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I lost sight of Prince Seth almost instantly. A feral beared down on me, his claws swiping at my chest. I dodged his attack and knocked him to the ground. He was definitely human, if the blood pouring from his nose was any indication. I pulled a silver rope from the back of my belt and quickly tied off his hands, trussing him like a cow in a rodeo. There would be time later to exorcise him. At that moment, I had three more ferals coming my way. I didn’t have time to stop.
I loosed two more grenades and managed to break free from the crowd. Blood splattered my legs, but it didn’t belong to me. The sound of war was all around me. Cries of pain and terror. Grunts of satisfaction and success. To my right, I spotted my friends all fighting together. Ashley had her back up to Raquel’s and was fighting off a tall blonde female. Raquel had guns in each of her hands and was firing them off like mad. Adam skirted around them, taking out the first wave of attackers.
A hand clasped my upper arm. “Lizzy, you alright?”
I looked up to see Noah Brown, a streak of blood across his forehead and sweat soaking his shirt. He looked almost giddy, as if he’d been waiting all his life to fight in a battle like this. I nodded and he dove back into the crowd, quickly disappearing.
A flash of black caught my eye at the rear of the feral pack. I circled the group and closed in, finding Prince Seth, all his composure lost. He was circling madly, looking over his shoulder at the touch of the lightest breeze. His eyes had grown wide and crazy.
I would’ve used that moment to attack if a dark blur hadn’t hit me in my side, knocking the air out of my lungs. Looking up from my position on the ground, I caught a glimpse of familiar gray wispy hair and wrinkled skin. Granny was standing above me, snarling and reaching for my dagger. Not even under possession could she leave me alone.
“Get off,” I yelled, shoving her just enough so I could hop to my feet. She growled and dug her feet into the ground, readying for the charge. “Oh, no you don’t.”
Like a charging bull, she ran full speed, her eyes flashing red. Hatred and rage covered her face in an expression that would’ve given me nightmares as a child. Still, I kept my calm. Sidestepping her advance, I took a knee and swept my other leg underneath her feet. She landed hard on her belly with a grunt. In a flash, I was on top of her, yanking another sliver cord from my back pocket.
“I’ll have you know, you don’t deserve my mercy,” I said through gritted teeth as she struggled in vain under my knees pinning her to the ground. “You gave me a miserable childhood, tried to kill me more than once, and yet I’ve saved your life multiple times. You don’t deserve to live.”
I thought about all the times I’d wanted to get out from under Granny’s crushing thumb. All the rage and anger that had grown in my heart for her over the past year. Still, as I sat on top of her struggling form, I realized all that rage was gone. In its place was a sort of pity. Pity for the woman who’d never found it in herself to love. She’d made herself miserable and those around her. For some reason, she could never find happiness in what she had. In the place of love she’d nurtured hate and destruction. And look at what it got her. All this violence, all this war, were the results of her refusal to love. It made me sad.
“When this is all over, you and I are through,” I said, wrapping the silver rope as tight as I could around her wrists. “I hope one day you realize how miserable you made yourself. We could’ve been happy.”
Although I was sure the demon inhabiting her body could care less about my little speech, she hissed and spat into the dirt. I climbed off her struggling form, dusted off my knees, and reassessed the status of the battle. The ferals had been scattered by the various bombs placed by the Nephilim. The fight was still ongoing, but it seemed that the divide and conquer technique had worked. Bodies littered the field, many of them struggling against their silver rope bonds. The Nephilim had made it a goal today to save as many humans as possible. It looked like they were making good on that promise.
I was about to run back into the fray when an arm wrapped around my neck. It pulled me tight against a hard body and crushed my windpipe. A dark sense of foreboding filled me as a hot breath tickled my neck.
“You think you can defeat me, little girl,” Prince Seth’s raspy voice was inches from my ear. “My brothers won’t be able to return me to Hell if you’re not alive to open the gate for them.”
The crushing pressure on my throat increased and darkness claimed me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I awoke in a tornado. The wind howled through the trees and nearly swept me away. I clasped my hands over my ears and struggled to stand as leaves and brush whipped around me. From what little I could see, I was laying on the ground of the forest and far from the manor. There were voices in the wind, like screams and war cries. I huddled closer to the ground, begging it to stop.
Suddenly, everything stilled. I braved a sideways glance at some commotion to my right. Prince Seth stood only ten feet away, swaying slightly. His eyes appeared glazed over as if he’d just taken a hard hit to the head. I scrambled away from him, scuttling over the ground until my back hit something solid. I looked behind me and shrieked when I saw a pair of legs with thick bandages that barely covered the oozing wounds. Around me, more legs appeared. The Princes of Hell were all accounted for and the looks on their faces was anything but peaceful.
“You have lost, brother,” Prince Arawn called in his booming voice. “You shall pay for your iniquities in Hell.”
Disgust crossed Prince Seth’s face as he fell to one knee. His arms trembled and he barely managed to hold himself upright. “You won’t stop me,” he growled, closing his eyes. “It’s my destiny.”
“Your destiny is questionable,” Prince Aita hissed. He fingered the hem of his black suit and sent a black glare at his youngest brother. “We shall decide it from now on.”
Despite the fear pulsating through my body at being surrounded by all this evil, I couldn’t help but cheer inwardly at our victory. Prince Seth had been defeated. Hell on Earth was delayed another day. My friends and family were safe.
“Now, key, we require your final assistance,” Prince Arawn said, turning his fierce gaze to me. “Send us home.”
I resisted the urge to shrink and instead pushed myself off the ground. With the battle finished, I could finally see where we were. Once again, I’d been brought to the Hell Gate. Its yawning mouth was on the other side of the clearing. I rushed forward to open it, eager to rid the world of the presence of the Princes of Hell, when my feet stalled. Biting my lower lip, I turned and met Prince Arawn’s impatient gaze.
“What about your other promise?” I asked. They had one more task left to fulfill.
He glared at me, his black eyes burning with emotions I couldn’t read. His lip curled up in a snarl. “The return of a soul?”
“Yes.” My hands shook, so I held them behind my back.
He looked at his brothers and began to laugh. They joined in to create a creepy chorus of laughter.
My jaw hung open as I glanced from face to face. Surely, they were going to follow through. They’d promised. I’d hold Hell captive until they did.
“We shall return the soul,” Prince Arawn said finally in a husky voice. Relief filled me at his words. “But for a soul to be returned, another must go in its place.”
