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From one of the infernal guardians.
Wreck has the bastard by the throat when its burning red eyes suddenly flicker. Its body jerks once, blackened skin cracking apart beneath Wreck’s claws, before the fire inside it gutters completely.
It drops.
Wreck barely has time to look down before another guardian collapses behind him, then another.
Across the chamber, one of the dead things charging Ruckus crumples mid-step, bones scattering across the stone. The corpse behind it makes it another two feet before its legs fold beneath it. Demons shriek as the connection feeding them starts disappearing, bodies twisting and burning from the inside while the Kings scramble clear.
They are dying.
Every inch I close the chasm is cutting Hell away from them.
So, I give the chasm everything I have. My throat tears around the roar, blood fills my mouth, Hellfire burns so hot beneath my skin I can smell my flesh burning, but I keep going while Sentinel’s Grace pours through me and the opening gets smaller.
The Devil still hasn’t moved.
His suit remains immaculate despite the chamber coming apart around him, but that easy smile is gone now.
That’s enough to keep me roaring.
The chasm grinds inward another few feet. Lava disappears beneath collapsing stone while white-gold fire races across the closing seam, welding this world back together behind it.
Sentinel grunts beside me, his grip digging into my shoulder.
I can feel him tiring.
So am I.
One more big push.
I reach for everything left inside me, every piece Malgrave stole, every ounce of power the Devil thought belonged to him, the second it landed in Hell, and I shove all of it into the roar.
The chamber shakes.
Stone slams together.
The last strip of Hell disappears.
My roar cuts off as the chasm seals beneath a violent burst of red-orange and white-gold light.
For several seconds, I can only stand there with Sentinel’s hand still locked around my shoulder, both of us dragging air into lungs that feel fucking shredded.
The chamber has gone quiet. The screams from below disappeared with the chasm, taking the roar of Hell’s fire with them. One of the dead things makes it another half step toward Ruckus before whatever was holding it upright finally gives out, its bones collapsing into a heap at his feet.
Around the Kings, the rest have already fallen.
Demons lie twisted across the stone. Infernal guardians that were tearing through us seconds ago are sprawled where Hell’s connection dropped out from under them, and the red fire in their eyes burned down to black.
My gaze falls to the stone beneath my boots. A faint red-orange glow still runs through the sealed seam, white-gold light woven through the middle of it before both slowly begin to fade.
Hellfire and Grace—mine and Sentinel’s.
Last time we put those powers together, we barely understood what we’d done.
This time I felt every second of it.
I controlled it.