Page 199 of The Bonds of Indigo

“I’m sure images of the things I’d do to you would change her mind.”

“You will not touch her,” Lucifer seethes. As if anticipating an attack, he reaches back and wraps his arm fully around me. “Why do you need that? You want to kill Vaeloris. What does the mortal world have to do with that?”

“Everything, Lucifer.” I slip the words through our link, each one fractured by pain. “Do you know what the protection spell does?”

His silence tells me he doesn’t. For a place that has academies for the mortal world, he doesn’t know much about what maintains it.

“It keeps Belial and Vaeloris from stepping foot simultaneously on Earth. It prevents them from bringing war to that world.”

“He only wants to kill his brother, Amarah, I don’t understand…”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” I whisper. Not that it matters—both of them can hear me perfectly.

“Don’t be daft, son,” Belial says. “Hand her over. I’ll give her back once I’ve made my request and it’s been fulfilled.”

I drop my forehead against Lucifer’s shoulder blade. Kayn is going to be destroyed. It’s not like we could’ve predicted any of it, but he’ll blame himself.

A dark part of me wonders if it would’ve been better if he’d just kept hating me. Then maybe neither of them would care, and I could have asked the brute to end my life.

The blood bind is stronger than the hex. It couldn’t stop it from being fulfilled. It’s why I even made this deal in the first place.

To finally be done with it. A clean death. No more danger. No one chasing me. No more pain, and guilt for what I did.

But then… I wouldn’t have felt the care he or Lucifer have given me. And I don’t know if that makes any of this easier. Or harder.

“We’re leaving. You have lost your fucking mind, Father.”

Lucifer turns toward me and pulls me fully into his arms. “Tell Kayn to⁠—”

A force slams into us, so violently it cuts him off mid-sentence.

Chunks of the stone wall crumble and strike my head as we’re thrown backward. I’m stunned I’m not in more pain considering the two of us just crashed into the wall several dozen feet from where Belial now stands at the room’s center.

Lucifer groans. One arm is locked around my waist like iron; the other is buried in the fractured wall behind me, his body shielding mine from the impact.

When his eyes find mine, they’re swallowed in shadows, a thin trickle of dark blood sliding down his temple.

“You okay, dollface?”

I nod and brush my hand over his cheek, my thumb coming away red.

“We need to get Kayn and go!”

He shakes his head. “I ran once…” I hear the words he doesn’t speak. “He’ll chase us. Regardless of where we run.”

I bite my bottom lip and start to push forward—to stand, to move—when a violent gust of wind snaps through the room. Belial appears right behind us. I suck in a breath and hold it as he strikes at his son.

Except this time, unlike before, Lucifer doesn’t let him land the blow. His hand shoots up, catching the massive punch aimed at his face. Not even a full second passes before they both vanish from in front of me.

I scramble up and scan the space—a large room that looks like it’s meant for meetings. Sparse furniture, a single sitting area, a desk shoved off to the side. It matches the same dark, gothic aesthetic as the rest of Belial’s manor.

Not that I expect a different result, but I reach for Vendra. For my power, her magic. Just as it had since the moment I arrived, the spark doesn’t ignite in my fingertips.

I’m still in his domain.

The floor suddenly trembles, and I whip my head to the right. Wooden wall panels are shattered and caved inward. Belial lies on his back, and Lucifer lands beside him.

I knew his kind had wings, but I’ve only ever seen them in drawings. Never in reality.