Twenty-Two

The Abomination

The sound of a door closing woke me up. Blinking, it took me a moment to remember where I was. The early morning light came through the blinds and everything from the night before came back in a flurry of excitment, fear, and disbelief.

I sat up and spun around to see Rathe sprawled out beside me on the bed. His beautiful back exposed and his hair a perfect mess. He was here. Everything last night had been real.

The door that had woken me closed again. Duely was never up this early. I wanted to curl up against Rathe and stay in bed with him forever, but the closing of the door was not normal. I had to make sure we were safe. That I kept Rathe safe.

I eased out of bed looking around for my clothes and not seeing anything but my panties. I didn’t want to wake Rathe by going through my suitcases. More noises from the kitchen began to worry me. This was not normal. I didn’t have time to look for my clothes.

“Mihi exhiberet convivium” I whispered.

Glancing down and seeing clothes from last night covering my body again, I headed for the door. Opening it so that it didn’t make a sound, I stepped into the hallway and walked the few steps to the living room and kitchen area. Duely was sitting at the bar with a cup of coffee. He held it up when he saw me. “Cheers,” he said. “About time you got you some.”

“Shhh, keep your voice down,” I whispered. “And how do you know about that?” When I had finally fallen asleep in Rathe’s arms last night, the bar was still going strong.

Duely smirked. “I brought you some food last night. I think Rathe shouting curse words and you screaming his name was my first clue. Sounded like a hot and sexy time.”

Duely took a drink of his coffee, looking amused.

“Oh,” I said, knowing Duely was the last person in front of whom I should feel embarassed given all his sexcapades. I still felt awkward knowing he’d heard us.

“You will need to work on not losing control of your power when you have sex next time though. It’s hard to remember at first, but you will have to or you’re going to make something burst into flames. If it’s the bed then that’ll hurt like a bitch.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked him completely confused. I hadn’t used any magic last night.

He spun his finger in the air. “The power pulsing in here was intense last night. Almost knocked me on my ass and I was outside the door.”

“But I wasn’t using magic,” I said again.

“That’s not what I am saying, Snow White. The energy you were putting off without realizing it is normal, but only when two casters are fucking can that be safe. He’s not a caster so you can’t let that side of you go free. It’s not safe.”

Why had no one mentioned this to me before? Had last night been good only because I was swirling magic around and had no idea? My stomach knotted up at the idea.

“Was... did that make... was I making it... was it good because of what I was doing?” I was bright red now. I hated having to ask this.

“If it was, would that bother you? It’s who you are so it’s a part of you and that’s the same as someone having a big dick and knowing how to use it. Or a wet tight pussy that squeezes you just right.”

I shook my head, not following this at all. “I don’t want magic to be the reason why sex between us was good. That sounds like cheating. Lying.”

Duely rolled his eyes. “Our lives are a lie. We are charmed.”

“Cursed. We are cursed,” I corrected him, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Sex with you will always be different for anyone you have sex with. Good different. Because you’re different. You have powers and the charm makes sex with you even more intense for regular humans. But that isn’t from the energy you were unleashing last night. The only person who could feel that is another caster. It’s why two casters like to let it go during sex. They are affected by it. Juiced in a way.”

That made me feel a bit better, but I was still bothered that my evil gift made sex better for Rathe.

“Stop scowling. You can’t stop being a witch. You were born one,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s a bonus in sex.”

This time I rolled my eyes. Duely was a sex addict. I was done talking about my sex life with him.

“Heath isn’t gonna be okay with this. I imagine he’ll be so damn broken he’s likely to jump off a building.”

I didn’t want to talk about Heath. That may be a small issue but it wasn’t going to be the big deal Duely thought it would be.

“Why are you awake?” I asked him.

“Just got in,” he replied. “Since you were fucking like maniacs up here, I decided to go home with a hot little blonde co-ed and her gay best friend. They were fast learners once she got over being bothered by watching her friend suck my dick. I told her to straddle my face and getting her pussy licked helped her get over it real damn quick then.”

I shook my head and held up a hand. “I don’t need the visuals, Duely.”

He chuckled. “What? You don’t want to imagine me fucking a hot big-tittied blond while a muscular soccer stud with a big dick takes my ass?”

“Stop!” I hissed.

