1
I just have to bide my time.
Although, patience was never his virtue. That’s what Cillian had to keep reminding himself to do. Which infuriated him, he’d been waiting a very long time. There was something to be said for being a wraith and being able to not only cross realms, but also to cross time and space. He could go wherever he wanted, to do anything. The world was for his taking.
Sort of.
He did have power and could manipulate history to suit his needs to a point, but not completely.
Which was the problem.
And that’s what he’d been doing for far too long, playing with time and never really getting what he wanted because his powers only extended so far. All because his father was a human. And a shit one at that.
And he was fucking tired of it all.
His half sister, and some of his other half siblings, had warned him about messing with the fabric of space and time, but he didn’t care. He’d met Cali a long time ago on one of his history jaunts. And he let her go time and time again, watching her die. Either she was burnt at the stake, murdered, died of illness. Just, she never succumbed to old age. It was a cruel twist of fate.
She died too many times and yet her soul kept coming back.
He’d feel it, a reverberation in the fibers of the reality.
His little secret realm, or as his brothers-in-law liked to call it, his “goblin kingdom,” was tucked away deep in the underworld. Past the netherworld and that’s where he could sense her the best. That’s when he knew that her energy, or soul, was ready to move on again. To come back to him.
Cali.
His Cali.
Now, the moment was right. Or it almost was, and soon he could make his move.
This version of Cali he wasn’t going to let go of.
This time, he was done waiting for her and he was going to make sure that when she returned to his realm, she would be bound to him no matter what. Wraiths weren’t supposed to have human mates, permanent ones, and perhaps that’s why she was snatched from him repeatedly. Not this time, though. He’d give her an immortal life and no one was going to stop him. Not even Death. He’d set things up so perfectly— cut off the elven realm, overthrow some other realms, and with Cali by his side, he’d crumble the veil and let magical beings and mortals mingle. Then he’d rule it all.
It was easy to manipulate the blood treaty with the northern realm and fire up all those displeased magical beings. Just like it was easy to manipulate the mixing of human and magical beings, which further strengthened the magic potential, strengthening the binds of the northern realm, while destroying Tiene’s.
It was all lining up.
And Cali would be his.
He spent years infiltrating her dreams, trying to get her soul to remember her past lives. The lives they spent together, before her untimely death, every reincarnation. Like Persephone to Hades, he was going to bring her back here and hopefully solidify his complete rule over everything.
If he had his way, he’d punish those responsible for her deaths over the centuries, but he knew he had to be careful with time and time travel. His plan had to unfold correctly, or all would be lost.
“Sire,” a goblin named Honk croaked, scurrying across the stone floor. “It’s time.”
Cillian glanced over at Honk. “You are sure of this?”
Honk nodded. “She is vulnerable.”
Cillian rose from his stone throne and walked over to his balcony. His realm was bare, bereft of life. Just a burnt-orange sky, stone, and brown dying vegetation that his goblins liked to trim into grotesque figures.
It was stark.
Bleak.
His hope, by bringing her here, would mean some life would be breathed back into this desolate place.
Maybe she could breathe some life back into me?
Cillian snorted at that ridiculous thought, though Cali would be the one to do it. She’d always been there, buried in his heart. The only one to really touch it, and every time he saw her die, it killed him.
“Sire!” Honk screeched, staring at the large ornate glass ball. “She’s sold her soul.”
“What?” Cillian spun around and marched to the looking orb which was spinning and glowing, casting light into the stone chamber. There was a horrible pit in his stomach and he felt her soul being ripped away, as if a piece of himself were being slaughtered.
He could see it all, playing out. She was crying and he could see the soul contract bound over her body. This was not part of his plan. His claws extended, his blood heating like the fires of purgatory itself.
Who had dared to try to buy her soul?
He’d made enough deals with all the beings who could possibly do that. He had numerous contracts. No one was to touch Cali.
No one.
“Gootch made the contract,” Honk stated nervously, wringing his little hands together.
