Page 25 of Princess of Bael

“Because I wanted to see if you were telling the truth,” I admitted. “And, on the off chance you were telling the truth, it potentially allowed for a faster resolution.”

“Thus allowing me to kill you faster,” she replied, nodding. “My thoughts exactly.”

I grunted. “You can’t kill me.”

“Alastor’s blade says otherwise.”

I paused my task to meet her gaze. “Your aim says otherwise,” I corrected, my focus shifting to her leather jacket. “How’s your shoulder?”

She shrugged out of the coat in response, letting the material fall to the ground and revealing the tank top beneath. Aside from the dried blood, she appeared fully healed.

“Impressive,” I murmured, dropping my gaze to the table in an effort to stop myself from admiring her breasts in that tight top. Because while my comment had been in regard to her ability to heal quickly, I’d meant it more in response to the display of her curves.

Which I really did not need to think about right now.

I refocused on my task, adding the final splash of potion to the paper.

Then I pulled a knife from my pocket to slice my palm—an action that made Kayla grin—and squeezed a trickle of blood onto the center of the page.

The air warmed around us, the only indication that the spell had come to life.

And lines began forming on the page in a light gray ink—lines that defined the locations within the realms.

They appeared and disappeared and reappeared again, the magic shifting through time and space to check every area of all the worlds for Kristina’s location.

As the realms were vast, this would take a while.

I blew out a breath. “We should try to sleep while this works,” I told her. “We might need our rest for wherever this is going to take us.”

Well,Ineeded rest. Something I wouldn’t have needed a few decades ago, but that was my consequence to bear.

“Right, then I hope Kristina is still up here and not down there, or an eternity might pass in those seven hours,” Kayla muttered.

I blinked at her and frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You know, because of the whole ‘one day here is a year on Earth and over three centuries in Hell.’?” Her brow furrowed at whatever she saw in my expression. “Right…?”

“You think time moves like Heaven here,” I realized aloud, translating what she’d just said. “Time here moves like it does on Earth.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “So it’s been longer than forty-one days since…?”

It took me another minute to follow what she meant. “Since I left you in Hell? Yeah. It’s been over four decades.”

Which felt a hell of a lot longer, considering the agony I’d gone through with being fully cut off from my mate. It was through strength and will alone that I’d survived this long. Jo had been about to send me down to Bael to negotiate a truce. But then Kayla had given her the opportunity to take charge with that little stunt in Virginia.

“Huh. I thought it was only, like, a month for you.” She looked me up and down. “I guess that explains the aging.”

“Aging?” I repeated.

She waved a hand at my head. “Yeah, the white hair and general aura of exhaustion.”

My jaw ticked. Johanna commenting on my “aging” had always made me roll my eyes. But hearing Kayla say it bothered me in a way I didn’t want to consider.

I look this way because of you.

Because of me.

Because ofus.