Page 57 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

“Margot,” she said, turning that eerie purple stare toward me.

I watched in horror as she took her first step, closing the distance between us and leaning in.

Her tongue scraped across my cheek in the same way it had Beelzebub’s, rough and coarse like a cat’s.

“You must be very special to him indeed for him to ask that he be permitted to pay your debt of truth.”

“I don’t understand,” I said looking back and forth between the two of them. I would have sworn that I hadn’t seen either of their lips moving when they were close, and I certainly hadn’t heard Beelzebub speak to ask to pay my debt.

Legion pressed her forehead to mine, mimicking Beelzebub’s posture from before.

She was taller than me, making her the one to curl her upper spine and neck over me.

The moment her skin touched mine, I couldn’t take my eyes from her vivid purple.

My own memories flashed before my mind, like the shuffling of a tarot deck, as if someone was searching for something.

Unfortunately for him, I think I am far more interested in finding your truth than his.

Her voice slid through my mind, wrapping itself around a memory as she pulled it from the deck.

The image of her fingers toying with the card imprinted itself on my brain, her smile wide and gleeful as she pulled back and stared at it.

Her fingers tapped the card, nails painted a vivid purple as she turned it to face me.

A picture of Beelzebub and me embracing graced the front, the word scrawled into the bottom of the card a direct contradiction to the lie I’d given to gain access to the circle of Fraud.

Lovers.

I swallowed, staring up into those purple eyes as she toyed about in my mind.

I was both inside my brain and outside of it, staring up into her eyes and watching her rifle through my memories like she belonged there, but she never released that card.

She kept it pinched between two fingers for safekeeping, and it was only when she took a step back that I allowed myself to let go of the hope that she would choose something else. Anything else.

You’re in love with the archdemon, she said in my head. Her lips curled around pointed fangs that pierced her tongue as she ran it over the surface. This truth is not mine to keep, little liar.

“No,” I said, my voice sounding too loud in the silence that followed as she retreated from me.

Her forehead left mine, severing the connection between us as she stepped back, that card somehow still held within her hand.

She clutched it to her chest, keeping the image hidden from Beelzebub as she backed away.

She danced as she went, swaying her hips and almost skipping her legs, as if my panic brought her joy. “You have your truth.”

“And it is up to me what I do with it! So rarely do I get to have both the holder of the truth and the recipient of the truth in one place!” she said, grabbing Beelzebub by the hand.

He let her lead him to stand in front of me, pausing only when she put him in place.

He remained perfectly still as he waited, watching me as tears welled in my eyes.

To give him this truth would be to condemn him to a life with me, even knowing he would probably be better off without me.

It would be to dive off the cliff and be willing to take a chance with the man I’d sworn I would keep away from.

“I do not suffer a liar!” Legion said, her voice rising as if frustrated that I hadn’t simply outed myself.

“Come on, songbird. Just tell me whatever it is, and we can move on,” he said. His voice started out gentle, but it turned pleading and panicked as he cast a glance at Legion over his shoulder. At the way she’d begun to fidget, her fingers tapping on the card rapidly.

“I can’t—” I said, swallowing down the surge of emotion in my throat. It stung, making it feel too tight to voice the words even if I’d wanted to.

“You will not leave here as a liar,” Legion said, stepping up beside us.

Beelzebub reached out, taking my hand in his and opening his mouth to speak.

There was a warning in his wide eyes, a plea for me to give what I couldn’t.

Legion cut him off with a tear at the edge of the card, the sound splitting the air as Beelzebub groaned and pressed his hand to his chest. He dropped to his knee, nearly pulling me down with him as I looked down at him in horror.

“What did you do to him?” I asked, my hair flying to the side as I whirled on Legion.

“Either you give him your truth, or I make it so it is no longer true,” she said, tearing at the card once more.

The tiny tear at the edge was the start of splitting the card down the middle, and I felt that second pull somewhere deep within me.

Like muscle tearing from bones, like a soul ripped from a body, it was the hint of an agony I couldn’t begin to fathom.

I swayed on my feet, nearly falling over as Beelzebub worked to keep me steady. “The choice is yours to make.”

“I—I…” I broke off, pinching my eyes closed to shut out the red of Beelzebub’s stare, the patience in it even though the pain of that first pull had been enough to drive him to his knees.

He stayed there, as if expecting a third tear that would drive him back down if he tried to stand.

“I have feelings for you,” I said quickly, unable to face him.

They felt like a weakness, like admitting there was a way to hurt me when I’d spent so long building up my armor.

Legion pulled again, the tear rending through the air.

My eyes flung wide as Beelzebub pulled at my hand, squeezing it in a viselike grip.

“Not good enough! A half-truth won’t help you here,” Legion said, her voice raking over my skin like nails on a chalkboard.

Every part of me tensed in preparation for the pain if she tore through it again, if she tried to sever our bond.

I realized that what I’d felt splitting was the love between us being torn from one another. A few days prior, I would have welcomed it.

Now, the thought of not having it anymore filled me with panic.

My breathing quickened in my lungs; my heart raced in my chest. Before Beelzebub, I’d known exactly who I was.

I’d known I was barely surviving and hanging on by a thread.

Now, it felt like I had a future, but I didn’t know what it looked like without him.

Legion tugged again when I hesitated, tearing the card to the halfway mark.

I dropped to my knees before Beel as that pain tore through me, too, taking both his hands in mine.

His stare was apologetic, filled with sympathy as he kept quiet.

Allowing me to make the choice for what happened from here, I realized.

This was my chance to set him free and he would let me, because at the end of the day this thing between us meant nothing if I didn’t choose it, too.

He’d chosen it even with the possibility that my magic would take from him. How could I not respond in kind?

“I want to have a future,” I said, watching from the corner of my eye as Legion paused before completing the tear.

My voice shook with the words, emotion clogging my throat and tears stinging my eyes.

“And I want to have it with you. I don’t know what it looks like.

All I know is that I’m in love with you, and I can’t let you go.

” My voice broke at the end, and Beelzebub lunged forward as the card vanished from Legion’s hand.

She stepped away, seeming satisfied with my confession as Beel’s hands wrapped around my cheeks and he touched his mouth to mine.

It was everything soft and gentle, soothing the hurt that only vulnerability could bring.

That warmth and comfort within me mended, sewing itself back into my bones as he held me still.

I knew it had to be love, because anything else would have been a lie and Fraud would have known.

Still kneeling on the ground, he drew me into his arms and surrounded me with his warmth, chasing away the chill that fear of rejection brought.

“I love you, too, songbird, and I know exactly what my future looks like,” he said, guiding me to my feet. He took me away from Legion’s waiting presence, taking me up the stairs to the upper story of the manor.

“What does it look like?” I asked, my voice quieter than I could remember it being.

Beelzebub made me feel bold. He made me feel like someone who fought for what she wanted, when I’d always thought of myself as someone who waited for life to happen to her.

His hand at my back bolstered me, even as we approached the bedroom at the top of the stairs.

There was no fear in what might come next, because I knew without a doubt it would be my choice.

With Beelzebub, it would always be my choice.

“It looks like you,” he said, pausing in the doorway.

“You are my future, songbird. That’s all I need.

” He cupped my cheek in his hand, the gentleness of that rough skin solidifying the decision forming in my mind.

He paused on the threshold, made no assumptions about what I would want.

I knew this room could be a sanctuary to wait out the vulnerability and just be together.

Or it could be something more.

I took his hand, peeling it off my cheek and tucking it into my side as I turned and stepped into the bedroom.

Taking Beelzebub into our future with me.