Page 111 of A Deal in Darkness
My legs collapse and my knees hit the ground, and I keep thrusting the dagger into my stomach. It won't do any damage and I'm running out of energy. I'm tiring and the fucking useless blade that Byron handed me is doing absolutely fuck all.
I stab in a frenzy and keep going, losing all sense of time and reason.
“I think that's enough, princess,” Byron says, resting a hand on my shoulder. “It's dead. You've made damn sure of it.”
“Not fucking dead enough,” I scream, still plunging the knife into something fleshy. Something that isn't my stomach. Something that when my eyes look down at it appears to be a mass of ice blue tentacles lying lifeless beneath me.
“It's quite dead now,” Byron says, half amused, half in awe.
“I'm not done killing it.”
I lift the blade over my head and bring it down, stabbing the dead creature repeatedly. I keep going, keep screaming as I vent my fury at the now lifeless demon that had the nerve to try to hurt me.
Pale blue liquid seeps onto the floor and I keep going, only stopping when Byron pulls the blade from my exhausted hand and hauls me away. I'm depleted of everything and my weight sinks onto his shoulder as he carries me to my room and puts me into bed, watching over me as I sleep.
33
THE PRICE YOU PAY
ENZO
Ipull another useless demon apart as I make my way across the sprawling desert before me. And behind me. And on either fucking side of me.
This place is hot enough to roast my balls off, and my feet are growing weary. I'm growing fucking weary of all of this shit and the time to think hasn't made anything clearer.
Mordecai is a power-hungry cunt, but he isn't stupid. If he's made a deal with Lucifer, then he's got to know he has to deliver—and it would be better for him to live whatever miserable existence he's experiencing than suffer Lucifer's wrath. That means the cunt thinks he can find the Altair.
If any of this is true.
I need to find the fucking Seer, but he's fucked off to the Oracle of Mammon. And now, like a goddamn whipped dog, I'm chasing after him.
For her.
To keep her safe.
Because somehow, in the middle of all this chaos storming around me, I've found the haven at the center of the tornado. The intoxicating, infuriating, bewitching, and beguiling fury of being around Adriana.
She's special and I won't lose her. I won't let that cunt take her from me, and I will not give her up. Not even to Lucifer.
I'd take on the Great Lord himself for my girl and I find myself praying that the rumors are not true. Because if they are, we're in deep shit.
A few more lesser demons career towards me and I toss one into another, grabbing the third and ripping its head off. The other two recover and charge, driven mad by the heat and oblivion of the barren desert. My wing impales one on my talon while I grab the other, devouring it quickly before taking a moment to enjoy the taste of the last demon.
They taste like sin and brandy.
The air turns more acidic and the change is welcome. As unpleasant as even I find the putrid smell the odor means I'm approaching the Oracle of Mammon. There'll be no more mountains made of razor-sharp rocks or allies filled with ice and shards of glass. The deserts and the planes and the infernal infernos of Hell end as the Oracle draws near.
In Adriana's time, it's taken the best part of a day to get here. For me, I've spent days trudging deeper into Hell,venturing closer to the edge of my territory. My domain is large and its obstacles and torments are numerous, gathered like trinkets that display my prowess.
I am magnificent. I am undefeated. I am a terror conjured by the inferno found within the ninth circle itself.
I am also counting the seconds until I can return to Adriana and one word from her and I'd give all this up.
For her.
For one smile from her perfect lips.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
