Courting Death | Book 3

S I X

S I X
Lucifer's Cell

IT BECAME A routine for me to keep awake throughout the night. By the time in which the rest of the castle was awake, my eyes were already half closed with eye bags as dark as the night sky. I was a human panda of sorts, simply just staring into thin air as everyone hustled around with bursts of energy.

After leaving the garden, Dimitri had walked me back to my room. Though it had to be near dawn by the time I reached the room and had my head against the pillow, I still couldn't fall asleep. I was tired, yes, but sleep did not come easy. Instead, I was left very much awake and thinking until sunlight broke through from the windows adjacent to my bed.

Fabian had made sure that my mind would never be put to rest. It wasn't that I didn't want to sleep, but rather the fact that my body and all its past lives didn't quite allow it. I could feel Ida's every thought, though not loud enough for me to make out what exactly she was saying, and it kept me tossing and turning in the sheets until I heard Minnie rising from her slumber in the room connected to mine.

"You look like death," Minnie said. Somewhere behind her, Dimitri scoffed loudly. "Did you not get some rest?"

"I think this castle is turning me into an insomniac. The last time I actually had a good rest was when I died." To that, I could hear Dimitri cough in surprise. That little eavesdropper.

"This journey is going to be difficult for you if you don't stay awake." Biting her lip, Minnie dug around at her little backpack in which she had packed. "We were supposed to have breakfast on the go since we need to utilize every single second we have to its fullest potential but you seem like you need this now."

In her hand was a simple energy bar. I did not recognize the packaging of it but it was obvious that it was a product brought here from the mortal realm. That alone was enough of a driving factor to push my hand towards it, grabbing it hungrily.

"It feels like forever since I last had some food from the normal world." Munching it greedily, I devoured the bar with little to no elegance. The chocolate smeared onto my lips and immediately, my tongue darted out to lick it clean.

"You look like a starved child," Wilhelm commented, a single fiery eyebrow raised as he pointed to the corner of his lips. "You've got a little something there." Instinctively, my hand was raised to wipe the dot of chocolate away.

"We're ready to leave," Fabian said, walking closer towards Wilhelm. "Dimitri and I will bring Addison and Minnie to find the book. If Lucifer is willing to give up the book's locations, we will be able to find it and return to the castle by nightfall."

"And if we don't, we would have wasted an entire day." I bit my lip, hands continuously tapping my legs as my limbs moved with anxiousness. "This feels weird. To have a time bomb strapped to my head."

"You'll be fine, Addison." A weight was placed on my shoulder, rubbing soothing circles on my back as Dimitri smile down at me. "I won't let anything happen to you. Not again."

There was already the beginnings of a smile slanting my lips, heart blooming deliciously when Fabian coughed once, causing my eyes to darken when he drew both Dimitri and I's attention.

"Friendly reminder, that was what you said when you were acting as that prick Cassiel," he pointed out, arms folded across his chest. "And look what happened?"

"To be fair, that was a really long time ago." With a hand up against his mouth, Calvin barely even resisted a laugh from spilling. "Darling Dimitri couldn't keep his promises for shit, back then."