Page 118 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“In the seconds it takes you to draw in a breath, I could appear within the house you grew up in and rip your abuela’s head from her shoulders. I could take away everything you have ever loved.”
“Don’t…” My voice is a strangled cry.
He cackles. “Are you prepared to negotiate now, seer?”
I take a breath. “What do you want?”
“You. I want you to come to me, and I need you to do a single favor for me in return. I need my future told.”
That doesn’t sound too bad, and yet because of that, I automatically know that it is. There’s something he’s not telling me. There’s something more he wants.
“That’s all?”
“Is there more you wish to give me, seer?”
Never make bargains with demons.
Or fallen angels.
“If all you want is your future told, why didn’t you just ask? Why try to kidnap me?” Does he think I’m fucking stupid? He must. I mean, stupid enough to come here, sure, but not stupid enough to believe the load of shit he’s spraying out the mouth like a case of bad diarrhea.
He smirks and begins to cackle. “As if my love sick brother would have ever let you out of his sight. No, no. This is much better. Come to the human realm, seer. Alone. I’ll give you a day. If I do not sense you there, your abuela’s blood will stain my hands.”
“But—”
“I don’t think I’ve made myself clear.”
My words are cut short as he appears in front of me, wrapping his long bloody fingers around my throat. Nails, as sharp as knives, pierce my skin, digging into my flesh. I try to gasp, but all that comes out is a strangled sound of pain.
“I’ll tear my talons through her throat and rip her flesh from her skin. I will murder everyone you have ever loved and everyone you have ever cared about if you do not show. Hide in the Underworld and I will lay a path of your family’s heads for you to find. I will wreak havoc upon your precious island to find you.” He digs his talons in and I try to scream, but the fear, the pain, it’s too much.
In this moment, I know this fallen angel is capable of terrible things indeed. He will make heavy on his promise to hurt my loved ones. To kill them.
All to get to me.
I can feel the evil that vibrates through his bones, and I don’t need the use of my magic to tell what the future holds, if I don’t go on the path he’s demanded of me.
Everyone’s future is laid out. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you try to change it, what different ways you decide to walk.
You always end up in the spot you’re meant to be, and the future always resumes its course.
“Fine,” I rasp, clawing at his cold skin. He releases me and I barely take in a breath before I snarl, “I’ll do it.”
Kane
“You’reabastard.Astupid, foolish, fucking bastard.”
Ramiel sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. This isn’t the first time I’ve voiced my displeasure, just like this isn’t the first time he’s expressed his own exasperation.
Mostly in the form of sighs and eyerolls.
The eldest of us all and he is acting like a petulant child.
“You fucked up,” Lorenzo adds sternly, surprisingly on my side for once. “Why would you follow a lead on your own?”
Ramiel lowers his hand, piercing us with a glare. To anyone else, he would look murderous, but I understand my brother better than that. I know there’s more to the clenching of his jaw, the furious press of his brows, the way he closes his hands into fists.
There’s more to the angel of death than anyone knows.
