Page 21 of Unholy Bond
A surge of images slammed into me—hallways, gates, guard rotations, passwords, the exact location of Lilith’s new palace within the palace. The knowledge burned through my head, so fast I thought my brain might boil. I screamed, but no sound came out. I staggered back, clutching my skull, while the Seer watched with a smile so wide it nearly split her face in half.
When the pain faded, the memories were fixed.
The Seer had walked it; I stole the steps. North Tower.Take the servants’ spine. Bone key for each of us; seam-ash to throat and wrists. Mouths closed on the count. Sixty-six beats to cross the skin—after that, the ward closes.
Every turn, every stair, every hidden passage between here and Lilith’s cell was etched in my mind.
I glared up at the Seer. “Why?”
She cocked her head, and for a second I thought she’d laugh again, but she only bared her teeth. “My reasons are not yours,” she said. “But you will not walk alone. I will distract the master. The rest is yours.”
She turned, drifted to the bone door, and began to dissolve, her body unraveling into a swarm of black feathers that swirled around the room, then vanished one by one into the cracks between the mirrors.
I lunged after her, but she was already gone. Only a single feather remained, spinning down through the air. I caught it, tucked it into my jacket, and stood.
The shrine was silent now, the mirrors back to their original, fractured state. My reflection stared at me from every angle, jaw clenched, veins bulging with the new information. I wiped the pre-cum from my cock, zipped up, and headed for the door.
The palace was still collapsing, the Void eating away at the foundations. But I knew where I was going now.
I knew how to find her.
I sprinted through the corridors, the path unfolding before me like a predestined riot, every twist and dead end already burned into my mind. The palace roared around me, but all I heard washer breath, her desire, her need. I pushed faster, driven by the promise of reunion and the certainty of what came next.
The others would catch up, or they wouldn’t.
Either way, Lilith was waiting.
And I was coming for her.
Chapter 12: Lilith
If I’d known what kind of entrance they’d make, I would have spent more time on my outfit. As it was, I stood naked in front of the mirror, black water still running off my thighs, not even the decency of a robe to wrap myself in when the chamber door detonated off its hinges.
It was a soundless explosion. No wind, no fire, just a force that shredded the runes along the threshold and sent the slab of black marble slamming into the far wall. The impact left a crater, a spiderweb of white fractures blossoming out across the polished surface. The magic of this place was built to outlast apocalypse, but no one had ever accounted for the three men now stumbling through the blasted entryway. They moved as a unit: wounded, bloodied, but somehow more alive than when I’d last seen them on Earth. Their bodies were covered in a grime that glittered as they moved.
Seam-ash.Apparently, a kind of filth the wards couldn’t index. It slid between my chamber sigils and wrote them in as nothing.
Aziz led the way, shoulders squared and head up, a soldier’s march corrupted by the limp of an old wound. His skin was darker than usual, mottled with purple streaks that pulsed in time with the thick veins running up his forearms. He lookedat me, and for the first time I saw the man as he must have been before the world began—a Titan, unbroken, burning with purpose.
Levi was next, hair plastered to his skull with blood and sweat, suit jacket hanging off one arm by a thread. His eyes, normally a careless blue, had gone navy and deep, reflecting the flames that licked along the seams of the ruined hallway behind him. He grinned when he saw me, but the smile was a haunted thing, brittle and desperate. He dropped to his knees just inside the room, hands braced on the floor, as if he’d reached the only safe harbor left in the universe and was still waiting for it to disappear.
Ian brought up the rear, and it was hard to tell if he was injured or if he simply hated the idea of arriving anywhere at speed. His shirt had been torn away, exposing the ridged blue-black skin beneath, and the sharp angles of his demon form stood out in relief against the naked torso. He paused in the doorway, scanning the room with the eyes of a sniper, then stepped over Levi’s sprawled body and knelt, not at my feet, but at the foot of the bed. Even in hell, the asshole found a way to be off kilter.
For a moment, none of us moved. The air was thick with the stink of sulfur and old blood, and the cracks radiating from the door’s impact had started to pulse with a dim light. The bedchamber held its breath, waiting to see if the world would end.
Aziz broke the silence. He stood, his legs shaking, and closed the distance between us in three uneven strides. The purple tail that belonged only to his true self twitched behind him, and for once, it was not a threat. He dropped to one knee before me, head bowed so low I thought he’d buried it in the floor.
“I’m yours,” he said, and the words shook with effort. “I was always yours. Even when I thought I hated you.” His hands balled into fists, claws digging into his own palms until black blood welled up and spattered the marble. “I will follow you. I will die for you. I will burn every city and eat the hearts of our enemies if you ask it.” He looked up, the gold ring of his iris searing through the purple. “I love you. That’s the only reason I ever survived him.”
The Void inside me flared, not in hunger, but in something disturbingly close to delight. I heard it purr, and the sensation went straight to the pit of my stomach.
Ian snorted, but his eyes were wet. “You always were a drama queen, Aziz.” He looked at me, head cocked. “But he’s right. This time, we’re not backing down.” He reached up, pressed two fingers to his own throat, and drew a thin line across the skin. The black blood welled up, then closed as quickly as it had opened. “No more oaths to Lucifer. Only to you.”
Levi staggered upright and crawled to my feet. He wrapped his arms around my calves, face buried against my shin, and shook with silent laughter. “I can’t top that. But if you’ll have me, I’m in. I’ll kill for you, I’ll die for you, I’ll make you laugh at least once a day.” He looked up, eyes wild. “Promise. Tell me you’re okay, my Queen—and I’ll start joking again.”
It should have been absurd, this tableau of battered monsters swearing loyalty at my bare feet. Instead, it felt inevitable. The world had always been a meat grinder, and the only thing that kept it turning was the certainty that someone, somewhere, still believed in the possibility of more. For the first time since waking up here, I believed in it, too.
I bent down, cupped Aziz’s jaw in my hand, and pulled him up until our foreheads touched. The heat of his skin scorched me,but I held on. “You were always mine,” I whispered. “You just never wanted to admit it.”