A growl grew in Cillian’s chest. Of course it was Gootch. His true enemy in the nether region. A goblin demon.
“Well, we’ll see about that!” Cillian snapped his fingers and travelled instantly to the netherworld where demons and all sorts of nasty creatures liked to hang out. It was really no different than his realm, just louder, with a lot of shrieking and moaning, and generally it was a realm full of sneaky assholes, just like Gootch.
He stepped on a few imps that screeched and squelched as he stormed his way up to Gootch’s residence. He didn’t make it a habit to trounce them, usually. Today, he did because it was fun and he was pissed. Gootch liked to trade in souls, but Cillian knew the damn demon also liked to bet, and he was already working out how to maintain control over Cali and prevent her being damned to the netherworld for all eternity, where he could never get her, a place she’d never come back from.
The thought of her being trapped here with Gootch made him furious and if it wasn’t against netherworld politics, he would completely skewer him alive if he could.
Without even waiting to be announced, or have the door to Gootch’s palace opened, Cillian barged into the throne room. Gootch reminded him of a big, fat slug from a certain science-fiction movie.
The writer of that movie hadn’t been far off when creating that particular space gangster. Gootch was it, even down to the annoying imps that slithered about.
Demons, goblins and wraiths came in varying shapes and sizes, and Gootch could morph into something more pleasing for humans, but for the most part, Gootch was a lazy son of a bitch who just liked to laze around like a big brown squelch of shit. There was a knowing grin on his pancake-flat face, which Cillian wanted to punch.
“Cillian, I thought I might be seeing you,” Gootch gurgled, pleased.
“We can cut with the pleasantries. I want her contract.” Cillian snapped his finger, producing an orb that had Cali’s face floating there.
Gootch chuckled, moistly. The fucker knew exactly what he was doing and that’s why he’d pursued Cali. “Do you now? And what will I get, Cillian?”
Cillian smiled, just slightly. “I know you like to wager.”
Gootch sat up, sort of. His fat blob mass wriggled a bit. “I do.”
“And I know that you don’t always win, but you still do it anyways.”
“Your point?” Gootch hissed, his reptilelike pupils narrowing.
“I am thinking a wager. A bet. You give me her soul for one year. She has to stay with me that entire year. If she doesn’t, then her soul returns to you.” It was hard to say those words. The idea of Gootch owning her if he lost this bet made him physically sick.
“A wraith can’t bind a human to a realm for a year,” Gootch said dismissively. “Your bet is pointless because you’ll lose. There’s no fun in that."
“Then, she gets a furlough of one day every three months. If she doesn’t return to me by sunset on her day of freedom, then you win the bet.”
Gootch tapped his chin. “So, for a year, with a single day of freedom every three months. That is more reasonable. However, I already have her soul. I want more if you lose.”
Cillian sneered.
Calm yourself.
He expected Gootch to be greedy.
“What do you want then?”
Gootch’s eyes gleamed. “Well, being the grandson of Death gives you powers that not all wraiths have. I want those.”
“My powers?” Cillian snorted. “Those are not transferrable. You know this.”
“Well, sort of,” Gootch burbled. “You have forged a very strong blood spell over the northern realm and I know for a fact you’re trying the same things with other realms, all so you can rule over everything from yours. Your realm sits in a very good spot. I never thought it was particularly fair you have your own private realm. So, if I give you this contract and she doesn’t stay with you for the year, then you will be banished out of your realm and be locked inside the northern realm for eternity.”
There was a slight warning voice in his head, telling him not to take this bet, especially not after all the work he had done, but Cillian couldn’t let Cali be lost to Gootch and the netherworld forever. He had to take the risk. Still, the idea of giving up plans of ruling it all and having to be stuck as his sister’s neighbor was a bit off-putting.
He liked to be able to come and go as he pleased between time and the other realms. Would he give up all that freedom and power to build a shack next to a bunch of hairy forest apes and his sister?
