Page 25 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

M A R G O T

I retreated to the bedroom Beelzebub had taken me to initially, not having the words left to fight with him.

Even his outburst was one of frustration and not true anger, and that left me reeling more than it should have.

I knew I was being difficult in my need to return to the surface as quickly as possible, and I would suck it up and do what was necessary to make that happen.

But that didn’t mean I had to be thrilled that I would do it with Beelzebub at my side. I wanted a lonely, empty room where I could lock myself away and wait until it was time for Willow to open the door to Hell; instead I’d have to travel with the one male I found insufferable.

Would he keep me safe? Yes.

Would he also be so hot and cold that I didn’t know what to expect or even what I wanted to be true? Also yes.

I hauled open the door, slipping through the passage into the red bedroom. My hands slid into my hair, tugging at the roots as my mouth opened on a silent scream.

I just wanted to go home.

I wanted the comfort of my own bed, of the chair I placed in front of my door every night and the bells that hung from my doorknob to alert me if anyone even attempted to open it.

I’d done everything I could to create a place that felt safe to rest my eyes and sleep, and I didn’t know how I would function without it in this place filled with demon lords who wanted to test me and would trap me here forever if I failed.

I turned to close the door behind me, barely glancing up from the floor as I grasped the doorknob and used it to swing the door closed.

The sound of flesh slapping against it drew my stare up to meet Beelzebub’s fiery stare.

He glared down at me, the tension in his jaw hard enough to chisel stone as he held the door aloft.

His fingers were splayed wide, revealing just how massive his hand was with knuckles slightly bent and fingertips that dug into the wood to reveal the anger that corded his every muscle.

“I am doing my best to remain patient with you,” he said, holding the door still. He didn’t move to step into the room, but kept himself planted in the doorway, pausing on the threshold as if he didn’t want to invade the room I’d claimed as my own.

“This is patient?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I backed away from him.

“Yes, it is. You’re being difficult strictly for the sake of it at this point.

I have explained why you need to come with me,” he said, continuing on with whatever reprimand he thought to give me like I was an errant child having a tantrum and not a woman filled with fear over what was to come.

“But it is beyond difficult to reason with you when you fight me every step of the way,” he added, and I moved farther into the room to put distance between us.

I sighed, dropping my chin to my chest. My cheeks burned with warmth, a feeling that was distinctly reminiscent of shame flooding through me. “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head as I moved toward the window to look out.

Beelzebub took my words as an invitation, stepping over the threshold and entering the bedroom when he felt my anger slip away.

“I just want to help, songbird, but you’ve got to let me.

We can’t keep going around in the same circles.

We’re wasting time,” he said, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

Not for the first time, I wished the bastard would wear a fucking shirt. His comfort in his own body was disarming at best, distracting at worst.

A distraction I neither wanted nor could afford, to be exact. Of all the people in the world for me to feel that frisson of awareness for, that tingle of attraction and the what if, he was the last one I would have chosen.

What if I was normal? What if I could stand the thought of being touched?

“Then let’s go,” I said, raising my chin with a faux confidence I didn’t feel.

I was absolutely terrified by the prospect of leaving the room that had started to feel relatively safe and wandering out into Hell.

I very vividly remembered the way the demons and souls had fought to get to me, and that alone would have been enough to send me spiraling into a corner to hide under any normal circumstances.

The threat of the lords was another thing entirely.

But Willow needed me. She needed the information that only I seemed capable of sharing, and when I needed her, she’d do whatever it took to be there.

I owed her the same.

Beelzebub studied me for a moment, trying to peer into the sudden determination on my face.

I felt the way he read me like an open book, pausing briefly before he gave a stern nod and turned to the open bedroom door.

He glided down the stairs at a smooth pace that I had to hurry to follow, accepting two canteens from the demon who waited at the bottom of the stairs.

He stopped suddenly as the doors opened, revealing the reddened, sandy earth of Purgatory.

I crashed into his back, my cheek slamming into the center of his wings.

My hand swung forward with the sudden loss of momentum, tapping against the back of his thigh as my forearm brushed the smooth fabric of his pants where they covered his ass.

I stared up at him, rooted to the spot as he twisted to look over his shoulder at me.

I could barely meet his eye with the way I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment, scrambling back to put distance between us as he held out a canteen for me to take.

I slid the strap around my waist, tying it into a tight knot in an attempt to ignore the satisfied grin on his face.

Raum emerged from the room at the foot of the stairs, leaning into the doorway as he watched us.

“At least buy me dinner first, songbird. What kind of man do you take me for?” Beelzebub teased, the lightness in his voice so at odds with the nerves I felt. Beelzebub grabbed me by the hand, tugging me out the open door before I could change my mind.

I glanced back to find Raum waving a cheerful goodbye, his other arm crossed over his chest as he laughed.

The door closed behind us, and we were lost to the sands of Purgatory.

At least two hours passed before we so much as paused, and I was left to struggle to keep up with the pace Beelzebub had set with his legs that were much longer than mine.

He didn’t seem to be aware of my struggles, and I didn’t care to voice them.

If I was going to do this, if I was going to make this journey through Hell itself, then I knew I couldn’t allow anyone to see the barest hint of weakness.

I had learned enough, surrounded by the manipulations and politics of a corrupt Coven as I had been, to know that anything would be used against me.

The heat of the desert pressing down on us didn’t help matters, my entire body warming and growing slick with the distinct sheen of sweat.

Sand clung to me when random bursts of wind tore through the desert, making my skin feel gritty.

Beelzebub didn’t break a sweat as he trudged through the deep sands, and I found myself hating him for how little he was affected by something that exhausted me.

The sand beneath my feet was uneven, mounds of it having formed into little hills in the wind that we had to make our way over or through. Sharp, jagged rocks protruded from the ground in the distance, but there was nothing else around us.

I took another sip of water from my canteen, relishing in the moisture it provided to my dry throat and mouth that had begun to feel like sandpaper.

The only saving grace was the distinct lack of heat coming off what I supposed passed for a sun, so that I at the very least didn’t need to fear a sunburn on top of it all.

I’d been born and raised in a tiny secret village in Massachusetts, descended from the English settlers who had claimed Salem centuries prior; the sun and I did not get along well.

“How is there daylight?” I asked finally, peering up at the mass of dim light overhead. It wasn’t as bright as the sun, and wasn’t as solid. Whereas the sun was something very visible to pinpoint in the sky, this felt like looking up at it from underwater. It was blurry and not quite tangible.

The “sky” seemed to fade into nothing, to have both an end that came too soon and to be endless, a feat I knew was impossible.

We had fallen through the portal into Hell below us, landing deep within the chasm of the earth, or at least it had felt like it.

I had no knowledge of whether or not Hell was actually within the earth, or if the gateway had brought us to another realm entirely.

I didn’t pretend to be the most dutiful student when it came to the legends of Heaven and Hell.

“Heaven and Hell are direct mirrors of the earthen plane,” Beelzebub answered.

My ankle twisted suddenly, nearly collapsing as sand slid down the hill and nearly took me with it.

Beelzebub moved to stabilize me but hesitated to touch me, and I nodded him off to communicate that I was fine.

“Lucifer may not be able to make a sun the way His father could, but He can certainly mimic one here, in a place drowning in the Source,” Beelzebub continued, turning to keep walking.

I scrambled to follow after him, hating that out here I was entirely dependent on him.

Any objection I may have staged would have been an impossibility, a threat with no intention of following through.

I wanted him to know that when I threatened him, I would make good on such promises, that they weren’t hollow and to be ignored.

We both knew I had no choice but to stick with him.