Hell to Pay: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (Razing Hell Book 2)

by Cate Corvin

  But the banners were rolled up. We paused in the shadow of the building, and I caught the eye of an imp. “Is your Master home?”

  The little demon chittered in some unrecognizable language, but the emphatic shake of his head told me what I needed to know. The imp pointed one tiny claw, aiming up the thoroughfare to the gates of Dis.

  I bit my lip, disappointed, but Lucifer stroked my thigh. “We’ll find him,” he promised. His gold hair caught the light like fire as he led my new horse past the arena. “We won’t leave until you do.”

  We made it up to First Circle without comment, though Lucifer himself stood out in the crowd. In the upper Circles, the streets were crowded marketplaces, packed with demons of every stripe, and our presence blended in better than in the lower levels, but no one could miss the Prince of Dis walking among them.

  When we trotted out through the massive gates, a swirl of shadow appeared and Azazel took form.

  “Melisande,” he said, reaching up to touch my hand. I gripped his fingers and looked out at the wasteland of black sand before us.

  “I’m embarrassed to admit I have no idea which way is north,” I said.

  “We’ll cut around the city.” Azazel went to Lucifer’s side, and the two led the way into the desert. “Once we’re through the pass and near the Styx, the climate will be much more tolerable.”

  Tascius steered his green horse to ride alongside me, and I smiled up at him before unclasping my cloak and shoving it in a saddlebag. It felt nice to ruffle my feathers again despite the heat.

  Dis was so huge that it was almost impossible to tell that the city’s edges curved, but the buildings finally fell away, and I could just make out the sharpened peaks of the mountains to the west.

  The sands were empty, devoid of life, so when I finally caught sight of a familiar form, he practically sparkled like a beacon out in the wastes.

  “There’s Belial!” I said, jumping from the horse’s back before Lucifer could say anything. I ran several feet before stopping and turning around, my heels sending up a spray of sand. “Stay here, please. I want to talk to him alone.”

  Azazel nodded curtly, and Tascius raised his hand. “Give him our regards.”

  I spread my wings and took flight, eating up the distance over the sand to the golden lion prowling over the empty dunes.

  He tossed his mane when he caught sight of me, pausing at the top of a dune with his tail twitching.

  I landed in front of him, my heart thumping in my throat.

  “Belial… I have to leave the city for a while. We’ll only be gone for two weeks, but my side of the Circle is empty, and Vyra will be alone…”

  The lion just gazed at me evenly. I dared to take a step closer, extending my hand.

  After a long moment, he leaned forward, pressing the wide bridge of his nose against my palm.

  I let my hand rest there for a second, but I didn’t want to go with just this tiny touch between us. I wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his nose. He closed his eyes and made a rumble that was more of an earthquake than a purr.

  “We know how to make the sword we need,” I whispered, stroking his soft fur. “We need ebonite. The oracles in the City of Sight will be able to tell us where to find it. Will you please watch over Vyra while we’re gone?”

  There was an odd rippling sensation in the air, and a moment later I wasn’t holding a lion, but a man.

  Belial’s tangled dark hair spilled around his shoulders, brushing my face as he shifted to wrap his arms around me, too. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to let go of him. Releasing him after so long apart would’ve felt like tearing myself apart. “Would you come with us?”

  Belial let out a rough laugh. “No. Your little expedition would fail, because I don’t think I’d be able to resist ripping off the Morningstar’s pretty head.”

  I looked up at him, picking out the yellow stars in his eyes I’d desperately missed. “You have more self-control than that.”

  “No, angel. Besides, I have a particular quest of my own.” His smile was cruel, but it wasn’t cruelty aimed at me. “I think you of all people will appreciate the results.”

  I frowned. “What are you doing, Belial?”

  He raised a hand, tracing the edge of my lips with his thumb. “I’m not going to ruin the surprise. Go fetch your ebonite, and when you bring it back…” His voice became the rough purr that sent pleasurable shivers down my spine. “You and I have many things we need to discuss.”

