Page 72 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“Are we going somewhere?” I ask. He glances up and drops his gaze down my body. His lips twitch in appreciation.

“I find the luxurious fabrics and refined products wash away the lingering scent of hell.”

“Jeans and T-shirt would have been fine,” I mumble as I perch on the edge of an armchair. I’m certain this dress will wrinkle the second I scrunch any part of it.

He scrunches his nose, like he finds them offensive. “Exquisite creatures should be dressed in exquisite clothing.”

“So where are we going?” I ask.

“Nowhere.” A soft knock sounds on the wooden door. “Enter,” Ant says as he folds himself into the chair opposite me.

A stout woman with a neat bun of silver hair shuffles in the room backwards, the clanging of silverware following her on a trolley. She turns, her white eyes passing over me as she pushes the trolley with silver domes towards Ant. She stops an inch before his chair. “Thank you, Margaret,” he says. She bows her head, and without acknowledging my presence, escapes back through the door.

“She’s blind?”

He leans forward and plucks the silver domes from the plates, the smell of lemony salmon and herby potatoes drifts to me. “I rescued Margaret from a nasty senate demon,” he says. Explains the blindness, to look upon one in their true form meant you went blind. But it didn’t explain why he rescued her.

“I thought you would be ecstatic to have souls sucked into Hell by demons?”

He shakes his head. “Margaret is a kind soul, her place was never in hell. She deserves better. But after what she witnessed, I couldn’t allow her to go running around trying to gain the attention of the human authorities. So I offered her a choice, she could either have her memories wiped or work for me.”

“And she chose to work for you?”

“Margaret is a widow who married her childhood sweetheart. They couldn’t have children, so they fostered. She has an abundance of memories. She gave a haven to children who would otherwise be in a cruel system.”

“She didn’t want to forget?”

“Two years before he died, her husband developed Alzheimer’s. It’s her worst fear.”

“You’re a big softie.”

His lips twitch just as my stomach rumbles and cramps as I groan. He slips the plate onto the table in front of me and passes me silverware with a white linen napkin. I glance at the dress. This is going to be a test of my manners, I’m starving and wearing a dress which shoutsI will stain and wrinkle if breathed on.

I dig my fork into the flaky pastry surrounding the salmon and begin peeling back the layer. I might be ravenous but my habits were still intact. Shoving the delicious buttery pastry in my mouth, I moan in pure delight as it melts.

“Did they not feed you?” Ant asks.

I shake my head. “No, I wasn’t there long enough.”

He blinks and blanks his expression. “Natia, you’ve been missing for three days.”

My fork pauses, the salmon millimeters from my mouth. “I was in Hell for three days?”

“Depending on where you are in hell. It may feel like a day in hell, but it was three on Earth.”

My mind swirls. I need to contact them to let them know I’m okay. My heart pangs at my immediate thought of Duncan. I blink back tears.

Ant reaches across and swipes at my cheek, wiping the escapee tear. “What is on your mind?”

“I was helpless,” I whisper.

“You were never helpless, Natia. You have a strength most never achieve.”

“I couldn’t use my power.”

“Why?”

“Archan told me.”

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