Chapter 51
It definitely does something to my ego being able to punch the ruler of the Beyond. I’d like to enjoy this, fuck around and make some cocky remarks, but I honestly haven’t been able to see straight.
The way he speaks to Lucifer.
The fact he touched Amarah.
He tried to take them both from me and now all I want to see is his fucking head on a spike!
Just as his back hits the ground, I’m over him, throwing a punch straight into his chest. I can hear bone crack. I’m not going to break through whatever the fuck his skin is made of, but at least it gets a grunt out of him.
His hand comes around my wrist before I can pull it away, but Lucifer’s shadows consume him. I’m not entirely sure what’s happening but Belial roars out in agony as they crawl up his forearm toward his shoulder.
I’m released seconds later, and I shove the heel of my foot right into his throat. It causes him to gag but not enough to have done any real damage, and next thing I know, I’m on the fucking ground.
Pain registers quickly in my leg but due in part to being full of both Amarah and Lucifer, my dislocated knee snaps back into place almost immediately. Just in time for me to roll away before a godsdamn sword is piercing the ground right where my head had just been.
As the piece of shit pulls the blade out of the soil, he tilts his head. “You’ll die, immortal.”
The moment he’s swinging the blade down, shadows wrap around his wrist, snapping it. It doesn’t break the skin but the grip on the blade wains and I launch up at him.
His fist comes for my face with a grunt, which I grab in my palm, and throw my forehead to his. The impact makes me dizzy, but he equally shakes out his head as I do mine.
Alright, note to self, I won’t be knocking him out that way.
I register the sound of the sword hitting the dirt but it doesn’t stop him from throwing his head right at mine.
I barely manage to lean back, his horns slicing through my cheek, all the way to the bone.
It has me cursing and attempting a quick follow up attack that misses as he throws himself backward.
I quickly look for Lucifer with this second of distance Belial has given us. He is now engaged with a dozen of Pyrehounds that are attacking Thornwyn.
“I should’ve just killed you that day.” I turn my focus back to the Demon I’m about to exorcise and reduce to a voodoo doll—one I’ll happily poke at for all eternity. “Up in the mountains.”
My nostrils flare. I knew his voice sounded familiar. While the man that stood before me at the place I first met Lucifer was an older man, I should’ve known something was off.
“Couldn’t have just been happy with the girl.” He tsks. “Now I’ll take you both from him, and let him suffer for his betrayal.”
Suddenly he’s gone, and cold metal bites against my throat. Lucifer screams my name just as I get my hand up—barely in time—to stop Belial from slicing straight across my neck. I drive my elbow back, catching him in the side of the face, but he only absorbs it like an annoyance.
I try to move my legs but they won’t budge. It feels like I’m sinking. Like quicksand is dragging me down. My gaze flicks downward, and I see hands. Dozens. Clawing out of the toxin-soaked soil, gripping my ankles, more reaching for my calves.
“Kayn!!”
Ignoring Lucifer’s horrified shout, I shove hard against the hand holding the blade. The weapon, red and deadly sharp, inching closer. One look at its edge tells me it won’t take much pressure to cut straight through my neck and into bone.
I jerk back again, but I nearly pitch forward due to being dragged down.
If I go down… I know won’t get back up.
“Enjoy the Void, Vampire,” Belial seethes.
“NO!”
The moment more pressure bites down, I empty my lungs in a scream, pushing back with everything I have left. It’s useless, and I know it. When I find Lucifer’s gaze, his shadows are already flying toward me, pulling away from Amarah.
Time slows. It feels like my body knows death is coming and wants me to absorb the final seconds of being alive.
“Protect her.” My lip twitches into the faintest smile. “I love you, Lucifer. Don’t watch.”
Then I release the strength I’d been using to keep Belial from taking my head. Luce needs to keep Amarah safe, and if he has to choose between saving me and maintaining the shield around her, I won’t let him make that choice.
I’ll choose for him.
I guess it won’t just be Kairhyse who lost his head for the woman he loved. Damn. Who would’ve thought?
Blood splatters across my face, but it isn’t me who screams in agony. Belial does.
Now that his weight is gone, only the arms clutching my ankles remain. I reach down and tear them apart, freeing myself. Staggering back several feet, I wipe my forearm across my eyes to clear the blood.
When my vision clears, the ruler of the Beyond stands before me, missing his arm.
“Fuck…” Her voice starts my heartbeat again. “You!”
