Page 18 of Hell Bound

But I needed to be in fighting form when Asmodeus so clearly wanted to play games with his newly recovered queen.

“The Crone will answer for this. I traded my only treasure away for that spell. My only chance to ever be free of this fucking curse,” I snarled, my fists tightening.

I’d obtained the spell that would ensure Lilith would be reborn in a mortal body, safe from Asmodeus’s reach. It broke me to do it, but I begged the Crone to make sure she’d have no memories of me at all.

Now that request had turned on me, and I had no one else to blame.

Asmodeus had torn away my title and my free will, turning me into one of his hellfire-ridden wolves shortly before he destroyed Lilith for what should have been the last time. I’d handed the most powerful object I possessed to the Crone to ensure that.

And yet here she was once more.

“We could still break the memory part of the spell. What if you jogged her memory a little? Just bonk her on the head or something?” Deasley asked, doing his best to keep up. His youthful optimism was grating at the, even if I appreciated the intent.

And he’d watched too many fucking human movies.

For a moment, I’d believed I saw a spark of recognition in her eyes, but… nothing.

Everything we’d shared and sacrificed was lost now.

“It’s not worth worrying about.” My voice came out in a growl. Not reassuring. I tried again. “If she doesn’t remember on her own, I’ll keep trying to break it.”

We reached the end of the stairwell and I shoved open the door at the bottom. It led to the servant’s quarters, a quiet, dark place that looked far more rough-hewn than the rest of the sumptuous Infernal Court.

I strode through it quickly, passing through an interior hall of the court proper and then outside.

Pack quarters were kept outside the court’s walls. Asmodeus never missed a chance to tell us that he didn’t want us fouling up the place, although he seemed perfectly fine to have us around to watch him play out his sick little cruelties on everyone in the court.

Deasley was practically scampering at my heels as I strode.

“Commander, they’re in the dining hall already. Asmodeus issued the order for everyone to prepare for the festivities.” He paused outside the pack quarter’s doors. “Can you really order people to be festive? Isn’t that a little… I don’t know, is mandatory fun really a thing?”

I gave him a disbelieving look. “You don’t actually believe anyone is havingfun, do you?”

The Infernal Court didn’t do ‘fun’.

One day, this young demon was going to be eaten alive by this place.

Deasley hung his head. “No.”

“That’s what I thought.”

I didn’t bother to check pack quarters. Like the good little dogs we all were, if Asmodeus had issued the order to be in the ballroom, that’s where they’d all be.

I thought about resisting, to make the invisible collar bite into my throat and chew through my flesh and bones, but then the king would know how deeply he’d pissed me off.

I refused to give him the satisfaction.

Besides, I wanted to keep an eye on Lilith. She was so…humannow.

So liable to step out of line… without realizing she was stomping on landmines.

“Let’s go.”

Fuck, this was the last thing I wanted to see. Knowing Asmodeus, he was going to do everything in his power to humiliate her and cut her back down to size.

Deasley seemed to sense my desire for silence, keeping his mouth shut as we took a winding route through the court to the ballroom and slipped in through a servant’s door.

It was the grandest room in the Infernal Court. Columns of fire-laced marble lined the walls, and the ceiling was tiled with mirrors, giving the dizzying effect that you could fall upwards and keep falling forever.

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