Devil's Bargain Read online

  Aaron caught her by the wrist when she began to turn away and held her still. “You do realize that raising energy wasn’t the only reason we did that, don’t you? It wouldn’t matter to me if the apocalypse had already started. If I didn’t want you, we wouldn’t have had sex just now.”

  “I know.” Lilli offered him a weak smile and wished he wouldn’t press. This was going to be hard enough for her as it was. If he kept being so sweet and affectionate, she might not be able to manage it at all. “I’m sorry. I’m getting a little wound up here. That was just nerves talking. I’m reeeeally anxious to get this whole thing over with.”

  He watched her for an instant longer before his expression relaxed into the easy grin of a satisfied man. “I suppose I should just be glad you didn’t say that fifteen minutes ago,” he quipped and reached for his glasses before levering himself to his feet.

  While Aaron dressed, Lilli moved the blanket, reclaimed her tools, and moved to the southern side of the circle. With the chalk in hand, she knelt and drew a second smaller circle within the confines of the first. The smaller circle was about two and a half feet in diameter and at least a foot from the outer edge of the larger one. It looked big enough for an adult to stand in, but not large enough to allow any steps to be taken. When she was satisfied with the outline, she took a deep breath and used the chalk to draw a complex, sinuous figure in the center, making the sigil large enough to fill most of the blank space. Then she reflexively wiped her hands on her trousers as if even drawing those particular lines and left her somehow dirty.

  She bound the circle efficiently with the salt, glad she had poured herself enough to do the job. In the end, only a few grains were left in the little bowl. Setting it aside, she rose and turned to face Aaron.

  He had finished dressing while she worked and stood watching her with an intent and focused expression.

  “What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. You just do that so seamlessly for a woman who claims not to do magic.”

  Lilli shrugged. “I don’t claim I can’t do a few useful spells; I just know better than to call myself a magic user. That would be like only knowing how to make one edible dish and calling myself a chef.”

  “I think you underestimate yourself. I mean, your father was a devil, so it would make sense that you would have inherited some kind of ability from him.”

  “The only thing I inherited from my father is my eyes.” She hadn’t meant the words to come out quite so forcefully, but once they did, she couldn’t take them back. “I’m sorry again. I’m just . . . I don’t like to talk about my father. Mostly, I don’t like to think about him. I really have no idea who he was. He was some sort of hellish soldier who picked my mom up in a nightclub somewhere, talked his way into her pants, and then disappeared.”

  Unlike the Princes of Hell, minor devils and demons had much greater access to the human plane, many of them able to move freely between the two worlds. Too bad for Lilli.

  “I don’t remember my mother ever talking about him after she told me the story on my ninth birthday, and frankly that was fine with me,” she said. “He’s not important to me. He never was. What is important is convincing Samael to exchange the Praedicti for his vow not to harm you or start any world-ending wars.”

  Aaron didn’t look convinced, but he let it drop. “All right. We’ll leave it alone for now. Does that mean it’s show-time?”

  “Places, everybody,” she confirmed, pushing aside all thoughts of her past and focusing on the future she had left. “The show is about to begin.”

  ELEVEN

  Aaron didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he saw the column of energy Lilli had wedged inside the small chalk-defined space begin to spin like a tornado, forming a vortex of power that bounced off the edges of the summoning circle like a possessed, misshapen pinball. Beside him, he could feel Lilli’s tension and he wanted to reach out to take her hand in reassurance, but she had warned him not to touch her. If Samael saw the connection between them, she had explained, he would view it as a weakness to exploit. It could give him power over them, and they couldn’t afford to give him any advantages.

  It took a force of will to keep his hands at his sides, but he managed it. At least he didn’t have to worry about trying not to look at her. The sight inside the small circle was so compelling, he didn’t think he could have turned away if he’d tried. As he watched, the tornado of energy seemed to bulge in places, as if something trapped inside of it struggled to get out. Before their eyes—or at least before Aaron’s—it began to expand, stretching and widening until it filled nearly the entire circle. Then, as fast as it had grown, it contracted, shrinking into a tiny pinprick of light before seeming to explode with a sort of subsonic boom that Aaron didn’t so much hear as feel. A hot, bitter wind, it stank of blood and sulfur, and when it passed, Samael stood in the center of the circle, his angelically beautiful face drawn tight and pinched in its intensity.

  “I taste lust,” he hissed, his soulless gaze locking on Lilli. “I can even smell it. It clings to this place like sewer gas. Have you finally decided to take me up on my offer, pet? Are you going to let me taste that sweet, human flesh of yours?” His expression shifted, smoothing into lines of sly seduction. “I could make it good for you. Mind you, I probably won’t, but I’ll make you beg me for it anyway.”

  Aaron knew Lilli suppressed a shudder at that, because he had to do the same. If he’d thought that Samael’s presence had made his skin crawl before, this time it was infinitely worse. He had to clench his hands into fists to keep from scratching at the millions of tiny things his nerves told him were swarming over him.

  “Not if the future of humanity depended on it,” Lilli retorted, and Aaron felt a surge of pride at the steady timbre of her voice. He could sense her disgust as well as her fear, but not even Samael would guess it to hear her speak. “I’d rather see the world go up in flames than let you lay one filthy little hand on me, Sam. That I will swear on the bones of all the saints.”

