Page 60 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

B EE L ZE B U B

Margot still slept when I lifted her from the bed and clothed her.

Her exhaustion was potent, sinking deep into her bones.

Between the physical violence of the Seventh Circle and the emotional turmoil of the Eighth, she needed a long, hard sleep.

I’d given her a sleeping tonic when we’d found our way into bed finally, and she’d been too sleepy to protest.

Maybe it was a betrayal to do it with the intention of speaking with Lucifer alone. Maybe she would have wanted to be there for that conversation.

But things moved quickly in war, and I had no way of knowing what had come of Hollow’s Grove after they’d repelled Michael.

Another archangel could have easily been sent to take his place since we’d been gone and made it so there was nothing safe to return to.

I didn’t know what I would do if Lucifer needed me to return to help Him in the latest war.

I’d never questioned my loyalty to Him, never hesitated to lead His armies in the past.

But if they put Margot in danger…

I swallowed as I finished tugging a long-sleeve tunic over her head.

It hung low on her hips, cascading over the fleece-lined pants I’d dragged up her legs.

The circle of Treachery was a freezing landscape of cold and ice, a stark contrast to the heat and seasonable weather of the other circles.

Legend said that Lucifer’s rage burned like frostbite when He’d been cast out of Heaven, that it had changed the landscape of the original circle forever.

The Source had taken in that rage and made it a part of herself, leaving Lucifer to be the more calm, callous man I’d come to know when they created me later on.

I tugged pants onto Margot’s body, shoving socks onto her feet before I lifted her into my arms. What she would view as a betrayal would serve as her payment to enter the Ninth Circle, the cost of which was either betraying something or someone or being the one betrayed.

It may take her time to see it as the kindness it was, but I hoped that eventually she would.

She was light in my arms as I strode out the door to the bedroom we’d claimed as our own for a few hours, ignoring Legion’s arrogant face.

She knew better than most what the cost could be of love; the consequences of taking the bond of marriage were very real for demons.

It was why I’d been so shocked to find that Lucifer had married the witch who had never been more than a means to an end, that He’d been willing to share Himself and His power source with her.

Not only strengthening a woman who could have very easily decided she’d much rather remain His enemy, but weakening Himself in doing so.

I’d never even considered marrying, never wanted to see my mark on a woman’s skin, but now I found myself staring down at Margot’s collarbone as I walked. I could already imagine how my mark would look curled around the back of her neck, the edges showing at the front of her shoulders.

I could feel the way she would shiver in my arms when I ran my tongue over it, the heat of her skin scalding me.

I was so fucking screwed.

I sighed as I left the manor of Fraud, making my way to the cliffside.

A fence surrounded a circle of roses that were frozen over, trapped in a moment of time at the rear of the manor.

I approached them slowly as I opened the gate and paused at the edge of the flowers.

Looking down at Margot’s sleeping face, I hoped the tonic would be strong enough to keep her pulled under the spell of peaceful oblivion.

The entrance into Treachery was terrifying enough when being awake to make the jump, but to wake up in the middle of the plunge would be horrible.

I tightened my grip on her as I stepped over the roses, my heels resting on the edge before the circular hole in the ground. The tunnel extended impossibly far, feeling bottomless beneath me as I tucked Margot’s head into my chin to protect her and stepped off the edge.

The feeling of weightlessness was immediate as we plummeted down through the pit, surrounded by complete darkness.

Margot began to stir in my arms but I shushed her, trying to encourage her to fall back asleep.

I wasn’t sure it would be enough, what with the intensity of the feeling as darkness gave way to the bright gleam of snow beneath us, but she settled just long enough for me to land in the snowbank below.

I took the brunt of the landing, cradling her the best I could, immensely grateful for the strength of the tonic Legion had given me.

The cold of the snow immediately penetrated through my pants, sinking into my bones as I hurried to stand and make my way into the manor of Treachery. Lucifer’s home was more a palace than a manor, carved out of snow and ice itself.

The Lake of Coccidus sprawled out before it, the surface frozen over eternally.

It was said to have been formed from the tears He’d shed in the first century after His exile, pleading for the man He had viewed as a father to take Him back into Heaven’s embrace.

It had frozen over only after His tears had stopped, only after He no longer sought his father’s approval.

A grand stairway curved up to the palace as I made my way up the shallow steps that were somehow harder to transcend than steep ones.

The front of the palace was covered in arched windows of ice, the structure of the building crafted out of packed white snow.

I’d often wondered if there was any sort of structure to the building outside of something that would melt without his icy rage, but it seemed to hold even in his absence.

Spires reached for the sky, the sheen of sunlight gleaming off their tips.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky overhead, a perfectly clear, sunny winter day that made the bitterness of the cold seem even stronger.

The center tower and spire were taller than the others, belonging to Lucifer Himself.

To the right was the spire that connected to the bedroom that belonged to me, and to the left was Zepar’s—the demon Lucifer had chosen to rule over Treachery in His absence.

In the time it took me to ascend the stairs, Margot’s nose had already turned red, her cheeks pink as I shoved open the grand front door. The palace of ice burned me as I touched it, cold sinking bone-deep as I stepped into the somehow comforting warmth within.

A fire blazed in an iced-over fireplace in the great room to the right of the foyer, the magic keeping it from melting.

I bypassed it and headed up the stairs for the bedroom that belonged to me when I came to discuss business matters with Lucifer.

Margot settled as we made our way up the three stories of stairs to the spire at the right of the building, the warmth soothing away the chill that might have been enough to wake her.

The door to my room was already open, allowing me to bring her in and rest her on the edge of the bed as I yanked back the covers.

I settled her beneath them, tucking her in gently and kissing her forehead before I turned and made my way back outdoors.

While I suspected I still had hours before she woke, I didn’t want to risk her waking up and finding me in the lake. She wouldn’t be able to come without serious consequences to her more frail, living body, and that would only piss her off on top of discovering me taking this step without her.

The frozen lake was perfectly still as I approached, my boots crunching over the snow that had frozen at the edge.

I took off my boots, stepping onto the top of the ice with bare feet.

I took nine steps toward the center, stopping and allowing the cold to sink into my toes through my socks.

They burned with the bite of frost that would cost any human the digits in the end, but the lake warmed beneath me as the ice melted away.

It cracked, extending out through the water to reach the shore.

It caved beneath me, plunging me into the depths of icy water. It surrounded me, penetrating my lungs as my body refused to move, freezing within the waters.

Only when my eyes closed did Lucifer’s face finally fill my vision, His voice playing on repeat in my mind as He answered the call. “It fucking took you long enough,” He grated with impatience.