Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lothar
I ran to the window and watched as seven stories below a swirling mass of darkness flew across the rock plains and toward the forest, carrying Roxy with them.
Sprinting to the door, I shoved it open.
Horace stood on the other side, eyes wide, his hands up.
I didn’t stop—and plowed into an invisible force that knocked me back so hard I flew across the room and landed on my ass.
Bounding back to my feet, I ran at it again, and it threw me back harder, my body smashing into the stone wall opposite.
“Master Lothar,” Horace said. “Please, be calm.”
I ran back and gripped the doorframe. “Where is she? Who took her? What the fuck is going on?” That’s when I finally noticed the demon was bruised and bloody, with lacerations on his arms and legs.
He darted glances down the hallway and back at me and leaned in. “I don’t know how to free you,” he rushed out. “She won’t let me.”
“Who?” I roared. “Who has Roxy.”
“S-sss…” He grabbed at his throat, his mouth moving but nothing coming out. Blood bubbled through his gasping lips. He leaned over, and it poured from him. He looked up at me, his hand outstretched, choking, then he hit the ground.
A moment later, Horace turned to ash, silenced by whoever took Roxy from me.
I slammed my shoulder into the invisible barrier between us, but there was no getting through.
The door slammed in my face, and when I tried to open it again, I couldn’t.
I was trapped in this room, seven floors up, with no escape, and no way to get to Roxy.
Roxy
Beelzebub grabbed my jaw roughly. “Come on now, Rox, time to spill.” His gaze drifted down my beaten and bloody body as he shook his head.
“You look like shit.” He lifted my hand, and I refused to wince as he prodded the fleshy ends where the nails had been torn off. “You have to be in a lot of pain?”
Whoever sent the wraiths for me had freed Beelzebub as well. They’d also taken Lothar’s and my phones. They were shoved in Beelzebub’s back pocket. Which meant Lothar couldn’t get word to Lucifer.
I didn’t know how Lucifer’s powers worked, even after knowing him as long as I had—why sometimes he knew things and sometimes he didn’t.
I could only hope he sensed something was wrong now, but even then, he might not help me, not because he didn’t want to but because sometimes things needed to be left to play out, no matter how horrific.
Lucifer saw the big picture, and occasionally that meant making sacrifices—even if that sacrifice was me. So as awful as this was, and as hard as it was to accept and not feel abandoned by him, I had to trust that whatever happened next was how it was meant to be.
I hadn’t said one word to Beelzebub since I was brought to this place, this hideous onyx fortress.
The energy it was giving off told me it was new, created by someone immensely powerful and with seriously shitty taste.
Whoever this place belonged to had claimed the Outer Realm as their own.
Which meant it had to be someone at least as strong as Nox or someone with something she wanted.
Yes, Nox had retreated from this realm when she and Death had their showdown, but she wouldn’t want anyone else this close to the Night Realm, not without reassurances of their allegiance to her.
Beelzebub planted his hand on my head and jerked it from side to side. “Are you listening to me?”
I glared straight ahead. Without the wraiths to help him, I would have made the motherfucker beg for his life. They were the only reason he’d managed to capture me and chain me up. Many had tried over the years, because of my closeness to Lucifer, but none had succeeded until now.
“Looks like I’m gonna have to make you scream, Roxana.”
Never.
No matter what he did to me, I would never scream. I would never give the enemy that satisfaction.
Beelzebub clicked his fingers at the demon guarding the door. It was the same demon who’d attacked me in Skull Forest. “My friend here has nice sharp teeth,” he said. “I think it’s time he used them.”
“Long time no see, hog face,” I rasped and grinned, but with how swollen my face was, I wasn’t sure he could tell.
The demon rushed over, his furious gaze burning into me before it sliced to Beelzebub. B nodded, giving the demon the go-ahead.
Hog face grabbed my left hand and slid my pinky into his mouth and sucked, making an mmm sound.
“Do it,” Beelzebub said.
I braced, right as he bit down at the knuckle, his sharp teeth lacerating skin and flesh.
