Once she was safely inside, I leaned against the wall of the hallway. Ichor dripped down my chest, and I closed my eyes.
From the other side of the wall came her voice: “Oh, Marroc! I saw how much you liked my singing. I thought I’d treat you to your own personal show, as long as I’m kept here. I’ll sing for you day and night, your own personal chorus, until you set me free.”
Then she launched into that infernal song, the sound of it like fingernails dragging against stone. It was that same dreadful tune. A Rickroll.
She was doing this to torture me, and it was working. I clenched my fists.
Clearly, keeping her prisoner was going to be more difficult than I’d imagined. And perhaps if she weren’t my mate, I’d simply suck out her soul and be done with it. But even undead, I couldn’t bring myself to end her life that way. To leave her a walking husk. Plus, I didn’t know what that would do to my own soul.
When I realized once more that I still hadn’t asked her name, I felt a flicker of self-hatred.
I was a bit of a monster, wasn’t I? I had no idea how to behave normally anymore. I wasn’t sure if that was because I was a lich, or because I’d kept company with only rats for the past thousand years. Whatever it was, I’d royally fucked up my introduction to my mate.
Slowly, I straightened. Though my wounds still bled, I didn’t return to my chambers. Instead, I headed down to the basement.
It was time to visit my lair and get this curse lifted.
Chapter 17
Ali
I hated to admit it, but I was in agony. Marroc had not been lying when he told me the liquid he’d injected into the stub of my finger would numb the pain. What I hadn’t counted on was how fast it would wear off. Every time I moved my hand, pure agony shot up my arm like a bolt from Thor’s hammer.
Still. I thought I’d made my point effectively. Nothing like burned flesh to underscore a message.
But the worst thing about my situation was being trapped. “One night,” I began, “Jeremy the Alcoholic Goat escaped the city farm and found his way into Cambridgeport. How fun it was to dance and cavort among all the stumbling people with blue skin! But the noises they made bothered him, and their staring eyes…” My story faded out. I wasn’t as good at Jeremy stories as Barthol was, and it was no fun on my own.
I took in the room around me. It might have been a massive suite, but it was a prison cell nonetheless. Four rooms. A sitting room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and one enormous closet. Nowhere to throw my vergr stone. When I tried the windows, I found them bolted shut with some kind of magic.
Not surprisingly, around the edge of the frames were engraved a multitude of silver runes. I guessed they were designed to keep the draugr from breaking in, but they also did an excellent job of keeping me from breaking out. What I really needed were my anti-magic-hex bolts, but I’d left those in the vault of Silfarson’s Bank.
Despite the large number of rooms, Marroc’s taste was minimalist. Rosewood furniture, a pair of leather lounge chairs, and a massive platform bed. Long, multi-paned windows reached from the floor to the ceiling.
At this point, it was clear that Marroc was a typical lich—one who wanted to keep people as his possessions. At some point, he’d try to drink my soul.
It was a seduction, I thought, with the liches. They lured you in with their porcelain beauty. They drew you closer, made your heart race because theirs couldn’t. Death was attracted to life. Liches wanted your blood pumping before they drained you of your memories and soul.
If I let Marroc get too close, I’d lose every memory of Barthol hanging out in our shitty cave, painting the walls with phosphorescence, trying to choreograph dances together. I’d forget the time we’d escaped the Shadow Caverns to an abandoned shopping market and found something called Twinkies. So, I’d stay on my guard. Skalei couldn’t kill Marroc, but I’d seen the pain on his features when I’d stabbed him.
I paced in front of the door, the stump of my finger aching. Think, Ali.
I tried to break through the doors. Just like with the windows, Skalei did nothing against them. I tapped the