Page 32 of Worth the Fall

I took one last steady breath and eased the door open cautiously before stepping into the hallway. Maneuvering around the unsuspecting demons, we made our way toward the staircase, down and down until we reached the first floor.

Luckily, none of the demons seemed to notice our presence nor did we catch sight of Ilo searching for Dru. But I wasn’t holding out hope that couldn’t change. It was only a matter of time until the demon came looking.

The crowd was thick at the base of the stairs, making it impossible for us to worm our way through to the front door. Tugging Dru with me, we slunk between multiple groups of demons, holding our breaths the whole way until we reached the back door and slipped out into the night.

“Keep close,” I whispered as we tiptoed across the patio along the shadows of a tall, manicured hedge. Once we cleared them, we slipped out of our heels and broke into a run toward a small park surrounded by a jogging path dotted with streetlamps and ginkgo trees. To the right, the street that ran along the river lay dark and empty. The silence was unnerving. The only sound was our labored breathing as we slumped against a tree trunk.

“We should keep moving,” Dru gasped through her shaky breaths.

I could only nod as I gulped down more air, ignoring the twinging ache in my left hand as we jogged silently through the trees. A sharp pain lanced up my arm and it felt like barbed wire was digging into the skin around my wrist, stopping me dead in my tracks before I’d made it even a few feet.

The fucking mark.

I’d put too much distance between myself and Vain. Dru firmly tugged at my other arm, which she still clung to. “Come on, we have to keep going!”

If I could have removed the mark right there, I would have. But breaking the tether would require me to break Rory’s mark at the same time. And without him here, it was impossible. I marveled at my own stupidity and stubbornness, but I refused to subject Dru to the same fate. There was still a chance for her to escape, and I would not drag her down with me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, straining through the pain of the burning ache that was slowly radiating up my forearm. “I can’t go any farther. You need to get past that tree line and run.”

“No, don’t leave me, please! I can’t go alone!” Dru pleaded as she gripped my arm tighter than before. When I tried to push her off of me, she refused to budge.

“Dru, you have to run.”

The back of my neck prickled and I spun around, squinting into the trees only to find nothing staring back. Still, I had a gnawing sensation that there were eyes watching us from the shadows, and that lingering unease sent goosebumps washing over every inch of my skin. What was worse was that all around us was nothing but dead silence, as if every living thing, even the air itself, was holding its breath. Quiet. Watching. Waiting.

“I can smell you, little witch,” Ilo’s slick voice called from somewhere behind us and we both jerked, tensing at the sound. “Your fear…it’s intoxicating.”

Dru let out a strangled cry next to me. I shushed her as I struggled to find her mouth to clamp my hand over it.

“Did you really think you could get away with stealing from me?” The demon tsked. “Very, very naughty.”

I whipped my head around toward the sound of his voice, but Ilo wasn’t there. The demon kept to the shadows, lurking in every corner of the dark as he sent out tendrils of dread to comb through the trees.

“There you are.”

The demon came into view over Dru’s shoulder with a vicious smile cut wide across his face. Not even Vain’s eyes could compare to the dark black pits of Ilo’s as he prowled closer, pinning me to the spot when he fixed them on me through my illusion charm. With a wave of his hand in front of my face, the charm melted off me, and I had never felt so bare in all my life.

Ilo squeezed the hollows of my cheeks with surprisingly claw-like fingers for a human vessel. They dug into my flesh like spears of ice.

“Vain always did have poor taste in pets,” Ilo crooned. His wet tongue flashed across his lips, and my back pressed into the rough bark of the tree.

The ache of the mark on my wrist was a continuous burn. A desperate gnawing pang coursed through my body, with each pulse spreading further up my arm and across my chest as the tether between me and Vain stretched precariously thin. If pulled too far apart, this pain would destroy us both.

Vain would come. He would come for me.

As long as Ghen didn’t destroy him first.

Dru cowered at my feet, and Ilo’s head snapped to her at the sound of her muffled whimpers.

“Save your tears, little one. You’ll cry for me later.” He waved his other hand over the crown of Dru’s head, and her obscuration charm fell away like sand, revealing her trembling form as she curled in on herself.

When Ilo spoke, I could feel the slick icy energy curling in the air around us, clinging to Dru most of all. A wave of nausea struck me at the realization. The demon was creating fear, then siphoning the elicited terror, feeding off it like a drug. It was no wonder Dru appeared so broken. I shuddered to imagine the horrible nightmares Ilo had forced Dru to endure, the unimaginable horrors he’d inflicted upon her both mentally and physically, all so he could use that fear he induced and take from her until she had nothing left to give.

“You’ve been very bad, Drusilla,” Ilo rasped, leaning down to her. “Tell me you love me, and maybe I’ll forgive you.”

I could practically taste the glamour as it swirled past me and took hold of Dru. Her eyes became wide and glassy, and her sobs shoved themselves back down her throat as her body visibly relaxed.

She leaned in towards the demon. Her voice went hollow, the sound tinny as she spoke. “I love you, Ilo.”