Page 11 of Knight’s Retribution

And as unconsciousness pulled him under, he felt her, sensed her close to him, as if a warm shadow of her lay against his side, and he clung to that as well.

It wouldn’t last long, it never did.

The first wave of fear—of her fear—washed over him a short time later, and he cried out. He cried out for her as she screamed.

Chapter 3

Hell

When the door opened again later that day, Kyler stumbled back a step. The images Taren had shown her earlier were still replaying in her head, and she couldn’t take any more.

Scarlet walked in, wearing her usual brown tunic dress, long red hair braided down her back, and carrying her healing bowl. She turned to the bed—

And pulled up short when she realized it was empty, her brown and gold-flecked gaze slicing to Kyler standing instead on the other side of the room. “He let you move?”

“Yes.”

Because they were playing with her mind today, rather than bruising her body. That’s what they did here. They pushed her to the edge of sanity, then kicked her over.

The torture Diemos and Taren inflicted wasn’t just physical. And as twisted as it sounded, she’d rather be beaten within an inch of her life than suffer any more of their mind games.

Maybe what Taren had shown her had been a lie, an illusion like so many other things. Maybe it wasn’t—it didn’t really matter though, did it? Because she was never getting out of here. And seeing that, for some reason, drove the point home. They would never let her go, and no one was coming for her.

Taren had finally crushed the dwindling hope inside her today.

She had nothing left.

It was as if the last of her will had drained away at the sight of the male she loved having sex with someone else. There was no recovering from that. It didn’t matter if it actually happened or not. The image was there, living in her mind.

Scarlet headed for the bed. “Do you have a robe, clothes?”

Kyler shook her head, not even trying to cover herself.

“What about the sheet or a towel?” the other female said, changing directions and heading for the bathroom.

“He won’t like that.” He knew where everything was. If something moved or was out of place, he’d know. Maybe he was watching her now. All she knew for certain was he wanted her naked, so she stayed naked.

Scarlet paused and took her in. “What happened?”

Kyler shook her head again. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.”

Scarlet closed the space between them. “Talk to me, Kyler.”

This female was kind, attentive, but she had to be. It was her job in this awful place. She healed the tortured souls so the demons could tear them to pieces all over again. Kyler had grown to rely on these visits. This female was the only being in months who had offered nothing but a kind word and a gentle touch. But relying on or trusting anyone down here was dangerous. It was stupid. Maybe it was all part of her torture, a taste of kindness to make the cruelty that much worse.

“You should go,” Kyler said.

Scarlet frowned. “Please…tell me what happened.”

“I know you mean well, or at least that’s what you want me to believe…but I don’t need or want your friendship, real or otherwise. If you’re genuinely trying to help, I need you to know that it just makes it harder, that it’s dangerous, especially for you. If he found out we talked…”

The other female closed the distance between them and gripped Kyler’s upper arms. “He won’t find out from me we talk, and no one is watching me or controlling me.” She looked to the door and back at Kyler, biting her lip. “Look, there are things…things I’ve held off telling you because I didn’t want to give you hope if our plan had no chance of working, but I see now that was the wrong thing to do.”

Kyler looked into the other female’s eyes. They seemed sincere. “What are you talking about?”

Scarlet’s eyes softened a fraction. “There’s so much to tell you…but the long version is…it’s loooong and we don’t have time for that. The short version? I’m not just a healer, and I’m not in Hell alone… I’m with my mate, Tobias. We live in Lucifer’s old quarters, the only place in Hell that is safe, as far as we know, from Diemos. Tobias is a knight, a demon hunter like Rocco… Kyler, he’s Rocco’s brother, and we’re trying to figure out how to get you the fuck out of here and back to him.”

Kyler stood frozen in place, her mind racing. “But knights…they can’t come to Hell, they die if they do.”