CHAPTER 223

Abella raised a hand in warning, and Leeds became quiet.

"When you trapped us in that cave, I thought my life was over. In the process of trying to save someone, I nearly died," she said.

"I wish you ha--AAA!" Leeds cried out when Abella hooked her fingers into his nostrils and pulled.

"My wing was busted, I could barely move. I slipped in and out of consciousness from the pain." Abella relaxed her fingers a bit. Satisfied that Leeds would be quiet, she continued.

"Velvet and I had a brief but complicated relationship."

"I'm aware." Leeds replied softly. "I could see inside her head."

"That's right, you could." The house had discussed Leeds' ability to read minds. In their discussions about what to do with him, they knew that he would try to manipulate them using their own thoughts. However, it had been brought up that Leeds needed to feel superior to whoever he was dealing with. At best, he was a narcissist, and they would use that to break him.

"If she had left me behind, maybe she would have made it out and lived. It's not really my place to say." Abella kept her gaze on the stone walls of the corridor. She was afraid that if she looked at Leeds, she would be unable to continue speaking. "I know that I wouldn't have survived. My kind aren't invincible."

"Does this discussion have a point?" he asked.

"She spent the rest of her life dragging me free of that mountain. I owe her my life, and that's not a debt that's easily repaid. Maybe it's a kind of poetry that I am pushing her killer down into a mountain."

Leeds groaned. "Please don't tell me you're about to get weepy."

"I am not." In fact, she wanted to say more on the subject, to tell him that her path to salvation was about to become his path to damnation.

But she knew better than to ruin the surprise. He would have plenty of time soon to contemplate this conversation. The subject of Leeds had been hotly debated, and Mike's plan had been complicated.

"I don't understand," Eulalie had argued early on. "Why can't you just force him through a hell gate, like you did with that priestess lady? He could suffer for all eternity in there, why go through all this extra effort?"

"Because Leeds is a demon," Lily replied. "His soul will suffer while he's there, but he could be summoned back someday. It could be never, or it could be next week. Is that a risk we want to take?"

After some more back and forth, Eulalie had finally realized the brilliance of Mike's plan and agreed. Since she was constantly securing him in her webs, Ratu had used an amnesia spell utilizing a glass jar and some marbles to steal those memories away. They didn't want Leeds extracting the information from her.

Abella arrived at the end of the corridor. Leaning against the wall was Ratu, a glowing light hovering overhead as she paged through the Grimoire.

"What do we have here?" Ratu kept her face solemn with the greeting, her scales shifting over her skin. "Is this that little troublemaker I've heard so much about?"

"Please." Leeds started laughing. "You can act tough, but someday, I'll come for you, too. I'll come for all of you! Maybe it'll be when you're asleep, or maybe I'll wait until that little egg of yours hatches! That's right, I know the sister has it!"

Abella jammed her thumb into one of Leeds' eyes. While he screamed in pain, she knelt down to hit play on the mp3 player as she stopped squeezing his eye.

"Leeds. I want you to understand something about me. All my life, I've been told that forgiveness is the answer. I should forgive my mother, I should forgive my ex-girlfriend, I should forgive that friend in college who stole my credit cards. You should be aware by now that humans make entire movies about the power of forgiveness."

"Oh, please forgive me, Caretaker, I need it so bad!" Leeds jerked his head away and tried to spit on Abella. "Did he forgive you for failing?"

"There was nothing to forgive," she replied, then held up the player and pressed play again. The next part of the message was too important not to be heard.

"They say that you should forgive, but not forget," Mike continued. "That there's a lesson to be learned from all of this by the people on both sides. But you know what? I'm so fucking tired of being the better person. I'm tired of living with the pain of your deeds, and being expected to measure up to a higher standard.

"So here's what I'm going to do. Since I can never forgive you, I'm going to forget you. We all are. Once this message is done, I am meeting with a man from the Order and he is going to wipe away our memories of you."

"Wait, what? The Order?" Leeds looked from Ratu to Abella. "There's no way you have contacts inside the Order, those guys are assholes. If they knew you existed, they would come down on you and..."

"A deal was made," Abella replied. "It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. Once we're done here, we will forget you as well."

In fact, there was no such deal. Mike had no intention of cheapening Velvet's death by erasing his memories of her killer, but that wasn't the point. They needed Leeds to believe he had been forgotten, because it would make what came next a thousand times worse.

"You can't forget about me!" Leeds puffed up his chest on the gurney. "I'm the Jersey Fucking Devil! So that's it, you all are going to lock me away? In a cave? You're all insane if you think this won't stop me."

Abella noticed that Leeds' collar had flashed a couple times, and now glowed as if heated. She hit play on the mp3 player and then helped Ratu remove Leeds from the gurney.

"There are so many things I want to say to you," Mike continued. "But why bother? In just a few minutes you will mean nothing to me. Reduced to little more than a Wikipedia page and shitty truck stop merch, nobody will ever give a fuck about you ever again."

The speaker went silent as Ratu and Abella shoved Leeds up against the wall.

"You can't do this to me! You can't...what's your story?" Leeds asked, looking at Ratu. His eyes glowed, but his face faltered. "You're...different. It's like you're hollow inside."

"My mind is a mirror," Ratu replied. "So all you will see is a reflection of your true self." As a demi-god, she was easily capable of thwarting a simple mindread..