Page 49 of Legendary

She circled the rim of her glass with her fingertip, pressing her tongue into her cheek. “Is there some sort of response you wanted?”

I downed the rest of my glass and reached for the bottle. “I want a fucking answer. Something with merit. Not some half-assed reply that doesn’t help at all. You don’t put a good word in foranyone, Elise. Yet, you did with me.”

“The whole point of being here is so you can fight the big bad lady, right? What would be the point if Garrett got all his little Enchanter friends to raid this place and attempt to rip you limb from limb, all because Lilith has some unhealthy obsession with you. It would be pointless since I highly doubt your little boyfriend would let that happen, but still.”

“And?”

“And what, Dani.Fuck. What more do you want from me?” She looked tired and irritated, maybe a bit tortured.

I nearly slammed my glass down on the table. “Do you literally not fucking listen when I speak? I want the truth. Why keep this halfling thing a secret, huh? No one is going to come here and tear you apart because you admit you, I don’t know, give a flying fuck.” I noticed that she had both hands on her glass and was staring into the vodka like she wished she could dive right into it and get away from this conversation. I didn’t stop though; this was my chance. “Why. Didn't. You. Let. Lilith. Kill. Me?”

The sound of glass shattering caused me to blink as I looked down and saw shards of glass scattered around the table. She no longer had her cup in her hands, but the skin above her wrist was now wet with vodka. Her hands had small cuts on them, but she hardly noticed. I didn’t know whether she planned to pick up a large piece of glass and stab me or open her mouth and speak. “Fuck! Dani, you were so pathetic when I first met you. You asked too many stupid questions and complained a lot. I could only tell you so much, but I had to keep you focused and eventually you figured it out. You started to need my help with weapons, magic and torture less and less. You neverasked me to do things for you or even when Lilith showed you attention, you never acted like you were better than anyone else.” She shot up from her chair and disappeared from the room again, coming back with a rag and another glass.

She pushed the pieces of glass to the side, creating a small pile. Elise poured herself another glass and sat down, letting out a sigh. “You just wanted to hang out with me, which was fucking weird. I had nothing better to do, so I invited you out and ugh, you just wouldn’t leave me alone. You kept wanting to be around me and you weren’t completely and totally lame, so I allowed it, over and over again so much that I guess you felt the need to start confiding in me with information, like things beyond who you took to bed and how thrilling your last kill was.”

I didn’t want to interrupt her, but when she didn’t just continue, I realized I would have to push. “What does that have to do with anything, Elise?”

She rubbed her eyes before taking another long drink. “I have only called two people a friend in this fucking place and one of them got on Lilith’s bad side. Our dark queen thought she was distracting me from my training when I first came to her, so she took it upon herself to get rid of her. Slashed her pretty throat while I watched. She told me I needed to focus on what was coming. Lilith has made me do a lot of fucked up things and Hell, I’ve done so many fucked up things on my own accord, but maybe that one thing hardened me, I don’t fucking know, but after that, I didn’t see the point in getting close until you and your annoying ass demeanor bounded into my life.” She made a disgruntled sound as she tipped her glass against her lips. When she put it down, she motioned for me to give her my empty glass, so she could refill it. “When Lilith told me about you, I wasn’t going to have your blood on my hands because, I don’t know, you didn’t deserve to fucking die all because your angelic light couldn’t shut the fuck up.”

Elise had been with Lilith for a long time, I knew that, but she was never forthcoming with how her time had been before I got there. I didn’t know if Elise was ever a happy, go-lucky type of demon—which I highly doubted—or if she had always been the way she was. She had feelings, despite how deep down they were, and someone had broken her walls down enough to be her friend. Lilith snatched that from her, just like Lilith had snatched that from me. We were similar in so many ways, yet different. She hadn’t completely cut off that little piece of herself that showed she cared, she just wasn’t a fan of putting it on display for it to get trampled over and ripped away. I had no desire to ask about this previous friend of hers, to feel her loss. Elise never spoke of any family, so having Lilith as some sort of parental figure must have been a fucking mess.

It had to be lonely. Despite the clubs and the continuous bedmates she had, lonely would still be the word I’d use.

“So, you do have a moral compass,” I inquired.

“Lilith wanted you perfect, so I made sure you remained perfect.” There was something else that she wasn’t saying.

“So, what if I wanted to get close to you, so what if we hung out? You could have done that with the next one, Elise. What makes me so special, so different, so…”

She ran a hand through her hair, pushing her bangs back just for them to fall back in front of her forehead. “Because maybe a small, small, very minuscule part of me gives a fuck about you.”

There it was.

“You went to Heaven’s Gate with me, you fought beside me, you lied to me to keep me alive, and you told Garrett and Leah things to help me because you give a fuck about me,” I said, leaning in while I took a swig of vodka.

She poured herself another glass, nearly filling up her cup, and started chugging it down. “Sure.”

“And what? You couldn’t call me your friend because it would hurt…losing me?” I was pushing hard, but better now than never.

“Ugh, I would smash your face into this table if I thought Beetee wouldn’t get mad about all the blood.” She pointed at me as she poured herself another glass yet again. I finished mine and stole the bottle away from her to refill my own.

“I’ll take that threat as a yes,” I shrugged. “You ran to tell Beetee about my little issue, so I assume she’s your second friend.”

“She says friend, I say unlikely acquaintance.” She and I both knew she was lying.

I shook my head. “I don’t know that many unlikely acquaintances that share as much as you two do. She seems to know a lot about you, Elise.”

She picked up one of the shards of glass, flipping it between her fingers. “She isn’t attached to Lilith in any way. I met her at a club one night and we hit it off. The sex was good, but she’s the relationship type, so we just kept it friendly, which…”

“Turned into you telling her everything about yourself and her hostel becoming one of your safe spaces. You don’t say it out loud, but that girl is your friend. Got it.”

Elise didn’t say anything, she just flicked the glass shard back onto the table in silence. She was silently agreeing with me, and we both knew it.

“Are you going to say sorry for it? For not telling me?”

Elise’s gray eyes bore into my brown ones, wanting to keep my attention. “No.”

“No?”

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