Page 47

DANTE

Hot fire burned through Dante’s blood. He launched himself at Lucifer, with Ash and Onyx at his wingtips.

Brothers? How dare Lucifer utter that word like it meant anything to him.

“Wait!” The Devil stumbled back from the open window.

Dante crashed into him and closed his hands around Lucifer’s throat. Wind rushed in Dante’s ears, or maybe it was the blood roaring through his veins. He didn’t see Luc before him. All he saw was Ollie, bloody and lifeless.

A roar ripped from his lungs. Dante’s fingers sunk into Lucifer’s throat, and he clawed at him. Blood sprayed, coating his hands, the smell hitting hard. Dante choked. Luc deserved this. He deserved worse. But the hot, sticky feeling made Dante’s skin crawl.

“You have to pay,” Dante screamed in Lucifer’s face. “You hurt him, and now you pay.”

“Y-yes,” Luc gurgled, blood leaking from his mouth even as his mangled neck healed.

Dante’s hands stilled, his breath heaving. Luc wasn’t moving. He wasn’t fighting. The Devil lay there giving the impression he’d let Dante rip his head clean off without so much as lifting a finger in self-defense.

Dante blinked, his pulse drumming impossibly faster. “Fight me, you piece of shit.”

Luc’s eyes turned a dull brown, completely devoid of fire or emotion. “For what?”

“ For what? ” Dante bashed Luc’s head into the floor. There was a crack, and Luc’s gaze slid out of focus before his magic healed the damage to his brain. “For nearly killing my mate.”

Luc blinked. “And why would I fight you for that? It’s your motivation, not mine.”

Dante roared. He couldn’t take Lucifer’s mind games.

The damned traitor didn’t move. Dante’s fire burned until his skin felt like it might start smoking, but the urge to rip and destroy faded.

A hand landed on Dante’s shoulder. Ash pulled him up, glowing orange with protective fire. Onyx glowed blue beside him. Dante hadn’t even protected himself. He wasn’t thinking. Not that it mattered. Lucifer lay on the ground as if he’d accepted defeat.

Except Lucifer would never accept defeat.

“What are you up to?” Dante snarled.

Luc’s lip curled. “Letting you purge the anger from your system. Get it out.”

“My anger will never be purged. He is my mate, Luc. How could you?”

“I didn’t believe you,” Lucifer growled, pushing to a sitting position, grotesque splatters of blood marring his chest, face, and healed throat. “You had to be lying. Taunting me. I thought…”

“So you tested him with attempted murder?” Ash growled, his own anger rising. “You nearly strangled Harper.”

“There’s no excuse, Luc,” Onyx said more calmly, but not without emotion .

Lucifer turned his attention to his brother. “Did I say anything about an excuse? Don’t put words in my mouth. I didn’t believe Ash or Dante. That’s the reason I did what I did, nothing more. What was a human life in the face of confirming the lie? The boy would have reincarnated.”

Dante shot lightning at Luc’s face, a shielding red glow appearing in time to save him. “Oh, are you done taking it? Ready to fight?” Dante sheathed himself in a swath of protective black flame.

“No.” Luc stood. “I’m sorry, Dante. Ash. I’m not arguing or fighting. I’m sorry.”

“Bullshit,” Onyx spat, taking the word from Dante’s lips. “You’ve never been sorry a day in your life.”

Luc’s nostrils flared. “How would you know?”

“If you’re sorry, kneel down.” Ash pointed to the polished stone floor beneath his feet. “Take your punishment without protest.”

Lucifer took a step back. “What punishment?”

Did Lucifer think all he needed to do was shed a little blood, and they’d forget about everything? Dante snorted. “The punishment you should have faced centuries ago. For everything you’ve done.”

“No. Wait.” Lucifer held up a hand, his eyes darting to the side where a strange iridescent screen glowed.

Of course he had a plan. The apology was probably part of it. Dante had given him too much of a chance already.

What was he doing in this tower? The room was bare of furniture and decoration except for the glowing screen. There didn’t seem to be a door or opening leading to the lower levels. All around clear glass shone, demons gathering outside the windows.

Could they see in, or was the glittery, reflective surface enough to obscure the interior from all angles? No one seemed to be looking directly at them. Perhaps an illusion kept them hidden inside.

With a flick of his wrist, Dante closed the glass panels behind them, sealing them shut with a spell and trapping them in the odd space.

