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I didn't like the sound of that at all, especially when he flicked a wrist toward the cage.
Barimuz obediently threw me into it, and I felt the drain as soon as it clicked closed.
"What are you doing?" I demanded.
Barimuz shook his head as if the question was ridiculous.
"I'm taking you hostage, of course,” Lucifer answered. “You and your pretty mate are taking your sweet time finishing the bond, so I thought I would help you along."
He approached the cage with a beaming smile, sidling up to Barimuz without a preamble. "Honestly, you'd think you'd have been further along by now."
Then, clucking his tongue, he looked up at the dark form of his right hand. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
All the playful energy he'd been directing at me vanished in a blink. Barimuz bowed his head, and I furrowed my brow at his silence.
Any concern I might have had for the archdemon disappeared as his body began to spasm andchange.
His skin paled and stretched, his horns and tail shrinking until they disappeared into him. It was the most disturbing thing I'd seen in a long while, but what made it worse was when he finally looked up.
My face was staring back at me, a slight smirk tilting the corners of his mouth.
Lucifer laughed, clapping his hands together. "Isn't he marvelous? Honestly, Barimuz is one of my best creatures."
Creatures—like Barimuz wasn't a sentient being who regularly made decisions on his behalf.
There was nothing in his—my?—eyes that seemed bothered by the way he was talked about like a prized pet, though. Their dynamic was definitely strange, even if I hadn't seen the monster of a man prostate himself the last time we'd been dragged here.
Lucifer never stopped watching me as I took it all in. "Barimuz,” he announced. “I will be watching. Make sure to keep Aria content until I can return her mate to her."
Barimuz bowed at the waist, which seemed like a vast improvement from basically dragging himself across the floor for the man's attention. "As you wish."
He vanished in a puff of smoke, and I could feel the panic begin to settle in.
Aria was in danger—Iwas in danger. If Lucifer got it in his head to hurt my mate, there was nothing I could do in this cage.
The fact that they'd managed to get me in it in the first place was humbling, but knowing that they were going to manipulate my mate?
Part of me was convinced it would never work. Aria would immediately spot Barimuz as a fake and come running to get me out of this mess. Surely she'd felt the spikes of panic and anger that had hit me when I'd been snatched.
"Oh! Right, I'm sure you'd love to see your darling, wouldn't you? I'm not so cruel as to leave you completely without her, of course," Lucifer spoke unprompted, flicking his wrist.
The cage began to warp and shift like it was underwater for a moment.
And then, there was Aria on every wall, blocking the view of Lucifer entirely.
Barimuz slipped into our room on quiet feet and crawled into the bed beside my sleeping mate, welcoming her as she bundled into his arms.
Jealousy licked at me as I tried to hammer in that she didn't know, half-asleep and obviously not paying attention. We'd been safe with the Resistance so far, so why would she suspect anything was amiss?
She would know eventually. Shewould.
Except she didn't. And I couldn't figure out how.
Couldn't she sense something was wrong with our bond?
I watched them for days, fuming with my own stupidity and Aria’s inability to spot the differences. Lucifer didn't visit me right away, choosing instead to just let me wallow in my mate's naivety. It was gentle, far gentler than I anticipated when he brought up holding me hostage.
No, it wasn't until I got a good taste of how blissfully fucking happy my mate was with my replacement that he decided to move in.