I ground my teeth as sharp agony sliced across my palm and shot up my arm.
The sound of bone crunching was nauseating as he bit through, then wrenched his head to the side, tearing it off.
Blood poured from my hand all over the floor.
“Eat it,” Beelzebub said.
The demon chewed, loudly.
“Pigs will eat a-anything,” I choked out. “By all means, if you’re hungry, bon appetit.”
He offered me a bloody-toothed sneer.
I grinned, giving him the same in return. “Joke’s on you. I p-pick my nose with that one.”
Beelzebub grabbed my jaw again. “You think you’re funny? How many fingers are you willing to lose?”
All of them, motherfucker.
Lucifer was my creator, my friend, my family. He was everything. My love for him was indescribable, unbreakable. I would sooner die than betray my king, before I gave them the means to hurt him.
I kept my mouth clamped shut and the hatred burning bright inside me. I would never give them the ammunition they needed to take Luci’s throne. Never.
Beelzebub chuckled. “You’d die for Lucifer, wouldn’t you?” he said as if he’d read my mind. “Such loyalty to someone who would never give you the same. If only you knew the truth.” He dragged his claws lightly over my swollen face. “If only you knew what he did—”
“Beelzebub,” a female voice snapped.
My entire body stiffened. Seraphina. Of course it was her.
I’d known, hadn’t I? Even before the wraiths made an appearance in Oldwood Forest. There was the verahn attack in Hell, that should have been a warning.
The way hog face had vanished after he and his friends had attacked me, only someone seriously powerful could have done that.
But the biggest flashing red light should have been when Lothar started acting strangely.
She’d been purposely trying to break us both down, by slowly exposing the emotions Lucifer had locked away in Lothar.
Trying to make him remember. Yes. I’d suspected it was her, but I’d tried to convince myself it couldn’t be true, and when Lucifer hadn’t been able to get the information from the angels we needed, I told myself she still had to be locked away, that there was no way she’d be able to escape her prison in Heaven—yet here she was.
I’d never encountered a colder and more heartless being in my long life. I would die today, but not before she’d made me endure torture so horrific, I would almost definitely lose my mind first.
“The wraiths?” B asked her.
“They fulfilled their end of the bargain. I set them free,” she said.
Beelzebub looked relieved. Having been brought here by them, touched by them, I understood why. But if they were free and now available to the highest bidder, we were in serious trouble.
“It’s been a long time, Roxana.” Her frigid stare chilled me to the bone.
“Too long, yes? I had hoped to do all of this without getting my hands dirty, but, sadly, Poe and Tarrant weren’t quite as clever as they thought they were, and with Beelzebub forced to flee Hell, it seems I have to do everything myself. ”
I kept my chin up, refusing to be weak in front of her, despite the condition I was in after Beelzebub’s beatings.
She lifted a hand, palm up. “We have a fun day planned for you, Roxy. I’m excited to get started.
” An orb appeared, hovering above her open hand.
It grew in size steadily until it was at least a yard in diameter.
Black smoke swirled behind some kind of invisible barrier.
“Keep watching,” Sera said as the smoke began to thin, then dissipated completely.
My room at the tower came into view. I jerked against my restraints when I saw Lothar. His hands were a mess, cut and bloody, his hair wild, his chest heaving. He looked up then, blinking, eyes glowing red, aimed right at me.
“Oh look, he’s spotted you,” Seraphina said.
Lothar’s mouth opened on a soundless roar. He ran at the orb, slamming into it, then hammering his fists against it over and over again.
“Stop,” I cried when his knuckles split open. “Lothar, please. You need to stop.”
Sera chuckled. “You can see each other, but he can’t hear you.” Her head tipped to the side. “How far can we push him, do you think? How long before he fractures completely and the truth of what you and Lucifer did to him comes rushing back like a nightmare?”
“Don’t,” I choked out. “Please.”
“She speaks,” she said. “But not soon enough, sadly.” She shook her head. “Remember when you betrayed me? Remember when you had me imprisoned? Left to rot alone for centuries. That can’t go unpunished, Roxana, you have to know that.”
