“What do you know about the hag?”

His glass stops halfway to his mouth. “The hag?”

“The one with the tarot cards.”

Louis chuckles and then bursts into laughter. “You saw the Faery court, you made love to their princess, one of the highest, most beautiful beings on this Earth, and you want to know about some hag?”

Lilith is their princess. I vaguely remember the voices in her bower whispering something like that. I never paid much attention. “I think the hag—”

Louis hurls the glass at the hearth. It shatters in the flame, making it flare up higher for just a moment. He shoves to his feet and self-preservation forces me to match him. “She offered me immortality,” he snarls in my face. “I was this close to becoming one of them before you waltzed off with her.”

He can’t possibly have believed her. A creature like Lilith doesn’t consort with beings lesser than her except for temporary entertainment. Was Louis in love with her? Blinded by his own foolish emotions, did he swallow every lie she told him?

“I may not have lasted very long, but at least I had her respect,” he rants. “You are nothing but her pet. She will tire of you soon enough, and when she does, oh, my dear boy, mark my words, you will rue the day you laid eyes on her.”

I already do. “And when she rains down her punishment upon my head,” I say dramatically, “will you be satisfied? Will you put this behind us?”

Louis pulls back, surprised out of his anger. “Yes.”

I nod. There is nothing left to say, then. I take my leave without another word.

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