Page 55 of Hell Bound

Lilith paused mid-chew and stared up at me, her brown eyes considering. The scowl had finally relaxed. “How do you know my favorite flavor?” she asked warily, licking crumbs off her fingertips.

I took her relaxation and questions as an invitation to stay, and sat on the floor, bracing my back against the wall so I could watch her while she ate.

“Deasley kept me informed throughout the years. I know your favorite music, your favorite food… where you lived and what you wore.”

Lilith crumpled the empty wrapper and raised an eyebrow. “That’s not totally stalkerish at all. Why would you want to know about me?” She raised her chin, glaring at me again.

Anger flared in my gut and I pushed it down. None of this was her fault. It was mine.

“I never wanted to hunt you down,” I told her. “I…”

I cut myself off, wondering how much to tell her. She had no memories of us, because she was never meant to.

She was supposed to have lived her mortal life in happiness, unburdened by the weight of her past.

That had been my bargain with the Crone to free her soul.

I shook my head, and Lilith drew closer, watching me over the side of the bath. “You what?” she asked softly.

I felt like I was walking a tightrope, and one false word would send me plummeting. “I never wanted this for you. You were never meant to come back.”

Lilith stared at me, weighing me with her gaze. “Turn around,” she said abruptly.

I looked up, and she nodded to the door. “I’m getting out so I can talk to you properly. No looking, or it’s a long walk off a short balcony for you.”

I held back a smile and stood up, turning my back on her. The sound of water sloshing filled the room, and I saw a hand reach out and snatch a towel from the corner of my eye.

She cleared her throat a moment later. “Okay. Let’s go… talk, I suppose.”

I let her lead the way out of the bathroom, trying to keep my eyes glued to the back of her head, even though her bare legs were dripping water and she had nothing but that fluffy strip of cloth wrapped around her.

Lilith sat on a dark velvet couch, uncaring that she soaked it instantly. A small, impish smile touched the corners of her lips. “To be honest, I didn’t want to soak in crumbs while we talked.”

I couldn’t bring myself to sit down. She’d once spent a night curled around me on that same couch, her fingers stroking through my feathers…

Now she sat there with no memory of that life at all.

A festering ache in my chest had begun the moment I saw her in the human world. Every day, it had grown with each memory she didn’t share, every jaded look she gave me.

Every time she blamed me for bringing her here.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I didn’t stop to think, I just dropped to my knees in front of her, ignoring the small exclamation as she drew her knees aside and clutched the towel tighter.

“You really don’t rememberanything?” I asked, uncaring of the desperate longing in my voice, staring into her dark eyes. “Not our nights on this couch? In that bed? The nights I would hold you while you cried, or when we stayed up until dawn, risking it all, because we couldn’t bear to spend another moment apart?”

Lilith drew in a breath, swallowing hard.

I couldn’t stop myself from reaching up to touch her cheek, tracing the red marks Asmodeus’s cruel mask had left behind, feeling the softness of skin around them.

My fingers slipped lower, curving around the edge of her jaw, to the smooth column of her neck.

“You don’t remember this, when all it took was a single touch…”

Goosebumps rose on her flesh, and she was so still I couldfeelher racing pulse beneath my fingers. My Fire Lily, her eyes heavy-lidded, drew a hitching breath at the rasp in my voice.

“…and you would shiver and beg me to kiss you all over?”

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