Dark Light of Day by Jill Archer

Author:Jill Archer [Archer, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fantasy, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 0425257150
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

II

Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar

Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;

Till at his second bidding darkness fled,

Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.

—JOHN MILTON

Chapter 15

Spring rescued us from the clutches of winter. The snow melted, leaving the ground soggy and the sidewalks wet. I packed up my high-necked sweaters and heavy cloak. I moved my boots to the back of my closet. I started wearing sandals and even traded in my usual assortment of bulky black and charcoal gray wraps for a few body-skimming, above-the-knee tunics in burnt orange and deep purple. But I refused to go so far as to wear pastels for Eostre.

Once, after our initial client interview, Ari tried to talk to me about it. But I cut him off. For reasons both personal and professional, I told him if he ever raised the subject outside of class, I’d stop seeing him. He didn’t. But he did often wander into the secluded area of Corpus Justica where we’d first kissed.

Our amorous encounters there always left me feeling shaky. Like I’d reaffirmed some treacherous vow or risked an even deeper level of enchantment. Or, at the very least, fallen several more feet toward the simple act of falling in love.

But I never said the words. No further declarations were made. Clothes stayed on. Demon marks—and other places—remained frustratingly untouched.

I met with Nergal several times to discuss his case. He wanted me to pursue an insanity exception to the mutual consent requirement for divorce. There was no such thing. When I told him that, he started threatening. Threatening is a demon’s bread and butter, but his threats had a degree of candor and credibility that often turned my blood to ice.

I lived in fear that Nergal would come to me in the night, while I was asleep and defenseless. His agitation since our first meeting tripled, which tripled my worry. Did Nergal have another demon lover waiting? Why else would he be gnashing his teeth over six weeks of strategy sessions when he had another six hundred years to live? Then it dawned on me that the demon lover might visit too, to serve her own version of a Motion to Compel. And if Lamia was any indication of the type of demon Nergal favored, I didn’t want to meet Nergal’s next bride. In the weeks following Bryde’s Day, I bit my fingernails to the quick, bought three new deadbolts (knowing they were useless), and sometimes made Ivy sleep at Fitz’s because I was convinced room 112 of Megiddo would see another demon attack.

My life continued in a tense, stagnant sort of way. I was terrified of Nergal and the potentially lethal “what ifs” and “don’ts” we discussed in the classroom part of Manipulation. I wanted to discuss it all with Ari, but he was the last person I could really confide in. Every time Ari “accidentally” ran into me in the library, Rochester’s voice boomed in my head: Avoid collaboration. Avoid even the appearance of collaboration.

Meanwhile, I

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.