Page 14 of What Is Dark Within Me

Well, that last one was not exactly a guarantee. It wasn’t as if Aleja had many romantic prospects.

“There was no binding—” She cut herself off, remembering the summoning circle beneath the plush rug in Miss Flanders’s probably-not-a-sex-dungeon. Aleja hadn’t bothered to pull the entire covering away. Could there have been…?

Nicolas must have seen the realization dawn on her face because he waved a hand in her direction, urging her to go on. “Are you going to explain yourself?

“I didn’t trick you. It must have been a damnedbindingsigil under that rug. Shouldn’t you have realized that, Knowing One?” There was a sharp tone in her voice, but right now, Aleja couldn’t be bothered to care.

I’m sure your ancestors would be so proud, said the voice in her head.

“I’m not omniscient,” he told her through gritted teeth. She flinched as he stood, and his long shadow stretched across her living room. The Otherlanders rarely killed humans directly, she told herself. They used tricks. They used bargains. They used your worst flaws against you.

“Hellfire, I could use a coffee,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I don’t see why this is a big deal. It’s a generic binding, probably sealed by our handshake. We’ll go back to the cellar and undo it. It’s simple. I could have done it even before I made the bargain.”

Garm stopped licking his paws and stood, as if sensing the mood in the room had changed. Aleja was not entirely surprised when he made his way to the kitchen, but she couldn’t have predicted he’d stand on his hind legs and rummage through her cabinets with fur-covered human fingers.

“What—what is he doing?” she asked, realizing she had just insulted the most powerful of Otherlanders, and he’d only scoffed as if she’d said he had a bad taste in suits.

“Making coffee, I imagine. He’s figured out how to turn his paws into hands, and he won’t stop—never mind,” Nicolas told her. “I’m afraid we’re out of luck. Someone has rid the house of every incriminating book and sigil by now. The original binding circle is gone. I’ve already checked. We need to find the magician who drew the circle, unless you enjoy feeling like you’re dying every time we’re more than a few yards apart.”

Aleja sat down again, a lump on the couch digging into her left butt cheek. “What about the rest of the Diabolus Society? One of them must have drawn it. Where did they go?”

It hadn’t occurred to her that Nicolas would feel as sick as she had. The Otherlanders were immune to human illness, but an unfulfilled binding was a magical problem. She was having a hard time believing that the Knowing One, the great Adversary, the Prince of Lies and Shadows, known in modern times as Lucifer… had spent all morning with a tummy ache.

Well, good. It was the least he deserved.

Unable to speak, she rose to her feet to help Garm find the sugar before he wrecked the entire kitchen. Even in the bright sharpness of her new senses, it felt like every beat of her heart came at some terrible cost.

“Thanks,” Garm barked. “Cream?”

“Whatever cream is in there is old enough to have a personality. There’s powdered stuff in the cabinet,” she said.

“A pity, but it’ll do. Can you fetch three mugs? I can’t reach.”

Aleja got out two. She didn’t see why she should have to entertain both a hellhound and the Knowing One, and she much preferred the dog slobbering on her counters. She was no longer afraid. The worst had already happened. Violet was missing, Aleja had bargained away her future, and anything that came next was bound to be a pleasant surprise in comparison.

“I should think you have more pressing issues right now than making coffee,” he said.

“Actually, no,” Aleja told him. “I’m going to have some coffee and then I’m going to use my newfound power to search for my friend. If you feel like being useful, why don’t you use magic to search for the members of the Diabolus Society? Unless that’s beyond you?”

“I can’t,” he rumbled, as Garm slid a mug in Aleja’s direction. The dog’s hands were halfway back to paws; something so unsettling, she took a sip to distract herself. She didn’t care that the ceramic was almost too hot against her palms.

“Why not?” Garm asked, saving Aleja from having to follow up.

The Knowing One sent a glare in his dog’s direction. “It was the wording of the bargain,” he muttered.

“What do you mean, boss?”

Nicolas inhaled, but that hardly detracted from the scowl on his face. “I didn’t give you power, Alejandra. Isharedit with you. A few hours ago, I may have been able to find the caster of the binding on my own, but—”

“Wait. You said you had plenty of power to give away.”

“I usually do, but there must be something about—it doesn’t matter. This is a temporary situation. Whatever you have planned, forget it. We’re going to undo this before you cause any more trouble.”

She took a sip of coffee, and her knees went weak. The silken sensation of cream against her tongue, the scrape of sugar against the roof of her mouth, and the bitterness of the beans themselves all mixed with a harmony she’d never taken the time to notice before. A moan escaped her lips before she could stop it. She could practically see the deep green jungles where the beans were grown, and smell the sweetgrass the dairy cows nibbled on as they enjoyed the sunlight of an early spring.

“Alejandra.Alejandra. Pay attention.”

She heard Nicolas’s voice, but it seemed unimportant. If this was how the Otherlanders perceived the world, she wondered how they got anything done.

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