Caged by Damnation (Caged #2)(72)

"Not so. The prophecy leaves you with a choice, and perhaps those flaws you're not fond of are your strengths."

I groaned. "Right, strengths. That makes a world of sense. Why do you keep showing up? You're slowly driving me insane!"

"You need me to. You're holding everyone at arm's length, but you can't push the dead away." Asmodeus pointed to Willow and Izzy. "Make sure they're ready; they, too, have crucial parts to play."

Horror grasped my chest, grounding my denial into a putrid mixture. "What do you mean? Why do you care?"

He laughed, reminding me that he was evil, even if this was only a dream. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Why do you think Izzy's spirit remained while my other victims passed on? She has a purpose, a destiny of her own."

"What about Willow?" My breath caught, awaiting his answer.

"A Hellhound who was born with a soul, but is now enslaved to Death...." He moved over to Willow, smoothing away hair that had fallen across her face, then he looked back at me. "Life is a game in which we play. She has power over Death. How could she not have a destiny?"

"This isn't right! The prophecy is about me. Leave them out of this!"

He looked at me with pity. "I did not cast the prophecy. This isn't my choice, nor is it yours. You must accept the inevitable."

"But you started all of this! If it weren't for you, Izzy would be human and Willow would be just a witch." I pleaded with my gaze, but knew there was no use. My friends were pawns in the game that pitted life against death.

"I had my own role to play, little Anakim. We all have our parts, but from now on you cast the dice. The cards are in your hand and you choose how and who to play."

Leaning back, I pressed my head into the cool glass of the window, absorbing his words. It was true that the darkness had followed me to Meadow Falls. It had festered for years, infecting all I came into contact with.

I was a disease, a filthy parasite who fed off the living. I was worse than my parents, because my mask was sewn on so well that I had fooled myself. I would never move past my childhood. It would stalk me, change me.

Turning, I sought my reflection in the glass. "I'm a monster."

"You're beautiful." Ash's rich tone drowned out Asmodeus and I swung around to discover that the demon had disappeared. Ash now stood in his place.

I snorted in disgust at myself. Ash was fooled like all of the others. "You only see what the evil in me wants you to see."

"S, you're not evil. You're capable of it, everyone is." Before I knew it, he stood in front of me, his face inches away, as he leaned inward. "The difference is that you would never allow it to take over. You're stronger than destiny or your past, and if anyone was born to save the world, it's you."

His eyes drew me in, tantalizing me with his sincerity, until his lips captured mine. I devoured the passion, allowing the dam within me to burst.

The room blurred, fading away until we were standing in one that was medieval in its splendor and terrifying in its contents. Our only companion was a solitary bed swimming in maroon sheets. Ash pressed backward until the backs of my calves were touching the frame of the bed.

I closed my eyes, savoring the brush of his fingers across my cheek as they descended to my shoulder and pulled the strap of my nightgown to the side. He deposited a kiss on my sensitive, forbidden flesh, lingering in dangerous proximity, and compelling me to pull at the seams of his shirt. Ash's lips savored my shoulder, trailing upwards to meet mine. His hand grasped my hip and pulled me closer with a blazing passion.

He pulled away from me just enough to allow my brain to break through the haze and process his words. "Do you love me?"

I shook my head in confusion, my voice refusing to obey my command, and I allowed my head to fall back, exposing my neck to his savage gaze. Ash's eyes lingered on my extended and vulnerable neck before he grasped it and pulled me up with an anger that was overpowered by lust. "Tell me, or I will have to go."

Silence greeted his plea. A shadow fell across his face to play with a strand of hair that had fallen over his eyes, but he didn't brush it aside. I could feel a draft travelling between our bodies to rest in the tiny area between our invigorated forms. The cold brought with it a measure of coherent thought that was extinguished the moment he began to back away.

"I see." The anguish he was enduring was palpable, and I could relate, because the moment he stepped away, I was alone, our intimacy still fresh.

"I...." My words died in my throat. I felt like a crushing glacier had solidified around my heart and was breaking apart what warmth I had felt moments before. "Don't go." My breath came in gasps, and I desperately tried to cling to the emotions coursing through my veins.

Ash was backing out of the room into the darkness that awaited him. What little light was left within me broke through and I cried, "Don't leave me."

I woke up with the words, you're not ready lingering. At first, heartache set in, until I reminded myself that it had been a dream. Ash hadn't left, I had simply woken up.

After my dream, I couldn't sleep and found myself wandering through a veritable ghost cottage, the Hellhounds and Draconians nowhere to be found.

I started poking around, attempting to find the way down into the tunnels. I wanted to visit Griffin and felt ashamed that I hadn't before now. Though, I admitted to myself, seeing him at death's door hadn't helped matters.