Page 61 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

M A R G O T

My face stung.

It existed only in the fringes of awareness, the haze of sleep clinging to me and refusing to let me go.

I didn’t remember falling asleep, only remembered tucking myself into Beel’s chest and enjoying the feeling of his warmth pressed against mine.

The safe cocoon of his wings wrapped around us had been a haven as my eyes drifted closed.

He’d pressed something to my lips, murmuring something about it helping me sleep and healing any soreness our activities had left me with. He’d promised I’d be feeling up to exploring more when I woke, so why did I feel like I’d downed an entire gallon of wine?

I peeled my eyes open as my other cheek stung, a blaze of flame kissing it as I raised a sluggish hand to touch it.

Satanus stared down at me, his eyes blazing within his cruel face.

His red skin seemed deeper than it had the last time I’d seen him, his horns sharpened like weapons.

His body was covered in a black armor that hinted at wartime, stained with blood, and he grunted in satisfaction when I stared up at him.

“Get up. We need to go,” he barked, leaving me to look around me.

I forced myself to sit, clutching the blankets to my chest in confusion.

I didn’t remember much about the room I’d fallen asleep in, but it hadn’t been this one.

This one had dark furnishings against bright white walls, a floor made from snow as I stared down over the edge of the bed.

Satanus thrust a pair of boots into my chest, the force knocking the air from my lungs.

I swayed, shaking off the sleep the tonic kept at the edges of my mind.

“Where are we?” I asked, cradling the boots.

I couldn’t bring myself to leave the safety of the bed.

I’d been tucked in with care, the pillows arranged just the way I liked them.

There was no reality in which Satanus had been the one to put me here. There was no reality in which Beelzebub hadn’t been the one to do this.

“Treachery,” Satanus grunted as if my question was an inconvenience.

He snatched one of the boots from my hand, pivoting me in the bed.

My legs splayed out over the edge, emerging from the blankets as he shoved the boot onto my foot.

“Beelzebub brought you here while you were sleeping and went to talk to Lucifer. A rebellion broke out. They’re trying to seal the gateway from the inside. ”

Panic made me stand. While I slept, demons had tried to take away any hope I had of ever returning home. Any hope of seeing my friends again, of facing my family and telling them what I thought of their treachery, telling them that I would never be like them.

It wasn’t something I’d realized I wanted until that moment, but suddenly the chance of never getting the opportunity was a stark reminder of all the things I’d never lived.

I couldn’t be trapped here in this place of death.

“Where’s Beelzebub?” I asked, hurrying to my feet as quickly as I could. I scanned the room and went to the bathroom as if he might be in there, as if he would have ever allowed Satanus to be the one to wake me unless… “I need to see him.”

“He’s speaking with Lucifer in the lake, formulating a plan.

He asked me to take you to Gluttony where you’ll be safe while he deals with this,” Satanus said, grasping me by the forearm.

He guided me toward the door, all but dragging me as I dug my heels in and refused to move.

The memory of Beelzebub’s distrust of Satanus was like poison in my veins, sitting heavy as a warning.

Of all the demons he could have sent to escort me somewhere safe, Satanus was the last one he would have chosen.

If this had been what Beelzebub wanted, he’d have sent Belphegor for me.

“I’m not going anywhere until I see him,” I snapped, grabbing onto the blankets as he pulled me harder.

They tore from the bed, falling to the floor as I reached for anything within my grasp.

“No!” I screamed, stomping on Satanus’s foot.

He shouted as his hold loosened, allowing me to get free as I sprinted for the bathroom and the door I hoped I could lock.

I never reached it, grabbing the edge of a console table beside the door when Satanus wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled.

The table crashed to the floor, its contents spilling over it.

A vase shattered as it landed, spraying glass over my boots, and candles rolled through the room.

Some disappeared under the bed as I struggled to get free, kicking out in my struggle.

My foot caught the mosaic hanging on the wall, sending it careening sideways until the frame dented against the packed snow floor.

I screamed again, determined that there had to be someone in this place who could hear me. There had to be someone who would find Beelzebub and tell him I needed him.

Tears streamed down my face when Satanus covered my mouth with his hand, leaning in to whisper in my ear, “ Anything. ” I froze in his hold, the word erupting through me like a command.

I couldn’t move as horror dawned on me; I couldn’t fight anymore.

His mouth widened into a smile against my neck, his hand parting my lips open as he slid his finger into my mouth.

The metallic taste of blood washed over my senses, spreading over my tongue and filling my mouth until he pulled his finger back and released me.

Anything.

I shook my head, trying to shut out the word as his blood seemed to warm me from the inside.

I felt the path of it as it slid down my throat, winding its way through my body until no part of it felt like mine anymore.

It didn’t belong to me, primed for the command he would utter to get the payment he was owed.

“I—I thought—” I stuttered, trying to wrap my head around the trap that I’d walked myself right into.

“That I would want to fuck you?” Satanus asked, barking a cruel laugh at my expense. “Hardly. You’re worth far more to me dead than you are in my bed.”

I blinked up at him as he drew a small dagger from his pocket, running his thumb over the surface affectionately.

It grew beneath his touch, forming a curved short sword that he held at his side.

The weapon matched the words, the threat spoken so casually I’d almost missed it.

If it hadn’t been for the gleam of his blade in the light shining through the windows, I might have thought I’d misheard him.

“Why?” I asked, shaking my head as I tried to understand. I hadn’t done anything to him, hadn’t earned a death at his hands.

“It’s a shame you had to go and fall in love with him.

Didn’t they ever warn you that love was weakness?

” he asked, stepping closer to me. I couldn’t move away to fight, couldn’t do anything to protect myself as he pressed the tip of the curved blade to the hollow in the center of my chest. “It’s nothing personal, little witch.

You are merely a means to an end.” There was something wistful about his voice, some part of him that softened as he stared down at me.

A red hand rose to cup my cheek, its thumb wiping away the tear found there.

His blade pierced my skin, cutting through the thin line of muscle there with ease.

He paused when he met the resistance of my sternum, his head tilting to the side.

“Was it worth it? Trading your life for his in the end?” he asked, waiting for my answer.

I knew what would happen when I gave it, knew that these were my final moments.

I turned to look toward the ice window at the back of the room, searching the ground below for any sign of Beelzebub.

But there was none, and I was alone all over again.

Still…

“Yes,” I said with a nod as I turned to look at Satanus once more. “He’s worth it.”

Satanus nodded, clasping a hand atop my shoulder as he pressed that blade in sharply.

It cut through me, splitting my bone in half.

I bent over as I fought for breath, staring down at the hilt where it protruded from my middle.

Satanus tightened his grip on the handle, pulling it back.

A surge of blood followed, pumping out of my heart and making a squelching sound as it splashed against the floor.

I followed, landing on my knees as I touched my hands to the hole and tried to stem the bleeding. My breath was wet, rattling about in my lungs as I slipped and swayed to the side. I didn’t let myself fall, clinging to the hope that Beelzebub would find me before my last breath.

“Let go, little witch. It is time to pay your debt,” he said, staring down at me. He kicked me to the side, sending me toppling over onto the floor. My hands slid off my wound, blood pooling around me to stain the snow a macabre shade of red that left little doubt. There was so much of it.

I’d lived haunted by the color, and it seemed only fitting that I died in it, too.

“I thought this was my debt,” I said with a wheeze, my eyes feeling heavy.

Satanus stood over me, his red face and horns the last thing I saw before my eyes drifted shut for the final time. They would not open again. My body lay limp as it lost all facets of life. His voice was a murmur above me, a warning of what awaited me.

“No, little witch. Death is only your beginning.”