Page 111 of Hellbound

In her mind’s eye, her newborn shadows sharpened to dagger points and skewered Daniel Eaves through the heart. She reveled in those imagined screams, let the spray of his blood cleanse her of sin as a new day dawned: the first day of the rest of her life, free of the man who’d twisted her life into a prison.

Then she recoiled from it all with a horrified gasp.

No. That wasn’t who she was. She didn’t want him dead. She didn’t know what she wanted from him.

Shrinking out of Vale’s shadow, she backed into a surprised attendee in a white power suit. Daniel moved, too, his shocked face a mirror of Stellan’s. Tori appeared to the left in a flutter of gold and rapid clacking of high heels on marble. Horror flashed in her eyes, too.

They’d shown their hand. No—she’d shown their hand.

Doubt took hold of her. The tide shifted; Marian’s shadows halted their advance and squirmed as if in agony, then dissipated.

Stellan darted sharply right just as shadows erupted from Vale and seized him by the throat. Marian heard his neck snap, then watched as Stellan’s head popped back up as if he’d never been injured at all. Daniel had turned around and shoved his way through the crowd. Before Marian could do anything about it, a shadow leashed him around the middle and took him to the ground.

She’d never seen Vale’s shadows strike so viciously. Countless times, she’d felt them and they’d never once harmed her. Now it seemed with every stroke, they tested the Argent’s immortality. Stellan’s eyes rolled up into his head as he collapsed. Vale caught him by the arm before he hit the floor. Paul emerged from the crowd and quickly hauled an unconscious Daniel over his shoulder as Vale dragged Stellan to his feet.

Vale and Paul played the part of a conscientious guest and kindly waiter helping drunk patrons find their way. A sea of eyes followed them, yet not a single guest appeared at all perturbed by the scene. All while Marian’s head throbbed as if she hadn’t slept in days.

Paul’s brow glistened with sweat by the time they’d all made it to the door, as he’d handled two fully grown, unconscious men all by himself. Vale had been busy shepherding Marian, who couldn’t feel the ground under her feet.

The door to the courtyard swung open. With a hand on the small of her back, Vale pushed her into the cool night air. No sooner had Marian stepped onto pavement did her stomach finally give out. She doubled over and painted the concrete with champagne and crackers while Vale kept her from falling with an arm around her middle.

She’d barely stopped coughing when Vale spirited her across the Getty grounds to a dark, secluded garden nestled between the surrounding pavilions. Night had fallen, and beyond the manicured hedges, the lights of Los Angeles twinkled. It was against that backdrop that Paul Choi dropped her bound and gagged stepfather in the grass, then dragged a wakening Stellan Black up against the low concrete wall separating them from a long fall.

Vale took her by the elbow and led her, stumbling, to the Argent, whom Paul had forced to his knees on the pavement. At some point, Stellan had regained enough consciousness to snarl at Paul. Tori appeared from between two hedges.

Vale raised his hand and drew a tight circle in the air with his finger. Ropes of shadow and smoke burst into existence and wrapped around Stellan, binding his legs and arms tightly.

The Argent’s eyes flared wide. He glared at each of them in turn before jeering at Vale.

“This is quite the zoo you’ve got here, Vale. But you always did prefer the company of animals.”

Vale flashed Stellan a murderous smile. “Says the hound brought to heel. Where is your mistress?”

“Wait, wait,” came Tori’s fearful voice. “Who is that? Why is he here?” She pointed at the second bound man before them. Daniel.

“My stepfather,” Marian replied, unable to conceal the tremor in her voice. “He’s the money behind Stellan and Verinne. That’s how you kept getting ahead, wasn’t it? You funded their businesses in exchange for the influence.”

Daniel looked like he might spit acid if he’d been slightly less perturbed by his predicament. “It’s called an ‘investment,’ you ungrateful little shit.”

Stellan interrupted with a peal of laughter. “Verinne’s done living under your thumb, and I’m sick of rebuilding my empire every damn decade. We all are, and we want the truth: why are you doing this? What are you hiding?”

“The truth?” Vale replied. “Yes, because you’ve suffered so much these past years what with Mr. Eaves’s safety net in place. The human gave you financial security in exchange for connections. Renown. Friends in high places.”

Vale’s words cut through the discord like a knife. No one spoke as he strolled toward Daniel, every eye on him. He visibly flinched as Vale leveled him with an icy stare to match the frost in his voice.

“Then your clever stepdaughter started looking into where all that money was going. Money that belonged to the church. And when you realized how close she was to the truth, you tried to destroy her.”

Vale’s words wiped the anger from Daniel’s face. Stellan’s gaze flicked across the courtyard, turmoil and irritation plain for all to see. Marian had gone hollow, her mind miles above her body as pieces of the hideous puzzle clicked into place. She’d been part of it all along—just another segment of this wretched ouroboros.

Once again: how could Vale know any of that?

Shadows unfurled behind Vale as he approached the bound men. Daniel broke the silence with a keening cry.

“Hey, we can do business, too. Just let me go and we’ll figure something out. Whatever Marian told you is total horseshit. She’s a manipulative little bi—”

Marian flinched at the snap of a shadowy lash striking Daniel across the face. She watched as it coiled around his neck so tight, her stepfather’s eyes bulged out of his head. She took an uncertain step forward as Vale growled. “Slander her again and you’ll eat your own tongue tonight.”

“Don’t,” Marian rasped, bewildered by the anguish wracking her bones at the sight of her stepfather struggling to breathe. She’d dreamed of taking him down. Committed her existence to it. But this felt so wrong.