Page 127 of Bellamy

“What is this?” Asa growled. “Get these goddamn cuffs off me! That’s an order.”

Belphegor knelt down to him, brown eyes filled with scorn. “I’m done taking orders from you.”

Asa struggled as Belphegor yanked him to his feet. “I’m your king!”

“No, you’re a spoiled little child who’s only been playing king.” Belphegor’s grip tightened in Asa’s black hair. “You don’t have what it takes to rule. You never will.”

Baxter, Sirena, and the dragons continued to fight. Warrin, still a full-sized dragon, blew ice on a group of Fallen, freezing them in place, and then Sirena and her warriors broke the ice apart with the celestial steel–tipped spears, causing a chorus of thunder as the angels died.

Daman had regained some of his strength and fought beside his mate, his sickle-like sword slicing through any enemy who neared them.

“Think about what you’re doing, Belphegor,” Lazarus said. Vepar and Purah stood in front of him, swords drawn.

“Ihavethought about it.” Belphegor tugged Asa with him as he walked toward the stone circle. “It’s all I’ve thought about for thousands of years, ever since you forced those boys to lock Lucifer away. Neither you nor anyone else will stop me. I’ve come too far.”

“But why?” Gray asked, a bit more awake than he’d been earlier. He had absorbed a bit of Mason’s energy—he hated doing it but had learned how to take the bare minimum so it wouldn’t hurt his mate. “Lucifer wants to kill us. All of us.”

“No, my boy,” Belphegor said. “He doesn’t. He’s never wanted to kill you or those Nephilim you call brothers.”

“You’re right,” Lazarus added. “He only wanted to use their strength to conquer the earth, sacrificing them if he must.”

Belphegor arched a brow at him. “What you’ve done is any better? You turned them into your weapons. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t sacrifice them without a second thought.”

“We have to do something,” Alastair said, watching the scene unfold.

“Like what?” Raiden asked, covered in sweat with streaks of blood on his cheek. It came from a cut near his temple. Titan stood beside him, blood on him too, but it didn’t look to be his.

“I can teleport into the stone circle,” I suggested. “I’ll take Belphegor by surprise and—”

“No,” Bellamy cut me off. “You’ve already pushed yourself too much.”

“He’s right,” Alastair said. “If you teleport again, you’ll lose even more strength. Belphegor will kill you in seconds.”

A weird feeling prickled in my chest, though it didn’t derive from my injury this time. These Nephilim cared about me too… in their own special way. Alastair didn’t want to risk me getting killed. Probably for Bellamy’s sake. But still.

“Get on with it, Belphie.” Vepar cocked his head at Lazarus, his all-white sword softly pulsating, like an electric storm was brewing inside the blade. “I’m getting restless.”

“Yes. Restless.” Purah nodded, then licked the dull side of his sword, his toxic green eyes unblinking. “I want to stab, stab, stab and drink the marrow from Lazzy’s bones.”

Fucking creepy bastard.

Asa tried—and failed—to loosen Belphegor’s hold on him. Without his powers, his physical strength was no match for the fallen angel. “You saw the same future as me! The one the seer showed us. You’ve seen that I can be just as strong as my father. We don’t need him.”

“I saw you kill my son in that vision too.” Belphegor shoved Asa to his knees in the center of the stones, his gaze lethal. “His blood stained the earth because ofyou. Do you think I’ll let that come to pass?”

Asa’s wide-eyed panic nearly made me pity him. Almost.

“I’m curious how you knew about my plan tonight,” Belphegor said to me. The aura of energy in the circle was so powerful I felt it even from a distance. “I was careful not to breathe a word of it when around you.”

“Penemuel,” I answered. “His conscience wouldn’t let him keep quiet.”

“Damn traitor,” Belphegor snarled. “It doesn’t matter. Even with him interfering, I still won.”

“You’ve won nothing,” Lazarus said before head-butting Vepar and summoning his whip.

But he wasn’t fast enough.

None of us were.