I didn’t dare move or raise my head. My heart was pounding, but I found the courage to say, "I- I don't understand.”
“I don’t repeat myself, Diablos. Now that I think about it, your name is symbolic. You were born to be one of mine,” he paused, and I wondered why.
He was right, though. I had always hated my name, but now things were different. I was going to be Dagon’s demon. Only his. Even if I had to follow orders from Lucifer.
“The time will come when I will have use of you. Till then, you’re free,” he finished.
I wanted to ask what he meant while simultaneously praying that I never learned what that meant. The decision was made for me when I felt the world return to normal. The heaviness ofLucifer’s presence was gone in a blink, and the noise, smells, and screams around me returned.
Heart racing, I scanned the battlefield frantically. Most of the Fireborns were already defeated.
Then I saw Dagon.
My world halted painfully.
He was several feet away from me, fighting a demon. A demon with stark white hair and a body moving swiftly like a shadow merging with the darkest powers that ever existed. The demon made my blood run cold only with a glimpse.
He was a Starborn. A powerful Starborn with hands wrapped around my mate’s neck. The woman mentioned there was a demon here who could kill another demon.
Pure panic and rage ignited inside me. Flames consumed the arrow as I raised it, aiming for the head of the fool who thought they could hurt my man.
I knew Dagon would always protect me, but I would always protect him too.
No one touched what was mine.
Chapter thirty-six
Dagon
Diablos.
The world went crimson and my body lurched before my mind caught up.
Di was on his knees. Di was bleeding. Di was holding something the air around him couldn't contain, something infernal, and my body recognized the signature before my brain put words to it.
Hell.
Not metaphorical Hell. Not the Hell-on-Earth shorthand we used. The actual heat-and-pressure signature of the Underworld bleeding through the surface. From the bow. From him.
My mate had just done something I had no name for. And the next breath I took was him. The next instinct I had was reach him, shield him, kill anything between us.
But the moment Diablos sliced his hand, all hell broke loose. Fireborns lunged toward him, but we surged forward, blocking their path toward Diablos. Having multiple Starborns on our side proved to be our saving grace.
The Fireborns' only advantage was numbers, but even that wouldn't be enough. They knew it, and so did I. They weren't my worry, my focus zeroed in on the Starborn advancing toward Diablos.
I spread my wings, soaring above the burning demons, the chaos, and the screams, cutting off his approach. He wasn't like any demon I'd encountered. Demons usually had dark-colored hair, but this one's hair was a stark mix of white and blond. His eyes were swirling pools of black, impossible to read. He was undeniably terrifying.
Up close, his presence bent the air around him. It wasn't aura the way other demons had aura. It was gravity. I'd fought demons. I'd watched my brother die at the hands of demons. I knew the catalog of what walking power felt like up close.
This wasn't in the catalog.
My body was telling me to kneel. To bow my head and offer my throat and ask for mercy. My body, which had not bowed to anything in fifteen years.
I locked my knees.
I'd die before I gave this thing my throat.
Up close, it was clear he had height and bulk over me. But it wasn't his physical form that alarmed me. It was the horrifying aura radiating from him. I'd never felt anything this malevolent. None of it mattered. He wasn't getting near Di. Not today, not ever.
