I laugh.
I laugh so hard it shakes all my insides out of place.
“How many times do I have to tell you? If you kill him, you kill me. We’re mates. We’re bound to each other. Marriage is just a formality. A symbol of our union. Us claiming each other in front of the world.”
The more I speak, the more her face sours, and I can’t help but savor her discomfort.
“Lucian! What are you talking about?” Yu-jin asks. “You said that would only happen after we get married.”
I take a deep breath and turn to look at him.
“I know what I said, darling boy, but…but that was a lie. I didn’t want to scare you. I didn’t want you to think you had no choice in this ordeal. But the truth is…we were bound from the first moment we made love.”
Lilith scoffs.
Yu-jin’s jaw drops.
Mammon and the rest of their kind watch us quietly.
“I’m sorry I lied to you, my love. I know what you’ve been through. I didn’t want you to think you were trapped once more.”
Yu-jin shuts his mouth and shakes his head.
“Don’t apologize, Lucian. I-I understand. I’m not mad, just shocked. If…if I’d known, I would have been more careful. I would’ve been even more mindful of the dangers around me.”
My sweet, sweet boy.
He really is one of a kind. Unlike my ex-wife, who doesn’t seem able to ever let go and is just as cruel as the humans who made life miserable for my boy.
“But I didn’t want you to feel like that. I didn’t want you to feel the burden?—”
“That’s enough with the melodrama,” Lilith snaps. “You, my dear ex-husband, are going to marry me again, or?—”
“Or what? I’ve already told you what will happen if you hurt one of us. The other also bleeds. So go on. If you really love me, all you’ll do is hurt me too. Go on. Do your worst.”
I hate even thinking the words, let alone speaking them, but I have to say something. I have to play her game, hoping she will see reason and fold.
Lilith tuts and presses her fingers against my lips. “If you’d let me finish, sweetheart, you would know I’m not going to kill your little boy. I’m simply going to send him to another dimension. Sell him to the highest bidder. I’m sure an immortalhuman would go for quite the price. And then good luck ever finding him again.”
I shake my head.
“What is wrong with you? What happened to you? Even the Lilith I once knew wasn’t this unhinged.”
Her smile turns into a scowl.
“What happened to me?What happened?Youhappened Lucian.Youdid. You abandoned me, and life was never the same again. No one could ever measure up to you. No one compared to an inch of you.”
I sigh. “If that were true, you wouldn’t have betrayed me the way you did.”
“I was stupid. I was young and stupid. I should have known better and I didn’t. But now I do. And I can’t let you marry…that. I simply can’t. You’re mine, Lucian. Only mine. My husband. My soulmate.”
“I’m not, Lilith. Yu-jin is my soulmate, and I am his. You’re not part of this equation.”
Her face hardens again. And to think, for a moment, she allowed a fraction of vulnerability to come through.
“Keep talking, sweetheart. Make me angry. I was willing to let you keep your play-thing if that made you happier, but you’re only making it worse for yourself the more you talk.”
“Are you hearing yourself? Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? You want me, you want to marry me, but you threaten my true love and tell me if I don’t cooperate, you’ll send him away, and if I do, I can keep him as a side-piece. How does any of this make sense, Lilith? What’s the point of marrying me then? If you’re willing to let me keep him, what’s the point of being my wife?”
