Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“Don’t feign innocence, demon. It doesn’t suit you.”
Ronin laughed.
“Stop laughing, you jerk, and say it! Say that you won’t use or hurt Dora to manipulate me again—”
“I won’t use or hurt your sister to manipulate you again,” Ronin rattled off without the slightest hesitation.
I froze, mouth still open. I hadn’t expected it to be that easy at all.
My eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Oh, and I should believe that? You lied and tricked me into the sub bond,” I cried, slapping the name on my arm.
“Yes,” Ronin replied, gazing deep into my eyes. “A bond that will force you to submit to my will at my mere whim.”
I backed away, face falling.
“I don’t need your sister now. Using or hurting her would be wasted energy, and sloths don’t do that.” He smiled. “Everything I do to protect little Adora is because you wish it, and everything you do to serve me is because I do. That is no lie.”
My lips parted a few times, but every time I thought I knew what to say in response, it would fade before leaving my lips. What kind of cruel, possessive control was this? He would do anything to make his pet happy as long as said pet made him happy? Sure, maybe Dora wasn’t being hurt directly, but she was still being used against me under the guise of pretending it was my choice.
“Why don’t you care that we’re clearly being spied on?” I asked, veering sharply away from the topic. “Lucifer knows what I’ve been doing. My phone’s changed so many times, I assumed he wasn’t tapping my calls, but maybe he is or maybe he’s listening in another way, but he knows I haven’t made progress on finding the hallows. You said this morning that he has most of the vampires working for him as his personal spies and assassins. Does he have them here too?”
“Without question. If it’s true you have something—or you will have something—that Lucifer wants, then you should assume every single word you say aloud is being overheard by his white-eyed spies.”
I shivered. Even though as he said it, it should’ve been obvious, I still couldn’t stand how thoroughly my privacy was being violated. “So confining them to another wing did nothing?”
“It stopped them from moving freely. It didn’t stop their hearing.”
I just nodded. “It’s my fault for being so naïve. I shouldn’t have been having such an important conversation right out in the hallway.”
“Oh?” A dangerous edge crept into his voice. “And who exactly were you talking to in the hallway, pet? You came into the mess hall alone. Your sainted sister wasn’t with you.”
“I wasn’t talking to anyone,” I breezed, turning away. “Well, I was, but it was just Erlik. I asked him if he ever heard the legends of the hallows and, shockingly, he wasn’t a complete douchenozzle about it. He gave me a tip on who to ask for more information.”
“Hmm.” I felt a sudden, overpowering presence at my back. Cool fingers wrapped around the back of my throat as his lips tickled the shell of my ear. “Now who’s a liar.”
“I have to go,” I announced. Breaking free of his grip, and his scent, I crossed to the wardrobe and took out the backpack with the journals. “I need to find Nik and ask if he knows anything about the hallows. And if he doesn’t, I need to ask him to introduce me to his mothers.”
“No.”
“No?” I shrugged the backpack up my shoulders. “What do you mean no?”
“This”—a snap of the fingers and a metal bar and padlock appeared across the door—“should explain what I mean by no.”
“What are you doing!” I flew at the door, yanking on the lock. “Did you not hear a word I said? I need Nik!”
“You don’t need anyone other than me,” the lunatic replied calmly, “least of all that worthless rat.”
“Don’t call him that.” I whirled around, incensed. “This is not the time for your possessive, jealous bullshit, Ronin! You can’t introduce me to his dryad mothers, but Nik can.”
“Actually, I can too.” His mirthless smile mocked me. “The dryads reached out dozens of times to make a trade deal with my father. He can’t be bothered with stuff like that, or any stuff at all, so I made the deal. Threatening to revoke it would bring all the dryads you want right into your lap.”
“Wait, seriously?” The anger whooshed out of me. “What deal do you have with them? What does House Sloth have that dryads would even want?”
“We trade in one thing and one thing only: glamour potions.”
“Glamour potions?” I let the backpack slide off my shoulders onto the rug as I stepped closer. “How is it different from a regular glamour spell?”
“Minimal downside,” he said. “Prolonged use will cause mild stomach distress, but that’s it. It also can’t be broken by a guess or a slip of the tongue. You’ll revert to your true self only if you stop taking it. As for a glamour spell...” He laughed at me. “Well, you know what that’s like.”