Chapter 139: When She Calls
RAVIAL
The audacity of these mere mortals.
I have been far too quiet.
Far too lenient.
I allowed them to flutter beneath my wings, small, insignificant things because I wanted to seem a bit human for her though I never would be.
Because my lamb wanted to spread them herself. Wanted to prove her strength. Wanted to believe the world could be kind if only she tried hard enough.
I let her.
And now an insect, a being so far beneath her, he should have been crushed underfoot the moment he took me for a fool, and decides to touch what is mine.
As though it was his right.
I have been far too soft.
“My Lord,” Lucius said from where he stood beside me, Killian silent at his flank. “Do we go after them?”
I said nothing for several seconds.
I simply stared out the glass wall overlooking the city.
Lights glittered below like dying stars. Cars crawled like ants. Humans moved in their tiny, frantic patterns, oblivious, fragile, and breakable.
I knew exactly where she was.
I had her phone tracked at all times.
To most people that would be obsessive. Controlling and wrong.
To me it was necessity.
She was my heart walking around outside my chest.
Every heartbeat she took, I felt.
Every breath.
Every tear.
I could be where she was in a second.
One thought. One step through shadow. One fold of reality.
I could materialize in that filthy warehouse in the next moment, rip the roof off, and paint the walls with their blood.
I could end every single one of them before they realized what was happening.
And her friends…
Wiping memories would be trivial.
A whisper in their minds. A gentle press of will. They would wake tomorrow believing they had simply fallen asleep after a long day.
I could do it without blinking.
But Leitana…
Leitana was not any human.
She was not a mind I could rewrite.
She was not a soul I could smooth over.
If she truly saw me in that moment of slaughter, she would never unsee it.
She would see the devil.
Not the husband.
Not the man who brushed her hair and kissed her forehead and whispered her name like a scripture.
She would see the thing that fell.
The thing that burned.
The cast out demon.
And I could not—would not—let her look at me with fear.
Not her.
Never her.
So I stayed still.
I let the rage coil tighter inside my ribs until it felt like it might split bone.
Lucius shifted, impatient, and eager for destruction.
“My Lord?”
I exhaled slowly.
“No,” I said.
Killian’s brows lifted slightly.
Lucius let out a soft sigh.
I turned from the window.
My voice was soft as I spoke.
“We wait.”
Lucius blinked.
“My Lord, they have her….”
“I know.”
I stepped closer to the glass.
My reflection stared back, dark blindfold, my jaw tight, mouth curved in something that was not quite a smile.
“She will call me,”
I placed one hand flat against the cool glass.
The city pulsed beneath my palm like a heartbeat I could crush.
“And when she does…”
My fingers flexed.
“…I will answer.”
I looked at Lucius.
“Prepare. When I give the word, we move. But not before.”
Lucius bowed.
“As you command.”
Killian remained silent, watching me with that careful, almost reverent gaze he always wore when he sensed the violence stirring.
I turned back to the city.
And waited.
Because she would call.
She always called.
And when she did…
I would come.
Not as the devil.
But as her husband.
And then…
Then I would show those humans exactly what it cost to make my lamb cry.