Page 37 of Princess of Bael

Because I also hadn’t considered the consequences of our mating. I’d been arrogant, deciding I could handle whatever fate threw at me in response to my abandoning Kayla in Hell.

But I’d never anticipated this.

A moment of weakness ending in Kristina’s demise.

It was worse than letting Bael keep Johanna—a destiny that had come to be, regardless of my tampering.

I shook my head, sickened and dismayed by it all. Furious at the unraveling of karma and the destruction my choices had caused.

“I know,” Kayla whispered, her voice somehow carrying over the chaos in my mind. “I… I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

I snorted.Neither did I.“But that doesn’t make it any better, does it?”

“No,” she agreed. “It doesn’t.”

Which was precisely why I needed to find a new path, a way to tempt the scales into our favor before we lost everything. Surveying the ground once more, I searched for hints of where to go. But the entire scene lacked an aura, leaving me without anyone to trace.

Pulling the map from my pocket, I searched for Kristina’s essence.

Nothing.

If someone had sucked the power out of her, I should be able to feel a trace of something. Her aura would remain on the map, at least as a distorted texture of an essence that I could follow.

Except there wasn’t even a speck left of her.

Unless the being went to another realm, I thought, considering the parchments in my office.

I engaged my ability to traverse time and space, only to freeze as I sensed a powerful being arriving through similar means.

Shit.

I returned to my corporeal state just in time to catch Kayla’s broken expression. She quickly masked it behind a look of surprise upon seeing me, then she stood as the aura of the incoming demon touched her senses.

The Demonic Lord of North America materialized before us, his dark appearance and all-black suit blending into the night. His chocolate brown gaze fell to Kristina on the ground before flickering back up to me and shifting to Kayla. His jaw ticked, a glimmer of emotion gracing his usually stoic features.

Fear.

Because he knew as well as we did what this meant.

And as a being growing in power, he also knew we were on the cusp of a war.

More shimmers disturbed the night, announcing the approach of several otherworldly entities.

Azrael.

Mietek.

Dariel.

Scion.

Zerak.

Alastor.

Lucía.

Bael.