Page 86 of Malice
It took several moments before I could relax enough to release the breath I’d been holding. All this time, he’d been right under our noses, and we’d had no idea. But then, he was Lucifer, a master of all things deceit and trickery. We should have realized he’d find a way. We should have... I blew out a breath and hung my head. It didn’t matter what we should have done; the facts wouldn’t change. Lucifer had gotten to her.
“I don’t see why you’re so upset. It was just a daydream?—”
My gaze snapped back to hers. “Just a daydream? Come on, Merri. You know better than that. Even if it was something as innocuous as a dream, you know exactly how real and dangerous those can be. But setting all that aside, what happened here wasn’tjustanything. You were in a trance, Merri.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “My mind had just wandered while I was meditating...”
“You were talking and completely unaware of your surroundings. He had you completely in his thrall.”
She opened her mouth to deny it but couldn’t.
“What happens next time if one of us isn’t there to pull you out? Or worse, if he tricks you into giving him the very thing he needs.”
“He won’t.”
“You moaned his name.” I hated how hurt I sounded, but I couldn’t disguise the way that made me feel.
Guilt flashed across her face, and I knew my suspicions were correct. He’d been trying to seduce her. More than that, he’d been well on his way to succeeding.
She shrugged helplessly. “He told me it would relax me. I thought I was alone. You stopped him from getting anywhere close, though.” Silence stretched between us for a beat before she tentatively asked, “Are we going to talk about why you keep spying on me?”
The last thing happening right now was me admitting to my obsession. Especially when it was the thing that just saved her.
“It’s a good thing I was, wasn’t it?”
She looked down at her knees, hands clasped between them.
I hated to see my courageous and defiant wildflower’s spirit so wilted, but not as much as I hated the thought that we’d left her in harm’s way. “These dreams with him cannot continue.”
Big blue eyes locked onto mine. “I don’t know how to keep him out.”
Neither did I. But there was one horseman who specialized in exactly that, and he’d clearly been neglecting his curriculum.
“Come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“To talk to Malice.”
Chapter
Twenty-Five
MALICE
The rustle of the paper as I turned a page of my favorite issue ofThe Lancetfilled my room. I’d read this one so many times I had the text memorized, but if I didn’t give my mind something to focus on aside from all the ways Merri had infiltrated my heart, I’d go mad. My head spun with worries about how this could go epically wrong, fears that she’d see the light and leave me after only just getting me to trust again, and even worse, hope for the possibility of actual happiness.
Me? Happy? Without a plague in sight? What was the world coming to?
Oh, right, it was ending.
That tracked.
My door swung open with enough force to hit the wall, and I was sure the handle left a dent in the ancient plaster.
“Oi, careful with?—”
“Are you fucking serious?” Grim asked, interrupting me as I geared up to scold him. “Lucifer is mucking about in Merri’s mind, and you’re in here having a nice lie down andreading?”
