Page 15 of Realm of the Wicked

Finally, Damien turned the golden knob on an antique door, this one uncarved but smooth and heavy. ‘This is your room.’

I wasn’t sure what I had expected from my room, but more dungeon-esque was definitely up there. Instead, I stepped inside to find a comfortable-looking bedroom.

It was furnished like everything else I’d seen in the house so far, but much brighter. It didn’t look like the kind of room you kept a captive in. A warm cream covered the walls, with heavy velvet curtains just a shade darker draped across the dark windows. I tried to make out the grounds outside my window, but the dark was dense, and impossible to see through. A bookshelf lined one wall, empty spare a few ancient-looking books, and a matching wardrobe sat opposite the bed. The bed sprawled proudly against one wall, a lavish four-poster frame draped in gauzy white curtains. The fire Damien mentioned was flickering happily, the room much warmer than the halls we’d left behind. But still cold.

Damien waved his hand toward the wardrobe. ‘You’ll find whatever you need in there, I’m sure. If you’re missing anything, you can ask Agatha tomorrow. Bathroom is through there.’ He nodded his head toward the other door in the room. ‘Hopefully, you’ll find everything up to your standards.’

Archie squirmed in my arms, and I dropped him. He sprinted off, hiding beneath the bed, while I twisted my hands in front of me, trying to find the words I needed.

Damien gave me a cautious glance, eyes dark and searching. ‘If there’s nothing else you need for tonight, I’ll leave you be to get yourself settled.’

My words stuck to the tip of my tongue, tangling at the back of my throat so thickly, I thought I might choke. But Damien was turning the gold doorknob now, stepping out of the room, and who knew when I’d see him again or how I was even supposed to find him. It was now or never.

‘Damien, wait.’

He turned, and all at once, my legs gave out beneath me, my body finally giving in to the stress of the evening, of the last few weeks, of the last decade of my life. I stumbled, putting my hand out behind me to reach for the bed, trying to find it to collapse onto before I fell to the floor. The cracks I’d tried so hard to hold together, to fill in with whatever I could find, it felt as if they were breaking back open along the seams.

Damien was before me in a flash, catching me beneath my arms, his dark eyes filled with concern. ‘Are you okay?’

I nodded, trying to pretend I was just imagining the electricity racing from where he touched me, doing my best to focus on my breathing. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You have a funny way of acting like you’re fine.’ He helped me to sit back on the bed before immediately taking steps back, as if he couldn’t bear to touch me for longer than he had to. I couldn’t figure him out. He was an enigma.

‘Yeah, well, it hasn’t exactly been a normal night, has it?’ I glared across at him, unsure if I was angry at the space between us, or the fact he took me away from everything I knew to be true and real.

Damien leaned back against the dresser, casual and unaffected. I was quickly coming to understand this was his normal state of being.

It made sense for the Devil. Sort of. He must have seen all sorts of shit. Easy for him to brush things off for the most part. On the other hand, there was a possibility he was just a master actor and manipulator.

‘You were about to ask me something.’

‘Yes.’ I willed my body to stop trembling, even as my fingers and toes shook harder despite the warmth of the fireplace. I knew it for what it was. Fear. ‘I… I just don’t understand what my purpose is here. If you have a housekeeper, I doubt you need me to cook or clean. Am I here to be your sex slave or something? I just need some kind of direction. Something. Anything.’

‘Let’s get one thing straight.’ Damien crossed the room once more, crouching before me with his hands resting on those powerful thighs so that our eyes were level with each other. The familiar smell of dark woods washed over me. ‘You’re here for one reason, and one reason alone. I wanted you. And now I have you, Stella. All of you is mine for eternity. What I choose to do with you is up to me. Because as much as you’ll want to fight it, deny it, whatever, you’re here because you chose to be.’

He rose to his feet, his tall frame towering over me as he straightened the sleeves on his shirt. ‘Don’t look so afraid, Bambi. Forever isn’t really that long once you get used to it.’

Did he really just call me the name of a traumatized deer?

Without another word, Damien left my room, leaving me alone with my thoughts and doubts, wondering if my fear stemmed from my new reality, or the fact I wasn’t as frightened by the prospect of living with the Devil as I should be.

6

DAMIEN

I think I found myself obsessed with her the first time I watched her heart break.

Have you ever watched someone fall to pieces? You should. Just once.

They shatter like a pane of glass. At first, it’s a spiderweb of cracks, barely visible. Small enough you might be able to hold it together.

But it doesn’t stop there. It expands, breaking into so many bits, there’s no way you’d be able to hold it all together. Eventually, they’ll give up, all the tiny shards of their soul falling to the ground like worthless diamonds.

I’ve seen it a thousand times. A million, even. I’ve watched them crack, shatter, scream, sob, beg, throw things like it will fix the giant hole in their heart.

Stella didn’t do that. In fact, she never did what I expected. She broke. She stopped. She collected as much of the shrapnel as she could, putting herself back together with duct tape and hope.

For the first time, I found myself collecting some of those ‘worthless’ diamonds she left behind. I found myself captivated, curious to see what she would do next. She wasn’t like the rest of them. I couldn’t pin her next move, her emotions, her reactions.