CHAPTER SIXTEEN #2
Lucifer retrieved something on the desk chair.
A sword belt, I saw as he secured it around his hips.
A ripple of unease went through me. Where was he going?
Where were Collith and Laurie? The demon’s magic prevented me from using my own to find them, or at least attempt to.
I wrenched at my wrists in a burst of frustration, and when the devil turned, I felt my lip curl.
“I’m not letting you open that Gate, Lucifer. ”
“I figured as much. Which is why I wanted to speak with you tonight.” He rested his hand on the hilt of the sword and tilted his head as he regarded me.
“I have an offer for you, my lady. I will free your friend and let the rest of your loved ones live … if you remain in this camp. Lay down your grand plans and your weapons. Do nothing when I go into those hills on Olorel, and I swear that no harm will come to those you hold dear. Including the Beast.”
My only response was to spit at his feet. The corner of Lucifer’s mouth tilted up in a sad smile.
“You took longer than I thought you would,” he said without looking away from me. At first, I frowned in confusion. Then my senses prickled, and my head snapped to the side.
Laurie stood in the middle of the tent.
The sight of him sent a jolt through me. Laurie held a heart in each hand, his skin coated in blood all the way to his wrists. The three of us were completely silent as Laurie opened his fingers and let the hearts fall. They made fleshy, wet sounds as they hit the ground.
“You might want to post an ad on Indeed, because you’re short two employees,” the Seelie King drawled.
Lucifer didn’t react to Laurie’s sudden appearance or the hearts that had rolled to a stop near his boots. He glanced down at them, and his tone was polite as he raised his gaze and said, “Laurelis Dondarte. I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”
Laurie grinned, and I had never been more terrified for him. “Well, here I am,” he replied. “Although I should warn you, there’s something the humans say that seems pertinent to this moment.”
Lucifer sighed as if we were all boring him, but he’d play along. “And what’s that?” he asked.
“Never meet your heroes,” Laurie said. Then he unsheathed his sword and launched at the devil.
Just as it had been with the angels, they fought too quickly for my eyes to track.
But this battle was considerably shorter than the one I’d witnessed in the desert—despite Laurie’s considerable skill, he was no match against a creature who had been alive when this planet was hardly more than a garden.
In the space of a blink, Laurie was on his knees, Lucifer standing over him with the tip of his sword pointed to his throat.
When I registered what was happening, I stopped breathing.
I reached for my powers instinctively, desperate to intervene, but they were still muffled beneath the galbraith demon’s influence.
My voice sounded strangled as I said, “Lucifer. Lucifer, please. Let him go. We can talk about a deal, all right?”
“Don’t offer him a goddamn thing, Fortuna,” Laurie growled, never taking his eyes off the male in front of him.
“I confess to some disappointment,” the Dark Prince replied blandly. “I never imagined the infamous Seelie King would be so … predictable.”
“I doubt you were expecting this,” someone else said. It wasn’t Laurie.
A sword burst through Lucifer’s chest. Shock lurched through me again, but I hardly felt the handcuffs bite into my wrists. I watched with wide eyes as Lucifer dropped his sword, his hand gone limp. The second that lethal blade was no longer pointed at his throat, Laurie sifted out of sight.
“Good to see you again, old friend,” the devil rasped, blood spraying from his mouth.
Collith’s face appeared over Lucifer’s shoulder. His eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them. “Go back to Hell, old friend.”
He wrenched the sword out of Lucifer’s body, and light shone from the wound in a single, ethereal beam.
Under any other circumstances, I’d have called it beautiful.
In the next breath, I saw Collith’s arms rise.
Lightning scalded my eyes and the tent caught fire like a tinderbox.
I could already feel the heat whispering against my skin.
At the same moment my eyes met Lucifer’s, Collith turned the heavenly fire on him.
Lucifer bellowed in pain as it consumed his entire body.
