Page 40 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)
B EE L ZE B U B
The landscape changed as we walked, the hours behind us seeing the land shift from the fervent lands filled with the largest delicacies and plant life of any of the circles of Hell.
Though the path we walked was still teeming with life, the area surrounding it had begun to fade into the mud pits that kept the gluttonous trapped in the sludge they’d filled themselves with in life.
Worms crawled through the muck that I knew from experience was as cold as ice.
Margot was largely silent at my side as we headed in the direction of the manor, and I couldn’t help the smug satisfaction that churned through my gut.
I’d silenced her protests with a kiss, stolen all objections from her mouth.
Something had shifted in her when we escaped the Second Circle, and I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it had been, but it had definitely been for the better when it came to letting me inside those walls she’d built to the sky.
Dealing with Margot felt like walking a tightrope.
If I pushed too hard in any direction, she would topple right off the side and plummet to the ground.
It was a careful balancing game, a give-and-take to make her see the value in allowing me to get close to her.
She had to want me enough to go against her own staunch morals and fear that she might take something that wasn’t freely given.
She had to be willing to challenge the worldview she’d sharpened into a pointed weapon to keep the world out.
It would take time for my songbird to realize that she was not sensitive like glass, only a moment from cracking. She was sensitive like a bomb, ready to explode with power at any given moment.
She tripped as I watched, reaching out to grasp her as she stared down in horror at what had appeared in her path.
A hand emerged from the mud, reaching even though there was no body visible beneath the thick, viscous mud at our side.
Only the shoulder to the hand protruded, stretching toward the sky with grasping fingers as the fucking thing reached for Margot again.
Pulling back my leg, I prepared to kick it back into the pit that had become its resting place.
“There are people in there?” Margot asked, her voice incredulous. She distracted me with her words, reaching down as if she might grab the soul and pull it out of its eternity of suffering.
“Margot, no!” I yelled, grasping her around the waist and pulling her back.
The Source didn’t take kindly to those who took from her, who stole the souls that had comprised the powers of the circles for so long.
The Source may not have approved of her confinement in this place, but that didn’t mean she could just allow her power to slip away, either.
We dealt within the confines of the fate we’d been given, even those of us who had been wronged.
Margot looked up at the tree beside her when the branches rustled, and we watched as a small black blur leapt from a branch to land on the hand where it reached for her.
Jonathan sank his teeth into the fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger, shaking his head as he tore through the skin.
The hand flinched back, diving back into the mud as Jonathan leapt for the shoreline, landing just beside Margot and me.
He shook his head from side to side, flinging mud from his mouth before he finally stilled, rubbing his tongue on the grass to get the rest off.
He heaved, his mouth opening on a gag as he mewled, turning a judgmental stare toward the mud pit and backing away a step.
“Jonathan!” Margot said, leaping out of my hold to wrap the fucking cat in her embrace.
He nuzzled into the side of her face, purring as she cradled him like he was some kind of baby and not a cursed creature who had once been a murderous, misogynistic bastard.
But all was forgiven because now he had fur.
Women.
“You were supposed to stay in Purgatory,” I said, raising my brow at the little shit.
He pressed his face more tightly into Margot’s, his paws kneading at the flesh of her arm in contentment.
He didn’t seem to care what I thought, and I knew it was because he’d gotten his orders from Willow, the consort that was his master. “Let’s keep moving.”
“You could at least pretend to be happy to see him! Look, no more boo-boo,” Margot said, her voice rising into that sweet baby voice women insisted on using with children and animals.
“Boo-boo? He’s older than you are,” I said, rolling my eyes as I strolled forward.
It wasn’t much farther before we would reach the safety of my manor, giving us a place where Margot could finally get a good night’s sleep and some food to satisfy the hunger I knew had to be tempting her with everything around us.
Whether it was a healthy caution that made her hesitate to touch any of the food we passed or some knowledge she already had, she hadn’t made any attempt to eat.
Smart girl, either way. The food around us was a trap meant to ensnare those who were too gluttonous to resist temptation into the mud pits, our way of testing whether or not a soul was meant to remain here.
Her lack of instinct to touch the food would be her test that would allow her to pass through—the magic of the Third Circle in agreement with me.
She didn’t belong here.
A giant figure loomed at the gates that beckoned in the distance, stretched across the single bridge that would allow us to reach the safety of my home within Hell.
Jonathan hissed as we came closer, walking the narrow path to lead up to the gate.
The mud curved around the path, cutting us off so there was no going off the road to get around the enormous dog.
Cerberus bowed her head, chuffing as she scented the air.
Her tail wagged as she recognized my scent, turning so her good eye faced me.
She’d been blinded sometime in the years before I’d found her in the wilds, her left eye opaque and white.
“Hey, sweet girl,” I said, stepping forward to rub her nose with an open hand.
She pressed into the touch, turning to Margot as Jonathan jumped down from her hold and backed away while hissing.
Margot crossed her arms over her chest as Cerberus smelled her, quirking a brow as she glared over at me. “Sweet girl?” she asked, clearly finding some kind of amusement in the term of endearment.
I shrugged as Cerberus drooled onto the ground, the saliva coming dangerously close to landing on Jonathan where he stood gaping up at the dog that was easily ten times his size.
Cerberus nuzzled into Margot, making the woman’s expression soften as she petted the top of her head gently.
Only when she’d gotten the pats she thought she’d earned did Cerberus turn her attention down to the cat mingling at Margot’s legs, moving to sniff him.
The cat swatted her across the face when she came too close, claws bared as if they would do anything against the massive dog.
Cerberus blinked, staring after Jonathan as he twirled around Margot’s legs with his tail raised high and swirling about like he was proud of himself.
I nodded to Margot, wrapping an arm around her waist as she scooped the insufferable cat into her arms and I guided her through the gates as they swung open to beckon me home.
It pleased me greatly that Margot didn’t flinch or move away from my casual touch.
The manor before us was a sprawling estate of opulence.
Plants of all kinds filled the surrounding property.
People ate peacefully on blankets across the yard, tucked into shaded alcoves provided by the ample trees as they looked out over the mud pits to the gardens beyond.
The building itself was tall, with spindles and spires and dormers protruding from flat walls.
Windows covered every inch of the property, a golden light shining from within as I guided Margot up to the first step that would take us to the foyer.
“It’s like something from a fairy tale,” Margot said, her eyes widening as she took in the size of the home. The wings split off in each direction, the gothic architecture standing out against the brightness of the landscape. “And nothing like Lust.”
“We all have our personal tastes,” I said, shrugging as I shoved open the doors.
They parted with an easy push, spreading as Margot stepped over the threshold and entered the only place I’d ever been able to call home.
“This is mine,” I added, as I followed after her, taking in the sight of her bathed in the light from the chandelier overhead.
It seemed to dance over her skin, making her glow with a pulse of light in a place that reeked of death.
“It’s perfect,” she said, offering the thoughts I hadn’t even asked for. I didn’t need to, not with the knowledge that Hollow’s Grove had felt like home, too, its style so similar to the one I’d chosen for myself all those years ago.
“I’m glad you think so,” I said, closing the door behind me. If we couldn’t find a way to return to the surface, if Willow couldn’t open the portal in time to bring Margot home, this would be her new home.
Right where she belonged in spite of her lack of affinity for the magic, with me at her side.