It was a bunch of horseshit I was selling. For a few harrowing seconds that crawled by on their hands and knees, I thought he wouldn’t buy it. But I had to swallow down a cry of joy when he jammed a meaty finger on the “8” button of the elevator panel.
He was so eager to have me beneath him as a willing participant that he was going to risk the wrath of the celestials and my mate. All to get his dick wet. I almost felt pity for the bastard.Almost.
He had been so scorned by Lucifer for stealing his queen and crown that he’d pretended to be loyal for centuries, all to lose everything he’d worked for right before hitting the finish line. All because of his fucked-up infatuation with me. He picked the wrong girl out of the crowd.
I just hoped and prayed that I was right and that The Fates were still living in the caves. If I was wrong, I’d be totally fucked.
Literally.
7
Most people were relieved to go back home after a long time away. But the Eighth Circle of Hell was never the type of home anyone could ever miss. Sure, I loved my sister, and there were moments here that I’d shared with her worth holding onto. But back then, living here had been nothing but survival. It was all a brutal game of the weak versus the strong. Prey versus predator. Seeing as I had lived for so long, I liked to consider myself one of the strong.Iwas a predator. I was the kind of predator that minded my own business, turning the males who thought they could turn me into their afternoon fuck and feast into my own prey.
I had been a grain of sand turned into a diamond by a blast furnace. The Eighth Circle had been my blast furnace.
This place had been an element in my forging, but it held no happy place in my heart. If I managed to pull off making this pit into Abaddon’s final resting place, maybe then I’d smile when I thought of it.
When the elevator doors opened with ading, I was shocked at what I saw.
The tips of the mountain range surrounding the magma planes could only just be seen over a giant structure smack in front of us.
“Is that a—”
“A shopping mall,” Abaddon snarled as he thrust me from the elevator. “Your precious mate thought it would be ‘funny’ to desecrate the site where we were mated with some sort of casino for children.
I could barely hold back my shit-eating grin. Back when we first passed through my native circle, we hadn’t changed anything about it. We’d hurried through as quickly as possible with a freshly defeated Abaddon hot on our tails.
But it looked like the new king had come back and added some much-needed touches.
Lucifer may not have known the extent of what happened on the day of my “coronation,” but he’d known it had held a dark place in my heart and had made light of it as best he could by slapping aChuck-E-Cheeseover it.
“Let’s move.” The demon gripped my arm and wrenched me along after him. I yelped in pain, and he grinned back at me as I stumbled to catch myself. “I love how you scream for me, My Queen. The only reason I’m taking you to the caverns is that your cries are going to sound so sweet, echoing throughout the whole mountain.”
A poisonous hatred settled at the bottom of my stomach like sediment in a stagnant lake. I looked at the mall, searching for any demons or souls who might catch sight of me. Would they even recognize me as their queen? I looked different than I had before, with short blonde hair instead of long and black. My shape was slightly different, too, now that Taco Bell was a part of my diet. But even if they did recognize me, what could they do? No one would have the balls to stand up to Abaddon.
“You’re going too slow,” the archdemon snarled, throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Let me go!” I cried, slamming my fists into the steel-hard muscles of his back. “I can fucking walk.”
The demon’s only answer was a maleficent cackle delivered with a swift slap to my ass. I bit my tongue so hard that I tasted blood in my mouth for the second time today. It was dumb to think if I walked slow enough, Lucifer could catch up to us. Abaddon might have been stupid enough to take my bait, but he wasn’t about to drag his tail on getting to our destination. My mate would be hot on our trail, and with the mark on my thigh, I might as well have a tracking device installed beneath my skin.
A swoosh of wings sailed through my ears and swept through my mess of hair when the demon’s black wings fanned out. My nerves tumbled out of my mouth and slapped onto the ground as I realized we were going to fly to Devil’s Head.
Stealing a gulp of air, I squeezed my eyes shut as we were launched into the air. I always hated flying. Ironic for someone who used to have wings, but even my demon spirit never seemed to like it much.
I guess in the end, it ended up being my fate not to have wings or immortality. Maybe my nieces had always planned for me to be Jessica. Even though I held onto all the memories I shared with Lucifer from back then, it still almost felt like a different person’s memories. Maybe this was always who I was supposed to be.
Relief eased my taut muscles as the openings to the network of caves came into view, a series of openings in the large mountainside.
We landed in a cloud of dust, and when Abaddon released me, I stumbled toward the cave entrance, something close to nostalgia mixed with air-sickness making my chest tight and my head spin.
This had once been my home. My sanctuary. Not that it had ever beensafe.Never that. The caves wound deep inside the mountains and were home to countless demons. My neighbors back then had closer relation to the creatures inAlienthan the kind of people you saw on TV who you’d borrow a cup of sugar from.
But at least in the caves, there were fewer predators to fend off. Plus, my sister and I had known the tunnels better than anyone, so we’d purposefully made our home in the deepest cavern where we were never bothered, never found.
It would be the perfect hiding place for The Fates and a fitting crypt for Abaddon.
“Follow me,” I said to the demon, leading the way down into the darkness.
