Demon Marked

follow through on the terms would find their soul trapped in Hell’s frozen field when they died, tortured for eternity. A human who didn’t fulfill the terms would be trapped, too, but Nicholas was willing to take that risk to find Madelyn.
    An emotion that might have been wariness entered her voice. “What would the bargain entail, exactly?”
    “As I said. You use the knowledge you have to help me find the demon who impersonated my mother. And no lying to me for as long as we’re bound together—that’s part of this bargain. You can’t conceal information about the demon who pretended to be Madelyn, or anything that might lead me to her. Every relevant bit of info, no matter how trivial, you give to me the moment you think of it. In return, I’ll help you discover who you are.”
    “I won’t be of use to you. I don’t know where Madelyn is,” she said.
    Hedging, delaying. Nicholas hadn’t expected anything different. He raised the crossbow again. “So that’s a no .”
    “No, I didn’t say that.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead, as if forcing herself to think. Rachel used to do the same, but her eyes had never begun turning crimson as this demon’s eyes were. “I just . . . I’ve entered into a bargain before. I don’t know what . But I know that it’s not something I should do quickly. So I’m telling you now that you’ll be disappointed, because I don’t have answers for you.”
    No. She was telling him now because if she entered into the bargain, she couldn’t lie.
    “I don’t care,” Nicholas said. “If you don’t know where she is now, you can still agree to help. And I’ll help you in return.”
    “What if we don’t find Madelyn or discover who I am?”
    “It only matters that we help each other, not that we succeed. It only matters that you don’t conceal information or lie.”
    She nodded. God, what a terrible bargainer she was. She hadn’t asked the same from him—probably because finding out who she was didn’t really matter.
    It mattered to him. If she was telling the truth and didn’t know who Madelyn was, then tracing this demon’s history might lead him to Madelyn, anyway. They were obviously connected.
    The glow receded from her eyes, leaving them clear and blue. “And if we fail, are we stuck together for the rest of our lives?”
    “If we exhaust every possibility, we’ll agree to release each other from the bargain,” he said. Even if they never did, her life would be much longer than his. Surely her immortality was a detail that every demon couldn’t forget. “So, you help me, and I’ll help you. Are we agreed? You have to say it.”
    She took a deep breath before slowly nodding. “Yes. We have a bargain.”
    She’d actually agreed? Nicholas stared at her, replaying each step, making certain he hadn’t missed anything. He hadn’t expected that she’d go through with it. But she’d said it clearly: Yes.
    Surprise shifted to triumph. He had her.
    “Are you Madelyn?” But no, that was the wrong question. She might not be able to lie, but technically, the demon he sought had never been Madelyn St. Croix; she’d just stolen a human woman’s identity. He clarified, “Are you the demon who impersonated my mother?”
    “What do you mean, am I your moth—” She broke off. “Can’t you tell by looking?”
    “I know demons can shape-shift.” How ignorant did she think he was?
    She blinked. “We can?”
    Jesus, even a bargain didn’t stop her from playing stupid. A direct question, then. She couldn’t evade that.
    “Are you that demon?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” Her lips pursed briefly. “I don’t know who I am, so if I can shape-shift, I suppose that means I could be anyone. But I saw Madelyn St. Croix, or someone who could have been her twin, and she wasn’t me.”
    Whoever she saw could have been any demon shape-shifted—but most likely, the other demon had been Madelyn. So Nicholas had to accept that this wasn’t Madelyn . . . and that she truly didn’t know who she was.
    He fought his disappointment. Even if this demon didn’t remember who she was, that didn’t mean she had no other useful knowledge.
    “Where is Madelyn now?”
    “I don’t know.”
    For God’s sake. With effort, Nicholas concealed his frustration. “Who gave you the code to the house?”
    “I don’t know. The pattern was familiar, and I just . . . entered it.” She demonstrated in the air, as if inputting a number into