my head, and fingers knotted in my hair, hauling me up until I dangled on the tips of my toes — and faced the Archdemon I’d been so certain wasn’t here.
“Do I know you, hellion?” It was impossible to tell where his solidly black eyes were looking, but I tried to keep a stoic face; showing pain was exactly what he’d want, exactly what would spur him on. He was taller than me, but slimmer. Dark-haired, with a slim mouth and rigid jaw. How the hell I hadn’t smelled him, I couldn’t fathom; he reeked of blood and wood smoke, and the energy within his presence was palpable. My closeness to him was almost unbearable, like having my head pounded with soundless bass.
But when he hauled me up, he left his throat exposed. Leaving me an opening to —
All it took was the slightest twitch of my hand, and my face got bashed against the far wall again. Dazed, I raised my head from the floor, spitting blood onto the stones. The Archdemon paced along the hall, snapping his fingers as if to some invisible beat.
I hated him. I really, desperately wanted to rip him to shreds.
He didn’t bother to throw me again. Instead, he drop-kicked the heel of his boot into my face and I felt something snap in my jaw.
“Alright!” I held up a hand — felt him grasp it — the bastard snapped my wrist back, breaking it like a twig. I snatched it back, cradling it to my chest as I screamed furiously, “Fucking hell, stop! I’ll go, I’ll fucking go, goddamn it…”
“Go?” He laughed, or at least I guessed that he did. The sound was just deep rumbles in my aching head. “You’re really not fun at all. Why don’t you try to squirm for the door?” He squatted down near me, still snapping his fucking fingers. “I’ll let you reach it, I promise. I won’t let you get beyond it, but won’t it feel good to —”
This time, my claws made contact with his face, and he leapt back to the foot of the stairway.
“Fuck you,” I snarled, jerking up to my feet, blood pouring from my nose, my jaw making some truly bizarre popping sounds as it knitted itself back together. Callum curiously touched along his face, where I’d laid open his cheek straight through to his teeth, and regarded the blood on his fingers with an all-too-calm curiosity.
“Clever,” he murmured. “And here I thought you couldn’t take the pain.”
“I’ve spent the last century in pain,” I spat onto the floor again, cracking my stiffening neck. There were some very unhappy vertebrae at the base of my skull. “I’m not here to cause any trouble for you or your witch, I only want —”
Slammed onto my back again, the air rushed out of my lungs, and Callum crouched over me with an expression of clinical indifference. With his face already knitting back together, he sunk his claws into my cheek and began to tear. “I don’t care what you want, hellion, any more than a spider cares for the wants of a fly.”
I tried not to scream, but fuck, it hurt. For the first time, I began to think I wasn’t going to get out of this alive.
“What pretty teeth you have, hellion —”
“Callum, stop!”
The Archdemon went stiff as stone, his claws still sunk into my face. There, at the top of the stairway, Everly Hadleigh stood in a pale green dress, her long hair coiled up and pinned in a messy pile atop her head. She came slowly down the stairs, her expression grim but wide-eyed, her gaze fixed on my face.
I gave her a very bloody grin.
“Hello again, Everly.”
She came close, just beyond my reach, and looked down at me as if I was an unpleasant specimen she had to study. She looked healthy, her eyes bright, her steps light. Breaking free of Kent’s stranglehold would do anyone a world of good.
“Leon,” she spoke softly, almost disappointed. “Did Kent send you after me?”
“Fuck no.” Callum’s claws clicked against my teeth unpleasantly, and I snapped at him in retaliation, hoping I’d at least catch a finger. No such luck, but Callum didn’t try to hurt me in return. So obedient to the witch’s orders. “I’d sooner rip out my own intestines than obey Kent again. I came for my sigil. On my own.”
She looked confused for a moment, then her eyes widened in realization. “Oh...the grimoire, of course…” She laid her hand