Don’t tell.
I shook my head, my tongue feeling numb.
Pavol sat behind his desk, his pale eyes eerie, his attention fixed on me.
“Good. Must have been something you ate in that case. You’d never want to come off your medication too quickly, or you would feel quite terrible.”
“What’s she on?” a deep voice asked.
I flinched.
The voice had come from the other side of the room. I whirled in that direction, my heart all but jumping into my mouth.
A man sat on the velvet couch on the far side of Pavol’s office.
Not just any man.
Him. The man from yesterday.
The devil himself.
He’s here for us.
“That’s enough,” I snapped at myself.
His dark, wicked-looking eyes... His gaze latched onto mine, and the result was electrifying. I couldn’t look away. I was transfixed somehow.
“A mix of carbidopa and levodopa, as well as some sedatives to calm her other ailments.”
The names of the medicines went over my head. I couldn’t stop staring at the demon wearing a cassock.
The man raised an eyebrow, seeming surprised by the medicinal cocktail they gave me every day.
“Does she have Parkinson’s? She’s young.”
Pavol shrugged. “It’s a complicated diagnosis; I won’t bore you with it at present. Let me introduce you,” he said as he stood from his chair.
I know who he is. The voice in my head was confident.
“Father Lucciano,” Pavol said.
Lucciano. The light one. He’s not even hiding it. Light bringer.
“Lucifer,” I whispered.
The man on the couch stood, unfolding to a towering height.
“Not quite. That’s a little rude even for you, Katarina.” Pavol chuckled awkwardly. “Katarina suffers from delusions, occasional hallucinations, voices. It’s all quite mixed up in her head.”
The newcomer approached me, and I shrank back against the wall, jerking away from Pavol’s hand when he reached out for my shoulder.
“Call me Father Massimo. And your name, little lamb?” Father Massimo asked.
“He already gave you my name,” I found myself saying pedantically.
Massimo smirked. “But I’d rather have it from you.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t giving my name to the devil himself. I might be crazy, but I wasn’t dumb.