Addison's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

The waterfall thundered behind her, a wall of white noise that swallowed everything. Addison pressed against the wet stone of the cave and listened for boots, for breath, for anything. She heard only the roar. Her fingers tightened on the loose rock in her hand, but she already knew it was not enough. She would not hear him coming. She would swing blind, and she would miss. She dropped the stone and moved deeper into the dark on her knees. Her good hand swept the floor until it struck something hard and cold. A jagged spike of stone, snapped off long ago, the size of her forearm. She lifted it. The point was sharp enough to bite skin. She crawled back to the arch and pressed flat against the wall beside it, the spike held low against her hip. A shadow broke the curtain of water. He came through shoulder-first, just as she had hoped, the dark dagger leading. In his other hand he carried a small wooden box, lacquered black, the lid bound with a thin iron clasp. She did not need to be told what it was for. Lucifer wanted proof. Lucifer wanted her heart in a box. She could not hear him, but she could see him. She watched the box, not the blade. The moment his front foot found purchase on the cave floor, she drove the stone spike up under his jaw with both hands. His head snapped back. The dagger clattered. The box dropped and rolled, lid flopping open, lined in red velvet and empty. He folded down into the wet dirt and did not move again. Addison knelt and picked up the dark blade. It was lighter than it looked. She closed the empty box and tucked it under her arm. Lucifer had sent a container for her heart. She would send it back full of something else.