Page 5 of Princess of Bael

I spun around,searching for potential human witnesses.

Had I realized it would explode, I would have chosen an empty field, not a damn neighborhood!

Fortunately, everything was quiet. No screaming. No giant boom from the demonic firework. No sound at all.

And from what I could tell, everyone was mostly asleep on this block. Given that it was after midnight on this side of the country, I supposed that made sense.

But that firework remained in the dark sky above, the black hole at the center resembling a tear in the realms.

What the hell, Ashmedai?I thought, irritated.A warning would have been nice!

I could almost hear him snickering.

Dick.

I glanced left and right, then up and down, my lips curling down. “Okay, now what?” I demanded into the thin air. With my luck, an army of Archangels would descend and threaten to imprison me for breaching the realms.

Because yeah, that was definitely a fracture in the supernatural veil above my head.

Of course, I would need wings to reach it. Which I didn’t possess, even in my demon form, because of my human side.

Pinching my lips to the side, I considered my options.

The cuff let me portal around on Earth and back to Hell. That gave me an escape route, should I need it. My aura would also be masked. At least to an extent.

Although, I questioned that part because of the Tracker’s interest.

Or perhaps it was the cuff that had provoked that curiosity.

Regardless, I had a way out if—

The ground began to rumble beneath my feet, causing me to jump behind a nearby bush and crouch down on instinct. A knife fell into my hand, my gaze vigilant on the surrounding area, only to be blinded by a bright light in the sky.

I threw up an arm to protect my eyes from the brilliant, swirling globe of white-gold illumination. It beamed down on the asphalt street like a spotlight from Heaven itself.

Which it was.

Unfortunately.

Three feminine silhouettes formed from the light, floating down from the sky like they were riding a divine elevator. Their dresses and hair fluttered elegantly as they descended, making them look like they were moving in slow motion. As they drew closer and the light stopped blinding me, I could see past the glow to their features, and I recognized the female in the lead—Johanna.

I didn’t know her. Yet I was intimately familiar with her at the same time.

My father had kidnapped her forty-one years ago, which was what had inspired Ezra to use me as a one-way ticket to Hell.

He’d traded my life for hers.

Trapping me in the underworld for eternity so that she could be saved.

She landed about ten yards in front of me on a pair of shiny shoes that matched her fitted silver dress. Objectively, I could see the allure—curves, long dirty-blonde hair, brown skin glowing from the crescent moons etched up and down her arms, and a delicate appearance that hid the power beneath.

But none of that made me like her.

Actually, I quite hated her.

Not because of anything she’d done, just what she represented.

She began to chant as two more females gently tapped down to Earth on either side of her, their arms mimicking hers as they began to weave magic into the air with their fingertips and voices.