Page 45 of Mortis

Or during life.

“What happens then?” I asked. “What do you do with them?”

For the first time, Kael hesitated. His hand grew tense over mine. “We—” He swallowed. “We deliver them to our master.”

“Your master?”

“Mammon.”

I jerked my hand away so suddenly, Kael’s fingers briefly caught mine before letting go. I stumbled backwards, pressing my palm against my own chest as though I’d touched a hot stove.

The beauty of the soul vanished in an instant. All I could see was what came afterwards.

Mammon.

A Prince of Hell.

“Those poor people.”

The words barely escaped me. My eyes burned. I blinked rapidly as tears gathered despite my best efforts.

Kael stepped towards me. “Teddy . . .”

“You can’t.” My voice cracked. “You can’t take his soul.”

He reached for me again and I took another step backwards.

“I must,” he implored.

The pain in his face stopped me cold. It was the same expression I’d seen when I’d caught him with Dorothy Robinson’s body. When he’d explained how much he hated killing innocent people. It was the same guilt. The same desperation.

But this was different. Wasn’t it?

The body was already dead. But the soul wasn’t. Not yet.

“You’re sending them to Hell, Kael.” My voice shook. “They’re innocent. They don’t get a choice.”

His shoulders sagged. “I know it’s not fair. But if I don’t send them . . .” He lifted his eyes to mine and real fear stared back at me. “My master will find me and he’ll drag me back to Hell.”

His voice faltered.

“He won’t kill me. He’ll torture me until madness is a kindness. And only when I beg for a true death will he grant it.”

My throat tightened.

“W-what’s a true death?”

“If a demon is slain, we heal and reawaken. There are only two ways to extinguish one of us forever. The first is holy water—” Suddenly the Beast’s suspicion of my coffee made perfect sense. “The second is for a Prince of Hell, my master, to rip out our essence and burn it in Hellfire. Sending us back from where we came.”

Kael’s shoulders slumped, as though the weight of his guilt had finally become too much to carry. When he sank to his knees, I wasn’t sure if he was preparing to beg. For the soul, maybe? His life? As though I was the one holding both in my human hands.

I folded my arms across my chest.

“You seem to have a lot of people trying to kill you,” I said, my voice softer than before.

“That’s the life of a demon, I suppose.”

And despite everything, I hated seeing him like this.