Page 44 of To Crave Darkly
And burn the world whilst Heaven cries.
The Mother will bleed, the Father despair
And the King will claim a maiden fair,
To create a world wrapped in Sin
With beings to obey His every whim.
The Fallen One will fall no more,
But rise and rise to win a war
Where darkness grows to eclipse the sun
And Man will fall while the King hath won.
Unease settled over me like a cloying blanket, smothering me in its sickliness. The world suddenly felt smaller as I read the words the old witch had written. This was apparently my future. I wasn’t going to own my own nightclub or travel the world. Nope. I was going to destroy it. Or so the old crone said.
I snapped the book shut and put it back on the desk. I didn’t want it anywhere near me. I felt sullied by just touching it. My hands turned clammy as they trembled in my lap and my foot started to tap a frantic rhythm against the plush carpet. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.
“You really think this is me?” I asked de Santis softly.
“I think it is certainly within the realms of possibility, but until we know for sure we should keep you safe. If you’re as powerful as that prophecy says you are, you would be lethal in the wrong hands.”
“How do I know yours are the right ones?” I snarked.
“You don’t,” he replied matter-of-factly, “but I don’t want to hurt you. I want to save the world, not see it burn. I think Lucifer wants to use you to help him obtain power and I would rather keep you where I can see you.”
I nodded. I would have to take his words on good faith, but something about him made me feel like he was going to use me for his own ends. Maybe it was because he was the King around here. Perhaps he thought he could use me as a political tool of some kind. Whatever his reasons were, I would have to be wary of him. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him and, wait… strike that. I didn’t trust him at all.
Unsurprisingly, de Santis hadn’t quite finished his monologue. “Besides, if you’re as powerful as this prophecy states you are, I think you would be able to stop Lucifer just as much as you would be able to aid him.”
Annoyance rose sharply in my chest. So now I was supposed to battle with the Devil? “Well which one is it?”
“Only you know the answer to that. We can only hope you make the right decision.”
His words chilled my bones. Fuck, this was intense. How was I supposed to make the right decision if I had no clue what that was? The panic button was officially pushed, and a fresh wave of adrenaline flooded my system. I was crazy. How had I let myself walk into this?
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath.
Think, Lori. Think.
There was no way out of this. I was essentially a prisoner here. A cage with pretty walls was still a fucking cage…but it could also be useful. If I were ever going to get home again I would need to learn everything I could. My eyes drifted back to the book. Maybe it would be worth learning more about the prophecies and things in there. I might even learn more about me and how I fit into the Devil’s master plan.
As if sensing my train of thought, de Santis spoke again. “If you want to borrow them, I can have copies of the volumes delivered to the base. I would be interested in knowing your thoughts.”
“There’s more than one?” I asked, suddenly more curious than wary over these books of prophecies.
De Santis chuckled. “Considerably more. I will take that as a yes then. I will have Levi send them to you tomorrow. Now, onto other matters. I take it that you have settled well into the base with Farrow and his team?”
Jasper stiffened beside me as de Santis turned his penetrating gaze on him. He had been so quiet through the entire exchange with de Santis that I had forgotten he was sitting there.
“Yes. Jasper has been attentive, and his team has been accommodating.”
“Good. Because I want you to start training with them.”
“What?” I barked sharply at the same time Jasper leapt out of his chair. Seemed he wasn’t keen on this idea either.
