Page 282 of The Spider Queen

I didn’t return Barrett’s call, not knowing what to say.Thanks for inviting me to your party?Sorry I ran out after ten minutes to chase a stranger through the lobby only to ditch him?

Shaking my head, I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch. I had my favorite Chinese place on speed dial, so I gave them a buzz.

“Can you deliver it to the shop?” I asked like I had a hundred times before. “Thanks.” I hung up and set down my half-finished cup of coffee. I slid into a pair of old jeans and flip-flops.

I felt a strange pull to my shop, a desire to look at the Garden of Eden snow globe. Shivering when I remembered the snake with indigo eyes, I thought of the stranger I’d met.

How had he mesmerized me? How had he inspired emotion that no other man had been able to summon within me?

I grabbed my coffee and locked up the apartment. When I got downstairs, the Chinese delivery guy was already there. I smiled and handed him a twenty, not asking for change. I tipped well every time because my food always came hot and fast, and I didn’t want that to change.

When I was halfway through my beef and broccoli, I felt a lot more like myself and wanted to tackle the broken music box once and for all. Something told me I was close to fixing it.

An hour later, I turned the crank of the music box. A few mournful notes warbled out, stuttered, and then fell silent.

Yelling in frustration, I picked up the globe, wanting to throw it in anger but knowing I’d hate myself if I destroyed it. It was broken and beautiful.

But suddenly, the haunting melody from my dream floated through the room. I felt my hair stir in the air, which had become warm and humid. I blinked heavy lids. They fell shut and I slept.

When I opened my eyes, I realized I was under the canopy of a large tree, more vibrant and green than any I’d ever seen before—and I’d been to places where it rained nine months out of the year.

Shiny red fruit peeped out from among the leaves, sparkling in the sunlight. I reached my hand up for one.

A large hand met mine.

Lucifer—my Lucifer from the masquerade—loomed over me. Sunbeams highlighted his fair skin, and his indigo eyes glowed.

“I am here now,” he whispered, his head bending so that his lips could brush the tender skin of my neck.

I breathed him in. He smelled of darkness. Sensual promises. Insatiable yearning.

His tongue traced the lines of my collarbone before he pressed a kiss at the hollow of my throat.

“I’ve waited so long for you.”

The sun dipped behind the gray smoky clouds. Thunder boomed through the sky and lightning struck the tree, turning it black and barren.

I screamed.

And then I was no longer in the Garden of Eden within the snow globe—I was back in the shop.

The man with indigo eyes stood, waiting for me, his hand outstretched. “Come with me.”

“No,” I whispered even as my hand clasped his.

He threw his head back and laughed. Lucifer drew me to him. His arm wrapped tightly around me like he’d never let me go.

There was a crack and a sliver of opaque shimmery light appeared in the air, and then I fell into darkness.

Chapter 8

My head was a swirling mess and I was nauseous. Emotions that didn’t belong to me circled through my brain. The wall I’d erected in my mind had been blown apart, so it was nothing but rubble.

The barrier hadn’t ever been fully down, not since I’d learned how to erect it in the first place.

I tried to bury the emotions, but there were too many of them.

Screaming, I clutched my head, pressing on my temples, praying I could corral the emotions. Emotions that didn’t even feel human. Which was ridiculous. I’d never felt the emotions of animals, so I doubted that’s what I felt now.