Page 206 of The Bonds of Indigo

The moment my father put his hands on Amarah, he severed whatever remained between us. The only way I’m ever going back is in chains or in damnation.

The instant the vines release me fully, I push to my feet. Thornwyn looms to my right, taller than Kayn, and rivaling Azer. I hadn’t had a chance to really see it before, but he towers like a living tree made of wrath.

To my left, Kayn closes in, grabbing my arm and pulling me back from the massive creature’s reach.

But neither of us move away from Amarah. Zuhara paws at her desperately, and the same vines that had manhandled me now curl around our girl with surprising gentleness, shredding her dress as they drag her down into the soil.

“This is all so tiresome.” My father’s voice drags my attention back to him. He’s stepped into the mortal world in his true form—no wonder the ground still trembles like a constant quake.

“Lucifer,” he says, bored as ever. “Grab the girl and we will be done with this.”

“You’ll address me.” Kayn’s tone is everything that makes me hot and bothered for him. It matters not that this is my father, the bloody ruler of the Beyond, that he’s talking to in such a way.

I’ll be on my knees begging for forgiveness for ever not trusting we could’ve made it work.

“You, a mere mortal, will not speak to me this way.”

“I’ll do whatever the fuck I want. Now, you’ll go back through the gates you crawled out of.”

“Vendra does not welcome you into this world, Belial.”

He tuts and takes a lazy step toward us. “I will burn this world to the ground, and you will catch fire with it all the same.”

He’s a fallen God—he knows exactly how much power he holds, and how grotesquely unfair it is for anyone to have that much.

I roll my head, loosening my shoulders, and step around Kayn. When he reaches to catch my forearm, I yank out of his grip.

“Father,” I say, voice low and sharp. “You swore the mortal world would not be involved in this squabble with your brother.”

“Ignorant boy.” I’m incapable of not rolling my eyes at the tree.

There’s zero point in attempting to tell this overgrown plant what is what. It makes no sense for my father to start a war with the mortal world. Why would he want it destroyed? It’s the Gods that cast him out, specifically his brother, Vaeloris. To take down the Vayl makes more sense than to destroy the world between.

“Vendra is already pissed at what you’ve done,” I continue. “She was gracious to allow me into the Vayl. Do not piss on her kindness by taking the Witch.”

I can sense Kayn behind me itching to fight. Words aren’t his means of solving a problem. His fists do all of that for him, but we cannot fight my father. He has no exhaustion point, no level of stamina that will end. I’ve never known him to bleed.

When Belial’s shoulders rise, his muscles ripple, which accompanies the snarl across his face. “I’ve given you chance after chance to save his worthless life.” Anger grips my heart. “Now I won’t be as merciful. He will die and as I threatened before, his soul will wither in a part of the Beyond you cannot even reach. Then you will stay by my side as you were born to do.”

The sky above us burns into the Crimson Dawn as the bones in my back shift and crack, making room for what’s trying to break free. My wings tear through my skin, ripping it open as they finally unfurl. My Vigoro crawls to the surface, and in seconds I’m consumed by it fully once more.

“Your choice is temporary, son.” With his words, he’s opening up the Beyond wider, and out rushes Pyrehounds.

“Zuhara, stay with Amarah.”

My command of my Familiar is accompanied by their attack.

Kayn is already past me, rushing right through the hounds to my father. Damnit, he can’t be reckless, but I understand his need to hurt him. I want him dead for so, so, many reasons, but the one that trumps it all is exactly his reasoning.

He touched our girl, and I cannot have anyone living that knows what even her skin feels like.

The Pyrehounds rush right toward Zuhara and myself, but I’ve got my shadows forming spikes slicing up through them before they get within a yard of us. They hang, howling and crying out, before falling to death and disappearing into ash. Another set comes, but the ground quite literally cracks open, some stumbling in while others make the jump across.

Thornwyn stomps his way in front of me and, as if pulling roots from a tree, lifts the ground and sandwiches the creatures down into the soil. Most were caught by their bodies, their black forms writhing about trying to get free, while some were snagged around the neck.

The creature simply waves its hand, and crack, the sound of bones snapping echoes across the desolate space.

I quickly shift my gaze to Kayn who’s engaged in hand-to-hand combat with my father.