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WRATH

I stepped upon the dais and approached the Covenant, the five demons who ruled this underworld and all the underlings in it—including me. They accepted my audience when I’d asked for it because I was the one who fed their precious funnel.

“You seek our counsel,” Raul said, in the center throne, his talons resting on both armrests like he was a person rather than the physical manifestation of evil. “Here we are.”

I was pursuing the answer I wanted, knowing I would get the answer I detested.

But I tried anyway because I’d touched joy and wanted more of it, all of it.

“I’ve fulfilled my debt. My wife has been dead hundreds of years.

My sons are gone.” It still hurt to say those words, to know they died not remembering anything about me except I was a coward who abandoned them.

“Only my distant descendants walk this earth. For hundreds of years among mortals, I have served you. I ask to be pardoned so I can live a mortal life until age takes me.”

Silence echoed in the darkness. Demons were similar to dragons in the sense that they didn’t have expressions.

Their hard skin constrained their features into place.

None of them spoke to each other, and Raul continued to look at me like I would have more to say.

“You made this deal with Bahamut, not us.”

“But you were his ruler then. You’re my ruler now. You have the power to pardon me.”

“There is none to replace you?—”

“I will find a replacement better than me.”

Raul still didn’t look at the others. “The deal you made with Bahamut was specific. It was eternal servitude, not four hundred years. The deal is binding—and you, above all else, should know this.”

“The debt has been paid?—”

“But the service has not been completed. Is there anything else?”

There was nothing I could do. My sword was no match for five demons.

My power was no match to challenge the underworld.

I was trapped below in a sea of darkness to spare my wife, who’d forgotten about me in less than a year.

And now there was a woman who had crossed my path and made my dead heart sing.

A woman who provoked me so potently it changed my entire being.

A woman who felt…meant for me. “Please…” I wasn’t the kind of man to beg, but I would beg for a chance of happiness after the eternity of despair I’d survived.

Raul was unfazed by my display of emotion. If anything, he seemed pleased by it. “Back to work, Wrath.”