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"The capital's out of bounds," another guard replied, deep and disapproving. "Iarlon is unstable. There are too many riots; no one is allowed in."
My breathing slowed, nostrils flaring. I straightened slowly, magic building in my veins, filling every part of me. Blood buzzed in my ears like a swarm of bees.
I'd left Verena in a city now torn apart by violence.
"I'm sorry," the first guard said—a lanky blonde man with a thick moustache. "I'm going to have to ask you to return to Earth."
I blinked. Inhaled slowly. Counted. There were six guards, all armed, all powerfully built except for the lanky blonde.
"Are you deaf? Return to Earth," another guard barked, stepping forward—and screaming when emerald power blasted from me, eviscerating him.
He collapsed into five pieces, cut at perfectly straight angles, blood and gore on full display. I’d never liked it when people said are you deaf? in that tone.
I turned to the next guard when he came at me, and the next, and the next. All of them fell at my feet in dismembered limbs, their eyes staring as hollowly as Wane's had earlier, faces sliced in pieces.
Blood was deafening as it thundered in my ears, my chest rising and falling fast. The world had slowed, frozen with fury and screaming, bleeding grief.
The last guard ran, but I roared, and magic blasted from me like an earthquake, severing everything it met: the guard, the fence around the portal site, and deep into the trees around it. Trunks fell apart and crashed to the ground, a guard house sliced in five pieces to my left.
Within minutes, I stood in the middle of pure destruction, and I should have been horrified by it, but all I wanted to do was collapse to my knees and scream my grief to the red sky.
The red sky…
There's no loophole to exploit; you'll definitely kill them when the moon above Hell burns red.
That's what Oren told us before he inked beautiful flowers and ominous skulls on my mate's body. He was right. We were dead. We might have breathed, our hearts might have beat, but there was no life left in us.
The only thing driving me was grief and honour. I promised Hales to keep Verena safe, and I wasn't about to break that promise.
So I sucked in a rough breath and strode through the destruction. Towards a capital overrun with riots. I hoped more people got between me and Verena. I had more violence, rage, and magic to unleash.
I was nowhere near finished.
CHAPTER 5
Iclenched my fist around the blood-slick handle of a mace I’d stolen from a woman I killed minutes or hours back, and grunt forced past my lips when I ripped it out of the shoulder of the latest bastard to charge at me. This one was pale-eyed, pink skinned, and naked like a mole rat. He also seemed to think he was strong and sensible enough to take Lucifer's place as the king of Hell. Most people rioting in Iarlon believed they were, too. I happily hacked my way through them, forcing my way closer to the palace at the top of the city, leaving a slew of bodies and gore behind me.
At some point, I picked up four devil's guards fighting their way through the streets, and either they recognised me on sight or were just glad of an additional soldier because they stuck at my back while I tore bodies apart and strode through the innards.
Hot blood covered me, soaked through my clothes, and even sloshed in my boots. I knew I was injured, too, but the only thing that mattered was the promise I made to my mate and the kid I had abandoned in the palace.
I didn't stop fighting until I'd hewn my way through the crowd on the blood-soaked palace steps and through the towering door. My guard allies gave me a wide berth when I sliced the three men on the doors into pieces. It didn't matter how many people barred me from entering, I would get inside this palace and find Verena.
It was the only thing that mattered now. I bared my teeth when a new batch of guards rushed me, trying to shove me back out the door, but I grabbed another handful of magic and—
"Stop!" a hoarse voice commanded.
This batch of guards stepped back instantly, weapons and magic pointed away from me.
I clenched an inner fist around my own power. I'd only kill them if they got between me and my goal. I wouldn't needlessly slaughter, even if it was a much needed outlet for my pain and rage. For a moment as I fought, there was nothing else in the world except the razor edge of life and death. No loss, no mate lying cold in a bed in a safe house, no titan taking over the world with her stolen dagger.
"Emlyn," a tall, blonde man in his late thirties said, striding forward dressed in heavy leathers. A sword hung at his hip, but power radiated from him in its own threat. I recognised him. He was one of Hell's power players and the man who gave Haley the Alphaven mission. Cerny. I'd never heard anyone give him a surname.
"Shit, what happened to you?" he breathed, staring at the blood I was bathed in.
"He butchered his way through the whole city," a devil’s guard offered behind me, giving me a wide berth since I killed the guards on the door. "He took out more rioters than the rest of us combined."
Cerny sucked in a surprised breath. "How bad is it out there?"
