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He sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees. “This entitles me to nothing unless you give it to me.” Fane jammed his fingers through his hair, his jaw tensing. “What about Barric? You’re supposed to be here.”
“It’ll just be a short visit. A few days.” I absentmindedly dragged my finger over a scar running down his hip. “Can’t we ask Camus to not tell Barric that I left? I had to endure that bullshit meeting and his daughter’s anger because he wouldn’t believe me over Dorian.”
Fane shook his head. “It’s not a good idea.”
I sighed and sat up, leaning my body against his. “You know what Ruin’s trying to do, and I want to help.”
“Ruin doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him.” He pressed his hands into the ground behind him, one of his arms curling around my back to keep me close. “I know him better than you. Trust me.”
“I don’t care how it benefits him as long as it benefits others.” My gaze lowered as I toyed with a scarlet leaf by my toes. “If something like synthetic soul had been available a few years ago, maybe Warin wouldn’t have gone after my friends and Jayla. And I wouldn’t have killed him.”
Fane grabbed my chin, angling my face toward his. “You can’t keep shouldering the blame for your friends’ deaths.”
That would never happen.
I pulled his grip off. “I can save people if I help Ruin make this. I can never take back that night, but if I can stop others from dying, then I have to do it.”
Fane studied me for the longest time, peeling back my layers and staring right into my soul. My skin prickled as we remained locked in a silent battle. He knew I wouldn’t back down, though. I couldn’t.
He finally sighed and raked his hand through his messy black locks. “Fine. But I’m going with you.”
* * *
Fane didn’t bother knockingon Ruin’s front door, which wasn’t even locked, so he just walked right in. I followed behind him but slammed into his back as he halted in the giant living room, his muscles like stone.
“Why are the lights off?” I whispered as my nape prickled. “And where is everyone?”
After receiving the note—and fooling around one last time—Fane and I drove back to the Anders’ to shower and change. Nora grinned as we booked it up the stairs. She knew exactly what we’d been doing.
Fane spoke to Camus, and he promised to keep quiet about me leaving as long as I returned in three days. That didn’t give us much time, but hopefully Ruin had a plan to get the Infernal Sol out of me or a way to harness its power for his formula.
“I don’t like this.” Fane searched the dim room. “That bastard is up to something. He probably set a trap to capture you so he could lock you up in his lab. He didn’t know I’d be with you, though.”
I rolled my eyes, not that he could see. “Ruin has no reason to lock me up. I’m here willingly. I want to do this. And I made a promise.”
His fingers wrapped around my wrist like he was about to snatch me up and drag me out of the house. “Maybe Ruin doesn’t want to give you a chance to change your mind or run when you realize he’s not as philanthropic as he pretends.”
“I’m not an idiot, Maverick.” I peered toward the left where a hall forked off the main room. Where was Ruin’s security team? What about Denton? I thought he would have greeted me at the door, eager to jab me with more needles. “Ruin is still a powerful demon lord, and he’s not innocent by any stretch of the imagination.”
Fane shook his head. “The smell is off in here. There’s blood.”
A droplet hit my shoulder, and I wiped it off with my fingers, something wet and dark coming away on the tips. I knew that smell.
Icy chills slinked down my spine as I craned my neck back, the moonlight catching on an object suspended high from the ceiling.
But it wasn’t the chandelier.
Air stuck in my lungs. “What the hell is that?”
Fane’s nostrils flared as he zeroed in on the wet substance on my fingers. He stepped around me and turned his attention to the ceiling.
“Ruin.” The name burst out of his mouth, and a string of curses followed. His gaze trailed from the ceiling and then across the room. He released my hand and bolted to the left.
I angled toward him. “What’s going on?”
“Back away.” Metallic shrieks filled the large room as Fane tugged on a chain to lower whatever the hell was dangling from the ceiling. As the object grew closer, a familiar form took shape, and my stomach clenched.
I stared at my hand and then at a puddle on the floor we’d almost stepped in. It was blood. Demon blood.
