Nausea churned my stomach at the thought of being stuck in the Lord of Gluttony’s realm for that long, but I couldn’t think about that.
Belial was on his way. He was coming for me. He’d figure out a way through Mammon’s forge and come for me.
“Belial will rip your head off and wear your skin like a cape, you bastard,” I seethed.
Suddenly, Belphegor’s eyes lit up, nearly glowing as a wicked smile curled his lips.
“Silly me,” he said, taking a step back. “You must be missing your precious Lord of Bones, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I can help with that.”
Before I could even open my mouth, he shifted, his shape changing and filling out.
His white hair turned into an unkempt black shag, his breasts into perfectly defined pecs. Antlers sprouted from his head, a smooth black mask with faded embellishments appearing out of thin air.
When he finished morphing into this new shape, my heart was in my throat, making the simple task of breathing damn near impossible.
Standing before me was Belial, identical down to the arrogant smirk quirking his mouth.
“That’s better, isn’t it, mortal?” he asked in the velvet-wrapped baritone that normally made me melt. Hearing it now was like being shocked by a high-voltage fence.
I jerked against the cross, my chains rattling as surprise and horror and a dozen other complicated emotions rushed through my veins.
Belphegor’s eyes sparkled in amusement with his chuckle. “Now we’re ready to play.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Belial
Mammon finally glanced upfrom the fire and turned to look at me. His line of sight went straight to the oar gripped in my fist, and as he struggled to identify the burnt heads impaled onto the bone, I released a dark, guttural laugh that shook the banquet hall.
“Don’t you recognize your own brothers?” I gestured to each brutalized and beaten head I’d collected as I made my way through the Nine Hells. “Asmodeus. Pine. Leviathan. We’re all here. One big, happy fucking family. Well, minus Belphegor…”
I strode further into the hall and grabbed a knife sticking out of a wheel of cheese, stabbing a chunk and shoving it into my maw. “And what I’m presuming was meant to be the main course.”
It might have been a trick of the fire, but for a moment, I could have sworn I saw a flicker of fear behind his infernal eyes.
I thought about burying the knife in one of their hearts for a beat before dismissing the idea. While it would be hilarious to kill one of them with a cheese knife, it wouldn’t be efficient. I needed to dispose of these bastards quickly.
“Just tell me where she is, and I’ll consider sparing all three of your miserable carcasses.”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mammon sneered. “The soup was the main course. Belphegor broke up with me and kicked it over, so eat what’s left and get out. Whatever else you’re looking for isn’t here.”
My fist tightened around my oar so hard, I was afraid the bone might snap in half.
Mammon was a pathetic liar. Even without Rayven’s warning, I could have seen straight through his words. The way he tensed, a muscle ticking in his jaw as he narrowed his eyes on me, told me everything I needed to know.
No matter what, I wasn’t leaving this room without three new heads added to my ever-growing collection to the family tree.
There was no denying I was being a cruel and selfish bastard for indulging in my rage.
I knew she wasn’t here. There was nothing stopping me from turning around and going straight to Belphegor’s realm, but leaving them alive would probably come back to bite me in the ass. Since my teleportation abilities didn’t work outside Limbo, we’d have to come back this way, and I didn’t trust these three not to ambush us on our journey back. I had to eliminate the threat now.
I took another stride closer to them, walking along the length of the table while pretending to peruse the food, occasionally stabbing a grape or bits of cheese onto my knife before stuffing it into my mouth.
The way Mammon’s eyes kept pinging between me and his giant war hammer propped against the side of the massive fireplace didn’t go unnoticed. He was determining how much space I’d have to close between us before he went for it.
Paimon and Baal tensed with my approach, and when I sat a few chairs down from them, I was sure they were all wondering the same thing as Mammon: should they kill me before I could add their heads to my oar?
None of them moved as I fixed myself a plate of food, but they seemed to relax.