Duely laughed and drank his coffee. “Go crawl back in bed with your sexy man, Snow White. I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m about to go to bed myself.”

I turned to go back to the bedroom but decided to ask Duely’s opinion on my biggest fear. He would be honest with me. He’d tell me if I was being ridiculous or if there was a chance I’d end up going evil.

“Do you think... that my being in a relationship with a man will make me... different? More like my mother and sisters?”

He sat his cup down and stood up. “Do you care for him, Cat, or was that just a fuck?”

“I care for him,” I replied, still reeling from admitting that to myself earlier.

Duely smiled. “That’s why you will never turn into one of them. They don’t care. They fuck. They take. They feel nothing.”

I wanted to believe that.

“I hope you’re right. There is no going back now. I can’t... even if it means he’s safer away from me. It scares me that I feel that way.”

“Stop overthinking it. Enjoy it. You deserve to be happy. Let yourself be.”

The door behind me opened and I glanced back to see Rathe standing there in his boxer briefs, messy hair tucked behind his ears, and looking too wonderful for words. “Mornin’,” he said when our eyes met.

“Good morning. I’m sorry if we woke you,” I said, feeling shy in the light of day and with Duely as our audience.

“Only thing you need to apologize for is letting me wake up without you there beside me. That was pretty damn cruel.”

Oh, my heart was not going to survive him. “I’m sorry for that, too,” I replied shyly.

He nodded his head back toward the bed. “Come back.”

“Okay.”

He grinned then and the naughty gleam in his eyes had me wishing Duely would leave. I didn’t care that it was his apartment.

“I’m gonna head down to the bar and see what needs to be cleaned up,” Duely said as if he’d read my mind. I knew he wanted to go to bed and get some sleep, but I wasn’t going to tell him to do that. I was getting more selfish by the minute.

Rathe held up a hand in a wave. “Mornin’ and thanks,” he said in Duely’s direction.

“Your morning is gonna be better than mine, I’d say,” Duely returned, then headed for the door.

I didn’t look back at him. Not that I was embarassed. I just couldn’t stop looking at Rathe. I wanted to run to him and leap into his arms. The door closed and Rathe held out his hand toward me. “Please get naked and back in bed with me,” he begged.

I walked to him and put my hand in his. He tugged me to him and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “How do you feel?” he asked then slipped his hand between my legs. His fingers slid down the front of my shorts and into my panties. “Sore?”

I hadn’t realized I was tender until he touched me. I rubbed against him like a cat wanting to be stroked regardless of the soreness. “Catalina, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m gonna need to get inside you. I woke up craving you.”

The ringing of my phone interrupted anything I could say or do. No one should be calling me this early. No one ever called me this early.

“Ignore it,” Rathe said, taking a bite of my ear and making me not care that my phone was ringing so early. He circled my waist with his hands and walked backwards toward the bed, taking me with him. My phone stopped ringing. Whoever it was could wait a little.

Another phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment and Rathe stilled. I looked up at him. “Is that yours now?”

He nodded.

“Heath or Margo. Something could be wrong.” I pulled away from him and he let me go. I went to get my phone from the dresser and check to see who it was that had called.

Heath.

“Hey, man. Something wrong?” Rathe asked and I turned to see him standing in the middle of the room with his phone to his ear.

I went to him, my concern mounting now.

“Yeah. She’s,” his gaze locked on me and he paused. He was asking if this was okay. I could see the unspoken question in his eyes. I simply nodded.

“She’s with me. We’re at Duely’s,” he finished. His free hand reached out and he threaded his fingers through mine. There was silence on the other end of the line and I hoped Duely and Rathe were both wrong about how Heath felt about me.

Finally, I could hear Heath’s voice as he started to speak again. I couldn’t make out his words clearly. I heard Margo and I heard my name but not much else.

“When was the last time you talked to her?” Rathe asked, his hand tightening around mine.

“Catalina, can you see if you can find Margo on your phone app?” Rathe asked. He let go of my hand and I hurried over to get my phone and check it. I opened the app but all I could see was a notification that Margo was no longer sharing her location with me. She wouldn’t do that. Something wasn’t right.

“How long has she been gone?” I asked, spinning around to look at Rathe.

“Last time Heath saw her was yesterday when she went to work. He didn’t come back to the apartment last night. He, ah, stayed out and just got there. She wasn’t there and there was no sign she’d been back since she left for work yesterday. He can’t get her on the phone. It goes straight to voicemail.”

