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“It’s in your best interest to hear me out,” Phaidros snapped, sounding far too composed for someone who had a punctured lung.
I twisted deeper.
“Careful, demon. My wife rather dislikes people telling her what’s in her best interest,” Cole said mildly.
“It’s true,” I agreed cheerfully, the coppery scent coating my senses.
Phaidros writhed under my grip, his body instinctively trying to getaway even though his brilliant mind surely realized he didn’t stand a chance. He couldn’t portal away, not while I held him like this, restricted his magic. I couldn’t stop him from portaling forever, since that ability belonged to the between-realm magic, but I could make it difficult enough to trap him for a bit.
It felt good. Gods, it felt good to make someone hurt. I was so tired of feeling powerless. Of not being allowed to kill, either for my own morals or the laws of the universe. Here was someone I could make suffer, for the way he’d made me suffer. Someone I could blame.
“I helped you in the past,” he argued.
The demon had balls on him. He was half-impaled by my claws, and he was acting like I owed him a favor still.
“You helped no one but yourself.” I twisted deeper, hitting bone.
I could’ve killed him. Instead, I used my magic to heal him, just enough to know his suffering wouldn’t end too soon. I waited for Cole to chastise me, to tell me to ease up or simply end him.
But my husband was an indulgent man. And he could be even crueler than I could.
“I’m an excellent multitasker, what can I say?” His bravado was cut off as he coughed up blood.
“You could say you’re sorry,” I hissed. “Sorry for Hector. Sorry for leading my ‘moon-matched mate’ straight to me.”
Cole growled at the mention of Jett.
“Ah, love, but I’m not a liar.”
“I don’t think you’re capable of a single truth,” I countered. “Which means letting you speak is a waste of air.”
I readied my claws to take the killing blow, but Phaidros’s next words made me still.
“I want my mother dead, rotting in the pits of Tartarus.”
Chapter XXIV
Phaidros spat the wordsin a rush, aware they were his last chance at staying his execution.
Unfortunately, they worked.
“Speak,” I demanded.
“In open combat—even if you could draw my mother into such a thing—you don’t stand a chance. It’s true,” he snapped, when I twisted a little more.
Itwastrue. But that didn’t mean I liked hearing it.
“Your only chance is to change the game. I will convince her to commit to a series of trials, one for each realm—the underworld, the living, and the heavens. That will give you a chance to end this conflict once and for all.”
I stilled my grip.
“Why?” I hated that I was considering it, but we’d been at this for over a week—no, we’d been at this for centuries and had only heartbreak to show for it. I needed to keep the people I cared about safe.
“If my mother is the Moon Goddess, my father is the pits. I have his penchant for deals, as you may have noticed. I have the authority to bind her in vows to the Styx, and she won’t be able to resist when I tell her the prize.”
There was the catch.
“And what would that be?” Cole rasped from behind me. His death magic worked through the room, encircling both the demon and me. Only, it wouldn’t hurtme. Phaidros would be less likely to survive if his answer was unsatisfactory.
