Demon King (Claimed By Lucifer #1) - Elizabeth Briggs Page 0,82

make a deal for her time, like you did with Demeter over Persephone?”

I should have known she’d get in one last jab by reminding me of that mistake. “I’m done making deals.”

I pinned her with a dark look, before turning to shadows once again and heading outside, into the night. I hovered there, invisible to any mortal who might look up at the sky, as I watched Hannah through the library windows.

Children walked along the street below me in their costumes, many of them dressed as the creatures of the night I ruled over, while Hannah leafed through book after book. Reading about me, no doubt.

Halloween had always been my favorite of Earth’s holidays—a night when everyone embraced their inner wickedness and allowed themselves to love the darkness. Tonight though, it was me who was haunted.

My chest ached as I watched Hannah, wishing I could go to her, but doing my best to respect her wishes. I reached out as though I could touch her, imagining her soft skin under my fingertips, then clenched my hand into a fist. Damn this curse. It had killed her hundreds of times, putting her through so much agony, more than any one mind could possibly bear. No wonder she could only see glimpses of her past in her dreams. Anything more would shatter her mind. And me? The curse had destroyed me emotionally over and over, hundreds of times throughout the years, and would continue to destroy me still.

Could I go through this again? Could she? How many more times must we suffer?

Perhaps it was time to end this curse…but I didn’t know if I could bring myself to do the only thing that would stop it.

The price was far too high. A sacrifice, and one I’m not sure I could make.

28

Hannah

Sunlight wanted me to wake up, but I clamped my pillow over my head and ignored the bright, shining ball of fire in the sky. After Lucifer had left, I’d sat at the table in the library, reading about angels and demons until well into the night. When my eyelids had started drooping, I’d come to lie down in the bedroom Jo had let me use, hoping that staying up so late would help me sleep better.

I should have known that wouldn’t work. It never did.

Violence had crowded my dreams, and what I now knew were events from my past lives had echoed through my head, leaving me sweaty, rumpled, and still tired. Gadreel had been in one of them, wielding a sword, presumably from my life as Lenore. I didn’t remember any of the other dreams except in snippets that disappeared like fog when I tried to chase them.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I rolled over and groaned. In all the time since the accident, only when I slept beside Lucifer had I slept well.

Lucifer… My heart ached at the thought of him. After only a few days of knowing him, I already missed his presence, even though I wasn’t sure how I felt about him. Or what my place in the world was anymore.

When I walked into the huge, white, gleaming kitchen, Jo looked up in surprise. “I was just about to wake you. I made breakfast, if you’re hungry. Eggs, bacon, and toast.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, as I headed straight for the coffee pot. I still wasn’t happy with my ‘sister,’ and I couldn’t pretend otherwise. She’d hidden so much from me, and I suspected there were so many more things she hadn’t told me yet. But she was an angel…one of the good guys? Right? Or was that a lie too?

“You made the right choice by staying here,” Jo said with a self-righteous smile, as she made up a plate for me. “I can protect you from Lucifer.”

I grabbed the plate from her hand, annoyed at her words, but also hungry. Did I need protection from Lucifer or from her? Jo—Jophiel—wasn’t even my real sister, and she’d lied to me for years.

“Is anything about my life real?” I asked, as I sat at her round breakfast table.

Jo took a chair across from me. “Our relationship is real. That’s never been fake.”

“But you’re an Archangel!” I sputtered, then glanced around the house, which was like something out of an HGTV show about mansions I could never afford. “I’m only realizing now how little I knew about your life. How separate you kept me from it. How you knew all this time I was