Page 75 of Devil's Doom

I’ve already made the pendant hide me from Woland and his shadows. When I sense into the crystal vessel pulsing next to my heart, I feel the strain of so much magic trapped in that crystal bottle of blood.

“Well then,” I mutter through clenched teeth. “I suppose we’ll see what you prepared for the idiot who breaks your spell, devil boy.”

I let my palm hover over the chochol’s bare stomach. “Open.”

He bellows in agony and passes out. Good for him. His stomach cavity opens with a slick sound, and I reach inside, gripping the viper just behind its head. It struggles in my hold, but I pull it out, blood and mucus covering my fist.

The room dims for a moment, tendrils of shadows shooting out from my patient’s innards. They hit my stomach, and I bend in half with a horrible, throbbing pain.

It’s almost as bad as my period.

“Nice try, lover mine,” I grit out, holding on to the slippery viper that tries to bite me. “But I’ve had worse.”

With a murmured spell, I send the viper into the pain orb, and it slithers around the crystal vessel, hissing angrily. Ignoring the gnawing pain in my guts, I focus on my patient, taking out his pain and sending it into another pain orb so that he doesn’t suffer any longer. After I heal his internal injuries, I spell his stomach closed. His heartbeat is strong, breath even. He’ll live.

Bent in half from the pain, I limp over to an empty patient room, locking the door behind me. I undress, swallowing nausea when I see how my bare stomach ripples. The counter-curse is more of the same, then. Nothing original.

This time, I can put my pain away, which I do gladly. I don’t know if I could do this while feeling everything.

I lie down on the bed and turn the ceiling above me reflective, calling forth all the light orbs to light my dancing stomach. “Open,” I command, staring at my reflection.

Without the pain, the procedure is almost mundane, as if I wasn’t digging in my own guts but in someone else’s. The squelching sounds are unpleasant, the touch of smooth, wet viscera disgusting. They are warm and pulse with life as I sort through the endless coils of my intestines.

I find the viper quickly, a small, dappled thing with bright green eyes. It almost slips out of my grasp, but I catch it at the last moment. Some of that battle training paid off, after all. I have great reflexes.

“Hello, darling,” I murmur to the reptilian thing that comes out of my body like a caricature of a baby. “I suppose if he gave me children, they wouldn’t be much different from you, hm?”

Something flickers in my periphery, but I don’t even turn. Here I am, thinking about Woland again, even talking to him. This has to end.

I send the viper into a pain orb and close my wound. When I’m sure everything works properly, I free my pain and let it crawl back into my body. It’s invisible, but I imagine it as a small, furry creature that lives in the pit of my stomach.

When Nienad sees me floating two pain orbs containing my new pets, he shakes his head with a curse.

“Girl, you need to learn to never go above and beyond like this,” he says with a sigh. “People will eat you alive if you offer too much of yourself. Those are fine specimens, though. Can I have them for a potion?”

“No. They are mine.”

The vipers hiss with fury, slithering fast until their scales blur into a hypnotizing dance, distorted through the thick crystal. They aren’t happy being trapped, but it’s their problem. I already know where I’ll put them—each on one side of my gorgeous, blooming belladonna plant.

That way, if Woland ever graces his own room with his presence, he’ll see them right away. It’s a promise, since I have detailed plans of what I’ll do to him once he shows up. He’ll pay for all the humiliating things he’s made me feel.

When I go back to my room in the evening, my two little beasts floating in front of me, I find Lutowa at the table, scraping clean the bottom of an enormous bowl that looks like it was filled with butter. She’s as thin as ever despite devouring enormous quantities of food every day.

“Pretty,” she remarks, looking at my new pets. “Though a bit useless. Their venom isn’t very strong.”

“I delivered them both today,” I say with a straight face. “One is my baby.”

Lutowa laughs, slapping her thin thigh. “Well, bring them up well so they join the rebellion,” she says with a tooth-gapped grin.

“But before I forget, I came to tell you something. About what you asked me today.”

Chapter twenty-six

Silver

I prick my ears, sending both vipers to flank my belladonna that stands on a thick plinth of bone and crystal. I made it one evening when I had magic to spare.

“I’m listening.”

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