  “Belial, I-”

  He put a finger to my lips, cutting me off. “Let me make it clear. We’ll discuss these things in your bed. Until then, I don’t want to hear another word of apology. You did what you had to do, and I am doing what I need to do.”

  His eyes were alight with a brilliant, manic light.

  I swallowed back apologies and protests, my heart a painful thud against my ribs. “I’ll remember that when I’m back. You will be in my bed that night.”

  “That’s a promise, angel.”

  He leaned down and kissed me hard, his tongue sliding into my mouth. I would’ve melted right there on the hot sand if he wasn’t holding me up, one arm around my waist and the other hand tangled in my hair.

  It felt like all the antagonism between us fell away, like it had never existed at all, and I was right back where I was supposed to be.

  I poured all my regret into the kiss, hoping he knew how I felt, that when I came back I wanted him and his mark and would never leave without him again.

  Belial bit my lip, his eyes glittering when he pulled back. “Go now, before I decide you need to stay here.”

  I nodded, breathless and wordless, but traced the faint white lines over his chest like I could etch myself there all over again.

  “Goodbye for now, my Prince,” I said, forcing myself to take a step back.

  “Goodbye for now, my angry angel.” His teeth were already lengthening. “But not for long.”

  My throat tightened and I took flight, blaming the tears in my eyes on the sun’s glare. One of my feathers broke loose and spiraled down, and I looked back in time to see the lion snatch at it, catching it in his teeth.

  He prowled towards Dis, breaking into a long stride, and I flew back to my waiting men with at least one small part of my fractured heart healed again.

  I silently settled back on my horse, looking over my shoulder at the lion and not turning forward again until his gleaming golden fur was gone from sight.

  18

  Tascius

  The Styx stretched before us, a dark ribbon of still water winding across the landscape. On our side, the black dunes stretched back between cliffs in a passage that led to Dis.

  On the other side of the river, the land was a blasted gray waste, dotted with the gnarled remains of dead trees. I nudged Titan, as I’d been thinking of the enormous water-horse, closer to Melisande’s little white mare.

  My angel dismounted, striding through the mix of sand and dust to peer over a short drop at the river below.

  All three of us followed her. I dropped from Titan’s back and looped his lead around an outcropping of rock, then instinctively reached out to touch Melisande’s back, ready to grab her at a moment’s notice.

  She was still as a statue, peering into the oily, pitch-black water.

  “Don’t touch it,” Azazel said quietly. His voice was the only sound in this place. Not even the wind blew. “Don’t drink it.”

  “It doesn’t look like anything I’d want in my mouth,” she said, then flushed at the implication of her words and glanced up at me.

  I would’ve made a joke about my little friend’s mouth, but something chose that exact moment to rise out of the water, a pale, ridged spine breaking the oily surface before vanishing again without so much as a ripple.

  Melisande stiffened, and reached out to grab Lucifer’s arm. “Was that a person?”

  “Seems likely,” he said, raisin
g his eyes towards the middle of the river, and I followed his gaze.

  Several human hands extended from the river like they were pleading for help, only to be dragged under again by an invisible current.

  “Stay away from the edge.” I gripped her shoulder, and she took several paces back. My muscles loosened a little once she was out of immediate harm’s way.

  People said the spirits trapped in the Styx couldn’t climb out, but I wasn’t taking chances. I’d seen weirder shit than that happen in Dis.

  Melisande gazed out at the river for a moment longer, her face pale, before turning her back on it. The violet of her hair was vibrant against the gray expanse before us, like a flower blooming in the most unlikely of places.

  “Do we need to cross it to get to the City of Sight?”

  Lucifer broke away and gathered the horses’ leads. “No, we wouldn’t want to be on the far bank. Acheron is on that side.” He gave Azazel a meaningful look. “The Styx itself should provide some defense, if things come to that.”

  Melisande’s hand fell to the hilt of her dagger. “Are we expecting to be attacked?”

