Pressing my lips together, I asked, “How will this bargain affect previous bargains?”

His eyes narrowed. “Explain.” An eerie red light bathed the side of his face. It accentuated each dark chunk of hair that was tousled on his head, and the curved muscles in his strong arms.

A shiver raced down my spine, as his hand slid away. His eyes were cold, frozen, inhuman. I suddenly had a pang of sympathy for the boy he was using. I slid my hand across his cheek wishing I could free him from Kreturus. But dislodging the demon from this body wouldn’t be possible. It was luck that it happened last time. No doubt, this boy’s soul was lost long ago. Kreturus seemed surprised by the touch, obviously unaware of the thoughts drifting through my mind.

“I have a bargain with another. It’s still in effect. I cannot speak of it. How will... ?” but I didn’t get to ask.

Kreturus roared, grasping my wrist so tightly that it started to break. It sounded like a dried out twig being snapped slowly as his fist tightened. Pain shot up my arm. “Locoicia trapped you!” He released my wrist, making an obvious effort not to toss me across the room. Placing the goblet on a table he turned and smashed his fist through a window. It shattered, breaking apart into a shower of glass. The tiny fragments gleamed like ice on the dark carpet. Kreturus stopped, hunching over a chair, thinking. After a moment of silence his neck snapped up to meet my stoic gaze. “We have to kill her before we can do this.” His gaze slid sideways to the goblet.

I stared at the stem—at the depiction of me. Was she really me? I didn’t think so. I’d never stand so confidently, with my body half covered. Yet, it was a prophecy. She and I were the same. What happened to me? How will I become her? What makes me that way?

Kreturus’ eyes followed my gaze, before flicking back to my face. “You are the perfection of femininity, despite your doubt.” My throat tightened as the words poured out of his mouth. I wanted his words to roll off, and not matter. But they didn’t. Instead they pierced that soft spot inside of me. The place that doubts my abilities and makes me uncertain. “That rendering does not do you justice, either. Have you no clue how others see you? Is your perception of yourself so twisted that you cannot see it? Your strength, power, courage, determination—it’s in every inch of you. In every curve of your flesh. In the lines of your lips, and the curls of your hair. You refuse to accept what you are, and you’re the only one who doesn’t see it.”

I glared at him with flushed cheeks, arms folded over my chest, “I’m not what you think I am. I’m not going to slay people and angels without remorse. If I do so, it’s because you forced me to.”

Tiny lines crinkled the corners of his eyes as he laughed, “You lie!” A smile spanned ear to ear as he walked in front of me, examining my folded arms, which were gripped so tightly that my fingers had turned white. “The great Ivy Taylor has deceived herself! Your lies run so deeply within your mind that you twisted the truth to suit yourself. You would not needlessly slaughter without remorse. Ha!” he mocked. My blood turned cold as he spoke. Each word cracking the wall of protection I built around my mind. Truth rang through his words, crumbling it, forcing it to break apart and shatter. “The day you slaughtered my Valefar... I saw you cut down one after another. I heard their cries for mercy, and saw their screams fall on your deaf ears. You didn’t even have the compassion to terminate their lives. You left them damaged beyond repair, to suffer until they died, crying out for help.

“You are no savior. You are already the monster that you have tried to deny. That is the darkness that lies within you. Until you accept who you are, you’ll live your life with duality—and that will be your downfall. It has nothing to do with your inner darkness, and you know it.”

As he spoke, I felt more and more exposed. His words crashed into me, wearing away any defense that I could possibly retort. I was the one who did that. And killing the Valefar wasn’t the only time I’d swung my blade and not cared who was on the other end. Choking, I felt his hand on my shoulder. Looking up into his face, he said, “Accept who you are before it destroys you.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kreturus’ words rang out in my mind, even after he’d stopped speaking. My throat tightened so that I could barely breathe. My hands ripped at the bodice of my gown. I wanted a tee shirt and jeans. I’m not what he said! I couldn’t be! But no tears streaked my face. Only anger burned through me. My fists clenched tightly, waiting for the demon king to say something. But he only sat muttering spell after spell, which appeared to do nothing.

Finally, I turned away from him to look out the window. Snow covered the ground in a pristine white blanket. It covered the horrors that lay beneath—crumpled bodies of people I’d known. People I couldn’t save. Across the street were fallen trees, their branches forming a web of shadows that stretched across the snow. Dreanoks circled above us in the sky. And at the very end of the street, perched on top of the last home on my block, was the dragon. His lacy wings were spread like giant pieces of jagged lace. The creature reared up on its hind legs, stretching, showing its mass to the other monsters nearby. The grackles and Dreanoks gave it a wide birth. The dragon’s glittery red eyes fixated on me, watching me from the other side of the broken glass. A breeze gusted through the open pane, and I shivered. Wrapping my arms around myself, I turned away from the window.

