Page 47 of Knight’s Absolution

Did this female know her name? Would having one of her own help her the way it had helped Scarlet? She found now she stood a little taller. And for once no demon guard was listening or watching their every move. Or worse Taren, Diemos’s right hand, who was always close by. The male was almost as terrifying as Diemos himself.

“What is your name?” Scarlet asked.

The female stared at the wall for several long moments. Finally, she blinked, and a single tear slid down her cheek.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you…I just thought…”

“Kyler,” she said huskily. “My name is Kyler.”

“That’s such a lovely name. I’m Scarlet.”

“It feels…so long since I’ve said it out loud, since someone has called me by it,” Kyler said, her gaze so incredibly hollow.

Scarlet carried on tending Kyler’s wounds. “Is there something I can do to help you?”

Kyler shook her head. “Nothing that wouldn’t get you killed or tortured for eternity.”

“There must be something? The way he treats you… I know the passageways, the cells, deep hidden places barely anyone goes. I could hide you.”

Kyler remained completely still, only her eyes moving. “As soon as I left this room, they’d be on us. He’d tear Hell apart to find me. I’m too important.” She huffed out a humorless breath. “If I moved a finger right now, he’d know. And he'd return. Then you’d need to come back to do this all over again tomorrow.”

Oh god, she literally wasn’t permitted to move.

“Kyler…”

The door opened, and Scarlet shot to her feet as Diemos strode in, tall and pale and utterly terrifying. His yellow eyes locked on Scarlet, and fear so strong her lips trembled spiked through her. Then his gaze slid to Kyler, at her almost fully healed back. “Ah, almost as good as new, my darling,” he said in a voice that grated down Scarlet’s spine.

Kyler’s gaze became so impossibly empty it hurt to look at her.

Diemos glanced back at Scarlet. “Leave, drudge, you have work to do elsewhere.”

It took a second to unfreeze, to make herself move.

Diemos walked to the bed as Scarlet rushed to open the door.

“I hate it when we fight, my precious one,” he said to Kyler. “But making up is always so much fun.”

Scarlet had to bite back her sob. Leaving Kyler there felt wrong in every possible way, but what could she do? Diemos was their king. They couldn’t win. If she tried to help her, Scarlet would end up dead, and Kyler would endure even more torture. That wouldn’t help either of them. For now, she could do more by being there for the other female when she needed her.

Kyler’s muffled cry of rage hit Scarlet as she pulled the door shut after her.

Shaking, Scarlet rushed away.

Hours later, she was still rattled when she finally reached Tobias’s cell. There were a lot of other cells she’d had to stop at first, and all the pain and suffering was more than she knew how to deal with. She’d tried to remain numb to it. It helped her get through each day, but with every moment she spent with Tobias, it got harder. And today, after talking to Kyler, she was more than struggling.

She walked into Tobias’s cell, the male who had started to not only fill her head during the day but her dreams as well, and a sob broke free.

“No,” she whispered. “What have they done to you?”

Blood coated his chin, his chest, dripping down his bare legs. His big, muscular body was torn and sliced, bite marks in his flesh. But the blood, there was so much blood pooling at his feet.

He tried to smile, he always smiled no matter his condition, his pain. “I-I’m okay.”

Seeing him like this, it…hurt. Her ability to switch off from what she was seeing every single day was failing her. But this male, seeing him like this, it was so much more, it hurt like she was the one bleeding all over the floor. How could that be?

She rushed forward. Her sympathy and pain wasn’t helping him right now.

Looking up at him, she forced herself to smile as well. “I’m going to take care of you,” she whispered, then as gently as she could, she began the long process of cleaning and healing his wounds.