We were not, in fact, in a cave at all.
In my mind, we had been entombed in a drafty, towering cavern filled with ice-cold water that had never seen the light of day. I could have sworn I could even smell the salt of the rocks, and hear the echoes of my voice around the stalagmites poking from the water, bouncing against the curving walls of stone that surrounded us. I had already mapped the whole place in my brain and was ready to get rolling, butterfly stroking out of that place for the exit like Ariel on steroids. So what if I had been transported to a dark and dank water world, and so what if I was still naked and freezing and bruised? Where there's a will, there's a way. I knew exactly what I was headed and how to get there. Oh, I was ready for anything.
Except this. Being blind, that is. It turned out we were actually thirty feet from a balmy beach shore, and it was only cold because it was still in the dawn hours in this part of the world, wherever we were. It would warm up soon, Lust promised, and there were bound to be inhabited settlements on the island somewhere so I could rest comfortably. If not, deserted islands had their uses, too. He would find food, drinkable water. If he couldn't make or find shelter, he would use his body to shield me from the elements. Everything would be fine.
Except I was still blind and couldn't even make it up the beach without falling on my face.
"Stop. Leave me alone, I'm fine."
"Sable —"
"I just need something to wear. Literally anything. If you don't see people around who can lend me clothes, then —"
"Take this."
It wasn't soft. The fabric that draped itself around my shoulders before sliding up my arms was light but tough, though not quite scratchy. After Lust carefully let down my arms and closed the edges of the garment around me, I lifted my elbows to test the looseness. Free, nice. But the bottom of it pooled and dragged on the sand on top of my feet. Way too long. And where had this thing come from, anyway?
"Is this your robe?" I asked.
"Yes, it is."
"Then what are you wearing?"
"I need nothing. Are you warm?"
So he was naked? That didn't bode well for me. "I've seen you summon your clothes out of thin air," I said. "Can't you just make more?"
He chuckled. "Oh, my magic doesn't work quite that way. But no need for concern. I've never been overly fond of clothing anyway. As long as you're taken care of, my love. Though you'd warm up faster with my body heat, if you'd only..."
"No. Not a chance."
"Then we can only wait until you dry off and warm up with the sun."
"Oh, well. Tough shit."
"I'm at your disposal, my love. You only need to say the word. Just one..."
It was ass-kissing, which was mind-blowing because demons didn't ass-kiss. Imps and other demons of weaker class might do it if they were at the mercy of whatever powerful witch had them in the palm of their hand, but what was I going to do to Lust? I was chained to him by the tabula rasa agreement. Any ill I did to him would turn back on me too, by the laws of the most ancient magics in existence.
The same applied to the reverse. If Lust ever did anything to maliciously hurt me, the tabula rasa would punish him right back. Even Princes couldn't escape those chains.
Which was how I knew —
"Stop!" I snapped when Lust tried to pull me toward him again. "Just quit it! If this is supposed to be your way of apologizing, great, I get it. Now we need to move on. Do you even know where we are? Or where to go next?"
"Your well-being comes first. Sable, I never meant to h—"
"To hurt me. Yes, I know that. I don't need you to reassure me, because I already have the proof. If you were trying to hurt me, and your intentions were malicious, our contract would have kicked your ass by now. And it's not like I had any better ideas than you did. You had only one way to get us out of there and half a second to do it, and you made the choice you had to. I know the rules. No magic is free. All of it has a cost. So drop it, because I get that."
The sharp tips of his fingernails traced down my cheek in answer, fleeting and sensuous. All of a sudden, I felt naked again even though I was still under his robe. Was he using his aura on me, or was I just that vulnerable to his passive demonic presence now? I felt so drained. The fatigue was getting to me faster than I'd feared. Now that the catastrophe was over and we had escaped by the skin of our teeth, I just wanted to sleep for two weeks. Two years, maybe. Forever?
"But you're angry," Lust said after a long pause. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and gentle, and my hair stood on end. What the hell? "If you really do understand that I had no other way to keep you safe, then you wouldn't be angry with me."
"Excuse me?"
"Sable —"
"Are you fucking kidding — I have every right to be angry. This entire situation happened because of you. You stalked me. For days. Weeks. I don't even remember how long you haunted my dreams for! Then you cornered me, and I had no choice but to make a contract with you that ripped my life out from under my feet. Don't think for one second that I would have done that if I had a choice."
"Sable, you proposed the contract. You were willing."
