Page 200 of The Bonds of Indigo

Blood drips from Lucifer’s leathery, bat-like wings, spanning wide. His horns, curling from either side of his head and nearly touching at their tips, are streaked with the same crimson. His size is larger—massively so. His skin is blackened, his tail visible, fingers no longer Mundane, but full-blown talons. This is his full Demon form unveiled.

“Tiresome,” Belial grunts. “How could she have given you that much sustenance?”

He doesn’t know Kayn is here… Proserpina didn’t tell him.

Thick, dense shadows crawl across the floor, inching toward Belial like smoke that’s alive. I look frantically for a door, anything, but the walls are seamless.

I can’t channel.

I can’t run.

And I don’t see any way out of the battle that’s about to begin.

If I could reach Zuhara, she might be able to get me out, but then Kayn would come. I know for certain he would fight beside Lucifer, and I can’t risk anything happening to him. Luce can’t die—no matter the battle here—but that Vampire can.

And if he loses his head… regardless of the Bond, my heart will stop.

Lucifer will lose us both, and Gods only know what he’d do then.

They vanish again, and my ordinary eyes can’t keep up with the speed. There’s a crash to my left, like plates shattering, then another impact high above near the ceiling.

“Lucifer, open the gates to the mortal world!” I shout through the link, only to slam into a wall of silence. “Luce!?”

Nothing.

A crack of splintering wood erupts so close to me I physically jump, the gust of the impact knocking me off balance. I whip toward the sound to see Lucifer embedded in the wall, wings torn, tattered and bleeding.

Belial appears in front of him a heartbeat later, popping his neck from side to side with bored casualness.

Every instinct in me screams to run to Lucifer, to throw myself between them, to do something—but I am not stupid.

Instead, when Belial steps toward him, I take a careful step back.

I can’t get through the link. Probably because Lucifer is too focused on the fight. Zuhara warned me how taxing it is. I won’t keep trying and risk becoming a distraction.

When his father swings down at him, I bolt. I run as far from the fight as the room allows. The wall lined only with carved crown molding is my first target. I drag my fingers along it, searching for any hidden seam, any latch, any godsdamn way out.

Behind me things crash, break, and shatter, followed by grunts that, thankfully, aren’t only Lucifer’s.

I reach the farthest point of the chamber. A massive window stretches floor-to-ceiling, giving a view of whatever grim world exists outside Belial’s estate. Lucifer warned me never to go out of his home. Does that apply here?

The thought of smashing the glass barely forms before a rough hand clamps around my throat and I’m hurled backward.

I don’t brace out of fear of snapping my wrists. My ass hits the floor hard, and then I’m tumbling. The moment my back slams into something uneven and jagged, a spike of white-hot agony tears through me.

Something sharp jabs into my side, just inches from my spine. I suck in a breath and scream through clenched teeth, my vision going in and out. Moving away from the object, I reach back, thankful to confirm nothing has pierced me.

Even if the object didn’t cut my skin, the pain is so fierce it may as well have. Fucking Beyond, that hurt.

“No running now, Witch.”

I look up just in time to see Belial stalking toward me, his expression carved with cruelty. “Who knows?” he drawls. “Maybe Vendra will grant you mercy and give me what I want quickly.” The smile he gives me is so wicked my stomach rolls. “I think raping you would speed up her decision.”

A shaky grin snaps across my face before I can stop it. Pure defiance. “Fuck you. I’d die before you ever got that chance.”

He hums lightly. “True. Suppose that’s easier for me anyway.”

My eyes widen. What?