Panic ceased me. So many scenarios began flooding my thoughts. “Did he call her work?” I asked.

“It’s not yet seven in the morning, Catalina,” he reminded me.

“Oh. That’s right. What about an employee, boss, manager? Does he have any of their numbers?”

Rathe shook his head.

I had to find her. I could find her easily. This wasn’t like her. Something wasn’t right. I grabbed the tennis shoes I had on yesterday and headed for the door.

“Catalina, wait,” Rathe called out. He couldn’t come with me. I had to be alone. I didn’t have time to figure out how to use magic without him realizing what I was doing. I could find her faster if I was alone. There were two ways I could do this and I needed something of hers, but I had nothing with me. I’d have to go to the apartment. I had to get something.

She was okay. She had to be okay. Where had Heath been? Why would he not call in to check? Did he not check in with her when he stayed out at night? I grabbed my new car keys and images of terrible things kept flashing in my head so I began to run. I had to hurry. I was imagining the worst.

I unlocked the car door as I ran for it. When I got to the driver’s door, I jerked it open but I didn’t manage to get inside before Rathe’s body was behind me and I was being pulled back. “Passenger’s side. You’re too worked up to drive,” he said in my ear very calmly.

“I have to hurry, Rathe!” I cried.

“I am going to fucking fly. I swear. But you’re too upset to drive. I’m not letting something happen to you.”

I was wasting time arguing. I let out a frustrated groan and ran around to the passenger side. “Fine. Get in. Drive,” I called out opening the door and flinging myself inside. Rathe was quick like he had promised. He was zooming out of there and down the street that was still thankfully empty.

“This isn’t like her,” I said.

“Heath said that, too. But you both need to take deep breaths. Calm down and think about where she could be. Do you want to go to where she works and see if there is someone there or maybe her car. She may have gone out with friends and gotten drunk. Passed out.”

Those scenarios were very likely and if I had been in a full blown freak out, I would have kissed him for giving me something so reasonable to hope for. I was imagining her being abducted, raped, dead on the side of a road somewhere. I liked his theories better. Going to the mall where the store she worked at was located meant I could track her from there.

I needed to do that alone though. Dang it. I needed Rathe not to be so protective of me. He didn’t need to protect me. He didn’t know that and it was sweet that he wanted me safe. I couldn’t be mad at him for wanting to keep me safe. He thought driving me was helpful. I should be mad at Heath for not calling his sister last night and telling her where he was. He’d have realized then she wasn’t answering.

“Uh, yeah, why don’t you drop me at the mall and I’ll go inside. The coffee shop will be open. I can see if anyone has seen her. See if her car is there. You can go to the apartment and get Heath. He’s upset, too. He doesn’t need to drive.” That was the best excuse I could think of to get him to leave me there on my own.

He frowned at me. “Heath’s a big boy. He can drive himself. I’m not leaving you there alone.”

Crap. Okay, a new plan. I had to do this the harder way. I wouldn’t be able to stand outside her store at the mall and cast the locating spell that would lead me to her. Not if he was going to be right there watching me.

The restroom. The one close to her store. She’d have used it yesterday. I can go in there and do the spell.

We were pulling up to the mall. Rathe had broken all the road rules to get us there this fast. “Where would she have parked?” he asked. I pointed to the right side of the food court entrance.

“That way,” I instructed. When we turned the corner and one of the three cars sitting in the large, otherwise empty parking lot was Margo’s, I sighed in relief. However, that was short lived because then I started fearing she’d been taken from the parking lot.

“Call Heath and tell him that her car is here. I’m going to run inside and use the restroom,” I said reaching for the door handle before he even came to a complete stop beside her car. I needed to look inside and make sure she wasn’t in there.

The second the car stopped, I swung open the door and jumped out. There was no sign of Margo inside her car, but her purse was there. Why would her purse be in there? I reached to open the car door, but it was locked. Staring down at it, I attempted to unlock it like I had mine yesterday, but nothing happened. I was too worked up for my mind to focus properly. “Reserare ianuam,” I whispered and squeezed the handle expecting it open. Again nothing. It wasn’t unlocking.

