Page 121 of The Demon Court

Her fingers trailed over the door as she stepped outside, and they sank into deep grooves in the wood. She let her fingers linger in the marks left by his horns where he had slid down the door, and then twin indents where he’d likely pressed them so hard that they’d left two perfect holes. Exactly where his head must have been as he leaned there, hoping she’d let him in.

“Oh, Lust,” she whispered sadly. “I’m so sorry.”

And then she fled. Like the coward she was, she ran through the hall to the painting that shifted easily under her hand. She moved through the servant’s hidden passages, all as clean and glistening as the rest of the castle.

She didn’t notice any of the details. Tears burned in her eyes and turned her vision blurry. Her mind scattered with the thoughts of what he would do and feel when he realized she was missing, not just ignoring him.

He’d come for her. She knew he would. But Minerva had made it very clear that she would disappear if their home was ever compromised. There were secrets in this kingdom that even Lust didn’t know. Caverns and caves and merchant paths to other kingdoms. They would flee somewhere he’d never find them.

Swallowing hard, she slipped out of the last room and into the gardens. She pulled her hood up over her head so she’d appear to be another servant moving about their day. Perhaps one who had been here all night and now struggled back to their home to sleep.

But as she stepped out of the shadows and into the light, a hand wrapped around her shoulder and jerked her back into the darkness.

Not back into the castle, as she’d have expected. Instead, she was dragged around the edge of it until she stood dangerously close to open air. The man who had her in his grip slammed her back against the stone walls, his forearm braced over her neck.

Wheezing, she stared up into the golden gaze of Greed.

He glared down at her, and she realized that though she had perhaps seen him annoyed, until this point she had never seen him angry. With his brows furrowed, his arm pressing against her windpipe as though he couldn’t quite stop himself from causing pain, she realized he was far more dangerous than his brother.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he snarled.

“Leaving,” she ground out through a sharp exhale.

“And does my brother know? Or are you sneaking away before he can tell you otherwise?” The arm pressed even harder, threatening to break something important. “Don’t answer that. I think I already know. Now, I’m going to bring you back inside that castle, throw you at his feet, and you are going to beg for his forgiveness. Sound good?”

He started to move away from her, but Selene could not let him ruin this. She stepped to the side, jabbed him hard in the throat, and then stepped closer to the edge.

Greed froze, eyeing her with perhaps a new found respect. He seemed to understand that she would throw herself off the cliff if he moved too close, and that she wouldn’t hesitate to do so.

“I’m dying,” she said, her voice raspy from his attack.

“I know. He told me.” Greed rolled his shoulders. “It was hard to miss. He had torn the library apart.”

Stones skittered from behind her heel. She froze at the same moment Greed flinched forward. His hand floated between them, just close enough that she could grab onto him if she needed to. But she got her balance and straightened.

Breathing hard, she shook her head. “I can’t stay here.”

“He’s determined to fix you. And whether you want to stay here or not, I don’t care. You have done something to him, something that I don’t think can be fixed. You have no choice now. You have to stay.” Greed’s eyes flashed like coins in sunlight. “Even if I want to keep you for myself.”

“Ew,” she hissed. “And if you think I’ve made some impact on his life, let me clarify something. Would he be better off thinking I’m alive and dealing with the loss of me, than watching me die in front of him and knowing he’ll never get me back?”

A flicker of reality played behind Greed’s eyes. He seemed to understand what she meant, and the difficult choice she had to make.

But Selene needed to know he understood. Completely. “If I could stay, I would. This curse is not going away. I cannot break it and neither can he. The best option I have of surviving this is to return to the White Tower and pray that my mother sees fit to cast some pity upon me. He will not let me return, because he knows if I go back, they will not let me go.” Her voice choked with emotion and she had to shake her head to clear it. “Don’t make him watch me die.”

Greed swallowed hard, his throat working through some unnamed emotion that he shouldn’t be able to feel. “I don’t think you understand what you’ve done to him.”

“Exactly what he’s done to me,” she whispered. “I know we carved each other apart and laid a piece of ourselves into those wounds. I know he thinks that we’ve changed each other. And maybe we have. But I will not let him sit there and watch me die knowing that he can do nothing. I can’t feel the guilt for that while trying to save my own life.”

Again he reached for her, shaking his hand as though he wanted her to take it. “You have underestimated your king. If anyone can fix you, it is him. Just give him enough time to do so.”

“Don’t make me choose between him and my life.” Tears slid down her cheeks, the drops warm and burning against her skin. “Don’t force me to make that decision, Greed.”

“Because you would choose yourself?” He straightened and relief filtered across his face. “Perhaps this is not the situation I suspected it to be.”

“Because I will die in his arms if I have to.” Her voice sounded wrong. Thick and choked with emotion when she had never been an emotional person. “I am making this choice for both of us, don’t you see? If I choose to leave, if I succeed in putting this castle and all that happened within it behind me, then I die alone. Or if I somehow don’t die and the High Sorceress lets me live, then I will suffer with this choice for the rest of my life. He can move on. He can go back to normal and find some semblance of happiness while I...” She sniffed hard. “While I live with the guilt. I will shoulder the burden so he doesn’t have to.”

His shoulders rounded forward in defeat. “You feel something for him.”

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