Chapter 48 #2
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I whisper. Not that it matters—both of them can hear me perfectly.
“Don’t be daft, son,” Belial says. “Hand her over. I’ll give her back once I’ve made my request and it’s been fulfilled.”
I drop my forehead against Lucifer’s shoulder blade. Kayn is going to be destroyed. It’s not like we could’ve predicted any of it, but he’ll blame himself.
A dark part of me wonders if it would’ve been better if he’d just kept hating me. Then maybe neither of them would care, and I could have asked the brute to end my life.
The blood bind is stronger than the hex. It couldn’t stop it from being fulfilled. It’s why I even made this deal in the first place.
To finally be done with it. A clean death. No more danger. No one chasing me. No more pain, and guilt for what I did.
But then… I wouldn’t have felt the care he or Lucifer have given me. And I don’t know if that makes any of this easier. Or harder.
“We’re leaving. You have lost your fucking mind, Father.”
Lucifer turns toward me and pulls me fully into his arms. “Tell Kayn to—”
A force slams into us, so violently it cuts him off mid-sentence.
Chunks of the stone wall crumble and strike my head as we’re thrown backward. I’m stunned I’m not in more pain considering the two of us just crashed into the wall several dozen feet from where Belial now stands at the room’s center.
Lucifer groans. One arm is locked around my waist like iron; the other is buried in the fractured wall behind me, his body shielding mine from the impact.
When his eyes find mine, they’re swallowed in shadows, a thin trickle of dark blood sliding down his temple.
“You okay, dollface?”
I nod and brush my hand over his cheek, my thumb coming away red.
“We need to get Kayn and go!”
He shakes his head. “I ran once…” I hear the words he doesn’t speak. “He’ll chase us. Regardless of where we run.”
I bite my bottom lip and start to push forward—to stand, to move—when a violent gust of wind snaps through the room. Belial appears right behind us. I suck in a breath and hold it as he strikes at his son.
Except this time, unlike before, Lucifer doesn’t let him land the blow. His hand shoots up, catching the massive punch aimed at his face. Not even a full second passes before they both vanish from in front of me.
I scramble up and scan the space—a large room that looks like it’s meant for meetings. Sparse furniture, a single sitting area, a desk shoved off to the side. It matches the same dark, gothic aesthetic as the rest of Belial’s manor.
Not that I expect a different result, but I reach for Vendra. For my power, her magic. Just as it had since the moment I arrived, the spark doesn’t ignite in my fingertips.
I’m still in his domain.
The floor suddenly trembles, and I whip my head to the right. Wooden wall panels are shattered and caved inward. Belial lies on his back, and Lucifer lands beside him.
I knew his kind had wings, but I’ve only ever seen them in drawings. Never in reality.
Blood drips from Lucifer’s leathery, bat-like wings, spanning wide.
His horns, curling from either side of his head and nearly touching at their tips, are streaked with the same crimson.
His size is larger—massively so. His skin is blackened, his tail visible, fingers no longer Mundane, but full-blown talons. This is his full Demon form unveiled.
“Tiresome,” Belial grunts. “How could she have given you that much sustenance?”
He doesn’t know Kayn is here… Proserpina didn’t tell him.
Thick, dense shadows crawl across the floor, inching toward Belial like smoke that’s alive. I look frantically for a door, anything, but the walls are seamless.
I can’t channel.
I can’t run.
And I don’t see any way out of the battle that’s about to begin.
If I could reach Zuhara, she might be able to get me out, but then Kayn would come. I know for certain he would fight beside Lucifer, and I can’t risk anything happening to him. Luce can’t die—no matter the battle here—but that Vampire can.
And if he loses his head… regardless of the Bond, my heart will stop.
Lucifer will lose us both, and Gods only know what he’d do then.
They vanish again, and my ordinary eyes can’t keep up with the speed. There’s a crash to my left, like plates shattering, then another impact high above near the ceiling.
“Lucifer, open the gates to the mortal world!” I shout through the link, only to slam into a wall of silence. “Luce!?”
Nothing.
A crack of splintering wood erupts so close to me I physically jump, the gust of the impact knocking me off balance. I whip toward the sound to see Lucifer embedded in the wall, wings torn, tattered and bleeding.
Belial appears in front of him a heartbeat later, popping his neck from side to side with bored casualness.
Every instinct in me screams to run to Lucifer, to throw myself between them, to do something—but I am not stupid.
Instead, when Belial steps toward him, I take a careful step back.
I can’t get through the link. Probably because Lucifer is too focused on the fight. Zuhara warned me how taxing it is. I won’t keep trying and risk becoming a distraction.
When his father swings down at him, I bolt. I run as far from the fight as the room allows. The wall lined only with carved crown molding is my first target. I drag my fingers along it, searching for any hidden seam, any latch, any godsdamn way out.
Behind me things crash, break, and shatter, followed by grunts that, thankfully, aren’t only Lucifer’s.
I reach the farthest point of the chamber. A massive window stretches floor-to-ceiling, giving a view of whatever grim world exists outside Belial’s estate. Lucifer warned me never to go out of his home. Does that apply here?
The thought of smashing the glass barely forms before a rough hand clamps around my throat and I’m hurled backward.
I don’t brace out of fear of snapping my wrists. My ass hits the floor hard, and then I’m tumbling. The moment my back slams into something uneven and jagged, a spike of white-hot agony tears through me.
Something sharp jabs into my side, just inches from my spine. I suck in a breath and scream through clenched teeth, my vision going in and out. Moving away from the object, I reach back, thankful to confirm nothing has pierced me.
Even if the object didn’t cut my skin, the pain is so fierce it may as well have. Fucking Beyond, that hurt.
“No running now, Witch.”
I look up just in time to see Belial stalking toward me, his expression carved with cruelty. “Who knows?” he drawls. “Maybe Vendra will grant you mercy and give me what I want quickly.” The smile he gives me is so wicked my stomach rolls. “I think raping you would speed up her decision.”
A shaky grin snaps across my face before I can stop it. Pure defiance. “Fuck you. I’d die before you ever got that chance.”
He hums lightly. “True. Suppose that’s easier for me anyway.”
My eyes widen. What?
“I’ll just trap your soul for eternal damnation until she gives me what I want.”
Every bone in my body shakes.
No. No. No.
He can’t be serious.
Lucifer suddenly appears—an explosion of black wings and blood—his fist smashing into his father’s face. Belial takes the hit, almost amused, then uses Lucifer’s arm as leverage, hurling him with such force the chandelier overhead rattles like bones in a crypt.
Then the ruler of the Beyond crouches in front of me.
“I don’t need much strength to kill you here.”
“Be vigilant in there. Be safe… Things from the Beyond can kill you, regardless of the Hex.”
If he takes my life now, before I break the bond, Kayn dies with me.
“N-No, wait…” I choke out, panic flooding my veins. “J-Just h-hold on—”
“A simple—”
His words cut off as his hand lashes out, the backhand so fast I barely see it.
The impact sends me flying.
I don’t know what hurts more—the crack against my skull, or the way I slam into the wall, all air punched from my lungs. Church bells roar in my ears. My vision flickers, then collapses into darkness. My body seizes, twitching uncontrollably as pain rips through me.
The last thing I hear is my name before, I think, I die.