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Chapter 1
RAVEN
Soul Cycles
“I CAN TAKE you home if you’d like. I know you’d rather be scouring the mortal plane for your soulmate.” Micah rubs his warm hand between my shoulder blades, trying to ease my stiff posture.
I bounce on my feet, staring at my target. I should feel bad about torturing a soul in Hell, but this guy lived a twisted life eating people...and not in the good way. “It’s easier to let the others handle it. I can’t see souls like they can. Plus—”
I position my body, holding the ax with both hands. Flinging my arms forward, I release the ax. It sinks into the soul’s chest. He can’t scream, though. Micah shoved a rat in his mouth and gagged him with something that looks suspiciously like a hairy ball sack.
“Plus,” I repeat, turning to Micah. “It’s our time together. I’ve missed you.”
“Yeah?” he asks and guides me to spin toward him. A smile lights his handsome face as he searches my eyes like he can’t believe how lucky he is that I’m here. I love the feeling of his sweet adoration, the purity of it reminding me of right before he jumped from grace.
Standing on my tiptoes, I stretch up and brush my lips to his. “Do I need to tell you a million times to convince you? I’m not scared of your kingdom anymore. I’m having fun.”
Chuckling, he summons a fiery blade in his hand. “Want to hunt some other evil bastards? We don’t have to stay in my kingdom.”
I offer a smile and bob my head. “Whatever takes my mind off things. I’m feeling a bit stabby. Can you use your power to make one look like Cass-hole?”
Using Elias’s nickname for the infuriating prideful angel fills me with a mixture of emotions. I shouldn’t be as upset as I am about Elias sacrificing himself to free my soul and going through another soul cycle, but a part of me fears what happens next. I want Hell to rise. I want to take the throne of Purgatory, and Elias made it possible...but I want him as I knew him in this life. I want my soulmate in the body I love now. Is that selfish? Maybe. I should be grateful he’s not in Hell as a mortal soul, but—
“You have every right to grieve, Raven.” Micah grasps my hand, pulling my attention to him and out of my thoughts. We’ve always had a mental connection, and he can listen to my thoughts, especially with the tether chaining him to Hell and all its power. “Elias was taken from you in the worst way.”
“He was taken from you too, you know,” I murmur, tightening my mouth to keep my lips from trembling. “How are you holding up? I know you only took the tether early to help him.”
Micah’s face softens with my words, and he scoops me into his arms and gets me to wrap my legs around his waist. I rest my forehead to his for a moment, savoring his closeness as neither of us gets out of control. We just be together and enjoy the other’s company. I know Micah is more cautious with me now because of the circumstances and won’t push me. I hate it and love it at the same time. I don’t want him to be careful with me, but I also appreciate it.
“My beautiful heathen. You do not have to ask or worry about me. This isn’t my first experience dealing with Elias’s absence. I just wish you never had to.” He nuzzles his nose to mine. “As for the tether? I chose to take it for more than just getting Elias through. I felt it was necessary. I had done what I needed in the Mortal Realm. Kase and Dante have been working hard in the Mortal Realm for so long, I couldn’t ask either one of them to control Hell, and you need Andre. Lucian will serve us better there too, dealing with Cassius. I’m neither lonely nor bitter. I promise.”
“I bet Heaven regrets everything they’ve done to you,” I say, searching his fiery eyes. “You’re my perfect devil. A fair and just ruler...and way too creative with what you’ve done here.” Waving my hand, I motion to the onyx walls of the palace.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Flipping me onto his back, Micah stretches forward, transforming into his massive devil form.
I cling on to his hairy body, squeezing his sides with my thighs to hold on the best I can. Two long tusks jut from his boxy boar-like head, and the cute bastard swats me with his tail. Fire smolders the palace floor before us, setting the onyx ground aglow.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask, my shoulders shaking with laughter as he steps forward, rattling the world around us. “I’m going to fall or some shit.”
“Just hold on tight. It’s easier to show you what I want to this way.” Micah stomps forward on all fours, forcing me to bend over and lie flush against his muscular, broad back. “My hound is a bit intimidating since you’ve never encountered one before.”
My brows scrunch together. “A hound? Like a hellhound? I thought Kase and Dante were kidding.”
“Mine is a lot more special than the free-roamers. You’ll see.” Micah jets out of the palace and skids across the smoldering ground.
Souls move and wriggle, some in pieces and others far too big in the belly to stand. It looks as if someone forced a hundred gallons of liquid down their throats and it settled in their middles, dragging their stomachs to the ground and forcing the rest of their limbs with it.
I grip onto Micah’s hair, stabilizing myself. Peering around the hazy land, I take in the view of Micah’s kingdom and the demonic legion that obeys him. No one looks at us or tries to fuck with me, and it feels as if I watch things from a bubble.
“We’re shielded,” Micah mumbles, his gruff voice humming over the screams and shouts from the souls living their worst life after deaths.
“What’s the fun in that? I kind of like it when the assholes grovel.” I scrub my fingers into his hulking body, just exploring him in his devil form. He looks wicked as hell, and it makes me feel powerful how he carries me above the masses. “Like the fucking cannibal. He tried so hard to convince us that he was a decent guy who only had a problem. It’s not like food was scarce.”
“Would that justify his actions to you?” Micah asks, slowing down.
Uh-oh. Here he goes with his interrogation about my morals and what I find redeemable or not. It comes with the whole Purgatory level. If we manage to get Hell in order, souls who find themselves in Hell will ultimately be able to earn their way back into a soul cycle. They will no longer be trapped and tortured for eternity, especially the souls that should’ve found good grace but made a mistake—like me. But at this point, I can’t see why anyone would want to chill with the bird-brains and their righteous attitudes.
Micah teases me by trotting, bouncing me up and down on his back. His movements pull me from my thoughts as he follows the outside of the onyx walled palace. I don’t think I will ever understand how Hell power works. It boggles my mind because Micah can create basically anything out of nothing. His kingdom seemingly goes on forever, but I know all he has to do is think about another kingdom and we will end up there.
