I held my chin up as Seraphina closed the space between us and stared deep into my eyes. There was a tug at my subconscious as she tried to probe deeper, to find the information I refused to give her. She never would. I’d had centuries to prepare for a moment like this, to strengthen my mind. Everything she wanted from me, all the information on Lucifer she craved, was locked away in a vault of my own making, unreachable to anyone but me.
“I’d hoped we’d be friends once upon a time. I don’t trust easily, but I trusted you and Lucifer, and you both betrayed me.”
Bullshit. While she’d been locked up, her warped mind had rewritten history.
“Because of you I fell, because of you I lost my place in Heaven. You must pay for your crimes, Roxy, if you want my forgiveness.”
She could stick her forgiveness where the sun didn’t shine. She fell because she was a treasonous, honorless bitch. It had nothing to do with me or Lucifer.
“Time for the next phase,” she said and tilted her head to the side, studying my face. “You really are a pretty thing…well, you were.” She smiled. “I never could figure out what Lucifer saw in you, Roxana, why he thought you were so special. Maybe if you survive what comes next, I’ll have the opportunity to find out?”
I didn’t hate easily, and the number of beings who had managed to incite that emotion in me were few, but I hated this bitch in a way that defied comprehension. Cruelty for the sake of it wasn’t my thing, and Seraphina was among the cruelest beings I had ever encountered.
“Why does Lucifer love you so much?” she continued. “Why did the fates choose such a handsome and strong male as your mate?” She laughed huskily. “Oh…that’s right, you never did mate in truth, did you? You don’t even know what it’s like to fuck him.” She leaned in, her mouth half an inch from my ear. “I do.” She bit my ear, hard, then licked it. “But you saw that for yourself, didn’t you? You saw what you were missing out on when you walked in on us.” She lifted her head, her eyes flashing with evil delight when she saw the pain her words caused.
I tried to hide it, but I couldn’t, and that split-second show of weakness was all she needed.
She sneered. “You never got over his faithlessness, did you? You’ve enjoyed watching him suffer. You’ve relished watching him slowly unravel before your eyes while you were on your little hunt together,” she said, her cool breath brushing my cheek.
What the hell was she talking about?
Her eyes widened dramatically. “Oh dear, you don’t know?”
“Know what?” I bit out, unable to stop myself.
Sera smiled triumphantly. “I can’t believe you haven’t noticed.” She circled me slowly. “The way his eyes keep flashing red, the way he growls constantly, the way his beast rolls beneath his skin, wanting to get free.”
She was right, that’s exactly how Lothar had been behaving. I’d seen how tenuous the grip was he had on his control, but I had no idea what it meant, not really. I thought that maybe the truth of our past was in danger of resurfacing if I didn’t put some space between us, and that maybe that was messing with him, but Sera meant something else, didn’t she?
“His beast knows who you truly are, even if Lothar doesn’t,” Sera said finally, answering my unspoken question. “Lucifer may have suppressed Lothar’s memories, but he can’t stop fate. He can’t suppress the instincts of a beast who has been separated from his mate for centuries, or the kind of damage a torment like that can do to the animal side of a hellhound, what it has been doing to your hellhound.”
Nausea cramped my belly at what she said, at what Lothar must be going through. Oh gods. He must be so confused right now. Lothar’s behavior, the strange way he’d been acting, it was impossible not to believe what Sera said. He’d been unraveling, and I hadn’t seen the fracture between him and his beast.
Sera was the catalyst. She was the one who started him down the road to self-destruction when she escaped her prison, and she was the reason I’d started to struggle when I was around him again, why I was feeling so much anger again. “You did this to us,” I said.
“It’s nothing you don’t deserve. You only have yourself to blame.” Her gaze sharpened. “Because of you, he’s splitting in two, Roxy. Two separate psyches. The beast is fighting to get to his female, even if that means tearing free. What do you think will happen when he finally succeeds? What do you think the beast will do when he’s in charge of them and I release Lothar from that tower?” She leaned in, tucking some of my blood-soaked and matted hair behind my ear. “What do you think he’ll do when he finally gets his hands on you?”
Oh gods. My heart slammed into my ribs. “Please, don’t,” I rasped past my dry throat. “Please, Sera, don’t do this to him.” I didn’t beg, ever, but I would if I had to, to stop her from doing this to him.
“Are you going to give me what I want?”
I wanted to fucking scream in rage. I’d never felt so helpless. But I couldn’t give her the means to take down Lucifer. Doing so would affect so much more than just him and I.
“No? Then it’s time to set the beast free and offer him his prize, right here for the taking.” She lifted her hand and the orb appeared again, showing me Lothar in the tower.
He was naked and looked utterly feral. He’d watched Beelzebub and Sera torture me. He’d seen every slice and bite, every break, every twisted evil thing they’d done to me. He’d shifted from hound and back to his human form repeatedly while it happened, shredding his clothes and his control. And as soon as he saw me now, his eyes began flashing between gold and red, and his body jerked and contorted. Fur sprouted across his forearms and thighs, his feet elongating, and his fangs punched down, looking longer and more vicious than I’d ever seen them. He wasn’t all Lothar, not anymore, and not all hound either—he was something else.
I could see Lothar was fighting it, but he was so close to breaking, it wouldn’t take much to tip him over the edge completely.
Sera crooked her finger at Beelzebub, who’d been watching and listening to us silently across the room. The huge demon strode over, anticipation lighting up his harsh features. She held out her hand, and he placed his knife in it. Sera circled me, stopping at my back, then wrapped her arm around my neck, took my chin, and jerked my head to the side. “Look, he’s watching us,” she said against my ear.
I looked up and his eyes locked on mine, full of fury and fear and pain. I gritted my teeth and fought to hold on, to believe that Lothar would be okay, that whatever happened, he would get through this.
“Once he breaks, I’m not sure he can be put back together,” she said as if she were reading my thoughts. “Last chance to talk, and save both of you unending pain.”
Lothar was the strongest male I knew. If he broke, he would find his way back. He would. I had to believe that now more than ever, because I was a second away from betraying Lucifer, from giving Sera everything she wanted and letting Hell fall, allowing all the realms to descend into chaos and destruction.
“Still no?” she said.