“It’ll take a little more than that simple cast to get it to open,” the deep familar voice said, startling me. My head snapped up to see my stalker standing there on the other side of the car, leaning on it as if he’d been there the entire time even though I knew he hadn’t.

No. Nononononono. Why was he here? Why was he near Margo’s car?

“Why? Where is she?” I asked both questions remembering then that I wasn’t alone and Rathe wasn’t in the car this time, so I couldn’t lock him inside again. He was behind me. His scent and warmth were close by. Very close. I had to think, but I was panicking and that made it harder to think. If he’d taken Margo, then he’d have no problem trying to hurt Rathe, too.

“She is sleeping, safely. Relax, Catalina,” the man replied, shifting his gaze over my left shoulder. He gave Rathe an odd almost threatening smile. I moved to stand completely in front of Rathe and my panic was being replaced with anger real damn quick. He might had taken my friend, but he was not about to do anything to Rathe.

“I want Margo. Now,” I said with my own threat clear in my tone.

The stalker shifted his eyes back to me. “There’s that shit I like to see. You’re nothing like the damn Kamlocks. Pansy ass bunch of witches,” he said, then walked around the car watching us both. I didn’t want him getting near Rathe.

“Don’t come any closer,” I warned him. He paused and tilted his head as if he was curious. If he thought I wasn’t going to fight back because I was obviously hiding my magic from Rathe, he was wrong. At this point, Rathe had seen and heard too much anyway. I didn’t know how much lying I could do to get out of this one.

He didn’t come closer. He stayed where he was and I knew it wasn’t because he was scared of me. His gaze was determined.

Rathe’s hand slid around my waist, and he placed his palm flat on my stomach. It was a sign of possession rather than protection. He needed to get back in the car and the only way I could get him in there was by casting a spell. I didn’t want to do that. He’d know just what I was if I did.

“This is a quandary, is it not?” he asked, as he took in Rathe’s hand on me, then lifted his eyes to meet my steady gaze. I wasn’t taking my eyes off him for a second. “Maybe impasse is a better description,” he said then and shrugged.

“It’s a you-better-give-me-back-my-friend-right-fucking-now situation. That’s what it is.” I glared at him.

Rathe was staying silent, which I found odd, but I was thankful. Maybe he sensed this man was dangerous and to him only. Whatever reason, it gave me one less thing to deal with. Rathe’s fingers curled slightly, as if he was trying to grab me, then they straightened back out. Was he trying to tell me something? If he was planning some attack, he would die. I had no choice. I had to keep him safe. The fact that he would know and he would leave me after this was the lesser of the two evils. I would not let Rathe die trying to protect me from the crazed warlock.

I placed my hands on top of the one Rathe had on my stomach. This was all I could do.

“Tutum intus,” I said with force.

That should have sent Rathe to the car and sealed the doors. It didn’t. The warlock was chuckling and Rathe’s fingers curled into me again as my hands fell away from his. How was the warlock doing this? He was blocking every spell I cast.

“What do you want with me?” I asked him angrily. I had never felt so powerless. Fear for Rathe was mounting. He wasn’t safe, and now, I wasn’t sure I could do anything to protect him. I had been so worried about him being in danger from me, never once thinking someone like this would be an ever bigger concern. And this was a danger I’d walked him straight into.

“That is not the question. You’re asking the wrong one. You think things are a certain way but ah, my Catalina, they are not. Too much time with those Kamlocks. I left you too long,” he drawled as if he felt true regret over this.

Rathe’s hand fisted in my shirt and then he released it. His hand left me and he moved away from me. I had to stop him. He was going to do something and get killed. I turned to see what he was doing so I could block him. The coldness in his eyes was frightening and shocking at the same time. Thankfully, this wasn’t directed at me but toward the warlock who he needed to get the hell away from. He didn’t need to try and protect me because I couldn’t save him then.

“Rathe, listen to me. Just get in the car. Please, please, just get in the car. I can handle this. I swear.”

I heard the warlock sigh loudly. “Yes, Rathe, why don’t you just get in the car.”

The way his eyes narrowed in response was not good. He was going to get killed. I had to stop this. Get rid of the warlock. I’d never been without the ability to use magic.

“You know I have the patience of a ... saint...” the warlock said with a chuckle. I didn’t know who he was talking to or what he was being patient about. However, I was not being patient.

