His book lay open on the desk in front of him. He hadn’t let it out of his sight since the angel had trespassed on his territory intending to steal it.
He still wasn’t sure how he’d managed to escape a confrontation, and his paranoia had skyrocketed since. He expected her to return for a second attempt at any moment.
The slightest noise had his body going rigid with tension and venom collecting in his tail, ready for a strike. His eyes were so bloodshot from lack of sleep, the whites had turned completely red.
Or maybe they’d already been that way for years?
He didn’t remember. Nor did he particularly care. He avoided his reflection because the crazed look in his eyes reminded him of the tenuous grasp he had on his sanity.
Flattening his palms on the desk, he curled his fingers and dug his claws into the surface. Outside, the sky had darkened to maroon. In the distance, he could hear the moans of the gargoyle guards he’d impaled on the tower spike above him.
He honestly hadn’t given a fuck that Raum had escaped. If anything, it was a relief. He couldn’t handle any more problems right now. But he had to keep up appearances. His minions had failed him, so they had to face punishment.
That was the way in Hell. Kill or be killed.
Or rather, obey or be impaled.
Murmur looked down at the page in front of him, blinking his tired eyes until the scrawling text slid into focus.Damn you, Gamigin. You couldn’t have taken a little time to write neater?
Then he smiled faintly. After what he was about to do, he was sure Gamigin would’ve been the one cursing him…if he’d been alive to see it.Shouldn’t have written it in your book then.
Sometimes Murmur wished Gamigin was still alive. He didn’t care either way about the demon himself, but it would have been so much easier to simply chain him down and torture him until he explained everything rather than trying to interpret his half-mad ramblings. How much time had Murmur wasted deciphering this cursed book?
But he was close. And it was in Gamigin’s ramblings that Murmur had finally discovered what he believed to be the missing link in his experiments. The missingingredient. The time was fast approaching for him to collect that ingredient and test his theory.
But he had to finish his study of the book first. The paranoia forced him to, reminding him that at any moment, someone could trespass onto his territory and try to steal it from him again.
It had happened once. It would happen again.
His claws dug deeper into the wood.
In a cruel twist of fate, it was at that moment that the souls patrolling his boundary wards alerted him to a breach.
Murmur lurched to his feet, sending his chair crashing backward. His fingers curled into his palms, claws digging into his flesh. Venom dripped from his tail barb.
Trespassers.They were everywhere.
Did everyone know of his plan? Would someone beat him to his final objective? Was he a step behind some other competitor? Were they watching him even now?
He spun around with narrowed eyes, scanning the familiar sight of his dark library. Every shadow seemed to taunt him. Every flicker of light looked like eyes watching him.
He shook his head roughly.Deal with the problem at hand. Do not succumb to the madness.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated and issued a command to his souls, sending them out to greet his guest, immobilizing the intruder until he could greet them himself and discover their intent.
Scooping up his precious book, he crossed the library to one of the bookshelves. Puncturing the end of his finger with a claw, he pressed the bloodied tip to the spine of a nondescript volume. The hidden door released and he dragged it open, the entire shelf rotating with it.
He set his book upon the stand inside and then backed out, closing the door behind him. He touched his bloodied finger back to the stained spine, sealing the ward once more.
Then, he crossed the room and threw open the clouded glass of one large window, clearing out the cobwebs covering it until the sticky filaments coated his claws. Climbing onto the sill, he formed his wings and then dove out into space, spreading the leathery expanses to catch the air and break his fall.
He banked sharply right—toward the boundary that was breached.
Time to greet his guest.
When he arrived at the ward tower a short while later, he had to admit he was surprised by what he found. Dismissing the souls surrounding his unlikely guest, he flared his wings and landed lightly, tail swaying behind him.
He crossed his arms and lifted a brow. “I have to say, this is unexpected.”
