It was all an illusion meant to slowly drive me insane.
My predicament was neither a mystery nor a surprise. As a demon sworn witch, my chances of escaping the hell portal had been less than zero. I’d known the risks, but I’d taken them anyway; all I’d wanted was one more moment in Ronan’s arms. To make him understand that I trusted him implicitly, no matter what the consequences. To leave him the parting gift of my unfaltering faith.
He’d earned it.
My eyes watered. The acrid stench of sulfur and burned flesh soaked the air, but I wasn’t scared. Wasn’t cold or hungry or tired or in pain. Stuck on my rickety boat in the middle of this endless yet nonexistent lake, I knew I wasn’t in any real danger.
I was just… empty. Empty and alone.
Though I’d never met him, I was getting a crash course in Sebastian’s precise form of cruelty. I’d no doubt that he’d crafted this version of hell specifically for me—his red-carpet welcome.
Unlike in the Shadowrealm, here I found no fire-breathing, flesh-tearing demons, or needling glass rainstorms, or Jonathan and his monstrous torments. Simply and ingeniously, the Prince of Hell had doled out the worst punishment he could’ve imagined for me: separating me from the ones I loved, leaving me to float helplessly on a boat that would never reach the shore while my rebels were left to fight their wars and face their demons without me. My memories would never fade, and I’d never be allowed to sleep. There would be no respite for me, no escape from the knowledge of all I’d lost. Just this boat, this lake, and all the ghosts that lived in my head. Every hour, ever century. An eternity of regret.
That was his style.
But as much as I was learning about my new captor, it seemed he hadn’t bothered to study up on me. If he had, he would’ve known that being a hostage wasn’t really my strong suit. After all, Jonathan’s cave prison hadn’t been enough hold me. And hadn’t I managed to escape the Shadowrealm? Out of the frying pan and into the fire, maybe, but an escape nevertheless. One that should’ve been impossible given the fact that I’d banished an unwilling soul.
Yet Sebastian thought an unplanned side trip to Hell would stop me?
Hard pass, asshole.
I smiled, and something flickered beneath all that emptiness and despair inside. An ember of something that felt a lot like hope.
I got to my feet and climbed onto the narrow foredeck, the boat rocking but not tipping over as it probably should’ve. I knew my voice would never carry above the vicious howl of those ghastly clouds, but I felt the need to say my piece anyway.
“I am not your hostage,” I called out. “You can burn my body, but my soul is and will always be mine. You hear me? I ammine. I am mine.”
It started softly, but the words themselves were like a spell, magic gathering in the air before me, crackling with power, swirling into a hot wind around me that lifted my hair and gave me strength.
“I am mine. I am mine. I am mine.” I repeated the words a hundred times, a thousand, a million, each time getting louder and louder until my soft calls turned into a powerful roar that echoed across the lake, drowning out the sounds of the damned, scraping my throat raw and reverberating through my bones. In one final, triumphant call, I lifted my hands to the sky, tossed my head back, and screamed, shattering the black mirror lake into dust.
“I. Am.Mine!”
“I want more than anything for that to be true,” came a dark echo. “But there isn’t enough magic in all the realms to make it so.”
The magic wind surrounding me suddenly stopped, and when I brushed the hair from my face and opened my eyes, I found myself staring into the electric blue gaze of a massive white raven.
He flapped his great wings, then transformed into a pillar of smoke that roiled and churned before me, finally falling away to reveal a familiar site.
A man with sun-streaked hair and a worn flannel shirt, gazing back at me with ancient blue eyes that swirled with all the mysteries of the universe.
My heart leaped. It felt like I’d conjured him. Like he’d heard the call of my magic across the realms, and then he’d appeared, ready to sweep me into his arms and escort me out of this terrible nightmare.
“My knight in shining flannel,” I teased, unable to hold back my smile, even as fresh tears filled my eyes. “You havenoidea how happy I am to see you.”
I stretched up on my toes and kissed the corner of his mouth, wrapping my arms around his neck, but Liam didn’t respond.
“Liam?” I pressed. “You… youarehere to rescue me, right?” Why else would he have tracked me down in Hell if not to help me fight my way out? To warn me against all my crazy schemes, and then back me up as I put every single one of them into motion?
“I’m so sorry, Gray. I’m not here to… I’m… Not this time,” he sputtered, sounding as scared and uncertain as a child lost in the woods. He pulled out of my embrace and looked at me, eyes flashing with a deep and endless pain. He grabbed my upper arms so tightly I was certain he’d leave bruises.
“Liam?” I whispered.
“I am here to offer you a choice.” Holding me just beyond the reach of his warmth, of his now-familiar strength, he said somberly, “The very last you will likely be allowed to make.”
Five
Gray