She’d lost her damned mind. I had nothing to do with her imprisonment, and neither had Lucifer. It was her own fault she was caught.
“What’s it going to be? Are you going to help me overthrow Lucifer, like I should have done a very long time ago, or are you going to rend your mate’s psyche in two?”
They were going to hurt me and make Lothar watch. They were going to force him to break since I wouldn’t. I jerked against my restraints.
Either option was unthinkable. If Lucifer lost his throne, ripples would be felt through every realm, the balance between Heaven and Hell would be lost, and everything would descend into chaos.
I met Lothar’s wild, panicked stare through the orb and tried to communicate how sorry I was.
He opened his mouth on another silent roar.
A hot tear streaked down my cheek. I wouldn’t survive this, but Lothar would.
Lucifer would put him back together, I had to believe that.
However broken he was after this, I knew Lucifer loved me and he loved Lothar, we were both his creations, and he wouldn’t let Lothar suffer.
Seraphina nodded to hog face when I kept my mouth clamped shut, still refusing to give her what she wanted, and the demon came forward, lifted my hand, slid my ring finger into his mouth and crunched down, tearing the next finger off as well.
Lothar exploded with rage on the other side of the orb.
Veins bulging, fangs extended, silently roaring as he slammed into the orb’s surface repeatedly, trying again and again to get to me.
“Time to get a little more creative,” Seraphina said, a chilling smile curving her perfect lips.
“But first.” She handed Beelzebub a knife, one made by the gods—the same blade she’d used to slice open my side all those years ago, causing a wound that had almost killed me.
I was in no doubt that her escape was the reason the wound had grown painful and raw again.
“Let’s make sure those fingers don’t grow back. ”
Beelzebub took the knife and pressed the flat side of the blade to the bloody stumps. I clenched my teeth, jerking as the Heaven-made weapon sent toxic power surging through my Hell-born body. The pain only made my hatred for them burn hotter. I smiled, still refusing to scream.
Sera’s fury rose. Good, maybe she’d be so furious, she’d burn herself out quicker.
When the torture began, I closed my eyes, so I couldn’t see Lothar and what this was doing to him.
If I saw how this hurt him, it would weaken me, and I needed to hold on, because despite the odds—I would not just give up and die.
Lothar
My knees hit the floor, blood dripping onto the tiles from my torn-up hands.
Panting, I blinked back the red rage and took in the destroyed room.
Smoke drifted around me. The walls were charred, the furniture nothing but ash.
In this, the beast and I were in perfect harmony.
We’d fought to escape this room, going as far as using my hellfire to try to burn this fucking room to the ground, anything to get to Roxy while they fucking tortured her relentlessly.
Even after the orb vanished, I hadn’t stopped.
I had no idea how long ago that was. The rage and fear had been so overwhelming, I wasn’t sure when I last had a lucid thought or how I was managing it now, honestly.
I had to think. It was the only way to help Roxy.
The beast snarled and fought inside me now, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold it back.
Being forced to watch as Beelzebub beat and cut, and had that fucking demon from the swimming hole bite Roxy—and not be able to do anything to stop it, to help her—was more than my sanity could endure.
Yes, she was sweet and small and looked easy to break, but despite her size, Roxy was a fierce and brutal warrior.
She was powerful, immensely strong, and loyal to a fault, which meant she could sustain immeasurable pain and torture and not give an inch.
Nothing Beelzebub and the bitch with him did would make her crack.
Nothing would get her to help them overthrow Lucifer.
It would never happen. Roxy would die before she did that.
Which was why I was so fucking terrified.
What were they doing to her now? How much suffering would they make her endure?
With a roar, I ran at the door again, claws extended, and hacked at it, battered it with the full force of my body, but nothing I did would open it and nothing would smash the glass in the window.
I’d tried repeatedly to call for Lucifer, but he hadn’t come.
I picked up a chair and hurled it at the window, then charged it and was thrown back, tossed across the room again as soon as I reached it.
Roaring, I gripped the sides of my head.
How much longer could she survive?