by Cate Corvin
"Maybe you should've thought of that before you pushed me from Heaven. I never betrayed you. Finding someone who gives a damn about me can't possibly be construed as betrayal unless you're a complete fucking lunatic." I raised my chin, refusing to look down or be crushed by Gabriel's presence. "Oh, wait. You are a complete fucking lunatic. Silly me, forgetting that."
"Everything I did was to make you stronger." He pulled against the chains, experimentally moving his weight forward, but they held fast.
Too many memories to count washed through my mind: Gabriel throwing me in a freezing cell and throwing ice water over me, then cradling me in the mess and telling me it was my fault.
Gabriel breaking my weapons and beating me bloody with the remnants when I lost a fight, then bandaging my injuries.
Gabriel pinching the tender spots on my body when I messed something up, twisting my skin until it felt like he'd rip it right off... and telling me I shouldn't have made him so angry.
If there was one thing he'd done for me besides raise my shade, it was forging me into the kind of person who lived for revenge. I hadn't seen him clearly for what he was until the moment he'd pushed me.
With the angelic strictures no longer in my mind and Gabriel's face in front of me, the flood of every little thing he'd ever done came back to me with crystal clarity.
"You're a menace, Gabriel. Not only to us, but to the people of Heaven."
Belial leaned against the wall, perfectly at ease despite the fact that he was still covered in blood from head to toe. Gabriel watched him like a hawk, tracking every movement.
"At least I did them a favor," he said roughly. "I pushed you out, too. You were never worthy of the Sword of Light, demon-whore."
Belial and I smiled at the same time, and the archangel fell silent.
"Demon-whore," I repeated, my amusement rising. I'd felt like I was walking through a dream, but... it was all so much better than a dream. Gabriel was really here, wingless and chained in Belial's prison. The more real it became, the funnier it got. "Good one. At least I'm loyal to them. What would that make you?"
It was impossible to fear him when he'd been defanged. Gone were the days of cowering whenever I caught a glimpse of the bastard.
He remained silent, staring at me balefully.
"Let's see." I began ticking my checklist off on my fingers. "You committed the sin of lust after forbidding it for everyone else, which would make you a whore in this case. You abandoned a woman to fend for herself, so there goes treachery. You lied about it, so hello, fraud. Oh, then there's the matter of not taking responsibility for your son and consigning him to a terrible death in Acheron, so let's throw another mark over in treachery. You pinned me for a crime I didn't commit- you really enjoy your treachery and fraud, don't you?"
I held up my hand, showing him my five splayed fingers.
"Oh, but wait," I said quietly. "We've tallied all your major sins, I believe, but there's still the smaller matters between us in Heaven. I'd need a thousand more hands to count the things you've done. It must be nice having all of your recruits bound by the angelic strictures. I couldn't speak a word against you. So, no matter how justified and self-righteous you feel now, I'd rather spend eternity as a demon-whore than spend another second fighting for Heaven on your behalf."
I could've cut the tension in the prison cell with a knife.
"Now it's not just me you need to answer to." I jerked my head back towards the arena. "You will answer to him. I'd say Tascius getting his pound of flesh out of you is far more important than any vengeance I could possibly take."
Gabriel mouthed the name inaudibly, and irritation struck me at seeing my Nephilim's name on his lips. He didn't even deserve to speak it.
But Gabriel met my eyes squarely. "You can tally my sins all day and all night, Melisande, but the one thing you refuse to answer- why choose him when he looks so much like me?"
I would've spit in his face, but my mouth was dry as cotton.
Typical fucking Gabriel.
He thought the world revolved around him, but until I'd seen them together, with Tascius's wings restored, I hadn't pieced it together at all. They were simply too different, despite the physical similarities.
"Are you trying to pull some sort of twisted confession out of me?" I laughed, the bitter sound ringing in the tiny space. "That I wanted Tascius because he looks like you? Please. He's a thousand times the angel you are. He was given the worst cards life could deal him, and his soul is still unstained, unlike yours. Once again, your enormous ego is blinding you to the obvious- which is that no matter who he came from, I love him for who he is. And no matter what hand you think you had in it, you're nothing."
His eyes flickered darkly.
"Nothing at all." I flicked one of the chains, making it ring. "No one is coming for you. None of the other archangels care. They're probably happy to see you put in your place."
He was sneering now, blood still drooling over his chin.
I took Belial's hand and pulled him from the cell. "And now you get a long, long time to sit here in the dark and think about everything you’ve done."
Belial stroked the wall, and the obsidian slowly started to close, devolving from a full doorway into a small hole. I watched Gabriel's face the entire time, enjoying the play of emotions: rage, arrogance, dismay, and finally, fear.
Before the pinprick of a doorway sealed completely, I heard him screaming, ranting my name over and over again: "Melisande! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
I shuddered, half with residual fear, and half with delight at knowing just how long we could leave him trapped in the darkness, with nothing but his thoughts and crimes for company.
As soon as the door closed, cutting off Gabriel's raging shrieks, Belial pulled me into his arms.
"Vicious, bloodthirsty, angry angel," he breathed.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face against his shoulder.
