Page 12 (2/2)

He ut--and left it there

A grunt A gurgle of blood froht, all right You don’t like to play Perhapsss I can change your sss to your body…thingsss you’ll dream about for yearssss"

As she spoke, he upended the vial he held, allowing a single droplet of the water to catch on his fingertip "Ah, but in fivematters on your mind For the time has coer into herthe droplet down her throat

The shrill, broken scream that followed made athe disease she perpetually carried, spreading health and vitality She bucked against Koldo with so much force, several of her bones snapped out of place

When at last she quieted, tears sliding down her pitted cheeks, the putrid scent of her rot fading, Zacharel said calive you one last chance Why did you reht?"

There was the barest of pauses before she offered faintly, "Wasssn’t…asps of residual pain

"According to whoer pause as she considered what more Zacharel could do to her In the end, she decided an evasion was not worth it "Burden"

Burden A deh lord of Greed, and widely regarded as one of hell’s fiercer warriors Currently he ithout a master

Was he the one who had ht now?"

"Don’t…know"

He detected no lie this time, either "How did Burden contact you?"

"Disseassse too busssy…with hun myself…with sssomeone Burden wasss…the mossst powerful…of my optionsss"

"What were his orders?"

"What do you…think…they were?"

He nodded to Thane

Thane twisted the knife

The h the renewed pain "We were…to have fun…with a hu your…robe"

"Why?"

"Did…not ask Did…not care"

Truth "You have earned your death, minion She’s all yours," he told his soldiers

Thane reainst her bonds A second later, five fiery swords appeared, and in the next blink of ti her head and all her limbs Demons liked fire, yes, and could withstand the flames But the fires in hell were fires of damnation The soldiers’ swords possessed the fire of justice, and that the demons could not withstand

His warriors held the tips of their swords against each piece of the ht flame, charred to ash and swirled away in a sudden breeze

Zacharel had the answers he’d sought The question nohat to do with thee of scenery, Annabelle thought

Well, that wasn’t exactly true She had At first

After she had devoured all her favorite foods, her sto cleaner than she had in four years If only she’d felt cleaner than ever, but no There was a film of dirt under her skin, in her blood, that she had been unable to wipe away

Wah, hatever No whining Not now She dressed in the tank and soft flowing pants she had requested Then she stood there Just stood there, exhaustion co her She asked the cloud--the cloud!--for a bed A king-size eous silk sheets appeared, and she crawled on top gratefully But…she was unable to sleep, too afraid of being vulnerable, too worried about the nighthts of Zacharel

Where had he gone? Who was he with? What was he doing?

Why did it , little aches and pains in her body ot all about her curiosity Soon after that, she began to shiver and sweat fro use and now, quitting cold…probably not the wisest course of action And yes, she could have asked the cloud for a sedative, but she resisted the idea with every fiber of her being Never would she do to herself what the doctors had done to her