"Oh, fuck off. It was 'willing' only by the law of magic because you didn't twist my arm for it. What was the alternative? Let you do what you want and wait to be enslaved anyway, eventually? Get turned into a thrall, have my mind stripped down layer by layer until I had no ambition to be anything in life other than a drooling whore for a demon day and night, and lose everything I am for all time? I know what you are. You're an incubus, aren't you? Are you going to stand there and tell me your plans for me were any different from that? Are you going to tell me that wasn't exactly what you had in mind from the first night you haunted me? Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong."
"It's not what you think, love. In the beginning when I first looked for you, that was what I thought I wanted, but that's changed —"
"Changed for you. Not for me. I'm still in a contract I made with a demon to save my soul for a little while longer, and even that's not a guarantee. I only ever did this to buy time, not because I was willing. If not for you, I would never have been in danger in the first place. What's wrong with you? You can't possibly not know that. So don't tell me my well-being comes first because we both know that's bullshit. This was only ever for you, and always was."
"There's no point reasoning with him, witch. Asmodeus has always been this way."
I turned my head toward Mammon's gruff voice. I hadn't forgotten he was right there with us. It was impossible to, with the Infernal aura he exuded like a volcano about to boil over. All these Princes, they were the same. Dangerous. Powerful.
And every one of them self-serving.
"And what about you?" I asked, not missing a beat. "What's in this for you? Why are you playing nice all of a sudden?"
"Playing... nice?"
"I'm not stupid, Prince of Greed. Just being transported to a random island in the middle of nowhere changes nothing essential for you. You should still be trying to kill him. But you stopped, and you've been perfectly calm ever since we got here. Why? What are you thinking?"
"We have a truce. I have no way of leaving the island myself. Neither does Asmodeus until he finds his missing Shard. We have a common goal."
"So you're doing this because you're worried about being stranded on a deserted island. Right. And here I thought demons have ways of getting in and out of places. You all find your way around between Hell and Earth easily enough."
"With gateways. There are no gateways here."
"Okay, then. So you think it might be easier to find a way out if the three of us work together? Still boggles the mind that you lose all the will to fight in two seconds flat. Last I recall, Lust had his tail inside your throat. Is that just water under the bridge now? I can't see, so you'll have to tell me yourself if you still have an extra supersized hole to breathe out of."
"I will recover."
"Right, the same way you recovered after your other bout seven hundred years ago. The Great Culling, or whatever it's called."
"You know about the Culling?" Lust interrupted. He sounded unexpectedly happy. What was his deal? "Sable, you surprise me at every turn."
I ignored him. The problem of Mammon deserved the whole of my attention right now. "My point is, it doesn't matter if we have a common goal. Even if you don't kill him, you should be wanting the upper hand over Lust. What happens if he finds his Shard? He could teleport himself out, and he might leave you behind."
"He wouldn't. I still have one of his Shards. He leaves me behind at a price he can't pay, if he can even leave me behind at all."
Okay. That made sense. I'd forgotten that little crucial detail, how I had lost hold of the Shard while we teleported. Greed still had it in his possession just like before, and he wouldn't make the same mistake twice of letting me anywhere near it again.
But something still didn't sit right. Regardless of leverage, the hatred was still there. I remembered every word I'd read in that text from Sarina's library: Asmodeus and Mammon had an unparalleled enmity stretching for centuries. But at the drop of a hat, he changed his mind? The Prince of Greed could put aside all of that rage like it was nothing? He was practically as tame as a puppy right now.
"It's because he possesses my Shard," Lust chuckled. His voice was low and delighted, and his hand curved around my shoulder with sinister strength, squeezing, teasing. "Even the act of carrying it has bonded him to me at the most primal level. This is the first time it has ever happened. It must be because his power is so potent, similar to mine.... But it's clear now that if he harms me, he harms himself, something he must have realized too late when we tangled in the mountain pass. But now that he knows, he won't chance it again. Our fates have become entangled. Although, dear Mammon, there is a simple solution. You simply have to give up the Shard. Then you can be rid of this pesky connection we now share, and you can do as you wish once more."
Mammon laughed back. If I could see, I was certain his mouth would be twisted in a nasty sneer. "Not on your life. And don't think you're so clever. You're the same as me. Just like you say, I have your Shard... and it bonds you to me just like it bonds me to you. Go ahead. Fight me. You'll only kill yourself. Save me the trouble, Asmodeus."
Wait. What? Lust never mentioned this. A forced stalemate for as long as Greed refused to give up the Shard? I'd thought we were at a horrible disadvantage against him and that his betrayal was imminent, but...
This could be a golden opportunity. I only had to utilize it just right.
But Mammon wasn't done. A familiar ominous growl entered his voice, distinctly animal. I tensed, and Lust did the same.
"And you offered me a deal, witch," said the Prince of Greed. "A contract with me to supplant the one you have with him. I haven't forgotten it... and I accept. Choose me."