her arms, she removed the necklace from her throat. She stroked the three charms for a moment, letting each of them glide between her fingers for the last time. They’d been more than her protection these many years. They’d been a comfort to her for so long now—something her mother had given her when she’d turned thirteen. Her neck felt naked without the chain there.
She delicately placed the necklace on the bedside table. It hadn’t been foolproof protection over the years, but she knew it had helped. Tearing her gaze away from the talisman, she hurried away on silent feet before Niklas woke and persuaded her to change her mind.
As shaky as she felt inside, she doubted it would take much to convince her. At the elevator, she blinked the burning tears from her eyes and brushed a hand to her still-sensitive lips. She could still feel him there, taste him.
She wondered whether tomorrow, her first day as a demon witch, she could say the same. Whether she would be able to think for herself at all anymore.
DARBY DIDN’T GO VERY far. Exiting the hotel’s glass doors, she walked to a nearby park, her boots crunching over the snow. She waited in the quiet darkness, burrowing deep in her cloak as she sat on a park bench and watched the light snowfall with unseeing eyes.
It was cold, but she hoped that without her necklace, and in her state of utter vulnerability, a demon would find her. More than likely the same one that appeared to her in her apartment would not be too out of range to detect her. Once he found her, it would only take a few moments and the deed would be done. At least that’s what she’d always been told. Warned. Whatever.
She closed her eyes in a tight, painful blink, inwardly cringing at what she was about to do. A sob built in her throat and lodged there as she thought of her aunts and how this would hurt them, devastate them. First her mother. And now her. They’d prefer her dead to this.
But she couldn’t reconsider. She couldn’t let anything happen to Aimee. Not if she could help it—and she could. She would.
It wasn’t as though she were giving up on herself. It didn’t have to be the end of the world for her. She could move further north and live where no demon could appear and materialize for even a moment. An environment where a demon couldn’t wield control over her. She had no other choice. That’s what she would have to do after this night.
The wind stirred—a chalky breeze. The snow gave off its own glow around her, a source of light in itself, a great blanket of white, radiant and bright.
She peered out from the scarf she’d wrapped several times around the lower half of her face, searching for shadows—for dark, twisted shapes that had no natural purpose on this earth. That weren’t shadows at all, but something else.
Nothing. With a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and relaxed into a state that bordered sleep. She mellowed, tuning out the cold as best she could.
Her pulse slowed to a dull, rhythmic ticking at her neck, lightly hopping beneath her skin. There was no reason for her to hold herself tense and alert against bad things that might do her harm. Not when she was waiting for a demon to show up.
If she wanted to speed along the chance of that happening, then it would be better if she were in the most receptive state possible.
She’d never tried to use her gift on purpose before. Her visions simply struck her unsolicited—unwanted and reviled. But she knew witches could wield their powers. With skill and practice—neither of which she could claim—they could summon their powers at whim. Her aunts had been able to. Even her mother—she’d just been resistant.
Darby had never tried before. Now she wished she’d paid better attention to the lessons her aunts had tried to force on her.
She breathed in and out, in and out, sliding low on the bench. Her head dipped forward, her body relaxing, mind emptying, as she readied herself as much as she could for a vision.
It didn’t come. This time there was no vision. No flash of future events. Nothing to help attract a demon to her side.
But it turned out she didn’t need a vision to bring a demon to her. He came to her regardless.
When she was struck with his presence, it was with