“Deal,” Cillian stated.
So, apparently, he would. The thing was, Cillian was pretty positive that he couldn’t lose this bet. Cali had always fallen for him.
And fallen out of love for you too, remember that.
At least he could remedy that, by reminding her of who he was.
“Not so fast, my friend,” Gootch chortled. “I have some conditions.”
“Name them,” Cillian growled.
“You can't win her over by revealing her past connection to you and you can’t fuck her into submission either. I know you’ve tried that before. You can’t possess her or bed her unless she begs you to. She has to ask you to claim her. I know sex with a wraith is powerful magic, so I don’t want you using some kind of other influence on your little pet.”
“So I can’t mate with her. And by mating you mean, penetration?” Cillian hated discussing this with Gootch, but what choice did he have? There were other ways to seduce Cali into staying with him, but he had to make sure that Gootch didn’t twist it that way.
“Correct. Until she begs for it, no planting your seed in her womb.”
Cillian tried to hide the smile of satisfaction. He might not be able to make love to her like he’d always done, but at least it wasn’t completely off-limits. He could pleasure her other ways, but once she asked for it, then she was his.
“So?” Gootch asked. “Do we have a deal?”
Cillian clenched his fists, his nails elongating and biting into the flesh of his palms. “Very well.”
Gootch tried to clap his short stubby arms together, but it didn’t work. It was like watching a tyrannosaurus rex try to clap. “You have a year to make her stay. And it starts now. If I were you, I’d go claim her. The clock is ticking.”
The contract appeared in front of him and he took it, tucking it into his coat.
“Where is she now?” Cillian asked.
“At the hospital. Her soon-to-be ex-husband had her committed, she was going on about selling her soul to save him, begging him to stay with her because of her sacrifice.” Gootch grinned, his eyes flashing red. “She was hoping, I suppose, to convince him to stay. Or she was hoping that I would convince him to stay with her, but all she asked of me was to save his life. I did that. Now, her husband thinks she’s lost her mind and is having her institutionalized. Apparently, mental illness runs in her family. Or so he says.”
Cillian spun on his heel and left Gootch’s and went straight back to his realm, where he could find her through his orb. Unlike other magical beings, he didn’t rely on the portals, but he still needed to be in his own realm to transport himself and see where he was going. He’d need a portal to bring her here though, and he hoped she was in the northern realm.
Last he checked, she was, but then again, he didn’t know she had married and was surprised when she’d sold her soul.
None of his little minions said anything as he stormed his way through his own palace, straight to his looking orb to see where she was. And Gootch was right, she was being strapped down to a hospital bed and injected with something. She was terrified, betrayed, hurt.
It enraged him.
He pulled out the contract and read it all over. It was fairly straightforward. Cali had sold her soul to Gootch to save her dying husband, and Gootch wouldn’t collect unless her husband was killed, or if her husband left her. By having Cali committed and telling her it was over, Cali’s soul belonged to Gootch. At least now, Cillian could kill her ex, but that would come later.
Cillian rolled up the contract and placed it in his vault, where he kept most of his valuable documents, promissory notes and other items. He’d look it all over later. Right now, he had to deal with getting Cali out of the hospital and back here.
And unfortunately, to do that, she was going to have to make another deal with the devil.
Him.
She was angry and beyond hurt.
Emotionally crushed would be the proper term.
Only she couldn’t say that she was, because her husband had slipped her something that made it almost impossible to speak coherently. This man she loved, that she literally sold her soul to save, had used her.
Had drugged her.
All those times she sat next to him during rough chemotherapy treatments, bathed him, held a bucket for him while he was sick and cleaned him up after. Everything. She thought he was her heart and soul. So much so, she sold her own soul to save him and now he was having her committed?
And she couldn’t even explain herself.
She couldn’t argue with him.
And the tox screen—he’d said she used these drugs because she was addicted. They believed him too, which is why she was under a twenty-four watch.
