Page 32 of Devil's Debt

“Don’t worry about forgetting names, since you can barely see anyone’s faces,” he says to me at one point when I feel dizzy and overwhelmed.

“Plus, everyone is in costume. How did Elenora fix those horns for you?” I ask, and he says nothing, leading me onward into one of the private rooms that I haven’t been into before. Thisone has crystals hanging from the ceiling, a pool in the middle, a fountain trickling over a statue, and the air is warm, heavy, humid. Rainbows refract off of everything, lending a shimmery, incandescent quality to the air.

“She didn’t,” he says quietly, and when he turns to look at me, “do you need something to drink?”

My throat is dry, and the champagne long gone, the glass taken by some industrious server.

“I... guess,” I say, and he nods, disappearing from the doorway. I’m left alone, the distant music filling my veins with something just as sparkly, as beautiful as the crystals glimmering up above.

I turn to look around the room. It’s circular, with low seating around the edge of the wall. I walk up to the fountain in the middle, and what seemed a hazy figure from the doorway clarifies into a sculpture of a man and a throne. He stands in front of it, one foot on the throne itself, looking upward to where the water pours down from the ceiling above over him.

Horns erupt from his head, and I realize he is some sort of demon, his throne sitting on a pile of skulls.

A shiver, not a good one, rolls through me, and I back up when I see something.

The sculpture, the demon? His eyes are the only thing about him that is painted, the rest of him carved out of a blackened marble, making them stand out all the more. His eyes, they are bright gold, like Hadrion’s.

Something firm behind me has me bumping into it, and I turn with a gasp, staring up at a strange man I haven’t met before, only he isn’t wearing a mask.

“So here is the key to everything,” he breathes, eyes lighting on me, his lips curling into a smile. His face is angular, and his eyes, unlike Hadrion’s, are dark, a brown that seems to eat the light, and he smells of something bitter. “The girl who stole Hades’s heart.”

“I—I didn’t, he’s not, you mean, Hadrion? “ I stammer, my words the barest whisper, but he ignores me, lifting his hand to my face, his fingers curled in, the backs of his knuckles running over my cheek. My body is still frozen in place, and for some reason, I cannot move.

“Oh, he is. He thinks you’re the answer to everything.” He swallows thickly, and that’s when I notice a band of leather around his neck, dark maroon, almost wet-looking, like it’s soaked in...

Blood.

That’s what I smell, copper, heavy on the back of my tongue. My heart starts to speed up, beating furiously, as I try to move a single inch. It’s like when you’re in bed and you wake up, but your body won’t move, weighed down by an invisible force. I try to work my throat, but even with that, all I can do is let out a soft gasp.

He bares his teeth, canines sharp and rough, as he smirks down at me.

“If I kill you now, and take that key, he’ll have no one. He’ll be back to where he was.”

“He’s... not...” My lips are barely moving. My eyes blink slowly, tears collecting at the corners of them. “Who are... you?” I choke out, inhaling. My fingers tremble, they’re barely moving, and I feel like if I could just scream, or move my hand, I could breakthis spell.

“Someone who doesn’t want his kingdom stolen from him.” The man’s hands are on my shoulders now, gripping me tight. My body feels heavy, so heavy, like lead is running through my veins. “And if I ripped out your throat,” he murmurs, “all of this goes away.” He leans down, and my lips part again, desperate to scream, to move, to do anything.

A roar behind him echoes through the room, shaking the crystals above us. I feel a vibration, a tinkling, as some of them fall and shatter on the floor, the rainbowed light falling in pieces.

And then the man’s hands are gone, and he is pulled backward, off of his feet. He turns, striking a punch across Hadrion’s face. Hadrion grabs him, turning him, locking him tight with an arm around the man’s throat. He struggles, lifting his hands up to claw at Hadrion’s wrist, even as he stares at me.

Those dull, dark eyes, the ones that suck up every bit of light, narrow. His lips spread into a delighted smirk, and then he closes his eyes, and—

He disappears.

Smoke, ash-gray, billows out from under Hadrion’s arm, the smell of burning and copper scenting the air.

The man has completely vanished, and just as he has, my body breaks free of whatever has been holding it still. The fear, maybe the adrenaline.

My knees bend, and I drop to the ground in a flutter of silk as my dress pools around me.

Hadrion’s eyes widen, and he looks at me.

“Katy,” he says, his voice tight, and then he’s next to me, the heat of him surrounding me, his arms around my body. “Did he hurt you?” He demands. “Did he do anything?”

“No,” I manage to say, my heart racing.

“You’re safe, you’re safe, he’s gone, he can’t hurt you,” Hadrion assures me, and his grip is strong as he holds me tight.

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