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She looks up, as though sensing me there, her face stricken when her eyes catch my own. Instantly I am rewarded for my patience with the wood that she uses as a projectile, somehow managing to produce a surprising force through the bars of the cell.
That damned woman!
I block the wood with a solid forearm, wondering what else this infuriating yet somewhat courageous human has to throw at me next having already taken a blow and now this. Still my anger surges to the fore.
She intrigues me that is for sure, but I am still a demon and not to be trifled with. Surely, she should know this by now, she saw what I and others like me are capable of. She must know that if she continues in this way things will not go well for her.
I bare my canines at her, my words aimed at her like weapons. “I liked you better scared.”
13
CORA
“I couldn’t be afraid of you,” I bite back, both surprised and furious that he speaks in a language I can understand.
And that he can talk at all!
He could have said something while he was chasing me through the settlement instead of trying to scare the living daylights out of me. Then, I recall that collar he brandished, the one he’d intended to clap around my neck, and feel myself flush with true rage. “How dare you kidnap us and leave us in this reeking dungeon to starve!”
His eyes are narrowed, and his expression doesn’t change as he waves the guards away. “I’ll take care of this one. Leave us,” he says to them. They look at each other before departing, shutting the door behind themselves.
“You ruined our lives!” I continue, all my frustration rushing out of me at once as I grab the bars of the cage and shake with all my might. It doesn’t even rattle them. “You destroyed our settlement and could have killed my siblings in the process!
“Why didn’t you say anything? You hunted me down like an animal, out there,” I continue, my voice catching and tears of true fury springing to my eyes. Nothing I say changes that steeled expression on his face, like he doesn’t have a heart in that broad chest of his. “I thought you were going to kill me.”
Something in his eyes finally flares, but he smothers it with a frown. “Don’t think for a moment that I won’t, still.”
Where the other women were rallied by my fury, they drop back against the wall, hushing even their quiet murmurs. He likes to play at frightening, but I know better. When it was just he and I, racing through the woods, he had no intention of killing me.
And he doesn’t now.
A hateful grin comes over me. “Bullshit.
“You need us. I don’t know why, but you wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble to collect us, alive, for whatever evil plans you have. Nothing good could come from monsters like you. And believe me, we know a monster when we see one.” I look him up and down to make my point as the women behind me suck in a collective breath.
I’m playing with fire, and I know I’ll get burned, but I need to know how deep his façade goes. He’s a poor liar, that’s for sure. He can hardly keep his burgeoning emotions in check any longer, which I’ve just discovered that he has none at all. “You could have killed me, and you didn’t.
“Why?”
I swear, his pale eyes narrow a little more.
His jaw works, and he glances away, throwing a clawed hand through his ebony hair. “You are a human. You do not question a demon’s motives.”
Demon, I think, pulling back from the bars to better take in his tall, curved horns and powerful build. “Is that what you are? A demon?”
He says nothing.
“Well,” I say, trying not to let my resentment leak into my voice, and failing miserably. “I am here, questioning your motives, demon, because you took my sister away from me, and I have no idea what you and your kind are doing to her as we speak.”
His gaze flits back to me, surprise and confusion coming over him as he scrutinizes me with those unnerving eyes. “I don’t have your sister.”
“Yes, you do,” I say, cradling my injured hands against my chest. I’ve almost forgotten about them in all the excitement. “You took her while I was out cold, and you need to give her back! Until I see that she’s safe and sound, I’m not going to stop fighting with every inch of my being. She is all I have left.”
A troubled expression dawns on his pallid face, and he shakes his head. “I have not had anyone removed from the cell.”
I grit my teeth so tightly, I think they’re going to break. “You expect me to trust you over my own friends?” I wave to the women behind me, who shrink from the attention I impose on them. “They have no reason to lie to me, demon.
“But you do.”
