Page 36 of Hell Bound

Forever. Until I escape, or you’re dead.

Or both.

Both was good.

Chapter8

Lucifer

Every muscle in my body tightened as Asmodeus leered down at Lilith, his eyes running over her shredded silk dress and the blood still dried on her skin.

The wolf within me snarled at his perusal, despising the way he looked at her. Hating that another demon had the right to do so.

Despite his roaming eyes, she remained silent, her lips set as she stared up at him mutinously.

“Bedraggled from head to toe,” Asmodeus pronounced with obvious satisfaction. “Sometimes even I find it difficult to believe you are a queen.”

I gritted my teeth to remain silent. Asmodeus gestured languidly to one of the Infernal guards on either side of the palace doors, a hulking beast in black plate armor who stepped down to take hold of Lilith’s arm.

Her lips twisted with a wince, but she still said nothing as the guard drew her up the stairs.

The pack followed silently as I stepped after the king, unwilling to leave Lilith yet.

I felt Jovran’s disapproval emanating from him like a dark cloud as I watched her walk.

She didn’t struggle anymore, possibly sensing that it would be useless against the guard who had her in his grip, but she held herself as far away from him as possible, her head high.

The moment when I’d looked up at her was burned into my mind, glowing like a hot coal in the back of my skull.

It had been almost like old times, like that one glorious year I’d had her to myself… before Asmodeus had discovered her new source of happiness.

We’d only gone up several flights of stairs when Lilith let out a gasp of pain. One of her cuts had reopened and was dripping behind her, leaving dark spots of blood on the obsidian stairs.

Pypentha had averted her eyes and was breathing through her mouth, staring fixedly at a spot somewhere in the distance.

Ignoring the call of blood was much easier outside when the scent wasn’t so concentrated. Now, however, it was a siren song that threatened to take her over.

I reached out for Lilith, curling my hand back at the last moment when Asmodeus turned to look down at her with a sneer.

He leaned in close, nose wrinkled. “I could just…pushyou down these stairs right now and end your misery.”

Lilith was as stiff as a statue as Asmodeus extended a hand, poking his finger into her chest right over her heart. He pushed experimentally and her spine curved backwards.

The pack shifted around me, waiting for him to make his move. I glared at Asmodeus, but his eyes were fixed on Lilith’s face, a tiny smile curling the corner of his lips.

“But we don’t want to break you too soon, do we?” he whispered.

With that, he turned his back, and Lilith swiped a hand across her chest as though erasing his touch.

Despite the constant danger she was in, I couldn’t help but notice that she hadn’t wiped awaymytouch. She never did.

Every tiny noise she held back stoked the flames of fury higher.

If my plan had worked the first time, she would’ve been free… and now that it had failed, what else could I bargain with?

I had already paid the Crone the highest price for Lilith’s freedom in the mortal world. If I tried to release Lilith again, would she be able to remain hidden, or would Asmodeus simply hunt her down again and again?

That final time he’d killed her, she should have been invisible to him in her next life. A complete fresh slate.

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