I didn’t want to know what the dragon was doing, and didn’t want to ask. A couch sat across the room on the other side of the door. Turning, I moved toward it to sit down. Weariness was pulling at me. I wanted to hide my exhaustion from Kreturus. I didn’t know if he could remove the poison, and I didn’t want him to have any clue that Collin had part of my soul. As I padded across the room and neared the door, I felt a rush of wind at my back. Before I knew it, Kreturus thrust me into the wall.

His eyes were wild, “Oh, how you test my patience...” His finger pressed on my temple and slid down the side of my face. My body tensed as he pushed into me, making it impossible to move. “I should just drain you now, and end this. Your lifeless, powerless body will belong to her, and I’ll have your power to use how I see fit. Why keep you?” I wasn’t certain he was speaking to me anymore.

My brows pinched together as I asked, “Why keep me at all, Kreturus?” When I said his name, he snapped out of his gaze. His arm pressed into my chest just below my throat, pinning me in place. “By the way... I wasn’t leaving. I was going to the couch to sit down.” My eyes darted to the side, were the ugly blue check couch sat on the other side of the door.

The demon didn’t blink. Instead he reached for my face, gripping it firmly in one hand. “I would kill you. Slowly. Watching you scream and beg for mercy. Look into my eyes, Ivy. See the truth, and make no mistake about it. Sharing power isn’t something I want to do. It’s a necessity. A requirement to gain the things I want.” He released me. My body slumped forward as he backed away, watching me suck in air. “Your power is still growing, still forming. Taking it now would be like plucking a rose before it’s budded. Your abilities will grow and manifest slowly. I will try to keep you around until then, but if you try my patience—if you push me too far...” His finger crushed into the center of my chest, pressing hard on the bare skin above my low neckline, “I will not wait.”

Kreturus’ eyes darted to the side, looking out the window at the enormous form of the dragon perched on the roof top. His jaw went slack as he stepped away from me. “It’s the Omen.” His voice was barely audible. Anxiety twisted his features as he stood there staring at it.

A plan was forming in my mind. A backup plan. Plan X. The plan that I’d do when every other plan failed. It had something to do with irritating the King until he killed me. If I kept Collin alive, it would shift the balance of power. All my powers would go to him. But that was a last resort. And I wanted to know what he meant. Why he was standing there dumbstruck.

“The Omen?” I asked, stepping behind him. “It’s just a dragon. Aren’t there hundreds of them in the Underworld? I’m surprised I haven’t seen more.”

Whirling around, he cocked his head and asked, “You’ve seen a dragon before? That dragon?” He pointed behind him.

I couldn’t tell what was wrong. I missed something somewhere. Why was he freaked? I nodded once. “I saw it in the Underworld.” I left out the part about the dragon finding me. Something was wrong. For once I felt like my senses weren’t betraying me. The sight of the massive beast had him spooked.

His eyes washed over me, and glanced back at the dragon briefly. “Of course. Of course you saw it before. That makes sense...” he ran his hands through his hair, staring at the creature. Stepping away from the panes, he said, “That’s an Omen, not a dragon. And there’s only one. Seeing it is an oddity. Especially now.” His arms folded over his chest as one hand stroked his chin. Thinking. His eyes were blank, revealing nothing. The apprehension I saw moments ago was masked, and disappeared from sight. “Did the Omen touch you? Did it seek you out?”

Oh shit. Yes, it did both. More than once... “No,” I shook my head hoping the lie reached my eyes. There was no way he’d believe me. “I saw it sitting high on a cliff in the Underworld. I thought it was yours. It snatched Collin away from me the first time I was down there. You were there... Surely you saw it?”

“Yes,” he snapped. “I saw it. That damned thing almost ruined my plan, running off with the boy like that.” Something was in his eyes and on his face. Kreturus didn’t like the Omen. But I didn’t know why. “In the end, it didn’t matter. It left. Come. We can’t stay here. It’s not safe...” he grabbed me, wrapping his fingers around my hand, but I jerked away from him.

“I’ll stop being such a pain in the ass if you tell me what’s going on. You can’t expect me to follow you around for eternity and be clueless. Tell me Kreturus. Why is the Omen bad?”

He didn’t reach for me again. Instead he laughed hollowly, “Why is any omen bad? Since when is that a good word? The word itself has a feeling of foreboding, like something lurking, seeking to do damage. And that’s what that thing is. It’s the manifestation of darkness, interfering and meddling with us. The person who sees it can expect their path to darken. And if it touches you...” he released a harsh laugh, but didn’t finish.

Turning my head, I gazed through the pane. “What? What happens?”

But he wouldn’t answer me. Instead he grabbed the chalice and me and effonated elsewhere, leaving the Omen behind.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

When the effonation was complete, my jaw dropped. I recognized the place before glancing around. My heart felt like someone was standing on it. Turning to Kreturus, I said, “Take me somewhere else. I can’t stand to look at this place.” My fingers wrapped around his arms, as I pleaded, looking into his face. My pulse raced as the lub-dub of my heart hammered rapidly in my ears. We were standing in the school auditorium. Collin, Eric, and Shannon were less than ten feet away, hidden by a steel door that could swing open at any second.