Page 115 of Legendary

Isabel tilted her head and smirked. “She’s around. She said I could play with you first before she got to see you. Your time of waltzing in here with some sort of celebration waiting for you has long passed. You made her wait and damn near beg, so you are going to feel a little pain before I even consider letting you near her. I have to see if your little friends have made you weak.” She extended her arm out and flexed her fingers toward me.

There was a burning in my throat, and it was like all my dark magic was suffocated by an electric current. Colorful crackles exploded from her fingertips, and they mimicked what was happening with her eyes. My vision blurred again, but I couldn’t fall forward as I was being held upward by other demons. “So noble coming here all by yourself. Like you really had a fucking choice.” She clenched her fingers and I started to scream from thepain. “It was so much fun getting inside your pathetic little head, watching Lilith work you over so easily, seeing you panic from seeing all your dead friends. It will be such a special moment when you get to see it actually happen, huh. I can’t wait to watch you gut them one by one, and the best thing is that you’ll enjoy it.”

“That’s never going to happen!”

“Oh, you’re in for a treat.” She stepped forward and placed her finger on my forehead and it was like a kaleidoscope of colors, but each was so much more painful than the last. “It’s pathetic that you…” I started, but I was thrown against the wall, my entire body vibrating with pain. I grunted out, pushing it down. “It’s pathetic that you think she’ll always keep you around. You’ll be nothing to her once your usefulness dries up.” I rolled onto the stone floor, fixing my position so I could look at her again.

Her blue eyes bore into mine, rage bleeding into them. She hustled over to me, her heels clacking against the stone. She grabbed me by my hair so hard that my scalp twinged in pain. “I can’t wait to see you tear your little boyfriend apart. Let him see what a monster you really are.” She dug inside my mind and caused me to see everything from my nightmare. Every color was more vibrant, every wound I had inflicted much more brutal. She glamoured my vision so that every time I blinked things were enlarged and screams of agony were loud and brutal.

“Isabel, I think that’s enough.”

It was a voice I knew so well that it almost soothed me in a weird, fucked up way. It was a woman and she tsked at Isabel. “Get her up.” Isabel huffed but did as she was told. I felt unbalanced on my feet and Isabel didn’t make it any better as she yanked me up. I looked down at her wrapped hand, remembering when I stabbed my dagger through it.

“How’s your hand, you bitch,” I taunted. She sent a shock through me, causing me to groan out in pain. I felt a tingle of magic around my wrists, but I couldn’t get a good look at whatever Isabel had done. The mystery woman stepped out of the shadows, and my heart sped up. My fingers flexed from behind my back and my blood boiled.

Lilith looked me up and down, her white, blonde hair was bone straight and parted down the middle, the ends meeting right below her breasts. The black dress she wore was long and fell off her shoulders. It was covered by red lace, and it shimmered in the light of the fire around us. “Still so feisty.”

I remained silent, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of my words. Not yet anyway.

“Oh, you aren’t speaking to me. Well then, you can be upset all you want, but I warned you this would happen, did I not?” She reached out andcaressed my face. Isabel made it so I couldn’t pull away, that I had to endure her touch. “I told you that you would make the right choice and here you are. As stubborn as you are, you always end up doing as you're told.”

Black, wispy tendrils came from her fingers and slid over my face, gliding along my skin. They were comforting to that part of me that they knew so well. I could feel myself wanting to move towards her, be with her. This was where I belonged.

Remember who you are, Dani.

I thought back to Natalia’s words. The same words Nick gave me as well. That was so hard to do when everything was so tempting around her. I shook my head, violently. I would rather die than openly submit to her. Her magic was snuffed out by her hand waving it away. “I have missed you. I can be a patient person, Dani, but not when it comes to what’s already mine. I plan to make sure you don’t ever forget that.” She brought up her finger to tap my nose before turning away from me.

I mustered up all the strength I had and jerked my shoulder up as hard as I could, landing it right in Isabel’s face as she teetered backwards. I worked to get my hands out of their confinement, but nothing happened. My own magic would be strong enough to get out of any of those demons’ shitty restraints. I was brought to my knees by debilitating pain when sparks of colorful magic shot up my arms and down my chest.

“Did you really think I was going to leave you to your own devices? We need to keep you in check, don’t we, Soul Seether?” Isabel knelt down next to me as her eyes flashed over with different colors. She’d used her magic to handcuff me with her dampening powers.

“You leave them alone and we can fight just you and me,” I offered, narrowing my eyes at Lilith’s back.

She looked over her shoulder and her red-stained lips turned into a terrifying smile. “You think I want to fight you?”

“Shesure wants to fight you,” Isabel said.

Lilith’s dark eyes became a little soft, but that could have been a trick of the light if I was honest. “I have never wanted a fight with you, my love.” She sighed, shaking her head towards the ground. “But when I’m done with you, I will be the only person you trust. The only person you won’t want to fight. As it always should have been.”

I was brought into one of the smaller torture rooms. It had less rows of seating and it didn’t give off the feeling of wanting a big show to happen.It wasn’t intimate by any means, but with the lack of patrons and just me, Lilith, and Isabel present it felt like the smallest room in the world. The dust around my feet kicked up as I struggled to remove myself from the chair I was tied to. Not only were Isabel’s nifty magic dampening ropes annoying, but so was the way Lilith looked at me, like she was still deciding what she wanted to do and how she wanted to go about her next move.

Isabel leaned up against the wall to my right, staring at me with her blue eyes that basically said she would instantly kill me if Lilith gave her the okay. Like the good pet she was. “I bet Markus is so proud of you. He isn’t far from here you know, since he’s probably getting ridiculed relentlessly in Hell,” I gave her the fakest smile as she clenched her fists at her sides. “Are you sure your mother would be happy with what you’ve done?” I added, hearing Isabel audibly hiss at me as she started to take a step towards me.

“Not now, Isabel.” Lilith waved her hand at her, motioning for Isabel to go back to her spot against the wall. She rubbed her hands together, smiling at me. “You really came here to try to battle it out with me, didn’t you? I would never want to hurt you intentionally.”

I snorted, pulling at the restraints. “You could have fooled me.”

“It’s called tough love. And you deserved so much more of it. I went easy on you.”

“Easy?”

“I didn’t throw anything at you that you couldn’t handle. And well…” She laughed a little. “If you couldn’t then I knew you weren’t as strong as I assumed you were. Simple enough.”

I tilted my head back, readjusting myself in the seat. “You’re just a coward who hides behind all her puppets and pets.”

Lilith placed her hand on her chest delicately. “A coward? On the contrary, I’m a strategist. I wouldn’t go into something without a chance that I would win. You are quite a change in plans though.” She tapped her index finger along her chin in thought. “I honestly didn’t see that angels could be as tempting as they were. Especially the handsome one you’re so fond of.”

I bared my teeth as she spoke about Nick, hating that she knew anything about him.

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