As soon as I got the chance, I wouldn’t hesitate to chop off one of his body parts. I hoped I got the opportunity.
I nearly gagged as the oyster slid down my throat, swallowing extra hard to choke it down. It was just as awful as I’d expected, but at least it was nourishment.
Leviathan stood and tossed the shell aside, sending it skittering across the damp floor.
“You’re quite pretty when you do as you’re told,” he admired, but his voice wasn’t full of lust the way Belial’s was when he said it. He almost sounded impressed, like I was an oddity he wanted to observe and study. Something he wanted to admire until he got bored and eventually destroyed me.
As uncomfortable as I was, I could still safely say I’d rather be here than fucked to death by Asmodeus. It was the tiniest of silver linings.
“You said you’d give me more food,” I said, expecting him to produce some bread or fruit—or hell, even another oyster—but he didn’t.
“Yes, but I didn’t saynow.”
The serpentine demon lounged back onto the bed, snatching up the hookah and taking a long drag. We sat like that, staring at one another through his constant cloud of slithering smoke, for what felt like hours.
“You’re probably tired,” he said, finally breaking the silence. His eyes roamed over me, that gleam of curiosity never leaving his gaze no matter how long he stared. “You should rest while I watch over you. Let me hear all the delicious noises you make while you dream.”
“You want to watch me sleep?”
“I want to watch you breathe, sleep,be.” He blew a fat smoke ring into the air above him. “Living creatures don’t exist in the land of the dead. You’re the most exciting thing to happen in this realm in the last five hundred years. Why wouldn’t I be fascinated?”
“You’re a fucking creep.” I rolled my eyes and laid down on the bottom of the cage, facing him and curling in on myself so he couldn’t jack off to the site of my tits while I slept.
It’s not like I could do anything else in my prison, and I did need to rest. My body was weak with exhaustion, and my eyelids were heavy. If I got the chance to escape, I needed my energy.
I had a feeling I’d be fighting off more demon lords before everything was over.
Chapter Fifteen
Belial
“This is your lastchance to get off the ferry, both of you,” I grumbled down to Cecil and Holga from the back of the gondola. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Soon, we’d be entering Asmodeus’ realm. The moment we passed the barrier, there’d be no turning back—not until I had Rayven. I’d chase her down to the frozen lake if that’s what it took.
“We’re not leaving you alone, Sire.” Cecil sat beside Holga on the bench at my feet, his boney arm wrapped tightly around her shivering form.
I couldn’t blame her for being terrified. Her soul had resided in the second layer, in Asmodeus’ care, for hundreds of years. Knowing that brutal fuck, he’d done unspeakable things to her.
Something akin to guilt stabbed at my chest. I’d been the one to send her off to him. Back then, it felt like a just punishment for trying to help Catherine escape.
Maybe I was just as cruel and heartless as my brothers. All she’d done was what I’d asked of her: protect my mortal treasure from all dangers. The witch took her job seriously, so of course that meant protecting her from the greatest danger of all.Me.
Now, here she was, insisting she accompany me to the second circle so she could help protect and care for Rayven, even if it meant returning to the horrible place she’d been trapped in for years.
Poor Cecil was terrified too. As my librarian, he’d never been to the other eight realms of Hell. He was used to the quiet of my library and nothing else. But when Holga had insisted on accompanying me, he’d refused to stay behind.
“You’re fools then,” I muttered as I pushed the oar made of bone and tipped with a blue-flamed lantern, guiding the vessel deeper down into my realm. It had been so long since I’d ferried one of my own gondolas. Hells, it had been forever since any of my psychopomps had gone to the lower realms.
There weren't enough souls passing Judgement through limbo to warrant the ferries anymore. There was only the occasional soul, in which case I’d simply toss them into the Styx. Any of the souls I could stomach sending to my brothers these days didn’t deserve the fanfare of an official ferryman.
“My Lord, if I may…” Cecil turned in his seat to look up at me with his tooth-filled eye sockets. “Perhaps we should summon one of your ferrymen to escort us? You are the king. You shouldn’t have to—”
“I may be the king of Limbo, but I am still a psychopomp. If I am going to send a ferry to rescue Rayven, it’s going to be with me at the helm.”
Not to mention the added fact that I possessed Rayven’s soul. No other demon deserved to ferry my queen over the Styx but me.
It had been so long since I’d traveled the Styx downstream. It was beautiful, at least in my realm. My castle was long and winding, with marble pillars draped with laurels and bones standing tall on either bank. A grand farewell to any soul passing through.