Realizing this was my chance to finally escape, I steeled myself to wrench at the handcuffs with all my strength. Before I could, I felt someone’s fingers brush against my wrists. Then Laurie appeared, filling my vision as the walls around us burned.
“I can’t get the cuffs off,” he said.
Knowing Lucifer, they were probably fortified with a spell. My eyes flitted to the devil’s black, burning body. “There’s a key. It’s around his neck.”
Laurie swore and moved with preternatural speed.
In a blink, the Seelie King was standing beside Collith and speaking in his ear.
Collith’s crackling power relented, and he lowered his arms, his chest heaving.
Laurie became a blur again, and I saw the gleam of the chain Lucifer wore as it moved.
Then Laurie was back, his hands brushing against my wrists as he put the key in the lock.
The handcuffs fell away, landing in the dirt with a hollow sound.
I pulled my arms away from the pole and pushed myself up.
An instant later, my legs gave out from beneath me.
Laurie caught me effortlessly, his springtime scent briefly blocking out the awful stench of burning flesh.
“I don’t think I can walk on my own yet,” I admitted, my arm wrapped tightly around his neck. I’d have to explain about the galbraith demon later. From the corner of my eye, I saw Laurie’s jaw clench.
“Lean on me, Firecracker,” was all he said. For once, I didn’t argue. I forced my shaky legs to obey me and started walking toward freedom. The smoke was so intense now it stung my throat and my eyes. Collith was right behind us.
“Wait. I’m not leaving without Thuridan,” I said as we neared the tent flaps.
Collith pulled one open and stepped aside. “He’s outside with Lyari.”
Relief bloomed inside my chest. My protests faded and we hurried back into the night, leaving the intense heat and thick smoke behind.
Just as Collith had promised, Thuridan stood there, whole and unharmed. Lyari waited beside him, standing so close that their arms touched. The ground around them was littered with corpses, and Lyari’s sword dripped with ichor.
“Did you kill him?” she asked flatly, her eyes on the tent, as if she was considering whether to go in. The frames collapsed a moment later, sending sparks up like a beacon.
“I doubt it,” Collith muttered.
The words had barely left his mouth when something flew at us, letting out a noise that sounded halfway between the cry of an eagle and the snarl of a great cat.
Lyari’s sword flashed, and the winged creature hit the ground in two pieces, its warning call abruptly cut off.
But I knew any other demons nearby must’ve heard it.
“This is the part where we run,” Laurie hissed.
The five of us launched into motion. We darted between the tents and plunged back into the cover of darkness.
Hopefully any demons coming in this direction would be preoccupied with the fire and getting their master out—it was definitely one hell of a diversion.
As we fled, I could feel Laurie’s power trembling around us, hiding us from sight, but we still encountered creatures that could sense us or see through his illusion.
Collith, Lyari, and Thuridan fought them off together, since Laurie couldn’t do much with me as a dead weight.
Our progress was slow and terrifying. Desperate hope pumped through my veins, but even I could see that we were fucked.
We’d made too much of a racket and been spotted too many times.
With my powers out of commission, the odds that we’d get out of this camp alive were low.
But we kept going, and no one said a word.
Our small band had just gotten past another cluster of guards when something made Collith pause again. I cast a wary glance around us, but there were no demons in sight.
“We don’t have time for this,” Laurie said tersely. I frowned at Collith in a silent question.
Before he could respond, someone behind us called, “Lady Sworn.”
I faltered, startled by the sound of Thuridan’s voice.
He’d never said my name before. I twisted in Laurie’s grasp, and I heard him swear in my ear.
Thuridan and Lyari had stopped. My friend wore an expression I’d never seen on her face before.
Devastation, I thought, my brows drawing together in another surge of confusion.
What was going on? Laurie was right, we didn’t have time for this.
I was about to urge them onward when Thuridan’s eyes met mine. They shone with grim resignation, and the words died in my throat. “He couldn’t close it,” Thuridan said quietly. “So he put it somewhere useful. My father—”
The ground exploded around Thuridan. I caught a fleeting glimpse of something, a creature with long legs and a dozen beady eyes like a scorpion, before it grabbed the faerie and they both slammed back into the earth, vanishing from sight.
