Page 58 of Hellfire & Tinsel

Tears, he realized, recognizing them from Beau’s vulnerable face. They didn’t look the same, but the essence could be tasted in the air.

Sadness.

Loneliness.

Heartsickness.

Love.

He clutched his chest, grunting in pain. All the eternal torment in Hell couldn’t amount to the anguish that had been unlocked within him.

There was no hope.

Time passed too disparately in Hell. Even if he could get permission to visit Beau, how much time would they truly have before Beau was gone and in Heaven? Would it just be more painful for both of them if he tried to steal pieces of Beau’s fleeting earthly time before he was gone for good?

There was no place for demons where Beau was destined to end up, especially not to mix with those who had earned paradise. It was the hard line G had put in place, a rule never to be broken. And while he would fight Heaven for Beau, would Beau even want that?

He didn’t know what to do.

He wiped his face dry and continued staring out into the inky black, watching as the fires of Hell began to light back up one by one in the wake of Luc’s tantrum. Behind him something shuffled. He ignored it. He didn’t want to speak to anyone.

But no one spoke, and belatedly he realized he hadn’t heard the door opening either.

The shuffling continued, and he looked back over his shoulder. The door was indeed shut tight and there didn’t seem to be anyone in the room.

The giant box rocked.

Once.

Twice.

Kassel stepped closer, glancing at the tag hanging off it before he risked looking through the surface with his eyes and getting scarred for life. He was already miserable enough.

To Kassel

Murder is a gift

TA

TA?

There was no demon who had two initials. Except…

It slotted into place immediately. He’d seen this sign-off only once before, on a document that had been handed back to Oren with a ‘sorry, didn’t feel like it’ scrawled across the front of it in blood.

The twins. Who apparently were so codependent they couldn’t even be separated by an & sign.

But why were they sendingKassela gift? Surely they’d addressed it wrong? Come to think of it,whenhad they sent it? He hadn’t seen them terrorizing the halls in quite a while.

The box shook again, more visibly at this point, and Kassel was just about to peer through the surface when the top popped off.

Standing there, body wrapped up in the same bright red ribbon, was none other than the heart he didn’t own made flesh.

“Beau.”

He was hallucinating.

The messy hair topped with a bow. The embarrassed pink blush dusted across soft cheeks. The disorientation in crystalline blue eyes.