I tilted my head, clenching his still throbbing heart in my fist as my lips spread into a devilish grin. “Afraid of me now?” I asked him, repeating the words he’d muttered in my ear when he’d raped me in front of thousands.
His mouth hung open, a soundless groan of a man on his last breath. Then he managed to whisper something that even I didn’t expect.
“Fucking…beautiful…” Then he keeled over, face down in his own blood.
Poetic indeed.
11
It had been a long time since I’d paid the caverns below Devil’s Head a visit. When Lilith and I had passed through here on our journey up through the layers, she’d taken me here to introduce me to the closest thing to gods this realm had.
After Lilith’s death, I made the occasional visit with Nyx and The Fates. They were the ones who’d informed me that my mate had been reincarnated. At first, they’d been helpful with my search for her, but less so over the years. Not that I blamed them. They were enigmatic creatures. Once they’d moved down to the Tenth Circle to be with their father, there was no reason to come here now.
Without them, the place was even colder. Probably a lot more dangerous too, now that the realm’s most powerful entities no longer called this place home. Which only made me move faster down the tunnels with Cerb tailing behind me. It was too narrow in here for him to hold his beast form, and he’d turned back to human. With his chef’s uniform destroyed in his shift, I’d lent him my suit jacket to tie around his waist.
“Sire, I’m embarrassed to let the queen see me like this!” He ran a nervous hand through his hair, his whole body pink with embarrassment as his other tugged the blazer down in the front to cover himself.
“We have bigger things to worry about than the queen seeing your johnson, Cerb.”
“Yes, of course. My apologies, My King—”
He never finished his sentence. We both sensed it at the same time. A powerful magic filled the tunnel, smothering the air.
“That’s the crown’s energy,” I muttered beneath my breath, dread making my throat swell.
Abaddon must have used the crown on Jessica. But that didn’t make any damn sense. As half archdemon, she should have been immune to its influence.
When we arrived at the mouth of the cave, the stench of blood and sweat wafting out of it was so strong, nausea took root in my stomach like putrid weed. Not because I was any stranger to gore, but because I knew my mate was in there, and I knew exactly what Abaddon intended to do with her to make her pay for her betrayal.
What if I’m too late?
The last thousand years I’d spent searching for her would have been worth it for our one weekend together. But we deserved so much more than that.
I wanted her for all eternity and beyond.
I stepped into the cave, my pulse thrashing in my ear. All my fear for Jessica’s well-being fell right out of my damn asshole when my gaze dropped to Abaddon, dead on the ground in a pool of his own blood, his wings torn off and his own cock stuffed in his mouth.
“Holy. Fucking. Christ.” Cerberus muttered behind me.
Cerb never swore, but the scene before us was enough to make a nun curse. Because holy fucking Christ indeed.
There was no time to dance for joy at the harrowing death Abaddon had clearly suffered. Because my gaze next found a sight even more glorious for words.
My mate and queen stood over Abaddon, splattered in his blood, the crown atop her head, sitting so perfectly like it had been made for her. Her face was drained of all color, her red dress torn, showing off her blood-spattered thighs.
Her blonde hair was tangled, and her face streaked with tears. But bleeding almighty, did she look beautiful. Soft and fair, but wild and dangerous all at the same time.
“Lucifer,” she squeaked, her gray eyes welling with fresh tears.
She threw herself into my arms and buried her head in my chest. I stroked her hair, relishing the warmth that bloomed in my chest from having her safe and sound in my arms.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I thought my nieces would be here. I thought they could help me kill him. Cerberus was in the tunnels picking mushrooms, and he threw himself between Abaddon and me. I ran here.” Her throat bobbed with a swallow. “They were gone. So I knocked the crown off his head with a rock and put it on. I wasn’t even thinking.”
I blinked at her, then down at the dead demon at our feet. “The power of the crown isn’t supposed to have an influence over archdemons. It never has before.”
“I don’t know why it worked. But it did.”
