Page 57 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
“I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” Lily said, pulling her hand free of my grip as we hurried through the crack in the cliff and into the tunnels under Niagara Falls. The sound of alarms was abruptly replaced with the mind-numbing roar of the water.
“Yes, I’ve gathered that,” I grumbled. “Not sure why that’s such a big deal after all I’ve done for you.”
“For me?” she snapped, glaring at me but not slowing down. “Tell me the truth, Belial. No more lies.”
“Okay. If it helps explain why you aren’t feeling particularly grateful for my rescue of you, then let’s do it.”
Lily darted ahead to block my path, her arms crossed, eyes burning with golden fire. “Grateful?Grateful? Why should I feel grateful when you’re the one who put the bounty on my head in the first place, Belial? It was you, wasn’t it? You wanted me brought in.Youdid this to me. All of this. Tore me away from my home. Made sure I was the one tossed in jail. This isyourfault.”
I didn’t hesitate. I stared her straight in the eyes, letting her see I wasn’t hiding from her, from the truth, from anything.
“Yes,” I said bluntly. “I did. I was the one who went to Dannorax after you invaded my mind. I was the one who told him who you were and where to find you. I was also the one who went back to him after you tried again and said I would come for you personally. I wanted to be the one who dragged you in, who saw you put before the court. I wanted to be the one who claimed you and punished you. That is what I wanted whenyouinvaded my mind.”
“So, you admit it. You admit—”
“I admit that I did what was normal,” I continued, cutting her off. I also picked her up and started moving her down the tunnel toward the exit. There was no time to be standing around, waiting. After a half-dozen steps, she slipped free, walking on her own.
The tour group—it was apparently daytime on Earth now. I hadn’t bothered to think about it—glanced over as we appeared from what seemed to be a dead-end corridor, but nobody questioned anything as we walked up. I was back in my human form, my true nature once more concealed from everyone.
“I also admit that from the moment I saw you, nothing else went according to plan,” I continued. “I admit that something inside me diverged at that point. I no longer wanted to see you suffer for your actions. After I met you, I knew I knew I could no longer support that.”
“Why not?” she asked, subdued.
“Because somehow, you, or something about you, made me feel differently about it,” I said, struggling to make sure I got the right words out in the right order. Everything was tingly, making it harder to focus and do what I wanted.
“Different? How?”
We walked up into the tourist center, moving in and among the crowds of visitors, making it difficult for anyone to pick us out. I was tall, but others near my height dotted the groups.
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head as we walked outside, hurrying down the walkway next to the Falls, eager to get as far away from the area as possible before Victor and his guards, all with magical disguises on, came pouring out looking for us.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t explain it. I’m not sure. You’re different. You aren’t what I expected. Then the contract bound us, and everything changed again.”
“How can I trust you?” she asked.
“Lily, I threw down in the middle of the courtroom against the man who wanted to claim you. A man who would have tortured your body and soul, made you scream for death as mercy before he finally turned you into a vampire to continue your torment for who knows how long. I stopped him. I put myself between you and a dragon to try to save you. I fought my brother.For you. I’ve now broken you out of prison, which will have all sorts of repercussions for me. Again, I did it not for myself but foryou. I think I’ve proven that you can trust me.”
“Then why did you never tell me the truth about you?” she asked.
“Because I had long since stopped thinking like that,” I told her. “It didn’t occur to me. I was too busy trying to help you. And truthfully, I don’t believe either of us is truly to blame. You may have made a mistake, but you still did it. The same could be said for me. Neither of us is completely innocent, and I want to worry more about the here and the now, not so much the past.”
She still wasn’t fully convinced.
“Listen, Lily,” I said, coming to a stop, looking her straight on while the water poured over the edge behind me, leaving a glistening rainbow under the bright sun. “This is up to you. I’ve laid it bare on my end. Told you everything. You know the truth now. The full truth. I’m not hiding anything, not anymore. No more holding back. But you’ve got to decide. Right here, right now. Do you believe me, and will you help me get you to safety? Or do you try to do it your own way? Because I’m not going to fight you on this anymore.”
She licked her lips nervously, eyes darting about through the crowd, even as her emotions raced through her mind, constantly changing until they settled on one: nerves.
“And what if I choose to believe you? What then?”
“Then,” I said, holding out a hand, “we find out how your mother and my brother are linked. We get to the bottom of that.”
She nodded slowly. “There’s something else we should get to the bottom of.”
“What’s that?” I frowned, trying to think about what I’d missed. Sure, there was Dannorax and Victor to sort out, but I was fairly positive I could do that in my own time. Enough gold would see Dannorax sated—I hoped. Victor would be more difficult, but I was confident I could work something out.
“When the minotaurs tried to take me away,” she said. “I grew strong. Something inside me snapped, and I got strong. Really strong. I hit them, and they went down.Me, Belial, how could I do that?”