This was not the man she fell in love with. As they strapped her down on a bed, wrapping lambskin around her wrists, she realized that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. She’d been duped all along.
Which wasn’t new.
She’d been used all her life.
Her parents were never nice to her. They had their own mental health issues that saw them in and out of hospitals, and she’d spent her whole life people pleasing and taking care of them. They both got cancer eventually and died. Then she met Simon and he swept her off her feet. Their romance was a whirlwind and he was a gentleman, telling her that they’d be together for the first time on their wedding night. They got married and then he explained he had cancer too and the meds made him impotent and sterile. She’d been devastated. It meant no children, she’d been crushed and deceived. She almost left him then, but he was sick and she couldn’t leave him. She had to help him battle the disease.
Simon was always grateful. Even as it got worse and there was no hope.
He had pancreatic cancer. She’d fallen in love with Simon because he was the first person to ever be truly kind to her.
She was a fool.
All he wanted her for was a caretaker. She saw that now. He used her like her parents did.
Then that demon came, promising a cure in return for her soul. Simon begged her to sign that contract so that she’d have a life with Simon. A family. All of her dreams, because that’s all she ever wanted. Simon promised her so much, if she only made the deal. There was no threat to her soul because he’d be with her forever.
Peace, love and happiness. Everything she’d been denied.
There was an ache in her heart, dreams that she dreamed, of someone who adored her, but was always taken away from her. A face that terrified her, yet she yearned for. She thought, when she met Simon, he was the face.
She’d had those dreams for years and they felt like fragments of past lives, that’s why she believed that Simon was the one.
However, her ultrareligious parents said past lives were a sin. Soulmates weren’t real. Even thinking of that or anything out of the ordinary meant she was destined for hell. The thing was, it was all real and she was headed straight for there anyways. Her soul was doomed. Simon had broken the contract by leaving her. He got his cure. Then to tell the doctors she was having a breakdown. Then he lied, saying he didn’t know about the contract or how she sold her soul.
Now, as she lay in the room alone, staring up at the tiled ceiling of the hospital, she just wanted to scream. Only she couldn’t. Everything in her system numbed her.
Why didn’t the doctors see that her husband had drugged her? She wasn’t addicted to medication. Why did no one believe her?
The room changed and it felt like she was spinning, like she was being pulled away. She was no longer in the original room. It was like she had moved, somewhere dark.
Had she drifted off again?
This was all so wrong.
Maybe hell is a better alternative?
“Not really.”
Cali startled at the voice that appeared out of the shadows of the room. He was dressed in black leather, his skin so pale that it was glowing. Her heart skipped a beat when she looked at him, her eyes locking with those glowing eyes that gleamed in the darkness, and there was a sense of familiarity there.
It reminded her of a face she’d seen, but also not.
Instinctually, her body reacted to him like she knew his touch. Craved his touch, actually.
Where did he come from?
How did I not see him there?
“You’re drugged, pet,” he answered, coming to stand by her bed. His hands, which reminded her slightly of claws, wrapped around the side of the hospital bed where she was chained. His nails were black. It was terrifying.
I don’t want to go to hell.
She needed to escape. She wanted to scream.
Something.
“Hello?” she cried out, finally finding her voice.
“Hello?” a female voice responded. Instantly, the moment that other woman responded, the figure by the bed disappeared, like a whirlwind of smoke.
“I don’t know where I am,” Cali responded, weakly. “I’m tied down.”
There was no response from the other woman, but she could hear muffled voices in the hall, beyond the doorway, and then there was a flash of energy rippling in the air. As if there was a power outage, and she could feel something heavy in the atmosphere.
It was almost if something was changing, not for the worse, but for the better.
“You need to remember,” the male creature’s voice whispered in her mind.
As he said it, her body stiffened, like she was about to have a seizure. She hadn’t had a seizure in a long time, but she remembered the feeling well. A bunch of images flashed through her mind. Different places, different points in time, but the one constant that remained in all the images was him.
