Page 38 of To Crave Truly

“Death haunts your steps. Closer and closer it tiptoes, following you. Always following you. You cannot escape. It won’t let you.” Her voice was a deep guttural rasp, nothing like the bright tone she had a moment before, and her fingers dug into the skin on my forearm. “When crimson skies meet pitch black eyes, only then will you truly see.”

“See what?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“The end. You need to run, Lori.”

“What?”

“Run!” she screamed, the sound shrill against my sensitive ears. “Run!”

Her fingers tightened in my arm, her nails drawing blood. It oozed beneath her nails, thick and dark and I could feel my insides suddenly warring with each other. Everything swirled, like oil in water, churning but never mixing. Oh god, I was going to heave.

Iver pulled at her hand, but she wouldn’t let go. Flora cackled wildly between words that were loud and meaningless. My demon yelled, my fangs grew, claws protruded from my fingers as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

“Do something!” I shouted at Iver.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t hold the Sin Reaper back much longer.” I could feel her clawing at my mind to break free, her claws slicing at the inside of my skull.

“Fuck!” Iver roared. “Don’t hate me for this.”

“What—”

He slammed his hand down on Flora's forehead muttering something I couldn’t understand. She screamed and jolted against Iver’s touch, but he held on until her eyes turned from white to black. They rolled back in her head, before she slumped backwards, falling unconscious.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked as I rubbed the marks Flora's fingers had left behind.

“Just a little demon possession,” he replied with a small shrug.

“Really? You can do that?”

“Yes, I’m a demon through and through. Not like whatever you are.”

“Can I do that?”

He laughed. Not just a little laugh, but a full-blown belly kind of laugh.

Let me take control. I want to kill him.

“It’s tempting…”

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes. “But no. There’s no way you’d be able to learn that.”

Before I realised it, my arm pulled back and my fist slammed into his smiling face.

Sorry, couldn’t resist, my demon said with a chuckle.

I wasn’t even mad. The asshole deserved it.

Surprise blew his eyes wide as rubbed his jaw. He huffed a laugh. “That was… impressive.”

I folded my arms across my chest and gloated. Just a little, but I could feel my demon preening under the praise. “Thanks. But what are we going to do with her.”

We both looked at the now unconscious witch.

“She’ll be fine. When she wakes, she’ll be a bit groggy but fine. Probably won’t remember anything.”

“Good. That’s good.” But was it though? What had she said? That I was going to see the end, but the end of what? My life? The world? The way my life was going it was most likely going to end up being something tragic and dramatic and I just knew it was going to be something really bad. I heaved a deep breath and fell into one of the chairs. Sometimes I wished my life was simpler. And oh my god, was I about to cry?

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