Page 174 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Sevryn blinks at me, so slowly, then his gray eyes dip to Rain. A moment passes as he watches my son. Lucifer’s finger is still on the trigger.
Then Sevryn nods once, backs away until he disappears into the foyer, and a moment later, we hear him heading up the stairs, all while Lucifer glares at me.
“Don’t you dare start to trust him,” Lucifer hisses. “No matter what he did last night, he willneverbe one of us.”
“Why are we going to hide at Liber?” I ask him as he lowers the gun, tapping it against his thigh and turning to face me fully. “We’re parents, Lucifer. Of an infant. We can’t stay on the run. Why don’t we stay and fight? Why don’t we kill Boaz when he comes for us?” The plan to go to Liber was different when Maverick asked, when he wanted us to have time to relax.
The initiate wasn’t in our home then. Close to our son. We weren’t being hunted like animals.
But Lucifer smiles, a poisonous thing, and it’s as if he’s reading my mind when he says, “You didn’t say all that to Maverick when he asked you about Liber, did you?”
The exhaustion, the confusion, it all piles on top of me and I step back, sinking down onto the couch. “What?”
Lucifer cocks his head. “You look a little pale, Sid.” Arching a brow, he glances at the gun in his hand. “I’m just going to give you a tip, okay, baby girl?”
I dip my chin, resting it on Rain’s head, like I could protect him from whatever hell Lucifer is about to unleash.
“You go behind my back making plans with a man you fucked again, I’ll make sure the two of you areneveralone together in your life, even if I have to kill him to do it. You’re not the only one of us who would murder for the other.”
My mouth drops open, but after a second, his gaze on mine from beneath his dark lashes, I actually laugh. “Are you saying you’dkillMaverick? Because you might be homicidal, but I don’t think you’d have it in you when it comes to Mayhem.”
A smile pulls at the corner of his mouth. “It’s like I told you before. I don’t have to worry about anyone butyou,and my son. Ifanybodygets in the way of that…” He brings the gun up, examining the barrel. “They’re fucking dead.”
I stand outside of my son’s room for a moment, sweeping my gaze over the pale purple, the Unsainted skull on the wall, the black furniture. Rain is asleep in his crib since we’re all awake now, and we’ll be leaving soon.
No matter how much I don’t want to leave my house, I have to trust Lucifer knows what he’s doing.
Exhaling a weary breath, I turn, intending to pack my things.
But I suck in air, conceding a step when I see Sevryn, directly behind me. Looming over me.
The dream I had of him before we ever met dances in my head.
Goosebumps lift the hairs on my arms, and I place my palms on either side of Rain’s doorway, like I am a human shield. And I would be. Iam.
But Sevryn doesn’t come closer. His gray eyes lock onto mine, his tattooed hands by his sides. I glance at the red line inked around his neck, then the scar on his cheekbone.
What have you seen? Was it horrors like I grew up in?
“You are looking for things.” Sevryn speaks quietly, never taking his eyes off me as he dips his chin, holding my gaze.
I think of the newspaper articles in Lucifer’s office. The way he brushed my concern aside. I think of my futile searches on Cain’s mention of Liar’s Island and his mother.
“I can give you more,” Sevryn says, his words coming faster. “At Liber.” He pronounces the word with a flair.
“Give it to me now,” I whisper.
He shakes his head once. “It is coincidence I saw you here alone at all.”
“We don’t have to be alone. It doesn’t matter if Lucifer comes. I want to know what I’m dealing with. What do you know? Andhowdo you know I’m looking for anything at all?” I haven’t mentioned Liar’s Island to anyone else. The only thing I’ve done is type it in my phone.
Sevryn smiles softly. It chills me to the bone. “I do not like Lucifer. I do not like most men with the most power. I will find a place. I will tell you. I will lead you to it.”
“It?” I press. “What isit?And how doyouhave it?”
A soft shake of his head. “Before I came here, I was someone too.”
“Doyou want to know how deep it goes? Sometimes, I think evenyouwon’t be able to handle it.” Elijah rubs his eyes, resting his temple on his clasped hands in the innermost chamber of Sanctum. “Sometimes, I think the knowledge, the betrayal, it kills you slowly.”
