My cheeks stuck to my teeth, void of any moisture. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. He was right—I was standing face-to-face with my greatest threat. This demon could be my undoing. He could destroy me the way he murdered my mother.
“Yes, my sweet, I’m your worst enemy,” he said. “Although, I must admit—I have been watching you for some time. You are beautiful as your mother. You fight with bravery, and your spirit is strong.”
“Why would you do that? Why would you murder an innocent woman and take her away from me? How dare you!”
I wanted to pound his chest with my fists and rip out his horrible eyes, but I didn’t dare. Not when I was fastened to the ground, at his mercy.
I’d be dead in a heartbeat.
Balthazar swayed back and forth in a hypnotic fashion.
I turned away from his evil influence, finding only the blurred shapes of Roman, Marcellious, and Emily. They all seemed to be shouting, trying to see me.
Balthazar’s claw-like hand seized my jaw and forced me to look at him.
“How can you talk about your mother as if she loved you?” he said in his warbly voice. “She regretted birthing you.”
“She did not,” I spat back, desperately trying to look anywhere but at him.
“She loathed you. Do you know she tried to kill you when she was birthing you? She seized several rocks and hit her belly,” he hissed.
“That’s a lie!” I yelled, seizing his wrists. “She would never hurt me! She loved me!”
His nails dug into my skin like razor blades.
“Is it?” he said. “Your father, pathetic man that he was, stopped her before she could end your life. Your mother was not well-suited to raise a child. She was nothing but a whore. It was a mistake for her to bring you to life.”
“Stop it! These are lies, all lies!” I jammed my palms against my ears, trying to squash the sound of his voice.
“Your mother was a time traveler, and she was my lover, even while she was with your father,” Balthazar said. “We were meant to be together, Alina and I. You were supposed to bemydaughter. But instead, she opened her whoring legs to your father. In the end, I had to kill her. She betrayed me.”
The word “betrayed” snaked through my head, wrapping itself around my brain like a snake. “No! I refuse to believe all your filthy lies! She was a good mother! She loved me with all her heart!”
I started crying, weeping like I was only ten, the age I was when this bastard murdered my mom. I couldn’t imagine her being Balthazar’s lover. The thought disgusted me. I refused to believe it.
I tried to beat Balthazar’s face, to hit him, punch him, anything to bring him a measure of the pain coursing through my body from his words. But his demonic arms warded off my blows as if my hands were nothing but paper.
He shifted back to human and glared at me with his ice-cold eyes.
“You don’t want to anger me, Olivia. You have no idea the pain and misery I could cause you. I could have you on your knees, begging me to kill you instead,” he said, his voice back to human-sounding.
“Anger you? I will fight you until my last dying breath,” I said, hauling back my fist to slug him.
“No,” he said, catching my hand. He squeezed it so hard I wondered if bones were breaking. “I’m far too strong for you. You willneverbe able to destroy me.”
The black fog surrounding me disappeared, and Balthazar was gone.
A high-pitched scream exploded into the air, and I turned to see Balthazar reappear in front of Emily. He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off her feet.
Emily grabbed his wrists and hung on for dear life, her legs dangling and flailing.
“Help,” she cried, then started coughing from the chokehold.
Roman and Marcellious charged Balthazar.
His free hand shot out. A stream of transparent black energy unleashed from his palm, holding the two men at bay.
“Let her go!” I yelled, racing toward Balthazar. The same force field that held back Roman and Marcellious caught me in its grip, and I slammed to a halt. “If you’re going to hurt someone, hurt me.”
