Page 47 of Hell Bound

When I attempted to meet her gaze and see if I could find any hint of what was happening, I was shocked to see that there was nothing to meet. The space where her eyes should have been was covered by a thick, ivory plating.

Is that bone?

A shudder went down my spine, and I was glad she couldn’t see it.

Asmodeus entered behind her, a malignant grin coupled with a maniacal light in his eyes.

My stomach dropped.

“What do you want?” The minimal bravado I’d managed to muster did nothing to mask my unease.

The evil smile widened.

“I’ve come to bestow a gift upon you, my Queen.”

“I don’t want a fucking thing from you.”

There. That came out much stronger.

“Such a filthy mouth you have now. Which makes your gift all the more appropriate. Just a little bauble to make sure you’re the focus of every demon in the room.”

“I said I don’t want—”

Faster than my eyes could track, his hand shot out and grabbed my chin in an iron grip. He tightened his hold until the pressure forced my mouth open like a gaping fish.

“And I don’t recall when I asked what you wanted, Lilith. Because I. Do not. Care.” He held out his free hand to the eyeless woman, and she immediately placed something into it.

So shecansee!

It only had a second to register before I saw what Asmodeus held in his hand. It was a spiked piece of wood, each metal protrusion sharp enough to scrape the hell out of tender flesh, but not to break the surface.

Something I was grateful for as he shoved it into my mouth.

I struggled against his hold, yanking my head back and pounding against his arm to break free. It did nothing, and he only dug the rough tips of his fingers deeper into my jaw.

He released me, flinging my face from his hold like he despised making contact with my skin. My hands went immediately to the wooden piece wedged between my teeth.

“Touch it and I’ll break your wrists.”

He didn’t even raise his voice. The threat was delivered in a tone so casual it was psychotic.

“Crone, affix my wife’s accessory. Ensure it doesn’t come off over the course of the evening, else you’ll find yourself in one as well.”

She came closer, moving slowly as she released latches on the apparatus in her hands. When she lifted it to my face, it was like a spread ribcage with an opening made specially to hold the mouthpiece in place.

It took willpower I didn’t know I possessed to stay still and allow the Crone to fasten the horrifying device around my head. As it went around my cheeks and jaw, I noticed that there were smaller arms on the interior of the long ones.

While the long ones would lock behind my head, those smaller ones would dig into my face.

“Tighter,” Asmodeus said the second the Crone moved her hands away. “We can’t have it coming off, now can we?”

The Crone reached behind my head and adjusted the contraption, and the discomfort of those smaller arms poking my cheeks blossomed into pain. Asmodeus’s glee infuriated me, and I refused to let on just how bad it was.

Which only egged him on.

“Tighter.” The small woman obeyed. Even though I couldn’t read her expression, there was a gentleness in her hands despite the fact that she was being forced to cause me pain.

There was no hiding my wince at the second adjustment. One slight shift of the muscles in my cheek and those spines would tear into my flesh.

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