Page 39 of The Harbinger
“You may go.”
The woman startled, dropping the towel on Mia’s chest as she spun around. “Of course. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
She exited the room and closed the door with a quiet clink, leaving Mia and me in peace.
I dragged the chair I’d sat in as I watched over her during the week and placed it next to the bed.
Mia was a beautiful woman, despite her gaunt appearance and sickly pallor. Dark circles highlighted her sunken eyes, her pale cheeks turning pinker as time passed. My gaze followed down to the hollow point at the base of her throat, where her rapid heart rate thumped against her thin skin.
Her fragile existence reminded me of when I’d had to fight for my life, the food I ate, and the right just to exist. Her troubled existence was by choice alone, whereas mine wasn’t.
“Sacha.”
My whispered name broke through her cracked lips for the second time this week as her arm rolled to the side of the bed.
She reached out for me and called my name, despite not knowing a single thing about me. I was the snake in the garden of Eden, Mephisto inFaust.I will devour her soul with rapt pleasure.
I stared at her broken fingernails, evidence of her struggle on the streets while fighting the urge to take her hand when the door cracked open.
“Sachen’ka?”
My molars smarted at her use of my pet name. “Speak.”
Katya walked in and kneeled beside me, placing her hand on my forearm. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
I shook off her warm touch. “There is.” I swallowed back the urge to bite my tongue because if anyone should discover her secrets, it should be me. But to do so would put everything she represented at risk… “I want you to get close to her.” Sharp needles struck out across my back. “Find out everything you can and report back to me.” Mia’s hand turned upright, baring the scars of desperation.
Katya swallowed and nodded her head. “Anything else?”
She sat for a long while, her gaze on Mia, as was mine. “My mother cleared the garden for her. What will you have her plant this late in the season?”
“Anything her unfortunate soul desires..”
She stood with her hands at her waist, her elbows bent.
“Katya,” I said, twisting in my seat. “Never walk through this door without knocking.”
I turned back to Mia’s sleeping form as the door clicked closed.
Mia would open up to Katya far more than she ever would with me.
We sat in the dimming room as the sun dipped below the horizon, burying itself beneath the trees once more, my thumb spinning her small ring around the tip of my finger. It’d meant something to her, something she didn’t care to share with me. But who would give her Lucifer’s sigil and drop her in my path? And why? To what purpose?
I gripped her hand, my elbows resting on my knees, and slid the ring on her pointer finger where I’d found it, then removed my shoes and socks. Shucking off the rest of my clothes, I rounded the bed and slid in beside her.
The cool sheets sent shivers down my body.
A deathly quiet whimper pulled her delicate lips into a frown, her legs moving as though fighting against her dreams, her arms jerking. Her chin quivered, and an errant tear trickled down her temple.
I swiped it with my thumb and moaned when her salty pain spread across my tongue. If she didn’t open up to Katya, these tears would be mine, and I’d relish the moment I made them fall.
Chapter 10
Mia
Istretchedmyarmsabove my head, my butt sinking into the soft mattress, and groaned as gentle pain pulled against my ribcage. Light rippled through the sheer curtains ambushing my retinas with stabbing daggers.
Despite the terror in my dreams, I’d rested well, and my stomach no longer ached. I rolled to the side and choked back a scream while simultaneously pulling the sheet close to my chest.