Only, it couldn’t be. The man she had fragmented dreams about and memories of wasn’t some kind of lurking demon with glowing eyes. He’d been human and loving. There didn’t seem to be anything good about the creature from the shadows.
“Parts of me are good, pet,” he responded, reading her erratic thoughts.
He reappeared then. Her body relaxed. The shadows didn’t do him justice. Her mind was fabricating something far more sinister. Yet, she still had an inkling he was slightly dangerous.
“Oh, but I am,” he cooed.
“Let me go,” she whispered.
“I can’t do that. You belong to Gootch, remember? You sold your soul to him.”
A sob welled up in her throat. “That was a mistake. I don’t really believe in those things.”
“I think you do.”
“I wasn’t supposed to that do. Like I said, it was a mistake.”
The creature grinned. “Indeed it was. For you. Your husband, well, he got his life spared now, didn’t he? Only he didn’t keep his end of the bargain.”
A tear slid from her eyes. “So you’re some kind of minion that’s come to collect, aren’t you?”
He frowned, his eyes narrowing. “I’m not a minion. I’m a wraith.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The difference, pet, is that I can arrange a new deal if you’re interested?”
“A new deal with another devil? I don’t think so.”
“Think very hard on that,” he said, coming closer to her. “With Gootch, you face a life of eternal damnation. With me, you have an out.”
“An out?” she asked.
“Indeed.”
“What are the terms?” And she couldn’t believe she was asking that.
He nodded. “All I need from you is a year. With me. As my mate. You stay in my realm the year and then you’re free.”
“Free?” she asked. “I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it.”
“So, your mate…”
“In every way.” The way he smiled at her sent a zing of something through her. A ripple of pleasure. Not that she knew what pleasure felt like. She was still a virgin.
A year with a wraith? Giving her body to the demon?
It was better than her soul and suffering for all eternity.
Is it?
“If you can remain in my realm for a year, with no contact with the outside world, save for a day every three months, then you can have your soul and your freedom.” With a flourish, a contract appeared out of thin air. “All that’s required to seal this new deal is your blood.”
She was doomed anyway. Maybe with this, she could be eventually free and, when she started her new life, she’d be smarter and be more careful about who she interacted with.
Cali nodded. “Okay. I’ll sign it.”
Instantly, the restraints melted away and she was able to sit up. He took her hand in his. She thought it would feel scaly or cold, but instead it was warm and felt familiar. She extended her index finger and he pricked the tip with his nail, which grew slightly longer, like a talon. It stung, but she placed that drop of blood on his contract.
The moment the blood hit the contract, it began to glow, and it felt like her soul was being tethered to it. Just like before. There was a flash of light and then the contract disappeared and it was just her and her wraith mate standing there.
“You’ve made the right decision, Cali. Now, come and I’ll show you to your new home.” He extended his hand and what looked like a vortex began to swirl and distort her perception of the room. It was a swirling whirlpool of energy and red light.
“I don’t even know your name, or are you like Rumpelstiltskin and I’m supposed to guess?” It was a bad attempt at a joke to try to mask her nerves.
The wraith scoffed. “As if I’m as amateurish as Rumpelstiltskin. Please. You, my dear wife, can call me Cillian.”
A shiver of knowing ran down her spine as one of those weird déjà vu moments washed through her.
“Cillian,” she screamed as a group of people dragged her from her log home deep in a bramble wood forest. Only Cillian didn’t appear.
He’d said he’d come, but he didn’t.
“She’s calling out her devil,” someone shouted.
“Burn her at the stake,” another shouted.
“No,” Cali screamed, but she was being tied down and could feel the heat, smell the smoke. “Cillian!”
Cali shook that thought away. She’d had that nightmare before. Instead, she took a deep breath. “How can I trust you?”
“You can’t.”
And before she could say anything else, his arm slipped around her waist and guided her into the portal.