I wanted to. I wanted so badly to have her back in my life, to believe that all she had done wasn’t really her. Yet I knew that for what it was—a childish wish for a time long gone.
“Why would I believe you now? After everything you’ve done?”
“Because in my own way, as much as I could, I have been trying to thwart him and he has found out. It is why I asked you to protect my child. I am only good to him as long I carry my baby, for he seeks to kill my child, to use my baby’s blood to help him free himself.” Her hand slid around her belly again, cupping it protectively.
Liam slid his chair backward, his breathing evening out, and a surge of pride whipped through me. Gods, he was a man to be proud of. The fact that he’d held himself together, when she sat within inches of him, was beyond what anyone else could have handled. “Who are you talking about?”
If I’d thought I’d understood Milly and her treachery, if I’d thought I could pinpoint where she’d gone bad, where Giselle and I had fallen down, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Of all the things I expected her to say, it was not his name. The world spun out from under me as the name she spoke rocked it.
Not Faris, as I’d thought she’d spit out. Not even Berget, as I was thinking perhaps it could be.
“Orion.”
You do not remember meeting him, do you?” She turned in her seat, and crossed her legs.
“I’ve never met Orion; I’d think I’d damn well remember that.” I glared at her, how stupid did she think I was?
“The day you fell down the stairs … .”
“What of it?” I vaguely recalled what she spoke of. I’d fallen down the stairs not too long after Giselle had taken me on as a ward, and when I’d come to, I’d been in the hospital, Giselle at my bedside with a new wayward soul in tow—Milly.
“You never fell down the stairs. Orion had me erase the memory of how you met me—and of meeting him, of meeting a semblance of him anyway. He can’t take form here yet, he is still trapped, thank the gods. But yours and Giselle’s memories—both—he had me take.” The tears flowed freely down her face. “He will kill me no matter what I do now, so I feel no obligation to keep his secrets anymore. And you need to know what you’re up against. I can help you, if you’ll let me. The plans he has woven are thick; he has help in more places than even I realized. But I swear I will do all I can to help you stop him.”
I shared a look with Liam, tried to discern his thoughts. But his eyes were unreadable, hooded and yet, still burning with intensity.#p#分页标题#e#
“So because you aligned yourself to a demon, and now find yourself on the outs with him, we are supposed to feel sorry for you?” Liam’s question was ground out between his teeth.
“No, I never aligned with him. My father sold me to him when I was but a young girl, not long before I met Rylee and Giselle.”
I was having a hard time swallowing this new side of her, as much as a part of me wanted to believe she had never turned on us—or at least that there had been more reason than her own selfish whims—there had been too many lies. Too much death. At any point, she could have told me, and I would have fought to the death to free her. But she hadn’t.
I stood, indecision rippling through me, forcing the words out. “We have to go.”
“Wait, take this.” Milly held out a small, brown canvas bag. I took it, carefully, and peered in. A shimmering red and black stone the size of a golf ball lay in the bottom of the bag. Spikes erupted out of every piece of it, like a porcupine on steroids, some straight, some twisted like corkscrews. The main stems were black, the tips red, as if dipped in blood.
“What do I want with this?”
Her lips trembled. “It’s a demon stone; Orion uses it to compel me. Destroy it, if you can.”
Her eyes never left my face, and I gave her a slow nod. That much I could do for her and not feel as if she were manipulating me.
I backed away from her for two steps before turning to leave. Liam went first, every line of his body taut with pent up anger. The humans moved out of his way, sliding away from him, their eyes following him as one would a stalking beast. Smart humans.
“They will use the foal as a sacrifice to raise Orion. That is their plan. You can stop them. The full moon is the catalyst. Tonight, you have until tonight.”
Milly’s words stilled my feet as nothing else could.
She went on. “You have time yet, but not much. I tell you this because as long as he is trapped within the deep veils, he can only harm me. But if he is brought through physically to the point of crossing fully into our world, he will be able to harm my child. To spill my baby’s blood and seal his own life here.”