“Everyone out.” She spoke to the room. No one moved.
Natalya’s eyes turned bright scarlet, the embers in her pupils blazing into flames.
“Out!”
A rush of emotion went through the hall. A surge of terror and command that brought a feeling of dread with it, as though staying even a moment longer meant something terrible would happen.
It nearly sent Evie running. She stood her ground. Everyone else rushed to leave.
When they were alone, it became harder not to be afraid. Evie was standing in front of a furious demoness, and the only thing that kept her in place was an assuredness nestled so deep in her body that not even Natalya forcing her emotions could make it go away.
Natalya wouldn’t hurt her. Evie knew she wouldn’t.
“You were trying to scare me into leaving.” Evie had regained control of her voice, and the anger in it was obvious. “Is the idea of talking to me really that awful?”
“You don’t belong here, Evie. It isn’t safe for you.”
“Safe?” Evie scoffed. “Nowhere is safe. Nowherefeelssafe anymore.”
ExceptwhenI’mwithyou.Evie didn’t let the thought past her lips.
“You’re not exactly helping yourself,” Natalya snarled. “You’rehere. In a den of monsters and demons. Facing a fiend and actively challenging her. That is not a verysafething to do.”
Evie jutted out her chin. “You wouldn’t hurt me.”
Pain flashed over Natalya’s face. It vanished in a breath.
“I already did.”
“When? When you left me alone on the floor of the studio, scared that I had done something terribly wrong? Because yes, Natalya. That hurt.”
“You don’t get it,” Natalya snapped. “Nothing you did was wrong. It wasfake. Don’t you see, Evie? I wanted you, and that was enough to force it into happening.”
“You think I didn’t wantyou?” Evie’s voice was trembling again, but now it was from frustration rather than fear. “I’ve been thinking about you ever since I came to Chicago.”
“Of course you have!” Natalya yelled. “I made you obsessed. It’s what I do. It’s what I am. I am something people desire, and I pulled you close. I kept you near me. Unknowingly or not, I manipulated you into thinking this way.”
“You didn’tmanipulateme. You saved me. You stayed with me so I could fall asleep. I shared things with you I haven’t shared with anyone. Itrustedyou, Natalya!”
Fresh fury sprang into Natalya’s face. The whites in her eyes turned scarlet, and her skin mottled to have a scaly, violet sheen. Thick, gray-purple smoke emanated from the ground, enveloping them, and the room seemed to shrink as the smoke rose to cover everything in hellish, whirling fog.
“I am not a being you trust.” Natalya’s voice was awe-inducing. Heavy, rumbling, otherworldly. Terrifying. Evie took a step back as Natalya the Demon moved toward her.
“I am not a lover. I am not a friend. I am not something to care for, or adore, or feelsafewith. I am irresistible. A living aphrodisiac. I am pleasure and passion, uncontrolled and all-consuming. That is how I was designed. Anything you feel for me is manufactured by my being, so I can more easily consume you.”
Her demonic visage faded. The smoke started to dissipate.
“The attraction you feel isn’t genuine. Any pull I have over you is as constructed as the fear I tried to instill in you before. It isn’treal, Evie.”
“I don’t believe that. And you don’t get to decide what’s real for me.”
“It’s not a matter of deciding. It’s how it is.”
Evie didn’t know how to handle what she was feeling. Sadness, frustration, and anger mixed together into a pressing feeling of indignation.
She couldn’t believe what Natalya was saying. That the security Evie felt with her was somehow artificial. How could it be? How could something that made her feel so safe be fake?
“You’re wrong,” Evie said weakly.
