Page 1 of Hell Bound

Prologue

This was the last time she would ever die.

Her screams were the only sound in existence, blocking out everything else and gutting me from the inside. Stripping me to the bone.

Destroying everything we’d had.

King Asmodeus held a grisly whip, the fall glittering with blood and razors. He breathed heavily, sweat pouring from his brow, lip curled as he surveyed the damage he’d wrought.

The queen hung limp in her chains. Skin dangled in flaps, revealing the scarlet of muscle and the ivory of bone beneath.

She let out a low whimper, struggling to breathe through the agony.

Asmodeus reached out and grasped the lock of hair that glowed like flames, the shine muted beneath the gore, and ripped, yanking it from her scalp.

Lilith uttered another piercing cry, her body jerking against its restraints.

I pulled against my own chains, the bonds digging into my wrists, to splitting skin and breaking bone. But no matter how hard I fought, I went nowhere.

Beside me, my guards, Felix and Aquila, did the same. They were chained as tightly as I was, faces hard as they watched Lilith’s torture.

Lash after lash had sprayed her blood across my face. Salty droplets coated my tongue.

I tasted the last remnants of the queen’s life.

As Asmodeus held the gleaming lock of hair aloft, the fire in it died. Embers became dull strands.

“You will never escape from me, my traitorous Queen,” he whispered, letting the strands flutter to the ground. “And when I resurrect you, you’ll pay for your sins again and again, until you learn your place at last.”

Lilith struggled to raise her head. I glimpsed her brown eyes through soaked strands and mouthed the words that killed me inside. “I love you. It’s almost over.”

This was all my fault, but it was the last time he’d hurt her like this.

I clung to that hope, my only lifeline.

Her cut lips started to form words “I love—” but Asmodeus brought the whip down on her back. The sentiment was lost to a scream.

Again and again, he struck.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, breath growing bubbly, and shuddered.

The king laughed, but there was no mirth in it. “Say goodbye to your lover, dear.”

He drew closer, close enough that Lilith’s blood smudged across his face, and spoke in her ear. “See how he merely watches your suffering? He’s too weak to protect you. He doesn’t love you enough.”

She didn’t make a sound. Her breath was so faint none of us could hear it.

The only cold comfort, the one silver lining, was that this wasthe last time.

Never again would he torment her like this. Never again would he raise her from the dead to begin the cycle of pain anew.

When she died, the spell Asmodeus knew nothing about would deliver her soul from Hell—and she would be reborn in the mortal world.

She would be free. Safe.

Allowed to start over without centuries of pain and torment dogging her steps, without the burden of memories weighing her down.

Without the memory of me to hold her back.

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