Page 48 of Their Demon

Nicholas cleared his throat before saying, “Lilly…” I nodded and gestured with my hands for him to proceed. “You wererestrained.”

Holy fuckballs.

Thirty seconds ago, I’d been restrained courtesy of the twins’ powers. I’d never been able to escape before, but this time, I had somehow.

My heartbeat was so loud, I was surprised no one else could hear it. My palms began to sweat, and I felt dizzy as I tried to find a reasonable explanation for what had occurred.

The twins must’ve released me in the craziness of Keir barging in and just didn’t realize it. That had to be it.

“You,” Keir said sternly as he pointed at Nicholas. “And you.” He pointed at Aiden next. “Hallway. Now.”

The twins scrambled to grab their shirts, since they were only wearing boxers.

“No.”

All three of them stopped and turned to me.

“You’re not going anywhere. No more secrets. I want to know what the hell is going on.”

Keir sighed. “Very well,” he clipped. He looked between the twins. “I’m guessing she was affected more than we thought she’d be by your essence exchanges.”

What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

Parts of them are inside you, Lillian. You are walking around with pieces of them, powerful pieces.

My gaze floated to Keir, who was still not looking at me.

“I may have left something out about the day in the woods,” Nicholas confessed.

“You’re fucking joking.” Keir looked pissed.

Don’t be angry, I thought to him.

Hard, considering shit is hitting the fan, and I’m finding out you two kept something from us.

“I didn’t think anything about it. Everything happened so fast with the demon attack…”

And his own attack.

I immediately blushed at Keir’s thought, not missing the edge of jealousy that snuck through.

“When I got to her, she said something about the demon’s skin burning. His hands. She said they were burning, and he was screaming like he was in pain.” Nicholas ran his fingers through his hair, blowing out a breath.

“She has some of our powers,” Aiden said quietly, as if the realization was hitting him. He turned to me with a grin. “Lilly! You haveourpowers!” He took three large steps, closing the distance between us, and pulled me into a tight embrace.

“Hail Satan…” Nicholas sounded dumbfounded. “Do you guys realize what this means?”

Aiden released me from his hold, and I had to scramble to keep the sheet in place. “She has an advantage,” he answered his brother.

The last few minutes had given me whiplash.

I started to laugh, my emotions all over the place. “Oh my go…” I trailed off, my eyes meeting Nicholas’s as I winced.

He smirked and reached out to squeeze my hand. “I’ll let that one pass, baby. You’re in shock. We’re all in shock.”

Keir gathered everyone’s attention by clearing his throat. “Don’t celebrate too soon. It’s clear she doesn’t have control of it, and if Father found out she had this in her arsenal, he’d kill her without a second thought.” He looked straight at me. “We can’t let you use this during the trials, Lillian. It’s too dangerous. We can’t take the risk. I’m sorry.”

I nodded, completely agreeing with him for possibly the first time ever. “I understand.” I shrugged. “It’s probably for the best. That’s why we’ve been training, right? We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, and I’ll beat the trials without anything special, like I would have in the first place.”

---