"You can save the sweet nothings for later. Get me out of here."
3
Melisande
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he scooped me up from the floor as the wall opened again on a much more familiar and welcome chamber.
I felt nothing but relief to be back in his bedroom, with the fire roaring and the light glinting off his collection of thousands of weapons hanging from the walls. Belial tossed me on the bed and I bounced on the mattress, but when he started to climb over me, I paused him with a hand in the middle of his chest.
His eyes darkened. "Yes, angel? Would you prefer the floor?"
"Oh, please. You're covered in that asshole's blood."
He really had been soaked from head to toe. Maybe under other circumstances I wouldn't have cared as much, but with Gabriel's taunts fresh in my mind, I wanted every part of him erased from our presence.
Belial looked down at his shirt, which had probably once been white, and was now dark brown and stiff. Then he looked back up at me with a sly smirk. "Are you going to help me take it off?"
I gave him a look, and scooted forward on the bed, pushing him back as I went. He straightened up as I started unbuttoning him, looking down at me with a smug expression.
"Lazy, helpless Prince," I muttered under my breath, but my heart was pounding in my throat already as I pushed his shirt open. Under the ruins of it, his smooth, golden chest was blazing hot beneath my fingers, and I paused to trace the faint white lines I'd scratched into him.
I'd been terrified he would've healed them, annihilating any sign that I'd been there at all. Even now I wished I could ask him to put his mark back on me... but I'd already fled from him once. Of course it would take time for him to trust me enough to mark me again.
Belial caught my hand and pulled it to his mouth, kissing my palm where his mark had been. There was an expression I couldn't quite read in those aquamarine eyes.
"I didn't know what it was," I said quietly. "I thought you had genuinely soul-bound me to you, and that I would never be
able to do anything of my own free will again. If I'd known earlier, things might have been... different."
There was no mark there when he pulled my hand from his mouth, but my skin burned anyways. Belial's mouth seemed to have that general effect on me.
"What would you have done if I'd told you?" He laced his fingers through mine and pulled me closer, which forced me to tilt my head back to look at him. "The first night I brought you in. Wasn't believing you were soul-bound preferable to the reality?"
He just smiled when I frowned.
I'd been terrified for my life and determined to escape. If I'd known the mark Belial had put on me was a mating mark, well... there was a good chance I would've run straight for the door and plunged into far worse trouble than he ever gave me.
Under what I'd believed was a soul-bond, I'd had time to come to terms with my new situation. I'd had the luxury and comfort of knowing I was protected from worse things in Hell than a war-hungry Prince, and a place that allowed me to recuperate from my fall into my full potential.
"I would've tried even harder to escape." I looked down, wishing I could go back in time and slap some sense into my past self. After my life in Heaven under Gabriel, I'd automatically assumed any Prince of Hell would do the same things he did to me: twisting me one way and the other, beating me one moment and showing me affection the next, manipulating my mind.
Belial had done none of those things. He might've pushed my limits, but he'd never tried to hurt me or encouraged me to be anything but myself. "Why did you put a mate mark on me when you didn't even know me?" I asked.
Belial yanked off his half-undone shirt, ripping off the rest of the buttons, and tossed it to the floor. Then he sat on his bed and pulled me onto his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes and just soaking in the sensation of being where I was supposed to be.
"I won't lie, it was for selfish purposes." He stroked my hair, then ran his fingertips over my face: forehead, over the bridge of my nose, tracing the edges of my lips. "Angels that survive their fall are so rare, and you were exactly the kind of thing I looked for to bring into my arena. Demons would've spent their last coins and then put up their souls to come in and bet on you. But, as you now know, I'm not the only one who hunts for rarities in Hell."
"Satan." I didn't mean to say the name aloud, but it slipped out regardless.
Belial pulled me closer, his grip possessive. "Yes, Satan. I could've soul-bonded you, but soul-bonds aren't equal. The creator of the bond is always the dominant of the pair. You would've slowly become a hollow shell of your former self. But a mating mark? You would remain whole, and I would have every right to put my foot down if Lucifer or Azazel tried to take you. No Prince or King could deny that mark.
"But you were feistier than I thought you'd be." Another dimpled smirk crossed his face. I reached up and tucked a lock of dark hair behind his ear, my eyes fixed on the small scar limning his lower lip. "You were only ever supposed to put on a show, but you climbed in here and hollowed out a space for yourself."
He thumped his fist against his chest, his knuckles hitting the scars I'd left.
"You weren't worried you'd wasted it?"
Belial raised an arched eyebrow. "Wasted what?"
"Your mating mark. On me."
He made a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. "I never wanted to put one on anyone. I never wanted to be tied down, or give someone that sort of power over me."
A sick disappointment churned in the depths of my stomach, his words echoing in my ears. He hadn’t even wanted to be bound to me in that way, and I'd caused him pain when he removed the mark. It’d all been to stake a claim.
"Angry angel."
I didn't look up. The last thing I wanted him to see were my emotions written on my face.
"Melisande. Look at me."
I didn't get a chance to resist. He tipped my chin up, examining my face like he was reading a book.