  Samael sneered. “You shouldn’t make promises you might not be able to keep, little girl. One day I might just make you eat those words.”

  “But not today.” Reaching down, Lilli picked up the manuscript she had placed inside the circle earlier and cradled the heavy volume in her arms. “Now, about why I brought you here tonight.”

  Aaron saw the devil’s eyes fix on the codex and sharpen.

  “You found it.” A spark of avarice gleamed in Samael’s countenance. He quickly hid it behind an expression of mocking disappointment. “Too bad you brought it to me too late. The deadline passed almost ten minutes ago, Lillith, my love. I’m afraid this means that our agreement is nullified.”

  “You’re welcome to shove your agreement anywhere you’d like. All I want to know is, do you still want the book?”

  The devil made a show of indecision. “I’m not sure. I’d hate to gain a reputation as someone who is willing to overlook shoddy performance . . . On the other hand, my extensive private library is a bit of a weakness of mine, I’ll admit. Oh, decisions, decisions.”

  “Before you make up your mind, you might want to hear my price.”

  “As I already told you, Lillith, dear, I’m afraid I can’t consider your final favor repaid after you failed to meet the terms I set out.”

  “I’m not interested in the favor.” She looked grim to Aaron, grim and a little sad. “I’m ready to strike a new bargain. I’ll return the book to you if you give your word that you’ll make no further attempt to unleash the apocalypse.”

  Samael threw his head back and laughed. To Aaron, the sound was like a thousand cries of pain all unleashed at once. The devil laughed long and hard. When he finally calmed enough to speak, his voice still quivered with amusement.

  “And why on earth do you imagine I’d be willing to strike such a lopsided bargain, my pet?” he asked, and the eyes he fixed on Lilli held something much sharper than laught
er. Something more like hatred. “While it’s true that having the book in my possession would make everything much, much simpler, it certainly isn’t necessary for my plans. This war has been the fondest wish of Hell since the beginning of time. Once I bring it about, every inhabitant of the Nine Hells will owe me allegiance, from the lowest demon to the haughtiest prince. My dear, there aren’t enough magical texts in existence to make me abandon my plans, but if you would like to pledge your soul to me now, I would consider keeping your torment brief after my victory.”

  Aaron heard the hubris that laced every one of the devil prince’s words and knew that Samael could already see himself as the newest overlord of Hell. The devil had, oddly enough, been telling the truth; he had too much at stake to accept Lilli’s bargain. Seeing that knowledge reflected in her eyes, he felt a surge of anger fill him. Their plan had failed, but while Samael remained in the summoning circle, they were safe from him. The only power he had to hurt them resided in his words. Still, Aaron couldn’t help but wish he could blacken the bastard’s eye without breaking the protective barrier between them.

  “Oh, don’t look so disappointed,” the devil purred, all of his attention still focused on Lilli. “Just because the book doesn’t meet my price doesn’t mean that I don’t have one. I suppose there is one thing you could do for me that would make me consider postponing my plans for war.”

  “And what would that be?”

  Even before the devil answered, Aaron knew they had walked into a trap. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and the crawling sensation on his skin abruptly changed to the feeling of thousands of angry fire ants all stinging him at once.

  The devil smiled a smile that made Aaron’s soul cringe and gestured in his direction. “Kill the magus. His family has never brought me anything but trouble. I thought I’d taken care of the last of them when I killed his uncle, but clearly I was mistaken. Correct my oversight and I’ll not only halt my work on that little pet project of mine, I’ll mark the last favor you owe me paid in full.

  “What do you say?”

  TWELVE

  There it was.

  Lilli heard the devil’s words through a fog of pain and fought hard not to let him see their effect on her. Ever since she had laid eyes on that page of four prophecies, she had feared it would come to this. It was the only explanation she could think of that justified Samael sending her after the book. Like he’d said, he hadn’t needed it to foment the apocalypse; the only reason he could have needed the book back in his hands was to keep it out of Aaron’s.

  Aaron—and his uncle, too, Lilli suspected—had looked at the problem from the wrong angle. Each of them had believed that the most powerful prophecy in the book was the one with the greatest potential impact on humanity, but Lilli knew Samael and she knew that he would always view the world through the lens of his own selfishness. To Samael, the question wasn’t how would a prophecy affect the world, it was how would a prophecy affect him. In the devil’s mind, the only prophecy that mattered was the one that spelled out his own downfall.

  Samael had never cared about the apocalypse, at least not in the way Aaron and his uncle had assumed. Sure, he wanted to go to war with humanity and wreak havoc and destruction on the mortal plane just as much as any devil, but Lilli would be willing to bet the plans he had supposedly set in motion were a long way from completion. She would bet that he was more than willing to be patient. All that had mattered to Samael had been getting the book back before Aaron realized that the prophecies on the dragon page placed the devil’s downfall squarely in his hands.

