Page 186 of Hell Bound

“What’s wr—”

“Shh!”

His gaze was distant, and I wondered what he was hearing.

Right up until he hissed, “Slaughter-crows.” He snatched his pants and jammed his legs into them.

Not stopping to explain, he grabbed my hand and took off at a dead run.

I’d seen one too many movies in the human world. I wasn’t about to yank my hand away and demand an explanation. That’s how the character who just had sex always died.

I sprinted beside him, casting one last glance behind me at Odragir’s prone form.

That’s going to come back to bite us.I pictured his fangs as they’d clamped onto Lucifer’s throat.Literally.

We ran hard and fast until my lungs were on the verge of giving out, even with my newly powered energy coursing through me. It was enough to dull the pain in my ribs from slamming into the tree, but not enough to give me endless sprinting ability.

I started to flag, but Lucifer grabbed me and lifted me in his arms. I held on tight, doing my best to stay still and make his run easier.

The terrain shifted about a mile ahead.

Our endgame was right on the horizon, but now there were goddamned slaughter-crows on our tail. How long would we have to run to evade them? Would they follow us through Ossean territory?

I looked back over his shoulder, but I didn’t see them.

Lucifer’s long strides ate up the final mile to the Ossean border, and the moment we crossed the threshold, his pace slowed. A moment later and we’d come to a stop.

He placed me gently on my feet, then dropped to his knees, panting harshly, blood dripping off his bare skin to stain the pale sand.

I, too, struggled to catch my breath, still exhausted from my own sprinting.

“What… the hell… wasthat?”

“The crows would have heard the fight. I’d already seen those few, and as I was tearing at his throat, I heard the flock amassing. We had no choice but to flee.”

“They didn’t chase us?”

“I don’t think so, but we needed to put as much distance between us as possible. Now we simply must hope that they decided to feast on Odragir.”

“God, I fucking hope so. I don’t ever want to see that sonofabitch again.”

I looked around, the bleak landscape imposing as hell.

“So, uh, this is the Ossean Court, huh? Do you really think we’ll be safe here?”

“I don’t know. But it’s our best chance.”

“I trust you,” I told him, lacing our fingers together. “Like you said:together. As long as we’re together, we’ll make it through anything that comes at us.”

“Anything, Fire Lily.”

He dipped his head to kiss me, and I closed my eyes, anticipating the feel of his lips on mine.

But I never felt it.

Instead, something tight clamped around my ankles, shackling them.

I looked down to find out what, but my eyes couldn’t focus before the world beneath me gave way.

I sank into the sand, pulled downward by an unseen force that refused to let me go, clinging to Lucifer’s fingers until they were ripped away by the force of my descent.

His roar of rage was the last thing I heard before the sand swallowed me whole.