Chapter 4 Discord
DISCORD
“What have you done to her?” I slammed Tumult into the wall and pressed my forearm against his throat, blocking his air supply. He wheezed, so I loosened my hold enough for him to speak.
“Her who? You’ll have to be more specific.” He plunged his talons into my stomach and jerked them upward, searing pain shocking my body and making me freeze.
He pulled them out, and I stumbled back, clutching my abdomen, lest my innards attempted to spill onto the floor. I focused on the jagged tears stretching across my stomach, willing my energy to gather in the wound and speed my healing, but I’d used too much power helping Cinder after our climb.
Then, the temple had blocked my entrance, and I’d used more magic and brute force in my attempt to get inside. I was, as Cinder would say, spent.
Tumult tilted his head, walking a circle around me like a hellcat prowling, toying with its prey. He glanced toward the wall I’d created where the doorway used to be. “I see Lucifer didn’t strip you of all your powers. I am sure that took a toll, though, did it not?”
I pulled my hand away, my palm covered in blood, and I tried to straighten.
A flash of sharp, intense pain took my breath, and part of my intestine slipped through the wound, protruding from the gash in my shirt.
A grunt was all I could offer my adversary in response as I pushed the offending innards back inside where they belonged.
“Stuck in your human form. Using any type of magic drains your energy. You require sleep.” He chuckled. “Because you believe witches are more important than your duty as a prince, Lucifer decided to let you feel what it’s like to be one.”
“I am no witch.” I squeezed the sides of my wound together, aiding my body’s repair.
He waved a hand, my blood on his talons glinting in the firelight. “You’ve lost Lucifer’s favor. You may as well be human.” His lip curled on the last word.
“Perhaps he stripped my powers because it was the only way you had a chance at beating me.” I straightened, my abdominal muscles finally healing enough to hold my insides in. “If I had my full strength, you would already be dead.”
“You—” He faltered, his brows slamming down over dark crimson eyes.
I used his momentary distraction to my advantage and charged. My body crashed into his, and I pinned his arms to his sides as I tackled him. The back of his head hit the stone floor with a sickening thwack, and his rancid breath left his lungs in a rush.
Rising to my knees, I slammed my fist into his face, bloodying his nose.
He rolled, latching his taloned hands onto my arms and throwing me onto my back.
I caught his fist before it made contact with the side of my head and wrenched his arm outward, twisting and dislocating his elbow.
His joint popped, echoing in the chamber, and I twisted harder… until bone protruded from his skin.
He wailed and stumbled to his feet, pinning me with a fiery glare before his corporeal form blinked out, his essence slipping into the plane between Hell and the ether.
I rose and spun, my senses heightened, searching for sounds or the stink of his breath…
anything to alert me to his presence on this plane.
The crackling of the fire was all I heard.
My pulse thrummed, and I took shallow breaths, my gaze darting around the room as I slipped a dagger from my thigh holster.
I sensed nothing.
My stomach sank. Had he returned to the next chamber to continue his assault on Cinder? If I dematerialized the wall I’d created, my strength would diminish even more. I barely had enough in me to fight as I stood.
“You’ll never earn a place by Lucifer’s side,” I said. “There will always be someone better than you.”
A low growl rumbled to my left. Good. I had his attention.
“In my absence, he chose Ruin,” I continued my taunt. “He never believed you could fulfill the role.”
“When I bring him both your heads, he will understand my worth.” The energy shifted in front of me, and Tumult’s arm in demonic form jutted from the next plane to swipe at my shoulder.
I side-stepped his advance, but he clocked me in the jaw with his other hand before fading again. Pain lurched upward to my temple, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of witnessing a reaction.
“Lucifer created me to stand by his side.” I tightened my grip on the knife. “Even if you could beat me, you would never live up to his standards. You will eternally be nothing more than second best.”
Footsteps pounded on the stone, Tumult’s form slipping onto this plane as he charged toward me, claws and teeth bared.
I parried, sinking my blade into his shoulder before yanking it out and using his momentum to propel him across the room.
He crashed into a dog statue at Hecate’s feet, knocking it from its stone base and breaking it into three pieces.
