Page 118 of I Accidentally Summoned A Demon
He wrapped his arms around Venandi, who reached him first. “I know, girl, I know.” He scratched her ears, then patted Sicarius. “We have to be fast.”
Nex took off with the hounds close behind, leaving the cool air of Marcus’s cave and stepping back into the scorching heat. They made their way to The Lacus, a place that appeared to be nothing more than a cave but acted as the way in and out of the underworld when traveling without a summoning.
A few feet from the entrance, Nex lost control of his legs. They stayed in place as if they’d become one with the ground. Nex let out a low growl, his nails growing to claws as he prepared to make a move, but the thing about Lilith was he’d never be as strong as her.
“Nice try.” Lilith kicked the back of his legs, and his knees hit rock, merging with the stone he knelt on. Venandi and Sicarius lunged, and Lilith extended her hand. “Stop.” They cowered and whined, sinking to the ground. “You didn’t think you’d get out of here, did you?” Lilith crouched and grabbed a fistful of Nex’s hair, yanking it back so she could see him. Just like that, his powers were gone. “I always thought you were smart, but you suddenly seem stupid. Did being around humans dumb you down?”
“I’m sorry I made you look bad.” Nex met her gaze and clenched his jaw. He wanted to scream at her, but he wanted Katherine back more. “I swear, it won’t happen again. Punish me however you like, but then let me go back to the mortal realm.”
“Oh, I will.” Lilith smiled. “Iwill.” She stood and rested a hand on her hip. “Maybe in about three hundred years or so, after I’m confident you’ve learned your lesson. Long after your precious human is gone. Maybe you can visit her grave. Unless, of course, she’s buried on holy ground. Then I suppose you can look from a distance.”
“Don’t do this,” Nex pleaded. “I’m sorry for the position I put you in. Aside from this, I’ve been good to you. You know I have. Give me your worst punishment, then let me have my freedom of travel back.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll get that back.” Lilith picked at her nails. “You broke my trust. It’s worse because I did trust you, Nex. I trusted you to keep a level head, to be a good leader despite having less experience. I thought you’d do things right, but now that you’ve shown your loyalty can switch so quickly over a single human,” her eyes flashed, and she grew bigger for a moment—back to her regular size, leaner but taller than Nex, “and completely fuck me over, you’re not getting that trust back. You’ll be lucky if you move up from torturing after pulling this shit.”
“Lilith, I’m begging you. Please.”
“Did you sayplease?” Lilith laughed. “That’s adorable. This human really did change you, didn’t she? At least you’ll always have that to remember while you rot in a dungeon.” She snapped her fingers. Four demons appeared and stalked toward Nex. “Take him away. His hounds too.” She nodded to Venandi and Sicarius. “If you really want to get to him, hurt the things he loves.Allthe things he loves.”
“No,” Nex hissed as the demons wrapped chains around Venandi and Sicarius’s necks. “Don’t hurt them, and Lilith, don’t you dare hurt her!” Nex roared, jerking against the force holding him down. “You have me. Don’t hurt Katherine!”
“My, my, someone’s forgotten who makes the rules around here.” Lilith glanced back, barely making eye contact with him before focusing on the other demons. “Make sure he doesn’t forget again.”
“Lilith, don’t you fucking touch her!” Nex struggled as they dragged him away. Breaking free of the lower-ranked demons should’ve been easy, but he was one of them again. He felt it. The power he’d held was gone, his strength drained. He couldn’t teleport out of their grip. Adding to the hopelessness, the demons who took him and his hounds to the dungeon weren’t strangers, and they were no friends of his. None of them would help him.
They dragged him down into a series of tunnels that led to darkened caves, where screams echoed through the corridors. The stench of blood overpowered his other senses, and the light was so dim a human couldn’t navigate their way through. Incline after steep incline, the boiling temperature plummeted. A bitter cold Nex wasn’t used to with his usual ability to keep himself warm, soaked through his clothes and pricked his bones.
Hope dwindled further as they entered the last of the tunnels. He was familiar with it. Not a place people came out of quickly, if they came out at all. Every descent was another level of torture to be endured.
Nex and his hounds were at the bottom.
The demons threw him into one of the caves, where it wasn’t screams that were unsettling but the unfathomable silence and freezing temperature. Not even footsteps could be heard as the demons stripped Nex down and left him with his hounds. Venandi and Sicarius whined and surrounded Nex to keep him warm. Pointless against the icy stone floor. All three shivered.
He dragged his hand across Sicarius’s head, then Venandi’s. “It’s going to be fine.”
“You don’t really think that,” a shrill voice said.
Nex sighed, torn between annoyance and fear. Annoyed because he knew this trick, and the fact she’d use it on him as a scare tactic was insulting. Fear because she’d take pleasure in his torture.
“Aren’t you too old for this shit, Poena?” Nex didn’t bother to look around. He wouldn’t see her.
“Don’t take all the fun out of it.” She emerged from the shadows. Her horns curled back, almost touching her neck, her claws longer than her fingers, and her eyes a dark green that seemed much too happy to see him here. “It’s more fun when they don’t know what’s coming. That’s all right, though.” She held out her hand, and a chain appeared, starting in her palm, spreading to the ground. “It’s a challenge. Now I can get creative.”
Nex tried to usher the hounds behind him, but for once, they didn’t obey. Both stepped in front of him and growled at Poena, pounding their paws against the ground and baring their teeth.
“Aw. Look at them. So ready to protect you. Stupid mutts.” A whip formed in her other hand, and her smile broadened. She snapped the whip toward Sicarius.
Sicarius dodged and caught the whip in his teeth, growling at Poena. Venandi charged, and Poena laughed.
“Goodness, I underestimated them.” Poena’s eyes flashed, and Venandi and Sicarius stilled as if they were statues.
Nex lunged forward, but chains appeared from nowhere, locking around his ankles and wrists, jerking him back against the wall.
“Oh, come on.” Poena rolled her eyes. “You’re acting like you don’t know how it works down here. You know you can’t touch me.” She flicked her wrist and sent the whip across Venandi’s ribs, making her whimper as a deep cut formed while she remained frozen.
“Bitch,” Nex hissed. “Leave them out of it.”
“See, that’s what’ll make this worse for you.” She lashed Sicarius’s back, earning a yelp. “You’re acting so foolishly. You know there’s no hope. But, by all means, keep thinking there is.” She grabbed his jaw and grinned, showing off her razor-like teeth. “Because it’ssomuch fun to watch hope leave a person’s eyes. We’re not quite there yet, are we? No, we have something else to settle first.”
