Page 183 of Hell Bound

Lilith shrieked until I silenced her with a kiss. A long, deep kiss, pouring every unfathomable emotion and expression of gratitude into her. Words would never express what she’d given me, nor could I thank her enough.

“You did this,” I whispered, my voice ragged. “I thought they were gone forever—that I wasn’t a true demon anymore. Just a beast.”

She wrapped her arms around me, squeezing tightly. Then she reached out, brushing her hand over the ridge sprouting from my back. The newly reborn wings felt as sensitive as the day my feathers had fully come in, making them all fluff up in unison.

She laughed a little. “You’re all poofed up.”

“Am not,” I growled against her throat.

Hellfire help me, I wasnotfluffing up at her touch like a teenage fledgling.

She brushed them again, and they quivered.

Ridiculous.

I gently lowered her back to the earth.

“I’m going to try them out.”

She nodded encouragingly, reaching for her shirt, and I wondered if she saw the light of hope gleaming in my eyes. If she knew how much this changed our situation.

Although it took years for a Fallen demon to gain the full use of their wings, my body seemed to remember perfectly how it felt to have them, the exact balance needed to fly.

I spread them, feeling the slightest tremble in the disused muscles, and exploded upwards.

The ground of the Infernal Court fell away, dropping far below as I shot into the sky. The feeling of freedom, the wind in my wings and hair…

It was almost like no time had passed at all. Like I was the Fallen Prince I’d been before, no beast contained within me.

I looked out over the land from high above, happiness vying for first place with watchfulness.

There… only a few miles away, the darkened land of the Infernal Court gave way to pale dirt and twisted white trees.

Ossea Court territory was just ahead.

I banked and glided around the campsite, allowing myself to return to the ground. Both my wolf and I were unwilling to leave Lilith unguarded at the campsite, where she was hurriedly tying her boots now.

I hit the ground hard, my breath forced out of me in a sharp huff.

“Landing was a bit off,” I admitted to Lilith, whose eyebrow had popped up in a questioning arch. “But they work.”

I was about to suggest trying them out, but several small, dark shadows appeared high overhead, wheeling in from the distance.

Slaughter-crows. Even if I held Lilith in my arms, slaughter-crows tended to attack en masse.

Without a sword, we’d both be fair game. These scouts would call for the others, then they’d descend in a flock and peck my eyes out, and consume most of Lilith before we’d even hit the ground.

I held back a low growl, and Lilith, following my gaze, put her arms around my waist. “Hey, it’s okay, Lucifer. All that matters is that we’re out from under Asmodeus’s thumb. As soon as we get out of his shithole court, you can fly us anywhere.”

I stroked her hair, pondering the slaughter-crows. There were only a few, but once they began cawing, they’d draw more…

It was only because I was so focused on them that I didn’t hear the paws.

Not until they were nearly upon us, and an enormous shape bounded over the campfire.

It slammed into me, ripping me right out of Lilith’s arms.

The succubus went sprawling, and I was pushed back, borne under the weight of a snarling, howling beast.

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