I jerk my head to see Amarah, sat up with her channeled bow in her left hand, and a taut arrow in her right. Her face is covered in dirt, but I don’t miss the cracks in her skin. It isn’t just in her forehead. They draw all the way down her face, to her neck, and even up her arm.
It’s not even just that…
Her hair is basically glowing, and her eyes are that of the sun. Sunfire, just like my little deviant described.
“He doesn’t belong to you!” she screams, and releases the arrow.
I blink, and Belial bellows.
The arrow crossed the space so fast even my eyes couldn’t track it. When I finally register the damage, I stare in stunned disbelief.
It pierced straight through his chest—exactly where any heart would normally be.
“How?!” he shouts, so loud the entire world below us shakes.
It’s Lucifer who says, “Pureblood. Pure magic. Pure channeling.”
I turn toward him. Pale trails of skin are showing through as his Vigoro peels back, burning away in thin, shadowy tendrils. When our eyes meet, there’s fury in his. His mouth shapes the words, silent but sharp as a blade, “Fuck you for doing that. How could you?”
I know he’s furious with me, but I can’t stop to apologize. I move to step toward Amarah, but Belial has other plans.
The moment he shouts, I know we’re in deeper shit than before. Pyrehounds—hundreds of them—pour out of the gates to the Beyond, which open so suddenly I have to wonder if they ever truly closed.
He shrugs his shoulder, and the arm that had been blown clean off peels out of his flesh, regenerating in seconds.
“Make it messy,” he commands, and the Pyrehounds charge.
They haven’t even reached us when I hear, “Meow.”
What follows is carnage.
A blur of movement slices through the pack—Pyrehounds are thrown, crushed, snapped clean in half. Their howls and whines echo across the battlefield as creature after creature collapse.
I force myself to focus—really focus—and when I glance at Lucifer, he’s just as confused.
This isn’t him.
It’s not me.
And it definitely isn’t Amarah; her magic is gold.
These are all black, like shadows… Oh my Gods.
“You know…” The female voice has goosebumps crawling up my spine. “I swore I wouldn’t see you for at least a few years, Belial.”
Slowly, as though tension is pulling me in the opposite direction, I turn toward the woman.
She stands directly above Amarah, long black hair swept to one side and a pissed-off snarl cutting across her cherry-stained lips.
Her silver eyes lock onto Belial with such cold disdain it practically drips from her gaze.
“I owe you this.”
A loud crack snaps my attention back to Belial, and I actually laugh. He’s down on one knee, head shoved into the dirt, barely lifting himself when Kairhyse slams his foot into the side of his skull.
“Gods, that feels fucking fantastic.”
“Don’t get cocky, Kai,” Xeraphine scolds him, unimpressed. “Lose your head again and I’ll make you wait to come back.”
Belial swings, but he vanishes. Only then do I understand. His shadows took down the Pyrehounds—hundreds of them. And as the Crimson Dawn is out, he’s capable of summoning an unlimited number of them.
Though, for him to have brought Belial to his knees means he’s become stronger since the last time I saw him. Must be a side effect of feeding on a Succubus for… however long.
“Hey, girl. Mind pulling back another arrow?” Xera asks.
Amarah obeys without hesitation. When it’s cocked and ready, blood begins to swirl along the tip. I don’t need to be a genius to recognize what Xeraphine’s about to do.
“I tried to punch you that day in the Beyond,” Xera continues, directing her venom toward Belial. “Turns out we can’t make you bleed. But would you look at that… she can.”
I glance at Lucifer. He’s back on his feet and gathering the tendrils of his shadows from the ground, slowly weaving them toward his father.
“I do wonder what it would be like to control you…” she muses.
Belial snarls, “Know your place, Xeraphine. I helped you.”
“Eh.” She shrugs, and Kairhyse flickers into existence at her side. “You made me a deal. That isn’t helping. Now, unless you want to fight all of us—and find out exactly how fast I’ll kill that Fallen prick, ruining any chance you have of getting what you want—I suggest you leave.”
Belial roars, “You won’t tell—”
“Fire.”
The arrow releases with a sharp echo, but before it can strike its mark, he’s gone. Not sidestepping. Gone. And the gates to the Beyond vanish with him, along with every Pyrehound that crawled through.
I look straight at Lucifer, meet his eyes for a single heartbeat, then whip my head toward Amarah just as she’s collapsing. In perfect Xeraphine fashion, she merely glances down and watches her fall as if it’s an interesting inconvenience.
