Page 25 of A Match Made in Hell
‘Wait!’
I expect him to outright ignore me, but to my surprise, he halts and turns around. His eyes are more ablaze than ever, shining so brightly I could be basking in the sun. Instead, I’mfrozen. My heart pounds faster than the drums in Dionysus. Confronting a murderer doesn’t scream sensible, but if he’s planning on sending me to the Void at some point, we may as well get it over with. And if hedoesn’tburn me to ash for yelling at him about what he’s just done, I’ll know he really does need me to stick around and complete these tasks.
Which means I’ll have some leverage over him.
‘What were you thinking?’ I ask.
He looks away, clenching and unclenching his fists. When he meets my stare again, his gaze has dimmed from molten gold to honey brown. ‘Not now.’
‘Yes, now.’ I fold my arms. There’s something liberating about picking a fight with someone you don’t care about. He can hate me all he likes after this and I won’t wake up desperate to plead my case, to beg him to return, to admonish myself for saying all the wrong things. It makes me bold. ‘How can you justify what you did? Do you really think that man deserved to be sent to the Void?’
‘Would it make a difference if I said no?’
‘No. If anything, that’d make it worse. Because you did it anyway.’ I can’t believe I was foolish enough to make a deal with him.
Sath runs a hand through his hair. ‘He was caught. There are rules here, ones I have to follow. The demons will accept nothing else. He had to be punished.’
‘Why are you bowing to the whims of the demons? Aren’t you the one in charge?’
‘Pardoning him would set a precedent.’ His jaw clenches. ‘I did the best I could with the situation at hand.’
How can he say that? How can hepossiblysay that?
‘You didn’t have to set him on fire! You should’ve –’
‘I should’vewhat?’ Sath closes in on me, forcing me against the wall. My back thuds against stone as hard as his expression.‘They wanted to send him to Tartarus. He’d have been tortured, torn apart and stitched together until the end of time. I spared him that pain. Those flames were a quick end, where I ensured he felt nothing.’
Oh. My shoulders sink. That’s better than what I was imagining, I suppose, but – ‘You still should’ve let him go. He’d done nothing wrong, and now he’s spending eons in the Void with his worst memories because ofyou.’
His throat bobs as fresh wisps of flame loop down his arm. ‘I did what I had to.’
‘Then you’re as bad as any demon,’ I say, ignoring the way he flinches. I’m the one with the power now. By trying to rationalise his actions, he’s played his hand – if he wants me to forgive him, it means he needs me. So, I take a deep breath and say, ‘Which means I quit.’
‘Youwhat?’
‘You heard me.’ I shrug. ‘I don’t trust you. So, I quit. I won’t do the tasks.’
He can’t mask the flare of panic on his face in time. I press my lips together to hide my smile. When I agreed to his deal I was backed into a corner, unable to think about what I was agreeing to. From his expression, the taste of his own medicine isquitethe bitter experience.
‘You can’t quit.’ There’s an edge of desperation in his voice. ‘You want to go home, don’t you?’
‘Not if it means working with you,’ I say. Then, idly, I add, ‘Of course, I could be persuaded to reconsider.’
‘Really,’ he says flatly. I can’t tell if he wants to laugh or strangle me. Maybe he wants to laughwhilestrangling me. ‘Let me guess. You want something.’
‘I want to know what you’re getting out of this. Why do you want me to complete these tasks so badly?’
Chatter rings out in the distance – a group of humans who’veleft Dionysus are staggering down the corridor we’re occupying.
Sath huffs, closing the gap between us and angling his body so all they’ll see is the back of his head. I stiffen. He’s too close like this. ‘I can tell you this much,’ he murmurs, breath fanning my face, ‘if you were to succeed, a certain concession would be granted to me. Something I want very much.’
‘But you won’t tell me what it is.’ For all I know, his concession could belet’s close that loophole where a girl gets to go home if she completes a series of stupid tasks.‘If it’s that important, why wait till now to offer the tasks to someone?’
‘You assume you’re the first.’ His hand snakes around my waist, drawing me flush against him as the humans pass. I wriggle as he dips his head, placing his mouth to my ear and whispering, ‘You’re not.’
‘And what happened to the last one?’ The humans disappear round the corner, and I shove him away. ‘Let me guess. You won’t tell me that either. Because I won’t like the answer, will I?’
He sighs. ‘If you must know, they’re in the Void. But –’ he holds up a hand to stop me interrupting – ‘only because they tried other means of escaping after they failed. I couldn’t save them any more than I could save that man tonight. But if you fail, that doesn’t have to be your ending. Not if you behave afterwards.’