“Thuridan!” Lyari screamed. She raised her sword and started to bend down as if she intended to dig, but Collith yanked her back with all his strength.
“Stop!” he snarled, pinning her arms down. “Look!”
I’d just spotted what he and Laurie must’ve seen, because the Seelie King released me and moved to stand slightly in front of me, his shining blade at the ready. Thankfully, I didn’t need his help anymore, since a fresh rush of adrenaline had hit me.
“Oh, fuck,” I breathed.
Demons swarmed through the openings between the tents like angry hornets, coming right for us.
They’d surrounded us. I caught glimpses of species I’d never seen before, creatures that Lucifer must’ve been careful to hide from me during my time in Hell.
Things with the body of a man and the head of a bull, all of them holding spiked maces aloft in their meaty fists.
Just as Laurie began cutting the first wave of demons down, I jumped in to help Collith.
We dragged Lyari away while Laurie slaughtered anything that came near us.
Lyari struggled against our hold, fierce as a lion.
Bellowing. Roaring Thuridan’s name over and over.
She knew what it meant, leaving him here.
The snarls, shouts, and roars rose into the night.
Even though we were running, we were still moving too slowly.
Lyari continued to fight us, yanking and wrenching at our hold on her.
Any second now, the demons would overwhelm our small band.
Collith and Laurie could sift, but I knew better than to tell them to go on without us.
I swore and reached for Lyari’s sword, which she was still clutching in her hand—
Just like he’d once done with Finn, Laurie moved in a blur. Lyari’s head snapped, and there was a terrible cracking sound. As she sagged, I jerked back around, my jaw so tight that the ache matched the pain in my chest. Rage blazed in my veins as if my blood had turned to fire.
“We can fight about it later,” Laurie snapped. “Coll, do you mind?”
He thrust Lyari at Collith like she was a rag doll.
Collith took her and ran. I did, too, sprinting as fast as I could now.
We reached the edge of camp and didn’t hesitate to begin our ascent.
The hill was so dark that I prayed I didn’t roll my ankle on a rock as I scrambled up, and up, and up.
Even with Lyari’s weight, I knew Collith was slowing down for me.
I didn’t let myself look back. I just focused on the top of the hill and pushed through the pain blazing through my sides.
All the snarls, growling, and screeches seemed distant now, but that didn’t mean we were safe.
I arched my head back, peering toward the dark sky in search of any silhouettes, listening for the sound of wingbeats.
Laurie’s voice cut through the haze of concentration around me. “Look.”
A fresh jolt of adrenaline surged through my veins. I followed his gaze and turned back toward the camp. But there were no more demons chasing us … because they’d all stopped.
They stood in a perfectly straight line, as if there was an invisible wall at the base of the hill.
There was a flash of gold amongst the demons, and though we were too far away to make out details, I recognized Lucifer.
He seemed completely healed. Terror struck my heart like a bullet.
Had he just … let us go? Was he really so invincible? Or was I just that small of a threat?
Well, if that was what Lucifer thought, he was right. We’d come here for Thuridan, and he was somewhere in the ground now. I searched the crowd of eerie faces for him, just in case, but there was no sign of the faerie that Lyari loved.
As the weight of failure settled on my shoulders, I remembered Thuridan’s last words. He put it somewhere useful.
What the hell did that mean?
“Let’s go,” I muttered. I wouldn’t be getting any answers tonight, and there was nothing more we could do.
Staying here any longer was just tempting fate.
I turned and walked away, a lingering sense of unsteadiness whispering through my legs.
Collith adjusted his hold on Lyari and followed, along with the rest of our small rescue party.
As we returned to the hills, I heard that small voice again. A cruel taunt at the back of my head, whispering one thing over and over.
Your fault. Your fault. Your fault.