“I’ll find them,” I vowed while howling wind wheeled around us. “I’ll tear the hearts out of Ares and Lucifer, and then I’ll eat their fucking hearts.”
“Only after we cut them to pieces inch by inch,” Paxton said in a terrible, soft voice.
Héctor grabbed Pythius’s neck with his gloved hand, his obsidian wings flapping agitatedly, and death light swallowed his once sapphire eyes. He lifted Pythius until the duke’s feet dangled in the air. The death demigod seemed desperate to remove his glove and punish the half-demon with an agonizing death. But I knew he couldn’t kill the demon yet. We needed this duke to lead us to Hell if we ever wanted to find our mate.
Pythius knew it too. He looked unfazed, though his face paled. And to show he wasn’t concerned, he even crossed his arms over his chest as his eyes rolled up to watch the sky, now filled with dust and rain and lightning.
“Are you going to calm the fuck down and talk about business?” Pythius managed to get his sentence out.
For a demon, he had balls of steel. For a start, he’d come alone to meet us.
“Héctor,” Zak warned. “Let’s get out of here.”
Héctor nodded, and the five of us teleported to a warded safe house in Miami.
As soon as we landed in the basement, a sound barrier blocked out the noise of the ocean waves.
Héctor shoved Pythius against the wall, and the four of us faced him.
“Talk,” Héctor ordered.
Pythius rolled his eyes again. “I was talking before you fuckers interrupted me,” he said. “You won’t be able to get her out like this, acting like a bunch of juvenile hotheads.”
“Take us to her now!” I ordered.
“Then you’ll sabotage my prince’s perfect plan and get your girl completely locked up,” Pythius said. “If Lucifer catches wind of you coming to his realm, he’ll take her somewhere no one can ever reach, not even my prince. Loki has gotten her out for now. He’s buying time before Ares and Lucifer come to reclaim her as their perfect weapon and consort.” He sent me a blank look. “Your father intends to fuck her.”
I balled my hands, my knuckles white, and my bones made a cracking sound.
“I’ll cut the war god to pieces and feed them to a hellhound,” Paxton said without any emotion.
From the looks in their stormy, half-crazed eyes, Zak and Héctor mentally promised an even worse fate for my father.
For our mate, we needed to stay sane. We needed to keep cool heads.
“We must turn off our emotions until we get her back,” I said.
“And only let our one purpose burn through—to get my lamb back,” Héctor agreed before he turned to the duke. “Where does Loki keep my mate?” he drawled.
“That’s a need-to-know for now,” said the duke, and I wanted to strangle him. “My prince will come to you soon and sign a contract, sealed in blood. We won’t let you betray us.”
“You’re one to talk,” Paxton snorted. “None of us bear the title of ‘Prince of Betrayal and Lies’ or ‘Butcher of Hell,’ unlike your prince.”
“He cultivated that reputation for a reason,” Pythius said tightly. “Either you’re with us or against us. Hell’s future depends on my prince, and I won’t let you hotheads jeopardize it.”
Suddenly I realized what Lucifer’s heir was angling for. He wanted to rule Hell. He wanted to oust his father. I could relate to the feud between a father and a son.
“Call Loki now,” Zak said. “We’ll swear a blood oath right now if he can lead us to my mate today.”
“Not now,” Pythius said. “A perfect plan takes time to formulate. If we screw it up, we don’t get a second chance. Everyone in my prince’s household, down to the butler, will suffer excruciating torment before death should we fail. Drop the wards now, demigods. I’m returning to my realm before anyone notices I’m gone.”
“How can we contact you?” I asked.
“You don’t call me. I’ll call you,” Pythius said. Over our furious looks, he added, “I have as much interest as you in Princess Celeste’s survival.”
We hated him for calling her that, but then we’d hate any demon calling our mate Marigold, too. They should just not call her anything; in fact, they shouldn’t even look at her.
Héctor lowered the wards, which meant that the half-demon duke had passed his lie test, and Pythius vanished in a plume of smoke.