Page 30 of Prince of Ruin
Sera licked her lips. “I’ve got a technowitch inside my head. She’s… she was pulling info for me.”
Dark eyes flickered up. “Ah.” A dangerous smile. “Even more interesting. But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“You don’t have to do this,” she blurted, inching back against the wall as he started toward her.
At every step, the lights in his section cut out. It looked like a wall of shadow at his back, like black wings flaring behind him. His eyes were darkening, shadows stealing through his irises.
Gone.
Her lover was gone, and now she was face-to-face with the ruling Prince of Ruin.
“But I want to do this,” he whispered. “You see…. The thing I despise most is betrayal.”
Sera ground her teeth together. “Because ofher.”
His expression turned hard. “Don’t mention her. Last night is done. I’m trying not to be violent.”
Maybe she needed to push at him a little. Maybe she needed to break through the hard wall he had locked himself behind. Maybe she needed to confront the fucking monster in the room between them. “Did you ever think that maybe you betrayedherfirst?”
He froze. “What did you just say?”
“You said she loved you. You said she ruined you. But what did you do to her? What did it costher?”
His lip curled. “That bitch crawled back to her master, Uriel, and betrayed all the plans I was making for us. She cast me at the feet of a merciless monster—”
“Maybe she was trying to save you.” The words came in a shout. “What you wanted was reckless!”
Azazel’s stare locked on her.
There was a certain amount of incredulousness in his face. A slowly dawning sense of horror.
“No,” he whispered. “She died.” There was no emotion on his face—as if he’d just slammed the door shut between himself and his feelings. Something ugly swam through the depths of his eyes—a rage so deep and violent it threatened to consume him. “You think this is a fucking game? Who owns you?”
“No one!”
“Someone fed you those lines.” He stalked toward her. “Someone planted such pretty poison in your head. You want to play, then let’s fuckingplay.”
Sera took another step back, but there was nowhere to go. Only her hip nudging against that stone altar, rocking the wooden display that held her sword. “I don’t want to have to hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. I don’t want to play these games. I don’t want to.”
“That’s not what you were saying last night in my bed.”
“So you’re going to throw me in your dungeons and torture the truth out of me?” Her hand was groping, groping, for something to use as a weapon.
His eyes lit up. “No, my lying little angel. Maybe you’ll be in chains, but you won’t be in my dungeon. Maybe it will be torture. Maybe it’ll be punishment. Maybe you’ll beg me for mercy—there’s more than one way to win the truth from someone—but you will break. You will give me the answers I need.” His eyes narrowed. “Now get on your knees and beg.”
There was no way out.
Not past him.
There was no way to convince him she wasn’t here to hurt him. He’d never trust her. He’d never believe her.
“I just wanted to stop a war,” she whispered, “and if I let you keep the shard, then thousands will die.”
“You’re so fucking compassionate,” he mocked. “But you’re just the tool. Give me the one who wants to wield it, and maybe I’ll be a little kind in return.”
He wouldn’t be kind.
She would see it in his eyes.
