He arched an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to make it up to you, Princess Celeste?”
“Help me escape to Earth this very second,” I said. “Return me to my mates.”
It was the first time I’d openly declared that the demigods were my mates—and I’d announced it not to just anyone but the demon prince. In the Dreaming, I learned that they’d accepted me unconditionally, no matter what I was or who I was. They’d welcome me into their embrace!
I needed to go to them before they took a dangerous course of action, like coming here, and got themselves killed.
“We still have time to get out of Hell,” I said. “You can take refuge on Earth, and I’ll vow to you that my demigods won’t harm you. We can wage war on the god and devil from the demigods’ headquarters. We have a Dominion army! And between the demigods, you, and me, we might just take out Lucifer. Your dukes and your halfling army can join us, too, if they’re loyal to you.”
“It won’t work,” he said. “You can’t leave. Hell’s mark has been burned in you. You can never reach the surface from this realm—my father has made sure of that. When he and the god cut you open, after they failed to take your power, they put extremely potent spells in you to bind you to Hell and prevent you from ever escaping.”
“Unless I kill the ones who bound me.”
“They can’t be killed, but they can be unmade.”
“I can’t unmake them without the Living Flame.”
I had to reveal some of my secrets. He knew the Living Flame was in me. He’d mentioned it when he’d tried to abduct me on the grounds of the Academy.
“You’ve regained a part of your power, despite their spells,” he said confidently. “You’ll grow into your full power at Hell’s Academy. We’ll speed up the process. I’ve tailored special courses for you—”
My eyes burned with rage.
“You idiot, you don’t understand my magic. No one does, not even Ares and Lucifer. The only one who knew how to guide me was killed and consumed by your monstrous father.” I sobbed at the memory of the horrific ending of the elemental. “For my Living Flame to be activated, I need to mate with the demigods. They’re the four elements to my fifth.”
Loki looked shocked for a second, but I had to tell him this. He wanted me to ignite the Living Flame as much as I did.
“But you’ve fucked them already, according to my intel.”
“Your intel is inaccurate,” I snapped, feeling such regret that I hadn’t had sex with Paxton yet due to my pettiness in wanting him to suffer a little longer.
That one grudge was costing me dearly.
“Not all of them,” I said, annoyed. “I haven’t mated with the Demigod of Sea.”
“Why the hell not?” Loki shouted in disapproval. “I read the report saying you two didn’t get along in the beginning, but then he started to court you and put up with all your shit.”
I glared at him. “Loki, relationships are complicated.”
“I don’t give a fuck how complicated it is,” he said.
I doubted the dark prince understood the concept of a relationship. For him, it was probably fuck or be fucked, and nothing else. And while it was my relationship we were discussing, he had the nerve to snarl at me for how I handled it.
“Our plan has just changed,” Loki grated. “You need to fuck the sea demigod as soon as possible to activate your Living Flame.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re nuts.”
“Not really,” he said, a ray of hope lighting his eyes, turning them green like mine. “On the contrary, I’m now in an incredible mood as we’ve just found this shortcut. You should have told me when I got you out of that coffin.” He waved at me dismissively to prevent my next protest. “I’ll bring the sea demigod stallion here, and you’ll ride him and get it over with.Thatis our priority.”
“No, you won’t.” I’d gone to great pains, even stabbing myself, to prevent the demigods from following me to Hell so that I could keep them safe. “If you bring them here and jeopardize their lives, I’ll kill you.”
“Relax, cousin,” he laughed. “I know what I’m doing.”
The Hell horse brayed, sending his master a warning signal.
Far beneath us, cries, groans, begging, and screams reached up to me. I peeked down, and for the first time, I saw what the Earthly regions controlled by the demons looked like—partly Hell and partly human metropolitans slammed together grotesquely.
Clusters of fire and plumes of smoke adorned the broad landscape, and skyscrapers stretched to the half-gray, half-scarlet sky.