I’m at her side before her head can touch the ground. Her skin, once flushed and warm, now crumbles beneath my hands like dried, cracking mud. She’s breaking apart in my grasp, and there’s nothing in the world that terrifies me more.
“What’s happening?”
“Wow… Is that a fucking tree?” Kai says with a laugh.
“She needs to return to Vendra. It will take time for her to heal.”
“Oh shit, and it talks.”
“Kai, for fucks sakes, read the damn room.” I think Xera swats him, but I can’t look away from my girl to confirm.
I drag my thumb gently across Amarah’s cheek, slip my other hand to her hip, and pull her onto my lap so I can hold her properly. Lucifer kneels in front of us almost immediately, brushing her hair away from her face with shaking hands.
Her eyes, once vacant and terrifyingly empty, begin to shift back toward the indigo I’ve come to adore.
“Nice shooting, little slayer,” I murmur, voice cracking despite my effort to keep it steady.
Both edges of her lips curl up. “I never miss.”
“You must allow her to go.”
Shaking my head, I deny the request. “No…” I smile down at her as she slowly blinks. “You’re staying right here with us. We’ll take care of you.”
“Her healing will take weeks. She will be safest with—”
“Us.” I cut him off before he can say more. “Sorry. I’m going to be a brute, Vendra.” I swear I hear her chuckle, though it might just be my imagination. “I know she can’t heal her, so let us tend to her.”
I look up at Thornwyn, who’s staring down at me with barely contained fury. “Why did she save her life? The hex doesn’t allow it.”
“I do not know what either of them see in you. You are… an idiot.” I groan and have to force myself not to react.
“She is now in the mortal world; the hex is back in effect. However, if you had died, so would she. So, essentially… Vendra did not save her, but instead, saved you. A loophole… I suppose.”
“Kayn.” I bring my attention back to my girl. “If I die, you die. The bond, if snapped through death, will kill the other.”
I swallow hard, and for the briefest moment, I think about that blade at my neck. If I’d known my life was tied to hers, I never would have given up. I nearly ended both our lives trying to save hers.
I lift my gaze, anger and fear twisting together. “You knew that,” I say quietly, “and kept it from me.”
She nods, and slowly closes her eyes. “I’m sorry… I’ve kept so much from you…” Her voice fades away from the bond, and within seconds, she’s fast asleep.
I tuck my hand under her knees. “Thanks, Thornwyn, but we’ve got it.” We stare at one another for a moment, and with a very hesitant nod of his head, he steps away. With each one he gets smaller until he’s completely dissolved into the ground.
“Well,” Kai starts, but my eyes are locked on Lucifer. He can’t look away from Amarah. The pain there, the resentment—and the way it all mixes into something hollow—makes my chest ache like it’s collapsing inward.
“We’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Kairhyse continues. “And I’d very much prefer not to be standing around when the militia get here or, you know, the Ashspyte decides to chew me up and turn me into a Necroth.”
Xeraphine groans dramatically. “Let’s go. We’ll have to take the Phantasm, which I’m pissed about.” Her deadly eyes snap to me. “What the fuck were you thinking, Kayn?!”
“Wait…” Lucifer finally seems to register any of this. He stands, takes one harsh step toward her, all sharp presence and threat. “You know him? Are you the one who—”
“Told him? Yes.” Xera doesn’t flinch. “Be mad if you want, I don’t give a fuck.” She jabs her sharp nail at his chest. “I’ve got about a million questions about what the Beyond happened, but again, we need to get the fuck out of here.”
“She’s right.” The familiar, refined male voice draws my gaze downward. Mister—Aphyllius—pads forward, tail flicking like a metronome of judgment.
“Good to see you, Butcher,” he says, then looks to Lucifer with a curt nod. “Lucifer.”
His attention shifts to Zuhara approaching him with cautious steps.
“Aphyllius,” she purrs.
“Your beauty precedes you, Zuhara.” He gives a small, elegant dip of his head. “Now, please—move this argument elsewhere. You four have stirred up quite a lot of trouble with the mortals. And we are far too exposed here.”
I glance over at Kai. He’s watching me with a worried, but genuine smile.
“Good to see you, man.”
I let out a heavy sigh of relief. Kairhyse was… is… the closest thing I’ve ever had to an immortal brother. Losing him gutted me in ways I never admitted, not even to myself.
Seeing him alive, arm slung around an extremely irritated Succubus who could rip his head off for fun, grounds me in a way nothing else has since this nightmare began.
He’s alive.
I’m alive.
And I have Amarah.
And Lucifer.
Thank the Gods.