I nodded, shifting uncomfortably while he dug between his ample breasts and produced an iron key. He promptly fit it into the padlock attached to my chains, and they clanged loudly to the floor.
For the first time since the chains were put on, I could breathe.
“It really is a shame.” He tsked his tongue as he crossed to the clawfoot tub and turned on the water. It was so hot, the roomimmediately filled with steam. “We could have so much more fun.”
His hungry eyes roved over me for much longer than I would have liked, and I crossed my arms over my chest in an attempt at modesty.
I had no idea what kind of sadistic torture Belphegor could dream up, but I couldn’t imagine many things worse than being eaten. In fact, I was willing to bet that however Belphegor wanted to play, it was a million times better than being boiled to death and digested by a demon lord.
If I could just convince Belphegor of the same thing, maybe I’d have a shot out of here. I at least had to try.
“What kinds of things?” I asked, forcing innocence into my words.
Belphegor’s eyes snapped up to meet mine, and I froze. He was impossible to read, especially since the form he presented himself in wasn’t his true one. He was a shapeshifter, the ultimate demon of deception. For all I knew, his entire personality was a guise and he didn’t even care about Mammon.
“So many things.” The corner of his pouty lips lifted into a smirk. “Would you like me to show you?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rayven
My throat tightened asBelphegor eyed me through the steam collecting in the bathroom, and I wondered what he meant. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
But it has to be better than being eaten…I kept telling myself that as he started for me, an evil glint in his death-black eyes. For every slow step he took toward me, I took two back.
He giggled as if he found my fear amusing. “Come on, you asked what I had planned for you. Don’t you want a taste?”
No, I didn’t want a taste. If it involved any of his body parts, they would promptly get bitten off. Maybe he hadn’t heard what I’d done to Asmodeus yet…
Though maybe it was better if he hadn’t.
“Fuck you,” I spat at him, and he laughed, the unsettling sound reverberating off the bathing chamber’s stone walls.
“Don’t you know that’s basically demon for yes?”
There was something about the way he regarded my naked body that had a little voice in my head screaming for me to run. Despite barely knowing the demon, I couldn’t shake the foreboding sense that this lord was worse than every one of his brothers I’d met so far.
Except for maybe Belial. No one was more intimidating than the Lord of Bones.
Belphegor chewed his lip in deep thought as he seemed to consider what happened next. He was hard to read in this form, but it was obvious what had him torn.
Obey Mammon and prepare me for the cauldron in the main chamber, or rebel and act out whatever twisted plans he had in mind for me instead.
It was a testament to how fucked my situation was that I hoped for the second option.
After what felt like an eternity, it appeared he thought better of defying Mammon. He turned around and took a seat on the stool at the foot of the bath.
I watched him carefully, a fist-sized lump in my throat as he swirled the bath water with a claw waiting for the basin to fill.
Paired with the sticky hot air in the bathroom and the unsettling silence, I was practically stewing alive in the tension.
There was a noise outside the door—the shuffle of small feet and hyena-like snickering. Belphegor’s glare whipped toward the intruders and, with an irritated sigh, ushered them in.
Two goblins scuttled inside, bowing clumsily to Belphegor at least half a dozen times while their little heads craned in my direction, ogling me with their large, yellowed eyes. The first goblin carried a woven basket filled with various scrub brushes and hand towels. The second held a tray of what I assumed tobe bath salts and soaps. The scent of rosemary had my stomach grumbling.
My stomach flipped when, on closer inspection, I made out an array of items you’d use to prepare a hunk of meat for a meal: oils, salts—not the bath variety—and various herbs and spices.
“We’re here to assist with the preparation of the meat, Lord Belphegor.”
