“You don’t know shit, Xeraphine.”
“Don’t I?!” When I blink, she’s gone, and a loud crack accompanies Archer’s shrill scream. Xera’s hand is wrapped around his throat, his body crushing into the dirt below. “Did she promise to bring her back?! Or did she promise your release?!”
He jerks before swiping his hand up at her face, three nails slicing through her cheek so deep I can see a whites of her teeth. Even if tears spring to the corner of her eyes, she doesn’t react.
“Annabell.” The moment the name slips from her lips, Archer completely freezes. “Your Mark.”
She wipes her hand across her bloody cheek, and with her fingers coated in the crimson liquid, she forcefully shoves them down into the Incubus’ mouth.
“Answer ME! Did she promise you!?”
There isnotmoment of hesitation, as he obeys her command. “Yes.”
It works…
A chill runs down my spine, and as the soft pitter-patter of paws echoes beside me, I glance down to see Mister padding past me toward them.
“I want to punish you sofuckingbadly…” Xera raises her fist, balling it so tight I can see the veins in it pop and spread down her forearm. “To hurt you… to make you suffer… You don’t deserve to be happy. You don’t!” The crack of her teeth makes me take a step toward her, ready to comfort her.
However, she shoots me a warning glance, and shakes her head.
Archer huffs out a laugh that’s not built from humor, but one filled with anguish. “I’m only here because of you! Because your mother found me at my weakest. I’m cursed to stay on this bullshit world without her!”
Xera’s fist trembles, her other hand squeezing tighter around his throat, keeping him pinned deep into the dirt. She has her knees straddling his waist, poised to deliver a blow that could temporarily shut him up.
“You think any of us have choice when Tali is around. You are wrong.”
“Everyone has a choice,” she spits. “She isn’t commanding your Vigoro. You raped me on your own accord!”
“Because she’d send me to be with her! You meannothingto me. Annabell is everything!”
“Yeah?!” She leans forward, mere inches from his face. “What would Annabell think of your actions against me?!”
He hesitates, but only briefly, before saying, “She’d hate me. Her eyes would look at me with disgust.” A moment of silence falls between them. It’s his next words that, if I had any sympathy for this man, it would be now, because it would be exactly how I’d feel. “But even then, at least she’d be looking at me again.”
I don’t know what Xera is doing right now, because this is completely unlike her. If she were the same girl as when I met her, Archer would be in pieces right now.
Time passes in slow motion, and as she sits up and drops her arms, she takes a deep breath. “You can pass through the gates, Archer—I’ve made a deal on your behalf. But there is one condition, one thing youmustdo for me.”
“How?” he asks quickly. “She bound me.”
“You’re unbound.”
“How…? And how do you know about Annabell?”
Xera slowly slips from on top of him. “One condition: If I ever see you on this world, I will send Annabell to the furthest depths of the Void. Do we have an understanding?”
Archer begins to sit up, and just beyond him, I spot Alaric and Kayn emerging from the tree line. The Fallen has the shark Shifter bound in a radiant light, while Kayn is rolling his head around his shoulders as he approaches.
The Incubus never takes his eyes off my girl, and as he stands at his full height in front of her, he lets out a frustrated breath. “Understood, Xeraphine.”
I don’t know if I can stomach this deal. I want to fucking kill him for what he’s done—he doesn’t deserve to live knowing what my little demon tastes like, feels like… but I can see this choice isn’t easy for her. It’s not just that I know her; it’s the way her hands tremble at her sides, and through this strange bond of ours I’m still getting used to, she’s crying out in pain.
Oh, Xera… baby, I’m so sorry.
“Leave! Alaric…” She turns her head to the Fallen, and I’m blown away that he stands straighter at her command. “Take him to the gates, and make sure it closes behind him.”
I don’t know what happened while she was in the Beyond, but something tells me that knowing this about Archer didn’t come without a cost.
