The chime rang out again, loud enough to make me want to cover my ears.I reached for the table, but I was unable to get there on my own.
“I need the next bottle.”
He made no move to get it.
“Silas,” I bit out when the chime came again, this time so loud the room shook.
Cursing, he released me, snatched the red glowing bottle from the table and handed it to me.I pulled out the cork and, gods, whimpered.No.I couldn’t do it.“Bottoms up,” I choked out, anyway, and lifted it to my lips—but I couldn’t make myself drink.Gasping out a breath, I gripped it so tight I was surprised it didn’t shatter.“I don’t…I don’t want to do it,” I said, no, I pleaded.“I ca…I can’t do it.”
Silas’s eyes were filled with anguish.“Yes, you can, Urs.You can do this.”
I shook my head as the chime rang out again, and this time gravel and rocks slid down the walls from how fiercely the room shook.
He took the bottle from me, his hand trembling, and lifted it.I shook my head.His fingers curled around the nape of my neck, holding me steady as he pressed the bottle to my lips and poured its liquid into my mouth.“I’m sorry, baby,” he choked out.
My world shifted.It was like I was hovering above myself as I watched a much younger version of me run to meet Magnus.
An anguished cry burst from me.My brain, my heart shattering.Not this.Please, not this, not here.
Lucifer told me never to go to the fae realm, but it was the only way to see Magnus.He
waited for me by a tree just inside the gateway and pulled me into his arms, smiling down at me.“My love,” he said and kissed me.“I have such plans for us.”
He was the first male I had loved this way, and he loved me, too, I felt it.Lucifer warned me to be careful, that the fae were tricksters and liars, that they had the power to fool even me.But I knew this was real.The love for me that poured out of Magnus was real.Yes, it felt different, a little strange, but that was only because he was fae.I knew the truth.He loved me as much as I loved him.
He led me through the forest and to the castle, sneaking us in through a secret passage into the dungeons.We laughed and kissed and rushed down the stone corridor.Magnus pressed his finger to his lips as he knocked on a wide wooden door.
I frowned.“Who’s in there?”
He flashed his charming smile.“A friend.Someone I trust.”
The door opened and we rushed inside.Magnus dragged me forward with force, and I stumbled into the middle of the room.The door slammed behind me, and I spun around.Magnus locked the door and put the key in his pocket, a smile curling his lips that turned my blood cold.I spun back, and three males I had never met before stepped out of the shadows.
“I did not believe you would deliver, Magnus,” one of them said.
My lover laughed, a sound that lifted shivers all over my body and sent dread slicing through me.“What is going on?Why am I here?”
“Do you really think I love you, Ursula?”Magnus said and chuckled.“You are Hell spawn, gods, disgusting.I would never mate with you in truth.We heard Lucifer had a new creation, and we wanted to know what it was.”
I stumbled back, and one of the males, a huge fae, grabbed me.I struggled, but they were too powerful, too strong.I was young, naive, still learning to use my powers, and barely into my warrior training.Add in the hit to my body, that was still adjusting to the poisons I took every day as part of my job as Lucifer’s taster, and I was no match for them, not for powerful fae, and definitely not on my own.
Magnus rubbed his hands together.“Right, let’s see how much the demon bitch can take.”
The room spun, and I was no longer watching from a distance, I was her, that much younger version of me, I was back there, in her skin, her mind, reliving the horror in real time.The torture began.The experiments to see if there was any other way to kill me besides taking my head, which they planned to do when this was finally all over.
I screamed until my throat was raw, until my body went limp and I prayed to the gods for death.
A chime boomed, my world shaking around me.The dungeon and the fae castle dissolved and I was in a different one, back with Silas.That’s when I realized I wasn’t lying on the ground, I was in Silas’s arms, trembling uncontrollably, teeth chattering.His hold was tight, plastering me to his body like he thought he could stop me from floating away again.I wanted to cling to him, for him to hold me fast, because the hopeless feeling inside me continued to grow, twisting and digging deeper.
He held two bottles, the fourth poison, both identical and radiating a blue glow.This time, we were doing it together.
He pulled the cork out of one of them and lifted it to my lips.
I shook my head, feebly.“No, no.I don’t want it.I don’t want it.Don’t make me do it.Please, Silas.Please.”My world was ending.“I want to die.Let me die.”
“I will not fucking let you die.You understand me?”
I fought and he held me down and forced my mouth open, doing what I told him, making sure I’d drink every one.