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My mother might have claimed it didn’t matter because they lacked feelings, but I knew well enough to know that even someone broken and devoid of warmth would feel the violation that this was. I certainly had.
“Say the fucking word. Admit what you did to her and what you and the rest of the Tribunal conspired to do to this Coven, and I will give you a swift death. But make no mistake, Itan, you will die either way. I will make sure you suffer for every day you made her have to look at your disgusting face, fearing that it would be the day you came back,” Willow said, waiting as he considered his options.
didn’t know how he appeared so quickly or why, but the moment my breathing turned ragged, massive but gentle hands gripped me around the shoulders. I didn’t even have the energy to flinch back from that touch as Beelzebub turned me into his chest, offering me a place to cry where they couldn’t see.
But by choosing to protect their peace, I found myself constantly sacrificing my own. The walls around my heart built a little higher with every day that passed as I became something that existed solely for the purpose of pleasing others and making them feel good about themselves even when they actively chose to disrespect boundaries I set for my own peace. I was done with that shit. My truth, my peace came first now.
“Please don’t touch me,” I snapped as I pulled back, not allowing his touch when I normally might have just suffered it in silence. “Being in my vicinity does not mean you know me. The Covenant deciding that we would be married one day doesn’t mean you have some right to know about my life. Even if it did, they’re fucking gone now, and I have no intention of following through on their edicts for my life.”
Limbo was the least severe of the Nine Circles. It was a circle I would not be permitted to stay in when I died because the sin of my magic would condemn me elsewhere, like all witches. We each had our home within Hell, where our magic resided like a mirror.
Every time he called me that, every time he referenced the magic in my veins, it was only another reminder. He was caught under my spell, whether I liked it or not, and no matter what I did, one thing remained true. I couldn’t free him, and I’d stripped away his free will as harshly as Itan had taken mine.
again. I knitted his flesh, brought him pain, all the while knowing I could have made him feel good instead. If only I were braver. If only I were less of a selfish coward. But I wasn’t. I was just me.
“You and I are never going to fit. I am a demon, and you are a witch. We are everything that each other has grown to hate. It doesn’t make sense, and it can’t make sense. If I am going to keep you safe in this place, then I can’t get caught up in you and your spell. I can’t like the way you say my name. I can’t like the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking. I can’t do anything but protect you for Lucifer and bring you home. And when I do, it doesn’t matter how interesting I think you are, I’ll leave you with Willow and never look back. Because this cannot happen,”
I’d seen what a gentleman did in the dead of night, that I knew good manners often hid the cruelest of beasts,
Men had been violent to me, but none had ever been violent for me. That distinction pleased me more than I cared to admit.
“If this is all a spell,” I said, trailing off until Margot raised her eyes to mine fully. She squared her shoulders, waiting for the judgment she felt certain would come. “Then it is no wonder I’m held captive. There is no one breathing who could look at you, who could know you, and not willingly fall prey to you. If this is a spell, then all I can do is hope that you never release me from it, my songbird.”
“You’re mine, songbird. I am asking you not to make me feel the agony of knowing you’ve chosen someone else. I can’t do it. Don’t ask me to watch another man touch you knowing it should be me.”
“I don’t want to be something you regret, songbird,” he said, releasing my face and taking a step back. He watched me as if he saw just how deeply affected I was, as if he wanted me to sit with that and consider what it meant for me and for us. “I want to be your everything.”
was so tired of being someone’s punching bag, of being the recipient of unnecessary cruelty. I was done lying down so that others could kick me more easily.
“I couldn’t take back the way I feel even if I wanted to. You have burrowed your way into my soul and branded me with your mark.”
“You weren’t ready to hear it. You weren’t ready to accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, someone out there saw through those mile-high walls and was willing to scale them to end up on the other side with you. I know that to be true, because I wasn’t ready either. I missed the signs of my own immunity, and it wasn’t until Amelia pointed out my stupidity that I realized the truth. I will wait however long it takes for you to see I am not only here because of your song. I’m not going to leave you,”
She would have rather died than leave me. In the face of that, I didn’t need her to speak the words to know exactly how she felt. Margot was mine just as much as I was hers.
“You made me a prisoner in my own life. It gives me peace to know that you will finally know that fate,”
voice. “I don’t want to just exist anymore. I want to live,”
“Everything is as real here as it is in any of the other circles. It comes down to something more along the lines of not being able to trust what is in front of you. A beautiful home on the outside can hold a prison within. A rose can hide thorns sharp enough to bleed. A handsome man can be the devil in disguise. Pretty lies on the surface often hide the ugliest truths deep within.”
want to have a future,” I said, watching from the corner of my eye as Legion paused before completing the tear. My voice shook with the words, emotion clogging my throat and tears stinging my eyes. “And I want to have it with you. I don’t know what it looks like. All I know is that I’m in love with you, and I can’t let you go.”
“You are my future, songbird. That’s all I need.”
“No, little witch. Death is only your beginning.”