“Well, I don’t! I’m over this. What do you want?” I asked him taking a step in his direction, hoping to deflect from Rathe.

His lips curled up on each end in a sinister confident move.

“Why did you take Margo? Whatever it is you want just tell me. And let her go,” I had meant to sound commanding, but I sounded pleading instead.

“She was a warning,” he replied.

I threw my hands up in frustration. “A warning for what? You won’t tell me why you’re stalking me. I have no idea what you’re trying to get from me.”

He wasn’t looking at me though. His gaze was locked on Rathe standing behind me. There was an unspoken message I was missing. I could see it in the warlock’s eyes. But if I didn’t understand what he was after, then neither would Rathe. His eyes darted back to me and softened if that was even possible. “Catalina, it wasn’t a warning for you.”

“THEN WHO!” I yelled at him completely frustrated with this conversation. I wanted Margo back and I wanted Rathe far away from this madman.

His gaze shifted back over my shoulder to Rathe.

Then Rathe spoke but I didn’t know what he said because it was a language I didn’t understand. It was short and it sounded angry. I spun around. I had to see whether Rathe was really speaking a foreign language or if this was the warlock doing it to him.

But Rathe was no longer there.

I looked at the car to see if he had decided to get inside it after all, but it was empty. I scanned the parking lot, my heart starting to race from the terror clawing at me. I swung back to glare at the warlock who seemed determined to turn my life into a nightmare.

“What did you do with him?” I screamed. My blood pounding in my ears, nausea suddenly turning my stomach. This was my fault. If I hadn’t allowed myself to have him, this wouldn’t have happened. My greedy, selfish, black soul had caused this.

“I can do a lot,” he paused then shrugged, “well, I can do most anything. But, Catalina, I have no power over Angra Mainyu’s only son.” The man did a gesture with his hand. “That’s thin lines and all. Too close to the same source of energy. Rathe is his own cursed abomination. The child created from two beings that were never meant to produce offspring.” He stepped closer to me but I didn’t move away. I couldn’t. My head was spinning so fast I felt dizzy. The nausea was getting worse.

“Whereas you,” he began as I stared at him in disbelief, “you aren’t an abomination. Sure, I could have chosen better than Persephone, but she’s got that bewitching beauty that’s so hard to ignore. As you know,” he said waving a hand at me. “Regardless, she wanted three daughters. I wanted a child. I gave her the third daughter she was so eager to have and she gave me the child I wanted so much.”

This was a lie. All of it. He was lying to me. He had followed me, figured out my worst fears and he was now hurtling them at me one right after another. But why me? Why did he want to destroy me? What had I done to deserve this? I’d tried to be good. Now I’d lost my best friend and Rathe. I had to keep it together and fight for them.

“Who are you?” I asked him, not expecting a response.

He pulled out a cigarette and held it to his lips, then smirked. “Your father.”

I shook my head. I knew who my father was and this was not my father. “No. You’re not my father. My father is dead.”

The warlock took a pull from his cigarette and then leveled his eyes on me. “Lucas Delvaux could have never produced a child as talented and lethal as you, dear. He was a wealthy, spoiled mortal that was as weak to Persephone’s charm as all the others.”

“He is the reason I’m not like them. I can choose the good in me because of MY FATHER’S BLOOD inside me. My entire life I have had the ability to be who I wanted to be and not fall into their way. I was able to refuse the power of three and I was able to do things they cannot. I can love.”

He wagged his fingers that held the cigarette at me. “Mortal blood would have been too weak to withstand the Kamlock’s way. It wouldn’t have made you strong enough to be different. You don’t love and you’re not kind. You choose to love and you choose to be kind. You choose to fucking care when it suits you but, Catalina, you don’t like people in general. You decide who you will care about and then you do. That isn’t weak mortal blood.”

I shook my head, straightening my shoulders. He would not take this from me, too. He wasn’t taking my father from me. “It takes goodness. My father was good.”

He laughed. A deep dark cackle that I hated immediately. He then took another smoke and looked at me. “Why do you think you see the souls of those unable to let go of this life? The ones hanging on to someone or something. Do you know a caster who can do that?”

I said nothing. Many casters had different abilities.

“Why does the earth, the soil, the air, why does it obey you? What caster do you know that can do anything like that?”

I didn’t know. I had never understood it. I just accepted it.

