CHAPTER 14
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“You won’t get out ofhere alive, Demigod of Death.” I could hear a demon’s grating, gloating voice when I came out of the vortex of wind but lingered in the slipstream. The demigods could finish their teleportation in an instant, but it always took me longer to sift from one location to another. I blamed that on my inexperience.
“You’ll taste the bitterness of final betrayal before your demise,” the demon continued to taunt Héctor. “Your god wants you dead so you won’t stand in his way. And don’t worry about the girl. I bet she’s in Hell’s realm now, enjoying my Lord Lucifer’s and your god’s company. There’ll be a threesome—”
Pain shot through me again from the bond.
Héctor roared, lunging at the archdemons surrounding him, his blade glinting with death light and sailing toward a red-horned archdemon. The red archdemon ducked his head—he could be the one who was bragging—and raised twin axes to ram into Héctor’s blade.
Demons had all kinds of shapes. Unlike Loki, the archdemon had horns and looked more like a monster than a human. He also had the stench of sulfur. All the archdemons attacking my Héctor were level nine, like Loki, but they were less powerful than their prince.
A dark-skinned archdemon charged Héctor from behind, but Héctor propelled his left wing toward the demon and shoved him aside.
Rage and grief burned hot in me as I spotted his half-severed right wing. That was the tearing pain I’d felt through our bond. The demons had hurt my Héctor, and they intended to murder him.
All four archdemons had come out, one down on the ground—slain by Héctor—and three still besieging him. They’d cast a black orb to keep him and themselves trapped together so Héctor couldn’t teleport out while battling four powerful foes.
Outside the orb, a horde of demons watched the battle.
There wasn’t a single Dominion soldier in this military compound.
The air smelled of sulfur, brimstone, ash, charred flesh, and the residual scent of a sun storm.
A sick feeling sank into my stomach as the truth dawned on me.
Ares had come here and used his Glory to vanquish every member of the demigods’ army in this compound to pave a path for Lucifer’s demons so they could kill Héctor. He’d carried out a massacre on his own army—the soldiers didn’t even have bones left—to get rid of his most fierce rival and capture me.
The god hadn’t even bothered to cover up his tracks, which signaled that he was giving up on Earth and had a new, more sinister game on his plate.
Red rage boiled in my blood.
Pulling out my wicked twin daggers, I let the Flame of Rainbows soak one dagger and hellfire encase the other—I still couldn’t merge them. I dove toward Héctor, spearing the orb with my flaming daggers.
Thanks to Loki’s orb and his dark mages’ spells, my magic had learned about these prisons, and it didn’t take much effort for me to shatter the orb.
I landed beside my Héctor, roaring with hatred for the demons.
“Lamb!” he called in alarm.
There was no time to greet him, as the three archdemons crashed into us. Héctor tried to shield me as best as he could, but I could hold my own for a while.
My fires engulfed an archdemon who snuck up on Héctor. He screamed and I smiled. They’d cut my love’s wing, and I wanted all of them dead.
“She’s powerful,” said the red-honed archdemon in awe, and then he sniffed.
A surprised expression flitted across his face, and the look in his black eyes turned obsessively greedy.