Page 17 of The Halo & the Heathen
I swallow and close my eyes.
He has to be wrong. The moment I can escape this place, I will.
The demon carries me to the stones arranged like a throne and holds me, cradled against him.
“Sleep, pest. I have plans for you and they don’t include letting you waste away.”
“What do you have planned for me?”
“You’ll see.” He tips my face up and when he kisses me, everything goes dark.
I don’t dream. Maybe there’s too much demon in me for that.
Miracles are Just Too Damn Hard to Find
He feedsme when I wake, and I eat even though I’m not hungry. It helps with the exhaustion.
And it doesn’t matter what I’ve admitted. I can’t give up. I can’t give in.
He lets me explore, watching me carefully to be sure I don’t try to steal the halo again.
I don’t even look at it the first day.
Each time I sleep feels like another day lost.
Time starts to bleed together and Ineedto go.
Standing behind me at the archway that opens out into the vast fields of the dead, we watch the damned toiling away in agony.
He points to the bright column in the distance.
“The stairway is guarded by vulture demons.” He places a hand on my chest and pulls me back against him. “They would snatch you up with their claws, fly you high into the sky as others tore you apart, trying to steal you, and then, they would drop you into the fields to let the dead finish flaying you.”
I imagine he tells me, intending for it to be a deterrent, but all it is is another problem for me to solve.
Escape him. Get the halo. Cross the fields of the damned. Slip past the vulture demons… climb to heaven.
Easy.
I clench my teeth so I don’t laugh.
I close my eyes so I don’t cry.
I need a few minutes to clear my thoughts. Or maybe to make my brain stop completely.
“Demon?” I say and look up at him.
He turns to look down. “Yes, pest?”
Reaching up, I grab one of his horns so that I can pull him down to me and when I kiss him, he flinches.
For a moment, he’s stiff, maybe with shock, and then he melts.
He snatches me against him and it works.
My mind blanks save for the need to come again. That is something I can do. Something Icantake from him.
I wrap my legs around his waist and he stumbles backward.
