The Darkest Promise

“I don’t try, sunshine, I do, and I always keep my word. I said the culprit would pay...but I didn’t say how the culprit would pay.” He toyed with the ends of her hair. “Since you are my friend, I’ll have to think of an appropriate punishment.”

She sputtered. “You lay a hand on me, and I’ll—”

“Come. I know.”

What!

Misery gave her skull another kick. A sharp pain lanced her temple.

Lazarus angled his body, his muscles bunching under his shirt. His eyelids hooded over irises blazing with savage heat, his ferocity sharpening into a double-edged sword. He was almost...intimidating. Scratch that. He was intimidating. Only a true warrior could pull off mesh and leather.

“Sunshine, I know what you sound like, look and feel like when you’re experiencing the ultimate pleasure.”

Her breath caught, steaming up in her lungs. Her bones softened, and her knees wobbled. Not just pleasure—he’d said ultimate pleasure.

He was lying. He had to be lying. No one had ever given her the slightest bit of pleasure. Unless...

Misery had wiped her memory of the first orgasm she hadn’t faked.

The thought destroyed her. Such a loss would be a violation, a rape of her mind.

Lazarus’s angry countenance returned in a blink. “What are you doing here, Cameo? Why did you return to the land of the dead?”

Whatever had transpired between them, whatever pleasure she had experienced, the end had clearly been tumultuous.

Should have stayed in Budapest with my friends.

As she backed away from him, Misery lapped up her dismay and whispered conversations drifted from the crowd.

“I bet he kills her...with pleasure.”

“How do I sign up for that death?”

Gaze remaining on Cameo, Lazarus said, “Leave us. Now.”

It was a softly spoken command, and yet the crowd dispersed in seconds, tables and wares abandoned without question. Soldiers and horses trotted away.

Lazarus was king, his word law and his power unquestioned. He was a god among men. Did he know about Misery? she wondered again. He must, considering he’d read a portion of her mind. Did he want her dead, the way Alex had?

She’d never blamed Alex for his betrayal of her. No, she’d blamed fear.

When she’d escaped the Hunters, she’d gone back to Alex and, while on her knees in supplication, her body bloody and broken, she’d told him about the box. He’d dropped his sword, joined her on the floor, and wrapped his arms around her. She thought he’d begun to understand.

Evil such as yours has to be extinguished, he’d said. Then he’d shouted for the Hunters again. Only then had she accepted the truth. Misery had infected him, and Cameo was to blame.

As she’d fought her way free a second time, a Hunter had stepped forward and said, Come with us willingly or Alexander dies.

Alex had died.

Even now, guilt prodded her, her sense of misery no longer manufactured by the demon. I am no man’s prize.

No, you are every man’s downfall, Misery said.

She took another step back, her bruised heel landing on a sharp rock. She winced.

Lazarus’s gaze dropped to her feet, a scowl pulling at the corners of his mouth. “Your feet. Your feet are bloody. You’ve been hurt.”

The word hurt on his lips was a vile curse. A promise of violence.

“The doing of sky serpents?” he demanded.

Would he punish his pets if it were? “Blame the trek here, and the piece of shit shape-shifter who stole my shoes.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. Planning to harm Rathbone?

Why did he care who did what to her when he clearly hated her?

“Harsh words, darling. Harsh.” Rathbone appeared in the distance, prowling around a table. “And after I saved you from a tragic end.”

Liar! “I saved myself.” She waved a fist at him.

The leopard tsk-tsked, as if she were too stupid to know the difference between salvation and danger.

Lazarus curled a hand around the hilt of a dagger.

Rathbone began to backtrack. “You’re clearly in the middle of your lady time. Both of you. I’ll return later.” In a blink, he was gone.

Cameo envied the ability to flash. Get what you want, and go. “You asked me a question,” she said to Lazarus. “Now I’ll answer. I’m here because I want answers. I want to know everything that happened between us.”

Silent, he bent at the knees and gently but firmly pushed his shoulder into her stomach.

“What—” she began.

He straightened, lifting her, ensuring she remained draped over him.

She was too stunned to protest. The fearsome keeper of Misery was being carted like a sack of potatoes? This was happening? Truly?

“We’ll continue our conversation,” he said. “Later.”

“What are we doing now?” she asked, curious but not frightened.

A pause. Then, “We’re picking up where we left off.”

As he spoke, a butterfly with wings of scarlet landed on the table with her daggers, and she groaned. Here was another sign of impending doom.

Her relationship with Lazarus wasn’t going to end well, was it?

4 (#uef6602c5-8df6-5939-8ee9-9d411bca3f6e)