And he wondered about the one thing he had no control over. What she would see in the hall.
The doors opened on their own, and Ume inhaled sharply. “I guess he’s been expecting us.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I couldn’t seem to stop. I lost my head.” The words came tumbling out. He wanted her to forgive him as Sinner, the man she’d known. It would be something he could hold on to.
Ume didn’t disappoint him, though the relief in her expression broke his heart. “Is that why you’ve been acting like this? Sinner, you didn’t hurt me. You may have ruined me for sex with anyone else again.” She chuckled wryly. “But you didn’t hurt me. Well, not in a bad way.”
He wanted to beat his chest with pride. Wanted to take her again. Wanted to do anything but what they were about to do. “Ume, we don’t have to go in there. We can find another way.”
Her expression softened. “I’ll miss this too. But I can’t stay here forever. It’s amazing, but it’s not real. It’s not my life.”
A muscle ticked at his temple as he forced himself to let it go. He’d broken, given in, given her an option. In the end she’d made her decision.
They walked through the doors and found themselves in a long narrow corridor covered with artwork. Japanese wood block prints.
“Beautiful,” Ume whispered, making Saint flinch.
“Look closely. You should recognize something.” Hadn’t he created it so she would? Once again, not his best plan ever.
“My mother? Sinner, that’s my mother holding me as a baby. That’s when she gave me the necklace.” Ume absently stroked the pearl drop at her throat. Saint noticed for the first time it had taken on a new luminescence.
He walked with her in silence, listening to her translating the symbols that ran alongside the paintings. It told the story of a woman who had been protected by the spirit of a kitsune ancestor. An ancestor who had been enemies with an Oni and worried that its human family was being threatened. The only way it knew to protect them was to sacrifice its body and give its spirit, in the form of a pearl, to hide its progeny from the demon’s view.
Ume’s mother had been the last of her line until she’d had her little girl. She so loved her baby that she wasn’t willing to take any chances. She gave the child her talisman, thinking enough time had passed that it would be safe.
But the Oni had been patient, and it had known. It chased the woman in her dreams, making her fear for her child, making her insane. Every night for years it played with her, taking revenge for all the time it had waited to attain the kitsune star ball. The soul of its enemy.
The next few prints sank Saint’s heart, since he easily understood the translation. Ume’s mother had suffered, but she’d also learned how to control her dreams. Learned that she had power in them.
It had taken time, but she had patiently developed those powers, until one night, when the Oni had promised that he would find a way to kill her daughter on her sixteenth birthday, that the talisman could not protect her from everything—she struck out. She battled with the Oni bravely, as a kitsune warrior, until both of them were near death.
The mother knew she would have to sacrifice herself to stop the Oni once and for all, but she didn’t hesitate. As her ancestor had before her, the mother willingly gave up her body for her daughter’s life.
“I never believed her.” Ume was crying. “I called her crazy. But she wasn’t was she? She sacrificed herself for me. Why would she do that?” The hand on her face curled into a fist. “And why would Saint show me this?”
“A mother’s love. And he didn’t do this. You see the truth inside you. Some see cheating on their wives, or bullying their children. Your biggest shame, your sin, is this. I’m so sorry, Ume.”
And he was. Sorrier than she would ever know. A fucking demon. A demon who, if he hadn’t been sent to the abyss by Ume’s mother already, Saint would ha
ve found and destroyed himself. Now that she knew, she would never be able to forgive him for what he was.
And he would never recover.
“Come on. It’s time to finish this.”
They walked toward the end of the hall where it opened up into a large throne room. The Demon King’s lair. Only he wasn’t a king. Wasn’t even a whole demon.
And his only treasure now was her.
Chapter Seven
Ume was wrung out. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to forgive herself. What her mother had gone through for her was unimaginable. Had her father known? Had he had any idea? Was that why he’d abandoned Ume before her mother’s ashes had even been interred—because he knew it was her fault?
And was this why she’d been pulled into Saint’s damn game? For her necklace? She was still holding it, felt it warm her hand, pulse against her fingers. She hoped the kitsune spirit would be with her now. If she had to fight a demon, she would be a warrior like her mother.
The room was huge. And empty. One throne chair sat on a dais, but it wasn’t particularly ornate. Just a chair. No paintings hung, no treasure chests lined the walls, no people waited for an audience. As throne rooms went this one was a little…well, sad.
“You’re here.”