Hell Bent (Alex Stern, #2)

by Leigh Bardugo

Had she not quite believed it? Despite her talk of the gentleman demon?

Had some of her thought everyone else was right and that this ridiculous quest was just another opportunity to throw herself into harm’s way and appease her own guilt over his death? But he...

As soon as her hand broke the perimeter of the circle, Dawes screamed. She stumbled backward, clutching her fingers to her chest. Alex lunged for her, pulling her away. The smell of sulfur overwhelmed her again and she had to struggle not to gag. She crouched beside Dawes and forced her to release her wrist. Dawes’s fingertips were singed black. Alex remembered Cosmo howling out of the kitchen. He’d tried to cross the circle too. He’d tried to get to Darlington.

Darlington sat silent and unmoving like some kind of golden idol.

A low growl rumbled through the room. Darlington hadn’t moved, but there was no question that sound had come from him. Alex felt a shiver pass over her.

She didn’t want to leave him,

They drove with the windows down, the night cool around them. They could be anywhere right now. They could be anyone, free of fear or duty, headed someplace good. Vacation. A night out. A house somewhere up the coast. Darlington could be sprawled out in the back, duffel tucked under the seat, hands folded beneath his head.

They could be all right.

waiting to see the lights of Il Bastone that would tell her she was home.

He’s got Lethe written all over him and it’s nice to see someone genuinely enjoying all Il Bastone has to offer.

How easily he speaks of magic, as if it is not forbidden, as if it does not always ask a terrible price.

Alex could see that she most definitely wasn’t fine,

but if Dawes wanted to clap on her headphones and spend two hours not working on her dissertation, Alex wasn’t going to stand in her way.

“I’m Virgil now,” Alex said, though maybe not for long. “It works the way Lethe says it does.” “There’s something different about you, Stern.” “I cut my hair.” “No, you didn’t. But something’s off about you.” “I’ll make you a list.”

“I’ve got it,” he said. “You always looked like you had trouble chasing you.” Alex jabbed the door-close button. “So?” “Now you look like it caught up.”

She’d been looking for a trap, just not the one he’d had waiting for her. And she’d walked right into it. The wise fool.

Darlington was waiting for her.

She looked down at her feet. They were covered in mud and blood.

her feet hurt. Her arms had broken out in gooseflesh. She was wearing nothing but the shorts and tank top she slept in. Real awareness crept in. She was cold, alone, and in the dark. She had walked here. Barefoot. No phone. No money. She had never sleepwalked in her life.

That was a lie. She could feel the dream pulling at her. She’d been standing with Darlington inside the golden circle.

She wanted to be there now.

Did he know she was here? Did he w...

Her feet wanted to move. The house had opened to her because he was waiting. Goddamn it, Darlington. Alex clutched the banister.

He was still sitting cross-legged, hands on his knees, palms down. But now his eyes were open and they glowed with the same golden light as the markings on his skin.

“Stern.” The shock of his voice was enough to loosen her grip on the door. But she didn’t stumble forward. Whatever force he’d been using to control her had abated.

“Good afternoon to you too, Stern. Or is it morning? Hard to tell in here.”

Alex had to force herself to stay still, not to run, not to weep.

That voice. It was Darlington. Fully human, fully him. It had only the faintest echo, as if he were speak...

“I’d like you to bring me some books, if you would.” “Books?” “Yes, I’m bored. I realize that speaks a lazy mind, but…” He

“Darlington … You know you’re naked, right?” Like some perverse statue, hands resting on knees, horns alight, cock erect and glowing. “I’m a demon, not a dullard, Stern. But my dignity has long since been left in tatters. And you didn’t dress for the occasion either.”

“Is that why you dragged me up here?” “I didn’t drag you anywhere.” “I didn’t walk barefoot across New Haven in the dead of night for kicks. I was compelled.”

“Interesting,” he said in a voice that didn’t sound interested at all. Alex backed away, wondering at every moment if her feet would simply stop obeying and she’d be forced to stay.

It’s him. He’s alive.

If she was honest, she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave him. She wanted to know what came next.

But choosing reading material for Darlington was its own nightmare assignment. What might entertain a demon with a taste for the finer things?

Darlington’s hand shot out and captured the book. The collar at his neck glinted, the garnets like red eyes, watching. “That’s quite a piece of jewelry,” she said. It was really too big to be called a collar. It stretched from his throat out to his shoulders, like something a pharaoh might wear. “The yoke. Thinking of pawning it?” “It’s not doing you much good.”

His fingers were tipped in golden claws, and a memory came to her, the feeling of his body wrapped around hers.

I will serve you ’til the end of days.

It felt dangerous to stand in this room, alone with him, this person who wasn’t quite a person, this creature she knew and didn’t know. Darlington perused the titles.

“I can’t get out,” he said. “Prove it.” “I don’t think that would be wise.” “Why not?”

Despite the horns, the markings, that was Darlington.

“Because every time I try to breach the circle, I feel a little less human.”

“What are you, Darlington?” “What are you...

“What is this, Darlington?” Alex whispered. “How do we help you? How do we get you out?” “Find the Gauntlet.”

“But I am just a man, heir to nothing. Find the Gauntlet, make the descent. I can’t exist between two worlds for long. Eventually the tether will snap.”

“I have appetites, Stern. They are not entirely … wholesome.”

His clawed fingertips pierced the golden circle, and Alex stumbled backward, a high-pitched yelp emerging from her lips. Darlington seemed to shift. He was taller, broader; his horns looked sharper. He had fangs. I feel a little less human.

“Find the Gauntlet, make the descent. Come get me, Stern.”

“Please.”

That word, raw and human, was all she could bear. Alex ran, down the hall, down the steps. She slammed into D...