  It was the same reason why the devil had murdered Alistair—because the prophecies said that someone from Aaron’s family would be the one to destroy Samael’s power. Aaron was a smart man. As long as the codex remained in his hands, Lilli knew that chances were he would put two and two together and decide to take care of the devil once and for all.

  But all of those worries would disappear, Lilli knew, if Aaron were dead.

  And Samael wanted her to kill him.

  “He must have been a pretty good lay,” the devil drawled, yanking her attention back to him, “otherwise it wouldn’t be such a hard decision. You can kill him, or I can lay waste to all of mankind.” He held his hands up like scales and pretended to balance them. “Hm, yes, I can see where that would be a tough call.”

  Lilli turned her head and looked at Aaron. He was frowning, his brow furrowed, but the hazel eyes watching her were steady and unafraid.

  “You do realize he’s up to something, don’t you?” he asked. “He’s trying to trick you. My uncle could count as the first sacrifice. If he gets you to kill me, that’s number two. One more and he’s won. Game over. The prophecy is fulfilled in one fell swoop, the world is ended, and oops, bad time to be human, I guess.”

  That’s when it hit her, the most ridiculous bits of prophecy suddenly illuminated by an unintentional turn of phrase. She felt like laughing and crying and knew that either would give her away and ruin her chances of saving the only things that mattered to her.

  “Lilli.” Aaron’s insistent voice dragged her attention back to him. “You know I’m right. You can’t trust him. He’s the Lord of Deception. You don’t think they gave him that title because he’s got a talent for acting, do you?”

  “I’m not lying about this,” Samael pressed. “Kill him and there will be no apocalypse. Is that the kind of offer you’re really willing to pass up?”

  Lilli shook her head, unable to completely suppress her smile or her tears. She guessed her eyes were glistening as she drew her misericorde from its sheath and held it aloft, the blade catching the light of the candles and sending it bouncing around the circle.

  Aaron reached out his hand toward her, his eyes full, not of fear, but of concern. “Lilli, you have to ignore him. You know he’s not being honest. If you were to kill me, what’s to stop him from reneging on his promise? Who would be able to hold him to it?”

  Samael glared at Aaron. “I do not take having my honor impugned lightly, magus,” he growled. “I would watch my tongue if I were you.”

  “You’re a devil,” Aaron snapped. “The only honor you have is the kind that suits you in any given moment. Lilli is too smart to fall for your lies.”

  His faith in her made Lilli struggle even harder not to cry. She gripped the hilt of her knife in suddenly damp fingers and stepped forward to press her fingers to his lips.

  “Sh,” she urged, replacing her touch with the brush of her lips, then repeating the gesture helplessly. “It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “Oh, spare me the touching display.” Samael’s voice grew louder, angrier, but Lilli ignored it. She was not about to let him intrude on the last moment she would ever have with Aaron. She didn’t care what the devil had to say. “Get it over with already. You’ve fucked him; now kill him!”

  Aaron gripped her upper arms, not as if he were trying to restrain her, but as if he needed to touch her, to feel her beneath his hands again. His palms rubbed at her skin as if to warm and soothe.

  “Ignore him,” he repeated. “He has nothing to say that you need to hear.”

  She nodded. She wished she could tell him something that would reassure him, but her throat had closed up against the welling tears, and speech was impossible. Instead, she stepped even closer, until every rise and fall of his chest brought the fabric of his shirt into contact with hers. She wrapped her free hand around his neck and pulled him close, pressing her forehead against his shoulder until her tears soaked through the fabric of both his shirts.

  His arms went around her and he cuddled her against him, ignoring the cold steel of the knife she held poised between them as he soothed her with words and touches. “Sh, it’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay. You don’t need to cry.” He slid a finger under her chin and tilted her face up until their eyes met. He smiled down into hers. “Don’t cry, Lilli. Everything is going to be fine. I know you’re not going to kill me.”
/>   Swallowing hard, Lilli licked her lips and managed one final smile before she brushed her lips against his mouth. With skin pressed against skin, she savored the last taste of him and drew him in until his breath become her breath.

  “Lilli,” he repeated, “I know you’re not going to kill me.”

  “You’re right,” she whispered brokenly just before she turned the knife and drove it high between her own ribs and deep into her heart.

  Aaron felt her body sag against him and tightened his arms automatically. He couldn’t manage to wrap his mind around what she had done. While the devil urged her to kill him to save the world, she had chosen to kill herself and condemned him instead to a lifetime without her. He had never guessed she could be so cruel.

  In the very instant the knife struck home, the devil behind them let out a howl of fury and threw himself against the side of the circle that imprisoned him, but Lilli’s magic held strong. Samael gathered himself for another attack, but before he could launch it, Aaron watched in disbelief as the frantic movement of energy that had presaged his arrival began again in reverse, moving from explosive brightness to a pinprick of light and back to the swirling vortex of energy the magus had witnessed before. This time, however, the energy seemed to suck Samael in, sweeping him up into the funnel cloud and carrying him away until not even the echo of his raging cries of protest lingered inside the summoning circle.

  Aaron could have cared less if the circle had suddenly filled with dancing monkeys. Lilli had sacrificed herself for him and now she hung pale and lifeless in his arms. He felt as if the world itself had ceased to spin.