“That I was mad.” While she didn’t believe in lying, she knew better than to tell this bastard the truth.
“Did he believe you?”
She shrugged with a nonchalance she didn’t feel, especially since she was lying. “Of course he did.”
“Aye, but he’s not like the others. Is he? He’s not so easy to deceive.”
By Thorn’s hairy toes, he knew. She could sense it with everything she had.
But on the off chance he didn’t, she decided to try and brazen it out. “You’re right. He denies his god. Therefore, he cannot believe in what we are. To do so would force him to believe in a god he cannot accept. Because if he accepted that his god lives then it would mean that his god had forsaken him and left Valteri to suffer. You of all things know he will never accept or believe that.”
Belial laughed. “Aye, and I need both your souls for Noir. So I cannot let you leave! You’re my key to his deliverance.”
No sooner had the words left his lips, than the mare bolted.
Ariel struggled with her terrified mount, holding tightly to the reins. Keeping her head low, she prayed.
Limbs and shrubs tore at her hair, her body, beating her until she throbbed with pain.
Forest animals scattered out of their way before they were trampled. They traveled on through the darkness and Ariel tried to see what obstacles lay before them, but the mare continued her furious run at a pace that prevented her from seeing anything.
She tightened her grip.
Out of nowhere, a large shadow appeared, its demon’s teeth snarling.
The mare shrieked then reared.
Ariel fell from the mare’s back and landed in the snow. A fierce pain filled her head before everything went black.
Rough hands shook Valteri awake. Cursing and knowing his squire would never be so stupid, he reached for the culprit’s throat, angered that anyone would awaken him in such a manner.
“Release me!” Belial snarled.
Out of sheer unexpected shock over the sound of the demonic thunder,Valteri let go. Had he doubted Ariel’s words before, that removed the last of it.
Nothing human could have made that infernal sound.
Now he knew exactly what he was dealing with. “Why are you here?”
“Ariel’s gone.”
His anger evaporated under a fierce wave of suspicion, as Valteri immediately suspected Belial of treachery. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
Belial’s face was a paragon of innocence, but he knew better. Only something foul would cause Ariel to leave the safety of their keep.
The demon had some part in this, he had no doubt, and if she were hurt because of Belial, then the demon would know what true hell was.
“I went to check on my sister,” Belial said innocently, lighting a small lantern close to Valteri’s side.
Valteri shielded his eyes against the sudden glare.
Belial hung it from a peg and handed Valteri his mail hauberk. “Since her newest outbreak of madness, I’ve been worried over her. I wanted to see if she still believed herself some otherworld creature, and when I entered her room, she was gone.”
Bullshit.
Worry and anger tore through Valteri as he shrugged his hauberk on. Where could she have gone, and why?
Worse, had this bastard done something with her to get back at him?
