Page 64 of The Devil and His Sparrow

The slap across my cheek came so fast, I didn’t even have time to see her hand move. The loud crack of her palm against my face echoed in my ears, and lightning erupted behind my eyelids as searing pain flooded my cheek.

I reached up to grip my face just as my mom gasped and screeched, “Let go of me, you heathen!”

Tears swam in my eyes as I looked up to find Zagan standing between my mom and I. One hand stretched out to block me behind him while the other gripped Mom’s still raised arm. His knuckles were white from how hard he gripped her wrist, and a cry brushed past her lips.

“Don’t you ever lay your fucking hands on her,” Zagan warned, his voice dangerously low.

Mom’s chest fell rapidly as her frantic eyes stared up at Zagan. “This is assault! I’m a powerful prosecutor. I will have your ass in jail before you can even blink!”

Zagan’s low chuckle seemed to echo in the space between the three of us like some dark melody plucked right from a nightmare. “Oh, please try. Do your worst, Valerie. I promise you that whatever you try to do to me won’t be near as bad as what I’ll do to you when I drag your fucking soul to the deepest pits of Hell.”

Her face blanched, and her eyes darted between the two of us. “He’s mad! You’re both lunatics! I’m so ashamed of you, Iyla. To think this is the company you keep.”

Ashamed.

The word pierced my heart, striking harder than any other insult she’d ever thrown at me. All I’d ever wanted was to make her proud, to have her smile at me with love and acceptance. That wish fizzled out like a match finally losing fuel and burning away into nothing but smoke.

She yelped as Zagan yanked on her, and he smiled wide like a crazed predator about to get his meal. “Didn’t you know? Demons make great company.” He got nose to nose with her. His smile fell, and he hissed, “Until you piss us the fuck off.”

His fingernails sharpened and turned black while his horns appeared in his hair. I gasped and grabbed onto his arm, which still pressed into the front of my body to shield me from my mom. I clung to him and shouted at him to stop, but it was too late. His human guise was gone, and my mother’s mouth gaped open as she stared at him in horror. Her legs wobbled, and her eyes rolled back into her head as she sagged. Zagan released her arm to let her limp body crumble to the asphalt, and he sneered down at her unconscious body.

“Zagan,” I cried in a panic. I tightened my grip on his arm and whipped my head around us, frantically looking for any people who might be around. “Please change back. Someone else is going to see you!”

He inhaled deeply through his nose like he was wound up tight and trying hard to calm down. Finally, his black-and-red eyes, nails, and horns disappeared. His attention never left my mom. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill her right here, right now. Because the only thing stopping me at the moment is the fact that you’re standing here and would have to watch.”

I swallowed hard. His words were more of a reminder of what he was than his actual demonic form. He could easily steal her life and banish her to Hell. For a moment, I actually considered letting him. But I knew that was anger and hurt talking. I couldn’t let my mom meet a fate like that, especially not by Zagan. I didn’t want to think of Mom’s death when I looked at him.

“Zagan, you’re already going to be in deep shit since she’s seen you and you threatened her. We don’t need to add murder to the list right now.”

“Deep shit, my ass. She won’t do anything.”

He curled his lip at her limp body and crouched. He slapped her face a few times—harder than necessary, but I wasn’t about to argue with a fuming demon—until her eyes fluttered open. As soon as she looked up at him, she went to scream, but he quickly shot his hand out to squeeze her cheeks in his grip, squishing her cheeks together and forcing her mouth closed.

“Shut up,” Zagan barked. “You’ve seen me, so now you know to fucking behave. You won’t do shit to me, because nothing you do can touch me. Nothing you do can touch Iyla. You want her gone and ties cut? Fine. I’ve been waiting for that to happen. But don’t think for one second that you’ve won. Look who’s standing,” Zagan said, tipping his head in my direction. “And look who’s folded on the ground, pissing themselves.”

I noticed then the gray material of her pants darkening with urine around her thighs. Some twisted part of me took satisfaction in seeing her rendered to that state.

“You think you’ve gained some sort of power over Iyla by cutting her off?” Zagan barreled on, his voice eerily calm. “Wrong. Iyla doesn’t need you. So keep your damn money, apartment, and control. Because she’s the one that’s done with you.”

He tossed her head to the side as he released her face, and already, bruises formed where he’d gripped her. His large body towered over her trembling form as he added, “And in case it wasn’t obvious, you’re going to keep what happened here and what you saw a secret. That threat criminal enough for you?”

Zagan slipped his hand in mine and pulled me along with him toward my car. I started to glance over my shoulder, but without even looking at me, Zagan warned, “Don’t you dare look back at her.”

My gaze trained on the asphalt as I heeded his words. I could practically feel the rage pouring off him in waves, yet I couldn’t find it in myself to be afraid of him. If anything, I leaned further into his arm, feeling safer than I had in a long time.

He led me to the passenger seat, and for the first time, he slid into the driver’s seat of my car. His grip on the wheel made me worry for the wheel’s safety. I half expected it to melt at his touch or break in half. But I didn’t say anything, not even when he gunned it out of the parking lot.

At some point, I’d gone numb inside, though I could still feel the biting sting of my mom’s hand against my cheek. My head leaned limply against the window as trees sped by at the same blinding speed my heart still went.

Mom really wanted to get rid of me.

It hit me how fragile my relationship had truly been with her. All this time, I’d given one-hundred percent to her in all I did. She’d been watching me fight and claw and struggle to keep up with the furious effort, waiting until that one-hundred slipped even a fraction. If I wasn’t giving it my all anymore, she’d finally have her excuse to get rid of me like she’d always wanted to do.

A tear finally slid down my cheek.

Always.

Chapter 20

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