Page 97 of Hell Bound

Pypentha went still, and even Deasley’s mouth dropped open for a moment before he recovered. “You might want to get that checked by a healer, smelling flowers in piles of shit can’t be normal.”

I stood in front of Odragir, arms crossed.

“There’s no reason for you to be here. Return to your duties, Duke Odragir.” I put the slightest emphasis on his former title. “That’s an order.”

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes on the rumpled pile of hay behind me. Slowly, so slowly, that green gaze turned up to meet mine.

“Ahh, I recognize it now: the smell of cunt. Rolling in the hay with the queen, Morningstar?” His lips lifted in an ugly smirk. “And yet you somehow findwhoresuch an insult—”

I drew back my fist and punched him in the face.

Teeth mashed across my knuckles, splitting the skin and sending blood flying. His lower lip burst, and claws came flying at my chest.

I snarled, meeting him blow for blow, the outside world completely vanishing as I drove my fist into his gut, his nose, anywhere I could reach.

There was a vague awareness of someone yelling in my ear, of the skin around my left eye swelling from one of Odragir’s blows. Blood dripped down my stomach in a syrupy flood.

“Commander!”

Deasley clung to my arm, digging his claws in as he tried to pull me away. Pypentha insinuated herself between me and Odragir.

My opponent, who I wanted to skin alive, slowly backed off, breathing heavily.

Pypentha held a short but deadly sharp dagger, poised to drive it into Odragir’s groin.

“Control yourself,” she said coldly, looking down her nose at him.

He snorted out a breath, sending a fine spray of blood into the air. Pypentha shifted in place uncomfortably, the scent probably a siren call in her head, but didn’t move.

“I’m going to see you fuckingguttedone day—” he snarled at me over her shoulder, but I laughed.

“Me… and Tavila right beside me.” I pried Deasley off my arm, gently moved Pypentha aside, until I was almost nose to nose with Odragir.

He was shaking, the wolf inside him threatening to tear through his skin.

Closer, closer… my wolf’s flames flared to life, the heat of the hellfire scorching my throat.

Odragir tried to back away, but Pypentha’s dagger dimpled the skin just over his kidney.

“He’ll gut her,” I whispered. “He’ll slit her belly and rip out her organs, and serve them to you for dinner. Don’t pretend you are innocent of all wrongdoing in his eyes—because if I go down, or you attempt to harm the queen, I willmake sureyou and Tavila are burning right alongside us.”

I heard his teeth grinding together, but the truth in his eyes… the horror and acceptance of it blending into one terrible emotion.

He knew as well as I did that no one was safe from Asmodeus’s cruelty.

If it pleased him to destroy Tavila, he would do so and feel nothing about breaking one of his favorite toys.

“Mutually assured destruction.” I bared my teeth in a humorless grin. “Think hard, Odragir, before you make any rash decisions.”

Pypentha let the dagger remain a moment longer, then removed it. As soon as that slight but deadly pressure was gone, Odragir backed away from me, shifting in place.

The enormous wolf bolted past Jovran, who stood in the doorway. The weight of my second’s gaze was heavy with disapproval.

He shook his head, the bones clicking. “You’re going to get all of us killed.”

Unfortunately, he might be right.

Chapter23

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