“Get out of my fucking way.” I side-step, slowly easing my way towards my shimmering portal.
“You don’t need to go back there. Stay. Make a deal with me. Rule over hell like you’re meant to do…”
“The only thing I want is to go home, bitch.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
I frown, rage rising like burning kernels in my chest. “I’ve killed one ruler of hell. I don’t mind killing another…” And I shoot my magic at her.
The flames fly, hitting her square in the chest. She screeches as her body catches fire and she desperately tries to put it out. I don’t waste time. I lunge for the portal. Each step is a painful protest but I run towards it.
A step away from my freedom, pain blinds me entirely as claws sink through the thin membrane of my wings. Tears spring to my eyes, and the agony… oh god… I close my eyes against the sensation but it’s prominent against my skin.
The claws sink in, tearing straight through the flap. My magic tries to retaliate, but the power inside me wanes completely at the onslaught against my body.
I’m yanked away from the portal by my wings and slammed straight onto the cavern floor. The breath shoots from my lungs in a painful exhale. I try to breathe, but it’s too much.
The demon looms over me, her hands now enormous claws that curl above me. Threatening. Deadly.
“You’re not going anywhere anymore, Princess,” she mocks.
I am power. I am my Prod. I am stronger than this.
The mantras don’t work. My body feels weaker by the second. My wings bleed out beneath me, and it’s excruciating.
“I’ll flay the skin from your bones…”
“No,” I rasp, “you fucking won’t.”
I find the last kernels of power within myself andblast.
Fire consumes the demon, and she shrieks her rage and pain as she’s thrown away from me, towards the floor in front of both portals.
I jump up and run as the fire licks over her body and threatens to eat her alive. I make my way to the portal, which is shimmering, fading. No! I have to go back, I can’t let it disappear!
My fingers graze the surface of it and I start to push my way through…
A hand closes around my ankle, the pain biting. I’m whirled in a circle, and my eyes slam closed as I wait for the impact of pain that never comes.
I’m suddenly swallowed whole by the darkness, falling into an empty chasm below. I look up to find the portal above me because I was thrown into it.
The last thing I see is the consumption of flickering green fire.
And the last thing I hear are the demon’s cries, vowing for revenge.
Seven
Malek
I’m in hell. Actually, it’s worse. Because if I were in hell, at least I’d be with Izzy. Instead, I’m useless. I’m waiting in what they call a punishment but really these vacant shadow walls are nothing compared to the guilt I feel inside myself for not being able to help her.
She’s my mate! I’m responsible for her. In my pack, I’d be sentenced to death just for not caring for my woman like I should. Women are more than just mates in my society. They’re bringers of life, your other half, to be treasured. They’re nothing short of goddesses.
And I’ve failed my goddess.
For days the eerie whispers scuttle along the smokey walls of my magical imprisonment. They’re meant to scare me, but I can’t hear a single thing over the endless rant I’m having with myself in my head as I sit on the cold stone floor.
How the hell could you lose your mate? You don’t deserve her. If she’s dead, it’s your fault.
