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The words sat on my heart then slowly dissolved into it. A woman I’d known for just a day suddenly felt like an integral part of me. I’d been numb for over three hundred years, and now I suddenly felt emotion to such an intense degree that my dead body wasn’t capable of it. My existence had been unremarkable for centuries, and now, I felt like a new life had begun. Begun with this woman who had captured my heart the second our paths crossed. “There is no bravery without fear—and you’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met.”

13

WRATH

I stepped upon the dais and approached the Covenant, the five demons who ruled this underworld and all the underlings in it—including me. They accepted my audience when I’d asked for it because I was the one who fed their precious funnel.

“You seek our counsel,” Raul said, in the center throne, his talons resting on both armrests like he was a person rather than the physical manifestation of evil. “Here we are.”

I was pursuing the answer I wanted, knowing I would get the answer I detested. But I tried anyway because I’d touched joy and wanted more of it, all of it. “I’ve fulfilled my debt. My wife has been dead hundreds of years. My sons are gone.” It still hurt to say those words, to know they died not remembering anything about me except I was a coward who abandoned them. “Only my distant descendants walk this earth. For hundreds of years among mortals, I have served you. I ask to be pardoned so I can live a mortal life until age takes me.”

Silence echoed in the darkness. Demons were similar to dragons in the sense that they didn’t have expressions. Their hard skin constrained their features into place. None of them spoke toeach other, and Raul continued to look at me like I would have more to say. “You made this deal with Bahamut, not us.”

“But you were his ruler then. You’re my ruler now. You have the power to pardon me.”

“There is none to replace you?—”

“I will find a replacement better than me.”

Raul still didn’t look at the others. “The deal you made with Bahamut was specific. It was eternal servitude, not four hundred years. The deal is binding—and you, above all else, should know this.”

“The debt has been paid?—”

“But the service has not been completed. Is there anything else?”

There was nothing I could do. My sword was no match for five demons. My power was no match to challenge the underworld. I was trapped below in a sea of darkness to spare my wife, who’d forgotten about me in less than a year. And now there was a woman who had crossed my path and made my dead heart sing. A woman who provoked me so potently it changed my entire being. A woman who felt…meant for me. “Please…” I wasn’t the kind of man to beg, but I would beg for a chance of happiness after the eternity of despair I’d survived.

Raul was unfazed by my display of emotion. If anything, he seemed pleased by it. “Back to work, Wrath.”

14

LILY

The moment Wrath returned me to my villa, I felt Zehemoth’s voice in my head.

Where were you?

I halted in the center of my living room. I had only been gone for a night and didn’t think anyone would notice my absence. But the panic in his voice told me he’d noticed for good reason.Has something happened, Zehemoth?

Where were you?There was a thud outside, like he’d landed in the grass.Your mind wasn’t present, and then all of a sudden, it was back with a speed I can’t explain.

Wrath studied my face, somehow knowing I was in the middle of a conversation just by the shift of my eyes and the movement of my body.Zehemoth?—

The horn blew—the horn I’d never heard sound.

The horn of war.

I gave a gasp before I looked at Wrath.

His eyes widened like he understood what that meant.

I headed straight to the door and ran across the lawn to the cobblestone path. Zehemoth watched me go, his snout following me.Where were you?

“We don’t have time for this!” I sprinted through the trees in the courtyard and spotted the dragon covered in storm-cloud scales. Enormous and powerful, with an elf in armor on the ground beside him.

I skidded to a halt. “What news do you bring from the north?” I was out of breath from how hard I had run to the castle from my villa, but no need for air would stop me from demanding news.

The elf was dressed in the black and deep-green armor of his people. I remembered their well-crafted clothing and their elegant presence. When I was a little girl, I used to be one of them, graceful, quick, and powerful. My great-aunt, Queen Eldinar, still reminded me of a sunrise, with her beautiful blond hair and iridescent eyes. “Princess Rothschild, an army of men and orcs marches for our forest, ten thousand strong. They’re undeterred by Macabre and the others. Their armor is thick and resistant to fire. And there are so many that they won’t be stopped before they breach the forest. I’m certain the war rages on in front of the Great Tree as we speak.”