The temple groaned as if it had felt pain. Dust rained from the ceiling.
Tumult sat up, clutching his injured shoulder and slipping between planes. “You can’t beat me. My power makes it impossible for you to catch me.”
“Your power is bred in cowardice.” I cast my gaze upward. Fine cracks lined the columns supporting the ceiling. “You hide like a child rather than fight like a man.”
“I am no coward.” He appeared three feet to my left, spreading his arms in welcome. “If a fight is what you want, come and get me. I’m here.”
I lunged, lashing out with my knife and striking at his chest.
He disappeared in a wispy mist, his deep laugh sounding behind me. “Or am I here?”
I turned and lunged once more. Again, my knife passed through nothing more than mist.
“Perhaps I am here.” He appeared at the foot of Hecate’s statue. “Or here.” A second image of Tumult formed atop her head.
“Boo,” he said, his rancid breath heating my ear half a second before he plunged his claws deep into my back…so deep they protruded from my chest, racking my entire body with agony.
I coughed, and blood poured from my mouth. He had penetrated a lung, missing my heart by less than an inch.
“I’ll take your head now.” He shoved me to my knees and wrenched the knife from my grasp.
“Only a coward takes out their enemy from behind,” I spat and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
He grabbed my hair, jerking my head back as he moved into view. “I hope she was worth it.”
He raised his arm, prepared to sever my head. He was not prepared, however, for what I did next. Simple punctures healed much more quickly than jagged tears, and my lung had already mended.
I sucked in a breath and swept out a leg, knocking him from his feet. The knife clattered to the floor, sliding across the smooth stone and resting at the statue’s feet. Tumult’s form wavered, slipping away, but I refused to continue his cowardly spar.
Clutching his arm, I sank my teeth into his flesh. Had I been in demon form, I could have bitten through bone. My blunt, human teeth lacked the strength to sink all the way through, so I bit hard and jerked my head, removing a chunk of his flesh.
I spat it into my hand and rose before kicking him in the gut. He groaned, his eyes growing wide with fear as he realized what I had done, and he scrambled to his feet, facing me in a defensive stance.
“What’s wrong, my friend?” I asked, my tone condescending. “Are you unable to hide without your body intact?”
His eyes narrowed, his glare turning to ice. “I will heal.”
“Not while I still have breath in my lungs.” I leaped toward the knife, sliding across the floor, my arm outstretched.
With Tumult in his demon form and I in my human, his speed surpassed mine fivefold. He kicked the knife, and it slid into a crevice beneath the statue’s feet, leaving me weaponless against his talons and horns.
I stood and fisted my hands. “No one can take my place. I was created to stand by Lucifer’s side, and to his side I will return.”
“And what of your little witch? Even with your blood bond, spending too long in Hell will drive her mortal soul to madness.” Tumult laughed.
“Perhaps, if you could complete your quest…if you sacrificed her to our king…he might forgive your transgressions. But without Hecate…” He shrugged.
“It’s time for the Underworld to evolve, and for that, it needs new leadership. ”
I tightened my fists, my weak human nails digging into my palms. He made a point I hadn’t considered. Cinder and I shared much more than a blood bond…a fact he was not privy to. Our soul bond would maintain her sanity, but she would never agree to abandon her family and stay by my side in Hell.
We would find Hecate. We would return her to Lucifer. But never would I sacrifice my witch to his whims. She would return home if I had to take her there myself…and then what?
Return to Hell, rule with Lucifer and my brothers as we had done for millennia? It was our duty. Our birthright.
Our burden.
Tumult tensed, ready to charge. But not at me.
Instead, he turned on his heel and bolted for the wall I had created to keep Cinder safe.
His horns hit the stone, cracking the magic I’d used to create it.
He reared back and plowed into it again.
It splintered. One more thrust and he would get through.
He turned toward me and sneered. “I’ve decided to kill your witch first, so you can watch her suffer.”
His words lit a fire inside me unlike anything I’d ever felt. All logical thought slipped from my mind, leaving behind only pure, primal rage…
Hellfire coursed through my veins, a burst of magic from the core of my being healing every injury I had sustained. Power built in the nucleus of every cell in my body, bleeding outward until my skin hummed with energy, and the strength of twenty demons surged through my muscles.
