Morpheus." I say it more as an accusation than a revelation.The winged devil flashes his white teeth in a stunning smile that draws me in as it puts me on guard. "Mmm." He moves his hand along the hookah as if it's a violin. "Your voice is a song. Say it again." He takes a drag of smoke from the pipe.I'm so entranced by seeing him alive and real, I don't even try to resist. "Morpheus." "Beautiful.

“Do you have any more surprise stowaways up your sleeve?” I ask Morpheus.Pushing dents out of his hat, he scowls. “I’m starting to fear I didn’t bring enough. If there’s one thing netherlings are good at, it’s cleaning messes.”

You know how to manipulate me, and I know how to manipulate you. That makes us even.”No. We’ll never be even.We’ll always be trying to outdo each other. I won’t say it aloud, any more than I’ll admit that I like it that way; that some primal, powerful side of me craves the challenge and always has.

Liar,” I mumble, swimming in nausea and coughing up blood. My arms and legs feel weighted, and sticky streams ooze out of the gouges in my skin. “You left me.”“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Morpheus guides me down beside Ivory and exposes her birthmark, touching it to mine. Heat flashes along my body. “I’ve always believed in your power. For the queen I saw in you even as a child … for the woman you could never see in yourself. My faith is as unchanging as my age.

May I introduce you all to the main course?" Morpheus spreads out an arm with a dramatic flare. "Dinner, meet your worthy adversaries, the hungry guests.

I shake my head, eyes clamped tightly. “We’re too high … it makes my stomach kick.”He laughs and inhales a puff off the hookah then blows the smoke over me, saturating me in the comforting scent. “That’s how you know you’re alive, Alyssa. The kicks.

Where was the excitement in dependability? Where was the spontaneity in a predictable world? He could offer her an eternity of challenges and passion, of quiet, tender moments stolen in the depths of riotous flames and ravaging storms—tranquility amidst the chaos.She belonged with him, wearing regal robes. He had so much to teach her about the nether realm, about the glories of manipulation and madness.

He made a trade. Red's life for his loyalty. In order to be true you forever after, he had to betray you one last time

I stare at the photo. It’s an image of a huge black-winged moth from one of Alison’s old albums. The shot is amazing, the way the wings are splayed on a flower between a slant of sun and shade, teetering between two worlds. Alison used to capture things most people wouldn’t notice—moments in time when opposites collide, then merge seamlessly together.