onths

s seemed to have grown back into normal size as ghost whores used to rape him every night. He was miserable and worn out, th

omed to life in Eretheon City. He had learned how to

ed in a second-hand bookstore run by a near-blind woman who spoke to her dead husband every morning. (Well, even her daughter was

ding black ink that he had seen once before

A warning? A memo

ld unra

d breath on his neck that smelled like roses and sulfur. Silence prevailed. Darkness ruled. And again he

-

red light,Velvet curtains, Oil la

ral. Antique dolls sat beside ritual daggers, a gramophone

rward, disorie

aughter. Soft. Fe

orner and sto

live and healthy. Her skin glowing flawle

golden glow. She was alive, and watching him like a sp

love," s

pping the nearest shelf. "No. No,

musement. "Did you? Maybe you sa

. this is some t

he died screaming. I watched her from the inside as he

ent of jasmine and iron fille

like a curse t

. Curtains turned to human skin that dripped with fresh blood. T

king slow circles around him. "You look

dam rasped.

r his shoulders, like cold and fire at once. "You were never just a man, Adam. You

r. "You have a demon inside yo

away. "You

u. Then I realised there's nothing worth prote

ed exactly like the night they first made love. The sheets, the scen

the bed. "And I found him. Vaelr. The hu

souls being sucked through their skin, their eyes going blind with pleasure and terror as they cumm

on a throne of writhing bodies, his eyes glowing, crowned in flame, worshipped. Elizab

said. "Why run from what

was a ritual.Power surged through Adam's spine, and inside his soul, something woke. A d

turned, and Adam found himself on a cracked pavement in the city's outer suburbs. The sulphurous sky hissed with rain and the

dam. Inside him, the de

ith smiled at Adam as his c