I blinked hard, unwilling to let him see that his words had upset me.
"Do you think I meant that about you?" he asked. "I never saw myself tied down to anyone. For all the millennia I spent in war, I never thought I'd find someone who could give me what I needed both in the bedroom and on the battlefield... and then you fell right into my arms like all my wishes had come true."
"You don't need to reassure me," I said, my voice tight and my body feeling prickly. If he'd never wanted a mate, I wouldn't force him into it. I was just happy to be in his arms at all right now.
Belial laughed again, squeezing me hard until I squeaked. "Obviously I do, or you wouldn't be so offended by it right now."
"I just don't want to force you into anything you don't want. If you never wanted one, I wouldn't ask you to do it again." Maybe I could salvage a tiny bit of pride...
Then Vyra's voice popped into my head, entirely unwelcome: or you could let go of your pride. Bitch.
"Did you hear anything I said before that?" Belial stroked my lips. "You." He pointed to his chest, right over his heart. "Here."
"So... would it be asking too much for you to maybe, um.."
I trailed off. It was impossible to talk while he was staring at me like that, his lips quirked up at the corners.
"For me to?" he prompted, his eyebrows rising even higher.
"Maybe... ah... find it in yourself to eventually trust me again with the mark?"
There. I'd said it. Just letting go and letting myself say what I thought was much harder than a nice, simple fight in the arena. I'd rather face a manticore again than speak my feelings aloud when I wasn't sure they'd be reciprocated.
"Ridiculous angel," he said gruffly, lifting me up and burying his face between my neck and shoulder. The feel of his lips on my throat raised goosebumps all over my skin. "Asking me to trust you? I should've known you'd try your hardest to fight and escape. That's what I encouraged you to do, and I drove you away by not telling you the truth... and by letting my own inherent nature overcome me."
He ran his tongue up my neck, making me shiver, then nipped my earlobe.
"I will never," he whispered in my ear. "Never allow my wrath to turn me against you again."
If I squeezed his neck any tighter, I'd be choking off his air supply. I settled myself for threading my hands into hair and pulling him closer, absorbing the heat of his body. "I would never run from you again, Belial. Not as long as you're honest with me. Even then... I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay here with you."
He growled, the sound reverberating through my bones. “I shouldn’t have allowed you to leave.”
A smile crossed my face as quick as a flash. If he’d tried to keep me there, doubtless I would’ve tried to run even harder. I hadn’t understood what I had until it all slipped through my fingers.
Now that I had it back, I would never run again. Belial owned a piece of my heart as surely as everyone else did.
“We know how that would’ve turned out.” I rested my cheek against his hair. “We’re both just a little… headstrong.”
He snorted, his breath warm on my neck. “A little? You’re impossible. But…” He kissed my throat again. “That’s exactly the way I want you to be.”
“Good, because it probably won’t stop now. But if I ever want to do something crazy again, I’ll tell you. I’m done with screwing up everything that matters to me.”
Even as I said it, I knew I had two more problems to fix that I’d managed to make through my own stubbornness. I should’ve told Azazel and Lucifer what I’d planned.
I hoped their trust in me wasn’t irrevocably fractured.
“Belial, as much as I’d love to stay here all day, there are more amends I need to make.” I threaded my fingers through his, unwilling to be separated now that I had him back. “Will you come with me to the Nightside? It’s still just as much yours as it is mine.”
His lips twisted while he clearly debated keeping me locked in here for the rest of our lives, but he relented when I did my best approximation
of Vyra’s puppy-dog eyes.
“Fine. Might as well let the bastards know I’m back in the game.”
I slid off his lap and pulled him to his feet, then went and dug in his wardrobe until I found a fresh shirt for him. “You were never out of the game, demon. It was just a hiccup.”
“Right, angel. I only had to pull down Heaven to get your attention again.” But he looked pleased by my admission as he pulled his shirt over his head.
The wall opened up under my touch and I practically yanked him out into the corridor. “You had me long before that.”
Before we left the arena, I grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt and kissed him hard.
“Never again. We’re two of a kind; I will never leave you again.”
Belial wrapped his arms around me. “Never again.”
4
Melisande
He held my hand as we walked along the broad rim of the Seventh Circle, giving the evil eye to any demon who dared look at me for longer than ten seconds.
It felt damn good to have my protective, possessive Prince back.
The Chainlings bowed low to the ground as we approached. The traditionalist cult finally had what they wanted, multiplied by five: their queen and four kings.
Assuming two of those kings could find it in their hearts to forgive me.
I swallowed hard as we entered the gates together. Belial had to duck to avoid a tangle of ivy smacking him in the face, but he somehow managed to make the gesture look graceful and insouciant instead of awkward.
I'd betrayed our plans for someone I loved. I deserved the anger, but my vow was solemn. From this day on, no matter what I did, I would do it with them as a team.
Belial squeezed my hand reassuringly, pulling me to a halt before I could push the doors open. I read nothing but understanding in his face when I looked at him questioningly. "I'm assuming you're the one responsible for Tascius's new… additions."
I nodded mutely.