He sat down on the edge of the trunk of Margo’s car. One black combat boot on the pavement and the other on the bumper. He looked comfortable. Relaxed. I hated him. He was taking everything from me and he didn’t seem bothered by it at all.

“Your father is Diabolus, Catalina. Denying me is pointless. You’ll need me and I will be here when you do. The Kamlock beauty and sorcery mixed with my omnipotent evil,” he flashed a wicked grin. “It was a brilliant and devious idea.”

“Satan?” I asked, not having a hard time believing that at all. He was making my life Hell.

He made a disgusted face. “Catalina, please. Don’t refer to me as such.”

“I speak Latin. I know what Diabolus is in English.”

He raised a single eyebrow. “Technically translated in English it is Devil. But that’s so general. There are so many of those.”

I didn’t care. Shaking my head, I decided I was not listening to this insanity anymore. “I want my friends back,” I said, done with this.

He took a smoke then nodded. “Margo is sleeping in her bed. Heath forgot she was missing and her car was left here because she went out and drank too much. Someone gave her a ride home.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He held out his hand and my phone was there as he stretched it out to me. “Text her. Call Heath. Whatever,” he suggested.

“Where is Rathe?” I demanded.

He shrugged. “I can’t help you there. I’m the Lord of sin, darkness, evil, death, but I can’t control Angra Mainyu’s offspring. Not on my power wheel.”

I dialed Heath’s number, careful not to take my eyes off the monster in front of me.

“Good morning,” he said cheerily.

“Heath,” I said remembering his frantic voice from earlier.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “You called me, Cat. Did you forget who you were calling?” His voice was teasing. Very Heath-like.

“Where is Margo?” I asked.

“Her drunk ass is still sleeping it off. She had one too many last night,” he said sounding less cheerful.

I looked at Diabolus and then asked Heath, “Where is Rathe?”

“Not a clue. He came in a few minutes ago and took some things. Didn’t say much and then just left.”

The Devil in front of me shrugged and kept smoking while I stood there.

“You okay, Cat?” Heath asked.

“Yeah, uh, I’ll talk to you later,” I said, ending the call.

He wiggled his eyebrows as I continued to stare at him. He was waiting on me to say something.

Things started clicking into place. Things I didn’t want to connect. Things that I wanted to be a lie.

“Who placed the spell around my mother’s house that kept you out?” I asked even though something was unraveling inside me. I knew already. I just needed to hear him say it.

“Rathe,” he said his name and I felt my knees go weak at the confirmation.

“Why were you there?” I asked.

“To see why the offspring of Angra Mainyu and a fallen archangel was getting near my daughter. Rathe doesn’t dwell among the mortals often. But the bastard expected me to show up and kept me out. That told me all I needed to know. He was there because of you and he knew who your father was.”

I hated this. I didn’t want to hear more but I had to know.

“Who is Angra Mainyu?”

“Didn’t that Delvaux man leave a library behind? Did you not read good literature?”

“Persephone wouldn’t allow me to.”

He looked annoyed. “How much do you know about Christianity?”

I shrugged. “I grew up in Georgia. Most of it.”

“Have you heard of Spenta Mainyu... or the Holy Spirit?”

“Once, I think. Isn’t that just God or something?’

He rolled his eyes. “No. It’s one of the others,” he said waving his hand absentmindedly toward the sky. “Angra is his twin brother. He is his opposite. Angra is the Destructive Spirit.”

“How does some spirit I’ve never heard of have a child with an archangel? Aren’t they on two different sides of things?”

Diabolus pointed at me as if I had said something brilliant. “Exactly. That was what got his mother tossed. She’s still a do-gooder though,” he added the last bit as if that was ridiculous.

I needed to be alone or to wake up and this to have all been a terrible nightmare.

“I have to go. But I’m never far,” he said with a tip of his head in my direction. Then he was gone.

I was alone.

I wasn’t waking up.

The world was still here as it had been yesterday.

The new company car was parked beside me.

And everything I thought I knew had just been snatched away and handed back as one horror after another. Things I hadn’t been sure were real existed. I squeezed my eyes closed and wished more than anything for this to have been a nightmare. I wanted to wake up with Rathe there in bed beside me. Normal Rathe. Human Rathe. Not immortal Rathe.

The fact that my father was the Devil should have been the worst of it. But it wasn’t.