  A strange feeling coiled in my stomach: trepidation at seeing the city where I’d been born, an odd relief that I’d have no choice. I’d always known I would have to face it again one day.

  Better to do it in the company of someone I loved.

  “There’s a good chance, friend,” I said, taking Titan’s lead. “They’re supposedly confined, but hunting parties have made it out from under the dome before.”

  Melisande fell in at my side as we began to follow the Styx, keeping a healthy distance from the river and any loose outcroppings of earth.

  This wasn’t the way I’d wanted to introduce her to my kind. She thought she’d seen the worst in Yraceli, but the captive Nephilim was nothing more than a rabid dog.

  It was the intelligent ones we needed to be wary of, the ones who’d escaped Acheron and would hunt the roads crisscrossing the Underworld.

  “Keep your eyes open for traps or anything out of place,” Azazel said, moving beside in his ghostly form.

  Pebbles crunched underfoot as we walked, following a trail beaten into the ground. The Styx was an omnipresent companion, winding in and out, but never out of our sight.

  Melisande laid her hand on my forearm as we walked. “If you had the chance, would you ask the sibyls for your past or your future?” It was obvious what she meant.

  I wrestled with the question. There was one mystery about my life that burned me: the need to know who had sired me.

  Who had condemned me to having snow-white wings that were sawn from my back like they were a crime.

  And why he hadn’t come back for either of us.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I want to know, but will having the answer make my hate any lesser? I don’t think so… and finding out that he just didn’t care at all would be worse than thinking he’d hated us. Either way, the moment I knew his name, there would only be one thing to do.”

  “Revenge,” she said quietly.

  I nodded. “Revenge. Whether it was out of spite or indifference, he cost my mother her life. He cost me my wings. Whoever he was, I would make him pay.” I glanced down at her, at the fan of lashes over her pale gold eyes. “As for my future… that one I already know. It’s wherever you are.”

  Her taut features split into an open smile, outshining the obscured sun. “And mine is with you. With all of you.”

  She slid her fingers in mine, linking us together.

  Still, the temptation gnawed at me, refusing to leave my mind.

  If a sibyl could give me all the answers, would I want them?

  Three days later, all idle questions fell to the wayside when we climbed a hill. Melisande’s gaze was darker, more shuttered than ever, but her eyes widened at the sight below us.

  The Styx rippled down a fall of boulders, continuing on in the distance. The hills of Dis’s territory gave way to flat plainland, but Acheron was impossible to miss.

  My heart clenched at the sight.

  “How?” was all she could ask. “How is this possible?”

  “Magic,” Azazel said, stopping at her shoulder.

  The city of Acheron was entirely enclosed in a dome of magical energy. The ten thousand towers looked like they were enclosed in a soap bubble that was half-sunk into the ground, and unlike the relatively clear air outside, the inside of the dome was dark with fog and steam.

  I’d been so young when I’d left, I didn’t have many clear memories outside of the towers. But looking at it now, the leviathan size of the city was awe-inspiring, flavored with fear.

  Some of the worst of Hell lived inside that dome, and they knew ways out.

  “From here on out, we move in silence,” I said, keeping my voice pitched low. “Azazel, if you could-”

  The Watcher understood. He lifted Melisande on her horse, and for once, she didn’t protest being manhandled, even jokingly.

  Lucifer’s hand rested on his sword, and his gaze had become cold as he surveyed the plains and the enclosed city.

  I climbed on Titan, remaining between Melisande and the city, and the Watcher drifted between the horses, reaching out to both of us.

  He closed his eyes, placing his palms flat against our legs. I heard Melisande’s quiet inhale of surprise as his shadows swirled around us, the stars flickering and dying as we became incorporeal.

  Soon, we looked like nothing more than a cloud of smoke, barely visible from anything but a short distance.

  Lucifer placed his hand on Melisande’s other leg, and the shadows crept out to surround him. “Let’s move quickly,” he said.

