Page 113 of Demon's Heart

Shouts rose outside the tower. Demons were pointing inside, looks of rage on their faces. If they couldn’t see in before, they could now.

“You must pay for what you’ve done to Ollie and Harper.” Dante circled Luc and shot him again.

Lucifer swiftly blocked the blow. Onyx shot from the other side, but Lucifer was too quick. He blocked the second strike, his eyes burning red. “They’re both fine. What is there to pay for?”

“They are not fine,” Dante shouted, striking Luc again. The Devil blocked it.

“And what about everyone else?” Ash asked. “Our mates aren’t the only ones you’ve wronged.”

Dante struck exactly as Onyx and Ash did. Luc blocked Dante’s hit, but the other two struck home and Luc went rigid.

Onyx was on Lucifer in a flash, pulling a potion from his pocket. “Open the prison.”

Dante and Ash kneeled, starting the spell over.

Onyx yanked Luc’s mouth open, shocking him again in the process, and popped the cap off the vial.

Glass exploded around them, shards flying and cutting through Dante’s shield, slicing his exposed skin. He hissed, folding his wings to protect his body. Ash shouted beside him, barely audible over the sound of beating wings.

Dante’s cuts healed rapidly and he lowered his wings. Demons flew in from all sides. Onyx growled as a wing knocked his hand and the potion went flying. Hands closed around Dante’s throat from behind, and he reared back.

Ash blasted the attacker off and Dante flapped his wings, keeping anyone from getting close.

“Get Lucifer!” Onyx shouted. A boom sounded and something hit the floor.

Two demons shot lightning at Ash simultaneously and his shield wavered. Dante incapacitated a demon as he lunged for him, but another was right behind him.

Fuck. There had to be more than two dozen demons surrounding them. A few were recognizable as those who’d always hovered around Luc. How had he gained the support of so many others? Surely, not even the city and all its new perks could make demons forget what he’d done.

Pain erupted in Dante’s back and his teeth clenched, his heart stopping. Someone had broken his shield completely, or more likely, several someones. He couldn’t stave off multiple attacks indefinitely. No one could.

Lucifer rose from the chaos, fully recovered. “I did say to give me time to explain.”

His taunting tone made Dante want to scream. If he had to listen to the miserable retch gloat…but Lucifer turned away.

He walked toward the iridescent screen, which had escaped damage in the blast, likely by magic.

Dante was shocked with lightning again. Ash too, and Onyxwas nowhere to be seen. Where was he? Had he fallen from one of the broken windows? There were too many bodies and wings crowding the space to be sure.

Another shock vibrated through Dante’s body and he blacked out for a second. When he came to, Lucifer stood in front of the screen, which was now displaying a series of flashing runes from the Eternal Realm.

“Clear the floor.” Lucifer swiped a hand across the screen and the demons crowding the destroyed room backed away from the center. “It’s time to get out of here.”

Lucifer pressed his palm to the flashing runes, and they flared with his red power. The ground trembled and demons shouted, more pressing in through the shattered windows.

A flare of acute fear hit Dante through the mating bond.Ollie!

Another shock of lightning hit him, but it hardly registered. Something was wrong with Ollie. His mate’s fear grew, and a rising panic flooded Dante’s emotions. Fuck, Dante couldn’t think past Ollie needing him and not being there.

He had to protect Ollie. He could never be hurt again. But Lucifer was here… What was going on?

Magic sparked at the center of the room and a growing shimmer filled the air above the center of the stone floor. The shimmer grew and grew until it obscured Lucifer and the demons on the other side of the room.

Ash snarled. “He’s opening—” His words cut off as someone shocked him.

There was no need for Ash to finish. A darkness opened in the middle of the room, crackling around the edges, as something pulled on Dante’s chest, right behind his breastbone.

“It’s true!” a demon shouted.