He looked around the room seeing the place through her eyes. “I don’t have many possessions.” Did she find it inadequate?
“Maybe we could hang a picture on the wall. I’m sure I have something at my place you could have.”
He nodded though it didn’t really matter to him. He wouldn’t be spending much longer here, after all.
Everything had changed. His desire to live had been swept aside by his need to protect.
The burning in his neck had increased to the point that it was taking everything he had to keep his pain masked. Even now as he talked to Lily, he dug his claws into his palms behind his back, stopping just short of drawing blood lest it drip onto the floor and alert her. His thoughts were clouded from the pain, and the magnet in his chest drawing him to Hell pulled with almighty force.
His estimation of two days needed revising. He would give himself another twenty-four hours at most. Time was running out, which meant he needed to put his plans into action as soon as possible.
“I’ll leave you to make your call,” he said, inching towards the door.
She frowned. “Can you come here first?”
He could deny her nothing, not when she’d given him more than he would ever have dreamed of asking. Reluctantly, he sat on the edge of the bed, flaring one wing out to wrap around her like a human might do with their arm.
She reached out to stroke the leathery membrane. “Are they sensitive?”
“It feels nice when you touch them.”
She tilted her head to meet his gaze, and he feared she saw more than he wanted her to. “Are you okay? You’ve been so quiet since we left my house.”
He chose his words carefully. “I’ve been mentally formulating a plan to keep you safe.”
“And? Did you come up with anything?” He could tell she was humoring him and didn’t yet believe the danger was real.
Lily had said she trusted him. While he wasn’t sure how to trust her back, he did know he wanted to be worthy of it. And since trust meant honesty, he supposed that was why he was reluctant to lie. But if he told her the truth, she would insist he change his plan, and he didn’t want that either.
So all he said was, “I need to speak to Belial first.”
She still looked doubtful, but she nodded. “And then you’ll tell me?”
He nodded back. One way or another, she would find out the truth soon enough. “Will you ask your sister to come here behind the wards where it’s safe?”
“I’ll try, but she’s not going to like it.”
“Say whatever you need to get her here.”
She studied him. “You’re really concerned about this, aren’t you?”
“And you don’t believe me.”
“No, of course I do.” She reached out and grasped his hand. His other remained clenched into a fist where she couldn’t see it. “I told you I trust you, and I meant it. I just don’t know if I believe Paimon. I think she’s lying to you to make you return to her.”
He had thought so too at first. But the fact remained that Lily was too powerful not to consider it, and he was not foolish enough to risk her by being careless. And he was out of time anyway. He couldn’t afford lengthy research into the history of his brands. He needed to act now, and he was out of options.
“Lily…” He wanted to put his feelings into words, but he didn’t know how. He wanted her to understand what she meant to him, but his throat constricted when he tried to speak, and he was afraid she would guess his plan if he betrayed too much of his emotions.
So he went with the same words he had the first time he’d tried, and failed, to express himself to those he cared about. “Thank you.”
She reached up to cup his cheek. “For what?”
He didn’t know how to answer that, so he leaned down and kissed her. She melted beneath him with a soft sigh that made his gut clench. She was everything to him.Everything.She meant more than life itself, and that was how he knew he was making the right decision.
He broke the kiss and stood. “Call your sister and get her to come here.”
“I will. You’re sure everything’s okay?”