“Cinder is mine,” I growled, my demon boiling beneath the surface, demanding to be unleashed.
Tumult grinned wickedly. “Only if you can get to her first.” He turned to the wall, taking a step back and coiling his muscles to strike.
Not even Lucifer could keep my rage contained.
I roared and charged, my demon clawing its way to the surface, breaking through the binding magic and unleashing its fury.
I grabbed Tumult by the shoulders and hurled him across the room.
He crashed into the wall, the force splintering the stone.
Three massive cracks jutted up to the ceiling, and powdered stone rained onto the floor.
Tumult recovered, standing upright and running his finger over his healed arm. With his flesh reformed, he could now slip in and out of this plane. His form shimmered. I shot toward him, claws outstretched, and I swung, slicing off his finger.
He wailed, blood pouring from the wound.
The injury tied him to this plane, but it didn’t slow him down.
He slammed his shoulder into my gut and lifted me, spinning in a circle before slinging me toward Hecate’s statue.
My back hit her raised torch, breaking it off at her hand.
It tumbled to the ground, shattering as I hit the wall behind her and fell.
Tumult lowered his horns and barreled toward the failing magical wall.
I scrambled to my feet and blocked him, landing an uppercut to his jaw that sent him careening into a support column.
The impact knocked it loose. The base slid back while the upper part screeched across the ceiling, stopping at a thirty-degree angle.
“No woman is worth this much trouble.” Tumult spat blood, and his claws protruded to their full extent.
I plowed toward him. He countered, and we met in the center of the room, flesh slamming into flesh, horns locking as we wrestled.
I jerked my head and threw him aside. He hit the other dog statue, knocking it off its base and making the temple groan.
More stone dust rained from above. Cracks jutted this way and that, spiraling up the columns and weakening the walls.
He roared, blowing smoke from his nostrils and striding toward me with his fists clenched. He punched. I ducked, feinting left before landing a fist in his face. He stumbled back, his eyes watering, and lashed out a claw, striking me in the stomach.
It was merely a flesh wound this time. I extended my claws and jabbed for his heart. He turned, and they sank into his side. He spun, lifting his leg, his foot hitting my chest. I flew backward, smacking into the statue’s robes. Cracks crept us the goddess’s form.
“I did not come here to destroy a temple.” I grabbed Tumult by the neck and flung him against the wall. “But I will do whatever it takes to keep Cinder safe.”
He grunted with the impact but landed on his feet. “And you’re doing a stellar job thus far. I’ve seen how many times she’s nearly died in your care.”
His words struck a nerve, making my anger burn hotter. “You’ve seen nothing. You’re a spineless imp who hides behind cowardly magic.”
“Not hiding. Watching.” He cracked his knuckles. “Calculating. Gauging your strength. Using you to take out the competition before I swooped in and claimed the prize.”
“Relying on someone else to fight your battles, as usual. Pathetic.”
“Perhaps I won’t kill your witch. I believe I’ll keep her as my slave.” He charged, and I stepped out of the way, tripping him. He flailed, hitting the statue and cracking it more before he advanced once again.
As long as there was breath in my lungs, no one would lay a finger on my soulbride.
Hellfire consumed all thought, rational or otherwise.
My vision tunneled until all I could see was his chest. I barely noticed the sensation of his claws swiping across my face as I sank mine deep inside him and twisted them, shredding his heart.
His eyes bulged, and he wheezed, the light in them dimming to darkness. With one final thrust, I flung him across the room. His lifeless body landed in the crook of Hecate’s elbow, the impact cracking her statue even more before he crumbled into dust…obliterated.
My breath came out in a rush, and my stomach churned with nausea. I doubled over, the adrenaline and power draining from my system as quickly as it had entered. Unable to hold on to my demonic form, my body morphed into human. I stumbled toward my clothes, but my demon had shredded them.
A loud crack echoed in the chamber. Hecate’s statue split and crumbled, her head breaking into a hundred pieces as it hit the floor. The walls groaned. Slabs of stone fell from above. The angled column toppled.
“Cinder!” I rushed toward the magical wall. “Cinder, we must run.”