Page 86 of Hellbound

“What did you do? What did I do?”

“I kept my promise; my power can no longer harm you. It’s a part of you just as it was a part of me. Your life is mine.”

He spoke slowly, as if taking great pleasure from each word. His voice dragged over her, scraping at her nerves. She nearly choked on the swell of revulsion in her throat.

“This is a collar.”

“Yes, it is.”

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. But whatever she’d done felt inexorable; an immovable yolk on her soul far stronger than any bargain she’d ever made with a demon. She glared at him as he stood there, haloed by gently undulating shadow.

“All this time, you knew about my scar, the knife.” Marian hissed through bared teeth. “You played me. You lied to me!”

His eyes sparked their eerie blue. He stalked toward her, his shadows trailing him. “I did what had to be done.”

The anger in his voice caught her off guard. He’d never spoken to her like that; every reproach he’d slung was always blunted by wry humor. Or indifference. This was something new she’d provoked.

He hooked a finger in the knot of his tie, loosening it until it hung slack from his shadow-marked neck. The impassive mask fell back into place, broken only by the sparse cracks in his disguise. He’d never looked less human as the sun sank behind him through the balcony window. “If you want the truth, ask the right questions.”

Marian balled her hands at her sides. “You’re not just some demon, are you?”

“No.”

“You’re the devil.”

A scoff. “That’d be the simplest explanation, wouldn’t it?” He stepped toward her, his imposing form triggering Marian’s instinct to stay away. She backed up and winced as the metal around her neck tightened. “But I’m afraid the truth is rarely simple. There is no devil, nor are there demons.”

Every word from his lips fell like an executioner’s axe. Marian’s stomach lurched as she tripped over her own thoughts. She shook her head, the lie stoking the flames of her righteous fury higher. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“There is no Hell, either.” He took another step forward, ignoring her outburst.

What?

How could it be anything but Hell? But even as she dashed the thought, her convictions fractured, certainties unraveling as she struggled to cling to them. His answer went against everything she knew. Marian was damned. It was Hell that awaited her after death. Every death.

“But I’ve been there. I’m damned. I saw—”

“What?” Vale replied, his words soft and cutting all at once as he advanced on her. “What is it that you think you’ve seen? A place of punishment? Eternal torture for the sinners of this world? Odd that it’s so empty then, isn’t it? What even is sin, Marian? How is it measured, and who measures it? Deep down, do you really believe that such a trite place exists? Could it be that your travels beyond the veil have led you somewhere else entirely?”

Marian stared. Her scathing reply died on her tongue as his words sank in. Doubt festered in her mind. She hesitated as bewilderment doused her anger. “It has to be Hell. Nothing else makes sense.”

He canted his head. “Really? ‘Nothing?’ That sounds like Christian brainwashing. Who convinced you of your guilt? A priest? A parent? Or was it self-inflicted?” Each word oozed derision.

Fury flared behind her ribs and exploded out of her in a roar.

“Shut the fuck up.”

He stalked toward her. This time, Marian stood her ground.

“What you call ‘Hell’ is a world your kind was never meant to see. It’s what remains of my home and the life that once filled it. The life they corrupted beyond recognition.”

Silence hung in the air as Marian stilled. Vale stared at her, his stern, impenetrable expression failing for a split second, giving her a fleeting glimpse of a yearning so haunting that Marian finally recognized that she had no idea what he really was.

This was too much. There were so many questions hurtling through her mind.

“Who’s ‘they?’ ”

“The beings you believe to be demons are the Argent—gods whose defiance of death brought about the ruin of our world and all life within it. They broke their promise to uphold natural order. Now the souls they left behind are trapped in a prison of existence. These Argent are as endless as I am, and they do not know death.”