Even after the door slammed behind Blaire, Cole didn’t release his painfully tight grip on her arm.

He stepped closer, staring at Blaire with such intensity she was surprised she hadn't disintegrated.

Blaire noticed with regret that he was no longer topless and wore a black, loosely buttoned up shirt. No longer the sophisticated devil she saw on the stage, this was just a young man out of his element.

Blaire glanced over at his gray and black bed where the blonde beauty limply lay.

“Is she dead?” she worriedly asked.

“No. She’s asleep,” Cole answered derisively.

Blaire was aching to ask if the girl slept in his room with him, too. But that’s not the real answer she wanted.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped and Blaire blinked.

“Well, you grabbed me and pulled-”

“You barged in with my father.”

Blaire scrunched her nose in disgust. “He’s not your father.”

“He is,” Cole countered, irritated.

“No, he’s a monster that kidnapped you. Your father is a good human man who doesn’t-”

“Your Cole had a good human father. I’m not that Cole.”

They stared stubbornly at each other.

It’s true. Cole and Coal have no similarities. Coal doesn’t even have an English accent. And maybe it’s just Blaire being stubborn, Blaire unwilling to give up the idea that Cole is gone, dead. Her life-long mission of saving him was over.

Blaire swallowed. “Then why were you surprised?”

“Surprised?”

“When I told you my name. You were surprised...and then mad.”

Coal hesitated. “We had a promise.”

“We? When?”

“Not you!” he snapped and Blaire jumped, startled.

With a surrendering exhale, he dropped her wrist and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Do you know what will happen if you stay?”

“Well, no, not really,” Blaire confessed. “I have an feeling I’ll understand soon enough.”

“You’re going to die,” Coal told her flatly. “If the air doesn’t kill you, then my father will.”

The air?

“I don’t understand.”

“I do.”

“And that bothers you,” Blaire observed out loud. If it didn’t, he wouldn’t have dragged her into his bedroom and warned her of her dreary fate. “Why?”

“I told you: my father and I had a deal.”

“A deal or a promise?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Well, a deal is a transaction, isn’t it? A promise is a vow.” Then Blaire mumbled, “Though both, I guess, do have the same result.”

Coal looked Blaire over, scrutinizing every detail. “You’re really here.”

Blaire only managed a nod, as she’s not sure what words to say.

He turned away, as if looking at her annoyed him. “This is a nightmare.”

“You know,” Blaire began, irritated, “I’m becoming really interested in this deal slash promise you made with your father.”

“If you die,” Coal whipped back to her, his eyes narrowed like a serpent’s, “I’ll have to kill you.”

Ignoring his paradoxical statement, Blaire mocked, “Is this a promise or a deal?”

“It’s a threat.” Coal appeared worn. “You’re not scared?”

“Of what? You?”

“All of this.”

“No, not really. Maybe someday,” Blaire answered. If her eyes weren't deceiving her, she could believe for a second Coal looked reassured.

Maybe someday all that’s happened would catch up to her. The murders, the blood, the violence, and she’d finally have a normal human reaction. Right now she was mostly just wary. She couldn't afford to have a breakdown in her enemy’s home.

Any minute Death, even Coal, might try to take her life. If she could, she would do her best to show no weakness in front of anyone.

Blaire flopped on Coal's couch and stretched like a lazy cat. “So, how will you do it?”

“How will I do what?’

Blaire stared up at him. “Kill me. You can’t make a threat and not back it up.”

Coal considered Blaire, his face unreadable.

“Are you going to decapitate me? Or will I bleed to death like the Lizard Woman?” Blaire shifted, intrigued. “How did you do that, anyway?”

“It was Noira."

“Noira?”

“My familiar.”

Familiar? Blaire thought skeptically.

“Oh. Well, will I meet Noira?”

“Not like that.” Coal crouched so they were eye level. “If I do kill you, it will be painless and fast. You won’t even know it happened.”

“That sounds like a mercy kill."

“I’m not known for being merciful."

Blaire’s heart pounded in fascination, not fear, of discussing her future death. If she had this conversation with Death, she knew she would feel differently. She’d feel revolted. With Coal it was different.

It’s because he looked like her childhood friend.

“Really? And those humans you set free at the auction?” Blaire read the flicker in his eyes an answer she didn’t like. “I see.”

“No human is free here,” he explained.

“In Hell?”

Coal smirked. It was staggering and Blaire could only imagine what seeing a real smile from him feel like.

“Not quite.”