“But I haven’t eaten another plum.”
“You don’t have to. One was enough. The spell never fades.”
“I…” I didn’t want to believe it. He was here, right in front of me. All I wanted was for him to take me far away from this place. I didn’t want to sink deeper into Hell and out of his reach.
My stomach flipped like the ground had suddenly disappeared from beneath me. I felt like I was falling, even though his arms kept me upright.
“Don’t worry.” His fingers came up to lift my chin, his storm-colored eyes grounding me. “I’m coming for you. I’ll destroy the nine realms if I must. I’ll cut down anyone who stands in my way to get to you.”
With that, he closed the last bit of distance between us and pressed his lips to mine, immediately sweeping his tongue into my mouth. It was slow, powerful, unlike how he normally devoured me any chance he got. When he pulled away, there were tears in my eyes.
“Belial, I’m…scared,” I admitted. Being this vulnerable with him was new, but then again, so was being trapped in a cage in the pits of hell, waiting for the god of death to rescue me. I didn’t want to seem weak, but in this moment, alone with him in my dreams, I knew I could be vulnerable. “What if… What if you don’t get to me in time?”
His voice turned sharp like a knife. “That won’t happen.” Then, it softened just as fast. “I will find you. I’m already on my way, Rayven. You just have to be brave for a little longer. Can you do that?”
I nodded.
He slowly let me go and turned to walk away. The air caught in my lungs and I thought my heart might shatter. Was he really leaving me alone? Just like that?
“Wait!” I ran after him, stopping short when he paused next to the bed. “Don’t leave me. Not yet.”
Rather than disappearing, he moved to grab something off the floor. It had been tucked away, just out of sight beyond Leviathan’s bed, and when he lifted it, a gasp tore from my lips.
It was an enormous femur bone that had probably once belonged to some hellish monster. At least eight feet long, one end looked to have been fashioned into an oar. The other end was jagged and bloody, a makeshift pike where he’d stabbed three severed heads, stacked one on top of the other. Shriveled and blackened, they were burnt to a crisp, but I could still make them out: one bull, one goat, and one human head with clumps of flaxen hair.
“Are those…real?” I didn’t know what else to say as disbelief turned my insides.
He nodded, watching me carefully with a hooded expression. “They’re real, alright. It’s the least the bastard deserves.”
My throat swelled with emotion. “So he’s gone for good? His soul…?”
“Demons don’t have souls. So, yes. He’s gone for good.”
My sigh of relief had Belial’s brows furrowing, and the shadows behind his eyes were stark with a peculiar cocktail of violence and concern. “He touched you, didn’t he? Rayven, if he—”
“He shoved his cock in my mouth. That’s as far as it got, and I made sure he regretted it the second he did it.”
“Are you alright?”
How was I supposed to answer that? I wasn’t hurt, but it felt like my nerves had been thrown into a blender and pureed. “I will be so long as you get me. Soon.”
“Soon,” he agreed.
He moved to prop the oar up against the cage I’d escaped from, making sure the eyes were facing Leviathan’s empty bed, before grabbing my hand and dragging me into him again.
“Do you have to go now?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice level. I didn’t want him to leave, not yet, but the way he clung to me made it feel like he was getting ready to say goodbye.
“Not yet.” He led me backward to the bed, laying me down on the mountain of silk sheets Leviathan slept on. He made a show of crawling on top of me, his hungry eyes trained on me. “First, I have to show you exactly what you’ve done to me…”
I stared up at him, blinking. “What do you mean?”
“When I found out you bit off the Lord of Lust’s cock…it took everything in me to keep myself from coming at the thought of it.”
The demon settled between my thighs, his bulge pressing against my dripping center. My arousal soaked the front of his pants, which made his cock twitch.
He kissed his way around my throat, his tongue dancing over my skin. He didn’t care that I was filthy, covered in blood and sweat and who knew what else. I expected him to sink lower, for his mouth to dip to my breasts to tease my nipples with his teeth, but he pulled back, his eyes meeting mine.
“I need you, Rayven. Gods below, do I fucking need you,” he said, his voice low and soft. The unguarded reverence in his eyes surprised me, scared me.
