Page 73 of Hellbound

“You,” Marian said slowly, her voice quaking with rage. “Fucking. Rat.”

“It wasn’t all a lie,” Tori squeaked as her hands fell to her lap. She looked up at Marian balefully. “My client is going to kill me. I was supposed to take you to her when we came back from Hell, with or without your artifact, but I couldn’t go through with it. Now she’s pissed. I’ve been hiding from her and her cronies ever since.”

The truth was somehow so much worse than Marian could have guessed. It went off like a bomb inside her, scattering her raucous thoughts until she could no longer parse the chaos. Tori could have been her doom. Tori could still be her doom.

Another demon was after her. Not just Stellan.

I think you know who, too.

“Verinne sent you to kidnap me, didn’t she?”

Tori heaved the heaviest sigh Marian had ever heard.

Marian took another directionless step into the room. Her hands trembled. She wanted to punch something, scream, and tear her hair out all at once. She should have throttled Tori right then and there. Though Verinne deserved it more. Pity her kind were indestructible.

And to think Marian almost believed the demon had changed for the better. But courting Marian, letting her believe she had a choice? A ruse she should have seen through.

Every demon seemed to get its way in the end.

“She contracted me a year ago to be her personal lie detector, but she kept my truth-telling gift a secret from the rest of her people. She used me on her own staff. The ones who lied vanished overnight. She’s recruited other Gifted people like me. People with weird little powers in desperate need of money.”

Marian stared agape as Tori continued.

“I’m not a good traveler. I’ve only been to Hell a few times; passing through the veil is hard for me. It hurts, like I’m not supposed to be there. She wants divers but can’t seem to get them to stick around.”

“How did you go from lie detector to human trafficker?” Marian growled.

Tori winced. “She thought … I was soft enough to tempt you. That you wouldn’t turn me away if I came to you with a problem. The money was OK, but never enough. My family needed more. Verinne made a deal with me. She’d help us in exchange for you.”

Marian stood there, staring at the traveler as she realized she had no idea what the fuck she wanted to do about this. Everything she’d just learned knotted up inside her in one angry mess.

The room was suddenly stifling hot. Marian tore off her ball cap as she dragged a sleeve across her damp brow. “Do her goons have any idea where to look for you?”

Fear flashed across Tori’s face. “Just Roman.”

“Who’s Roman?”

Tori began to wring her hands in her lap.

“A manipulator who’s obsessed with demons and a Gifted white boy who likes to brag about how he got expelled in fifth grade for trying to summon Satan in the girl’s bathroom. Verinne treats him like a bloodhound, and he adores her. She keeps telling him Hell will unlock his true potential.”

Marian hesitated as her thoughts jumped to a new track. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Tori let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. “I know she sent Roman after me because she always sends Roman after people who defy her. I live with my parents, and I can’t risk them getting hurt if Roman tracks me down. That’s why I’m here, losing my mind in this gross motel room instead of at home. My mom, she—”

Tori’s voice cracked as her breath hitched. “I made a lot of mistakes, but I won’t let my family pay the price for them. I’m sorry I lied to you. I really am. Now please forget you were ever here and stay away from Verinne.”

Marian’s jaw set as she agonized over what to do next. She had every right to leave Tori to her fate and run. But that part of her quieted as Marian took stock of Tori, who’d been waiting to die because she wouldn’t hand Marian over to a demon. But Marian wasn’t going to get any more money from this woman, so what was the point of staying?

She saved your life.

Tori had been primed to betray her to a monster.

But she didn’t. And now she’s going to pay the ultimate price for that.

Tori was a pawn, not the player. Another desperate soul caught up in this otherworldly mess. And she was going to die alone to protect her family. A family she loved enough to die for. Marian had nothing and no one.

It seemed so backwards.