“It’s important.”
She closed her eyes, as if savoring a foul taste. “You want my vote.”
“Yes.”
She shook her head, curls bouncing. “You’re asking me to go against natural law. The mate bond is not some contract. It’s the bedrock of the world.”
“My daughter violated pack law first. She set this in motion.” I let my voice soften just a little. “You know as well as I do, theworld doesn’t run on love. It runs on balance. If the Council bends for one, it’ll snap for all.”
She studied me, the icy green of her gaze rooting me to the spot. “Do you believe that? Or are you just playing the part?”
“I believe in what works,” I said.
“Always did.” She glanced away, fingers tracing the fissures in the stone. “If I do this, the favor is spent. No more debts between us. I don’t care if your house is burning and the only water is in my well.”
“One favor,” I agreed. “And then we are done.”
The wind gusted, lifting strands of her hair and making them dance like white fire. For a second, I thought she’d refuse, call my bluff, unleash the Hollow on me and let the forest swallow my bones.
But she nodded once, the movement so slight I could have missed it.
“I’ll vote your way,” she said. “But don’t mistake this for loyalty. I’d sooner see you rot.”
I grinned, showing teeth. “I’d expect nothing less.”
I stood bowing deeper this time, and turned to leave. The trees parted for me; the roots shifting just enough to let me through.
Three down. Two to go.
But as I walked away, I felt the weight of the bargain. Some debts, once paid, never really vanish.
The portal to the Demon Kingdom opened behind the Council Tower, tucked in a ruin that was once a power substation, now just a tangle of wire and rust. No one came here on purpose unless they had a death wish or a standing invitation. I had one of those,so I stepped through the ring of smoldering sulfur and let the air dissolve around me.
Hell wasn’t what the books promised. It was worse. The sky was a furnace, all reds and oranges with no relief, and the ground was a crust of black glass that sliced your shoes with every step. The wind was constant, hot as a blast furnace and thick with the taste of blood. I wiped sweat from my brow and kept moving. You didn’t linger here, not even if you were a king.
The obsidian throne room was built into the side of a volcano the world was oblivious to. The walls pulsed with veins of magma, casting the whole chamber in a living, hungry light. Maltraz sat at the far end in his monster form, half-man, half-monster, his body covered in black scales, his horns twisted like a ram’s, his fingers ending in knives. He lounged on a throne made of fused skulls, each one still faintly aware.
He watched me cross the room, eyes burning gold.
“The Wolf King comes begging,” he rumbled, smoke curling from his mouth.
I ignored the heat and the smell. “Not begging, Maltraz. Collecting.”
He grinned, sharp teeth flashing. “It is rare for your kind to collect here and leave whole.”
I approached, stopping just outside the reach of his arms. “You remember the Angel Wars. You remember who kept your lines open when the celestials tried to purge you from the east?”
He nodded, a slow, ponderous gesture. “You slaughtered a choir for me. That was a good day.”
“You owe me a favor.”
His tail flicked behind him, gouging a furrow in the glass floor. “Always with the favors, Declan. What is it this time?”
I glanced at the fire pits lining the room, the small demons chained there for warmth, or maybe just for show. “Tomorrow’s vote. I need your voice.”
He leaned forward, scales clicking. “The Council’s old game?”
“Yes. Mydaughter’s bond. I want it broken. I want the Council to stand by the old laws.”
