Page 82 of Hell Bound

She paused, then shook her head. “No.” She sounded so soft. If I didn’t have the wolf’s hearing, I would’ve missed it.

I sat on the bed, taking her hands in mine. They were cold as ice. “What happened?”

Lilith shook her head and slipped her fingers out of my hands, tucking them against her chest. “Nothing. I just…” she trailed off.

Her eyes were haunted, dark.

“I brought you another Pop-Tart.” I attempted a smile, the cheek that Asmodeus had sliced through still stinging. It had healed enough that now she would not see my teeth through my cheek, so I was grateful for that small favor. “Still not your favorite flavor, though.”

Lilith took the package when I offered it, but she just picked at the wrapper instead of opening it.

The Garden of Lilith. If that was his last punishment, then she’d been like this for days. What had he told her? Shown her?

I had so many questions, but her hunched posture and behavior screamed at me to let it be.

Still, no matter her refusal of my help, I would see to it that she was protected from that from this night forward. I would raze the graveyard with my own claws if I had to.

“I won’t let it happen again.” My voice was low, fierce. I reached out and tucked a lock of crimson and ebony behind her ear. “Never again, you understand me?”

The wolf growled in agreement.

Lilith nodded, but she ducked her head and hid her eyes from me.

I held back a snarl. Asmodeus’s mission had ensured I was gone when she needed me the most. I should have refused to leave that night, forced her to talk to me.

Now the damage had been allowed to set, creating new tears in her that I couldn’t smooth over with a kiss or tender words.

Magic wouldn’t help this, either. Even if I’d had my full powers, it would be a struggle to smooth all the jagged edges on her soul after this.

And that’s what it was: a soul-deep wound. If she saw what had become of her previous selves, there was no walking away from that whole.

I thought of Thalen’s boldness, his final moments.

The time was coming to stand up. It was the only thing left to do.

Even if I couldn’t survive the wrath of Asmodeus’s curse, Lilith would be free.

And that alone was worth dying for.

Chapter19

Lilith

My heart fluttered when he entered the room. Just like it always did.

I quashed that shit immediately.

Those reactions to him would lead to nothing but pain, and I wasn’t about to risk more of that for either of us.

Besides, it looked like Lucifer had already been on the wrong end of Asmodeus’s temper—was there arightend of it?—and I wasn’t about to be responsible for making it worse.

But Lucifer wasn’t making it easy to keep my emotional walls up around him. The light crinkling noise from the Pop-Tart wrapper meant a lot more than it should have.

One little gesture and I was already in real danger of losing the battle to stay strong against him.

“I’m fine.” I wasn’t, but there was nothing he could do about it. My life wasn’t my own, nor was his. Anything we did risked Asmodeus’s wrath, and I simply could not wind up in that graveyard again.

Whatever had been unlocked in me that night had opened the floodgates. The first dream of my wedding night with the bastard king who’d taken my virginity had been a precursor to the hellish memories that had swamped me since.

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