“Dante, just—” Luc’s eyes flared, cut off as a tendril of Onyx’s blue power encircled his neck.

“Open the prison,” Onyx ground out, face contorted with the strain of forcing the spell past Luc’s shield.

Ash dropped to his knees and pressed a palm to the floor, pouring power into the spell they’d crafted to open a prison that existed between realms. The magic worked best if they could tie the entrance to something physical, and the stone tiles would work fine.

Dante lent his power, murmuring along with Ash, but they needed Onyx too. Onyx grimaced as he cast a blue glow their way, still maintaining his hold on Lucifer. He needed help. Dante split his focus, gathering power for a lightning strike.

Lucifer grabbed the blue magic collaring him and pulled. The tendril snapped, and Onyx swore.

“We have to put him down first,” Dante shouted, abandoning the prison spell.

Ash stood, and together, all three shot lightning at Lucifer. He disappeared, and the spells hit the windows behind him, sending crackling energy through the glass and reverberating around the room.

The light pouring in from outside intensified as if someone had flipped a switch.

“Fuck. He’s gone to the Human Realm,” Ash shouted at the same time Onyx said, “Why didn’t the windows shatter?”

There was a thud, then Lucifer’s voice. “Please, we need to talk.”

They all spun around. Dante struck out with lightning. Luc deflected with a shot of his own, the two spells colliding in midair with a thundering boom.

“Just listen for one moment,” Lucifer begged, almost convincing Dante he meant it. Like he really was sorry.

But he’d never been sorry. Not in thousands of years, for anything he’d done.

“Give us control of your magic, and we’ll listen to anything you have to say,” Dante countered.

Lucifer’s eyes flashed. “Control? Fuck that.”

Dante laughed. “I knew you didn’t mean it. You aren’t giving up. You came to hunt us, and now that the tables have turned, you’re scrambling.”

“Is that so?” Lucifer sent a bolt of lightning flashing in Dante’s direction.

Onyx blocked it before it collided with Dante’s shield.

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 Onyx was 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.

In a blur, demons rushed toward the shimmering gateway and disappeared into the darkness. Into the Human Realm .

Lucifer had opened a gateway between the realms. That tug on Dante’s chest was the link he still bore to the confinement magic, which was now broken.

Ollie’s fear flared again. “Ollie!” he called desperately as he was thrown to the ground. Whoever had been holding him was clearly more interested in escape than keeping him incapacitated.

Dante’s call was lost in the chaos erupting around them. Demons flew in from all sides, shoving each other out of the way to get to the portal. Dante looked around frantically. He couldn’t get up. A wall of flying demons pressed in from above.

Where was Lucifer? Where was Onyx?

Ash snarled.

Wings beat and demons cried with joy as they disappeared in droves, and all the while, Ollie’s fear clawed at Dante’s heart.

“We have to get back,” he yelled.

“Where’s Luc?” Ash shouted.

At last, the stampede thinned, revealing a nearly empty room.

Onyx was slumped near the edge of the stone floor, one arm hanging out the shattered floor-to-ceiling window. Dante rushed to his side, pulling Onyx from the ledge.

His face was a grayish color and no breath passed his lips.

“Why isn’t he waking up?” Dante shook him. There were no visible wounds and Onyx’s magic should have healed him from any poison or mortal death quickly.

Ash staggered toward them. “A curse. Fuck. We’ll have to counteract it, but something is wrong with Harper.”

Dante hoisted Onyx up. “Ollie too.”

“It started before the portal opened. It can’t be Luc.” Ash took a breath and scanned the empty room once again. “Why would he let them out?”

It was the perfect diversion, but it couldn’t have been completely spontaneous. How long had that screen held Eternal runes? It wasn’t how the containment spell was initially created. What had Luc changed?

“I don’t know. We can worry about it later. Can you get us back with Onyx like this? He can’t help with the spell.”

Ash folded Onyx’s wings, supporting him alongside Dante. “It should work since the containment is broken. It’s not ideal, but I’m not flying through that portal with no idea where we’ll end up.”

It could deposit them anywhere on Earth, thousands of miles from their mates.

Ash began the spell, and Dante let his power loose. Ollie’s fear hit him in a fresh wave.

He’d failed with Luc. Again. He wouldn’t fail Ollie too.