  She was mostly obscured, but Melisande was rigid as a board as we descended the hill, her shadowy face turned towards Acheron. As much as I wanted to gaze through the dome into the city, I kept scanning the surrounding wastelands, looking for something- anything, even a stray coin or an oddly-placed dead tree- that might be a snare for unwary travelers.

  As we hit level ground and the city grew in size, she dropped her hand to Azazel’s, dark flames growing around her fingertips and disappearing into his. I realized she was feeding him magic, ensuring we’d remain nearly invisible to anyone nearby.

  A stick cracked and the horses stopped dead. Lucifer drew his sword without ever breaking contact with Melisande.

  Several long minutes passed in taut silence, but the only living thing besides ourselves was a gray lizard sunning itself on a rock.

  We kept going, barely breathing, and finally I was no longer able to keep my eyes away from Acheron. I stared across the Styx, making out an enormous clock tower. The surface of the magical bubble made it look like it was rippling, the details fading in and out of perspective. Several other towers gushed smoke in the air, and one of the towers was crumbling, a ruin gutted by fire.

  My veins ran cold at the sight. For the first time, I was thankful my mother was dead at a Watcher’s hands.

  Better to have your soul gently pulled from your body, than to be torn into pieces and have your corpse thrown on a pyre that would choke thousands with the flames and smoke.

  Several figures wandered the far edge of the Styx outside the dome. We moved as quickly as we could, but sweat prickled my back at the sight of my fellow Nephilim. It was impossible to tell what was wrong with them, but even from this distance, it was apparent what they were: the twisted ones.

  The next hour passed like syrup, as if time itself had decided to keep us in a hellish infinite loop where we were always in danger of being sighted. All it would take was one Nephilim peering from a tower with a spyglass to catch sight of the smoky anomaly traveling the road.

  The dark scrub of a forest finally overtook the wasteland, and when the road brought us beneath the branches of gnarled trees, everyone let out a long breath and Azazel released his shadows.

  “Can we speak now?” Melisande whispered, but she looked over her shoulder with a twitch, like Acheron might’ve moved closer w
hen we weren’t looking. The city itself was finally blocked from sight.

  I felt nothing but relief now. I’d finally faced the home I’d been born in, and it was just as nightmarish-looking as I remembered.

  “We can speak.” I dismounted Titan, feeling the inexplicable urge to be on solid earth, and she slid to the ground next to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

  I stroked her hair, wondering if she’d seen the Nephilim. If she lumped me in with them, knew that I came from the same twisted stock.

  “Was it hard?” she asked, looking up at me. I touched her face, tracing her straight brows and high cheekbones.

  “Not as hard as I thought it’d be.” I held her tight for a moment, feeling the tension in her own limbs. She was still afraid. “I’d burn it all to the ground if I could.”

  She cast a look towards the sparse treeline. “Let’s just get as far away as we can.”

  The gnarled trees grew higher until we were surrounded by dense forest, but Melisande finally opened up after her fear of Acheron. A pale blue bird flitted overhead and she actually smiled, especially when we passed through a thicker dense with vines and flowers.

  “It’s so pretty here,” she said, brushing a flower that closed under her touch.

  “We’ve passed through the wastelands,” Lucifer said, much more at ease than he’d been earlier. “We’re closer to Elysium than Dis now.”

  Everything became greener, the wasted trees becoming tall, living oaks, but true night fell within several hours.

  Lucifer and I pulled the horses through a thicket at the sound of running water, and Melisande picked sticks and burrs out of their manes and tails. Azazel became a cloud and drifted off, checking for signs of hostile life.

  I helped Melisande pile dry twigs under several logs. She closed her eyes and summoned her dark fire, sending a spark into the heart of the tinder.

  We collapsed around the flames.

  Melisande climbed into my lap and took my face in her hands.

  “You’re not like them,” she said softly. “I saw the look on your face. You might be Nephilim, but you don’t have to be like that.”