She rose to her feet. “I’m so sorry. I wish I felt differently. I wish I could be a little better than this, than he is, but I am what I am, and the longer I think about it, the more certain I become I belong in the kingdom of hell, with Damien.”
“You’re only saying this because he whispered to you. Whatever he promised you, he’s lying to you, Belle.”
“No, he isn’t. Not this time.”
I, too, rose and caught her eyes. “Let me guess, he promised you a child after Heaven is gone?”
“Yes, Zavariel, and I believe him. His plan makes absolute sense.”
“You are not wrong, but what if I tell you there is another way?”
“I can’t break up with Damien. I don’t want to, and I don’t want to lose my mates either.” She looked at them. “After all is done, I’ll be in charge. I can do anything. I promise you we will be together again.”
“After all is done, and you are the queen of Hell, you will change, Belle.” I told her. “Hell can and will change you. Is that not what you have been afraid of all this time? Why you would not go there? It will absorb and destroy any light left in you. Do you really believe that after you become the wife of the Devil, the mother of the Darkborns, the destroyer of Earth and Heaven, the ruler of Hell, you will find anything in your heart powerful enough to bring back your mates to anew reformedHell and live your happily ever after?”
She blinked at me, but then she averted her gaze, a frown disturbing her face.
“The way I am referring to does not involve an apocalypse, earthly or heavenly, does not make you abduct babies from their mother, and certainly does not include the loss of your mates, Belle.”
Her head whipped toward me. “It doesn’t?”
I took a deep breath. “No. However, the only price you shall have to pay for it to happen…is losing Damien.”
Chapter 25
Damien
I was sick and tired of having Heaven in my hair.
First, he kidnapped her when she was right at Hell’s door. After that he fucking kissed her. Then he did it again, sucking her out of my unholy embrace, and now he was filling her head with that nonsense.
My Isabella would not listen to the messenger of the entity that had been torturing her for centuries and had no intention to stop for all eternity.
Not even if he told her about the truth he chose to hide a short while earlier.
I doubted he would dare say anything. What he was proposing involved a huge sacrifice. One he wouldn’t dare make. A price I knew exactly how invaluable. How cruel.
He would not be willing to pay it. None of the angels did.
“The way I am referring to does not involve an apocalypse, earthly or heavenly, does not make you abduct babies from their mother, and certainly does not include the loss of your mates, Belle.”
Her head whipped toward Zavariel. “It doesn’t?”
“No. However, the only price you shall have to pay for it to happen…is losing Damien.”
Slap him again, darling. Tell him to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. Tell him how hard I melt your panties and you can never sacrifice that. Tell him how much I love you. How far I’d go to have you. How much you love me for it.
She just stood there, staring, listening.
You surely won’t listen to some angel, Professor. You’re smarter than that. Just tell him, darling. Tell him.
“So if I break up with Damien, I won’t die in fifty years or lose the three, and I’ll no longer be barren?”
My head bent in disappointment.Belle, Belle, Belle, you’re breaking my heart, darling.
I should have known when she kissed him back, when she let herself follow him back, that she was still spiraling. I should have known she could still be turned.
“Yes,” Zavariel answered, hissing his heavenly poison in her ears.
