“Where can we find Hecate?” Discord asked.
The seer looked at me. “Is that what you would like to see?”
“Of course it is.” He leaned toward me, resting his palms on the table and giving me a warning look that shot straight to my bones. “If we have her location, we can find her, and you can use your silver tongue to convince her to return to Lucifer’s court.”
A haunting smile played on the seer’s lips, the perfect half of a bow on one side, a strained grimace on the other, both of them edged with way too much amusement for my liking. She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up my hand, stopping her. There was an important piece of information neither of them was sharing with me, and I refused to make another move blindly.
“What does completing the blood bond mean? What has changed?”
Her smile widened. Discord fumed.
“I could have you banished to the ninth level for this.” His eyes tightened, the green of his irises billowing like a storm.
She laced her fingers together. “You could have, were you still in good standing with your king. As an outlaw, you should be thankful I helped either of you at all.”
“When my blood touched his skull, that bound us. What’s different now?” I fisted my hands, my nails digging into my palms. If one of them didn’t answer me soon, I had a dagger ready for each of them.
“Your blood on his skull bound him to you,” the seer said. “When you ingested his blood, it bound you to him, completing the most sacred of bonds known to demons. A bond even Lucifer himself has never dared forge.”
“I did not ask for this.” He slammed his hand onto the table. “Seer, you know me too well to believe I would approve…”
She waved him off. “I merely completed the task she began in order to save both your lives. Fate willed it, and I complied.”
I dropped my hands to my thighs, gripping my weapons. “What. Does it. Mean?”
The seer turned her gaze to me, both her eyes turning glassy white, her hair flowing in a nonexistent breeze. “It means, dear earthly witch, that you are now this demon’s soul bride.”
16
DISCORD
I stilled, bracing myself for Cinder’s hysteria. Her independent nature, tenacity, and wit…the very things that intrigued me most about this woman…were soon to be the reason for her unraveling.
She blinked, her gaze darting back and forth between the seer and me, a mix of incredulousness and disgust widening her eyes and curling her lip. “Excuse me, I’m his what?”
The seer grinned, and if she wasn’t a supposedly benevolent being, I’d have knocked the smug expression from her face. “You’re his soul bride. His life mate. His wife eternally.”
“Wife.” Cinder nodded, and for a moment, I thought she might accept the union. Then she shot to her feet, knocking her chair over as she stood.
“His wife?” she nearly shrieked. “You finished what I began?”
She shook her head, lifting a finger as if to speak and lowering it again before pacing to the hearth and back to the table. “I didn’t form the blood bond on purpose. I battled a hellhound to get his skull, and I was bleeding when I picked it up. That’s it. That’s how I began this bond, but you knew that, didn’t you? You knew it was an accident, and you went ahead and finished it anyway.”
“Must I remind you that you would both be dead otherwise?” The seer stood and tucked her chair beneath the table, the demonic side of her voice overpowering the witch. “You gave no stipulations in your request.”
Static electricity gathered around the seer, and I could feel the fire crackling in Cinder’s soul as she stepped toward her, sparks gathering on her fingertips. As much as I would have enjoyed watching the two of them battle, I had to put an end to the conflict before my nature added fuel to their growing flames of dissonance.
“Now is not the time for hysterics.” I rose and righted Cinder’s chair. “I need you both to calm down.”
They snapped their heads toward me in unison, both of them narrowing their eyes as if I were the one to blame for their disagreement. For once, I’d had nothing to do with it.
“Never tell a woman to calm down,” Cinder said, her expression as icy as Medusa’s serpentine stare. Oddly, it stirred something deep inside my soul.
“Indeed. You haven’t seen hysterics yet.” The seer tilted her head, arching her brow.
I closed my mouth and forced a neutral expression. I’d rather take my chances with the hunters than endure the wrath of two powerful women.
“So you can agree on something,” I said against my better judgment.
