie’s eyes as he smiled back.
At the same moment the Seelie King opened his mouth to reply, I interjected, “If you came here to finish what you started in Hell, I’d think again.
You don’t have the element of surprise this time, and I won’t lose a moment’s sleep if I have to kill you. ”
Samael’s nostrils flared at my tone, and I felt a vicious stab of triumph.
The mask of civility was just an act. I stood rigidly and mentally reached for my power, waiting for any excuse to use it.
And yet, despite his flash of irritation, the prince’s voice remained neutral when he replied, “I’ve come to form an alliance with you, Nightmare. ”
“Not interested.” I started to close the door, and Samael’s palm hit the wood with such force that it creaked. Laurie and Collith tensed at the same time, but I held my free hand up toward them, keeping my gaze on the demon prince. My voice rang with command as I warned, “Step back.”
“A third of my brother’s armies are loyal to me,” Samael said, ignoring this.
“A third, Nightmare. The Dark Prince doesn’t know it, of course, but they await my orders for which side we should fight with in the battle that is to come.
I could tell them to stay hidden, and continue killing alongside my brother’s forces … or I could tell them to join yours.”
I hid a scowl. Samael had my attention, and we both knew it. Damn demons and their deals.
“You want your brother dead.” I didn’t say it like a question, because it was obvious where this was going. But Samael’s eyes darkened as if I’d insulted him.
“I want to rule the seven cities,” the demon prince corrected me.
“If there were another way, I would take it, and believe me, I have agonized over it for centuries. That time has cost my people. For too long, my brother has allowed his attention to wander. Too long he has kept his eyes on the horizon while our world continues to weaken. What you and I want isn’t so different, Nightmare. I simply want to protect what I love.”
Laurie made a faint sound of disdain. Although I didn’t answer right away, I wasn’t buying it, either.
A good guy wouldn’t have done what Samael had done to me.
But instead of his pathetic lies, I kept hearing those other words in my head—a third.
I kept my desperation locked away as I looked back at Samael, still refusing to grant him entry.
“And what do you want in exchange?” I asked bluntly. I sensed someone behind me shifting, but once again, I stayed focused on the demon.
He matched my tone. “I want to be spared. Once I have helped you slay my brother, my forces and I will be allowed to return to our world, where we will remain peacefully. You stay in your dimension, and I stay in mine.”
Toward the end of his response, I felt my lip begin to curl.
There was nothing peaceful about Samael’s world, and if I had my way, I’d free all those broken and enslaved souls I had seen.
The fact that he was so adamant about me staying away betrayed him—Samael was afraid of my power. Of what I could do.
But that wasn’t the only problem with his proposal. I met the prince’s gaze again and said, “Killing Lucifer isn’t my only priority; I also plan to close the Gate. How am I supposed to promise your safe return if the way back is gone?”
“I am told you have discovered another way into Hell,” he countered. A surprised breath caught in my throat. Hearing it, his eyes gleamed. We both knew what he’d just revealed without actually saying it.
Samael had a spy.
The only ones who knew the truth about the Unseelie Court were my people, Alexander N?rg?rd, and Viessa Folduin.
Either one of them had gotten word to Samael, or someone had been listening to our conversations.
My gut said it was the latter. There had been others in that cafe where I’d met Alexander, and any creature with enhanced hearing would’ve been able to eavesdrop.
The passageways of the Unseelie Court weren’t exactly full of well-intentioned faeries, either—any one of them could’ve betrayed the new, controversial queen.
Idiot, idiot, idiot, I thought viciously, hiding another scowl. This could put the entire Unseelie Court in danger, and if my world survived Lucifer, there was now a new threat to worry about.
Samael was still waiting for a response, along with everyone standing behind me. “If you want an answer right now, I can’t give you one,” I said finally.
I was stalling, but it was also the truth.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t agree to Samael’s offer until I spoke to Viessa.
Not only would demons need to go through the Unseelie Court to reenter their world, but they’d have to create some kind of opening to the surface …
which brought on another slew of potential dangers.
Agreeing to Samael’s terms would once again expose humankind and this vulnerable world to the horrors of Hell.
He knew it, too, because he didn’t try to press me.
“Very well. But I do hope we’re able to reach a truce, Nightmare. I am willing to let bygones be bygones,” the demon said. He held out his hand and attempted another smile. It looked false and unnatural on his face, as if someone had painted the friendliness onto his cheeks.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t shake on it,” I said coolly.
Ally or not, I didn’t forgive him, and I certainly hadn’t forgotten what he was capable of.
Sometimes I could still feel that cold altar beneath me as his demons swarmed all around, shrieking for my flesh like I was nothing more than a hunk of meat.
Hoping no one noticed the quake that went through me, I stepped back and closed the door, saying, “Good night, Samael.”
If he answered, I didn’t hear it—my heart was pounding too loudly in my ears.
My fingers shook as I flipped the lock, and once that reassuring click filled the stillness, I turned to face the two males that had come to stand behind me.
As if by some unspoken signal, the rest of my Court had made themselves scarce.
Only Nym remained nearby. He sat on the bottom stair, holding what looked like a wristwatch in his slender fingers.
I could hear him saying under his breath, “Tick tock. Tick tock.”
I met Collith’s gaze first, and Nym’s mutterings faded into the background. I could tell from the unnatural brightness in Collith’s eyes that he’d noticed my little shiver of fear, and there was a hint of something dark and feral in his voice as he said, “You know we can’t trust him, Fortuna.”
I didn’t answer. I chewed my lower lip indecisively, studying Collith while my mind worked, considering every possibility.
I hadn’t seen Lucifer’s brother in any of Nym’s drawings.
If he was really an ally, wouldn’t there be some depiction of him at the battle?
What if I agreed to spare Samael, only for him to turn on my people the moment Lucifer was defeated?
What if he did exactly what the Dark Prince had planned, and consumed the world anyway?
“It was an act,” Laurie growled. “The Dark Prince is just sniffing around, trying to find out whether you can close the Gate.”
Once again, I said nothing. I was remembering the last thing I’d told Samael. You’re nothing more than second best. The eternal runner-up. I won’t bother advising you not to forget it, because something tells me you never do.
I’d flung those words in the demon prince’s face knowing they would find their mark. I’d seen the hate in his eyes. In that moment, Samael would’ve killed me if he could have. Only a fool would trust his word, especially after I’d humiliated him.
But … we desperately needed the numbers he was offering.
Even now, after all those knocks and visitors and vows, what our side had wasn’t enough.
Since the moment I’d realized that Gate was going to open, and facing the armies of Hell was inevitable, I kept thinking of the view from Lucifer’s tower.
I had stared out at that view a thousand times, and no matter how long I stood there, the awe had never faded.
The wonder at the sheer size of the First City and all its teeming, writhing, shrieking populace.
The other city I’d visited had been no different, and there were five more I hadn’t even seen.
If I failed at shutting the Gate, and all those cities came pouring through, I would be responsible for snuffing out the lives of an entire world.
Everything depended on holding back the tide and buying me time to pour my power into that tear.
And just as he’d said, there was one thing Samael wanted more than my life. One thing that made it possible he was actually telling the truth.
His brother’s throne.
“What do you think, Nym?” I asked suddenly. I looked over at the Time Walker, hoping that we’d get lucky, for once, and he’d be experiencing a moment of clarity. To my surprise, he looked back at me, and his gaze was steady. My heart rose with hope.
But the moment Nym opened his mouth and spoke, it sank right back down.
“Tick tock,” he said. “Tick tock.”