Scroll of Secrets (The White Order Book 2) by Laura Hall

Author:Laura Hall [Hall, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

20

We crept across the room, dimly lit by a lamp next a couch. The carpet was threadbare and the furniture old, but everything was neat and well cared for. I thought of the family who lived here and my resolve hardened.

Samuel halted at the stairs, his head cocked to the side. He pointed to the floor and I raised my brows questioningly. Then I noticed where he was looking—at a door that was slightly ajar. He silently toed it open, revealing a narrow stairwell to the basement.

Fucking basements.

Before he took the first step, I touched his arm. “If he goes for the mind tricks again, you have to pray.”

He gave me an incredulous look. “I’m half demon.”

“What the hell does that matter?” I hissed. “You’re half human, too. I think God knows the difference between you and an evil spawn of the Underworld.”

He didn’t look convinced but nodded for my benefit. “Fine.”

We went down the stairs, which ended at a cement platform. The light from the living room was gone, the blackness stifling. Past the thumping of my own heart, I heard the sniffing sobs of a child.

This time when I summoned my saol, it came like a firestorm. The glow of my body flooded the space, banishing every shadow. Gelecki stood near a corner of the room opposite us. Behind him were a woman and two children, gagged and bound in rope. Their eyes were white around the edges and bore the telltale glaze of trauma and shock. It was impossible to tell how long they’d been kept down here, just alive enough to be the Empyreal’s food source.

As the Fumaris fed off saol, the Empyreals fed off human emotion. The darker and more depraved the better. Gelecki had been squeezing fear and pain from this family, torturing them without conscience. How many countless others had suffered his torment over the years?

I was going to kill him.

“You really do think you can stop me,” said the demon with a note of surprise. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or embarrassed.”

“You can’t feel anything,” I ground out. “You’re the demon version of a sociopath. Move away from the family.”

“But I thought you wanted to meet them,” he said, smiling as he drew a thick finger down one of the children’s faces. The child flinched but otherwise didn’t move. “They are a rare treasure. I was drawn to their sadness and anger, both so pure. You see, the man of the house died last month in an automobile accident.”

He patted the woman on the head and tears welled in her eyes. “Sally here hasn’t had a job in ten years, since little Jacob was born. Peter, her husband, was the sole breadwinner, but when he died she found there was no savings. Seems Pete had a nasty gambling habit and owed a lot of money to dangerous people. Sally began working three jobs to support the children and pay down the enormous interest fees. Until recently, that is, when she accepted an offer from one of those dangerous men to whom Pete owed the bulk of his debt.

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