“Not my word,” Pythius said coolly. “I was merely quoting.”
“You quoted wrong,” Axel growled.
“Will you let me down?” Pythius demanded. “Do you want to see her or not?”
“Let him go, Héctor,” I said. “We need him.”
Héctor dropped him, death light twirling in his eyes.
His death light terrified his enemies, yet mesmerized Rosebud. She always gazed at him as if he held the wonders of the universe. She’d never looked at me that way, not directly, but I’d caught her staring at me with unbridled lust and the same kind of adoration when she thought I wasn’t looking.
I had an eternity to gain her affection and make her gaze at me like I was her whole world, too.
“Bear in mind my forewarning,” Pythius said icily. “Don’t even think of whisking her away from Hell as soon as you see her, which will be your first instinct, as all of you are notoriously territorial hotheads. You’ll never be able to protect her that way, without a solid strategy and cool heads. She wears Hell’s mark now. It’ll set off an alarm the moment she attempts to flee this realm, and then Lucifer and the war god will be upon her and us. Doom my prince before the time is ripe, and I won’t be this meek and accommodating. If you betray my prince, I’ll tear you to pieces.”
“Keep the threats to yourself, demon,” Paxton said coolly. “We’ll act according to how our contract was laid out.”
Pythius looked at us hard. “You’ll hide in her chamber day and night. You’ll be her breeding stallions. You’ll feed her and sate her to the best of your best abilities, and I don’t want to hear any complaints. My prince will join you in training her secretly. Only when she comes into full power will we take the fight to Lucifer.”
“Breeding stallions?” Paxton snorted.
Axel snarled.
“The prince and his dukes, including me, will be more than happy to fill in for the bedroom duties if you have a problem with that,” Pythius said, grinning viciously.
“Say that again,” I said, ready to break his every bone.
Héctor regarded the duke with an unreadable expression that would chill anyone other than us.
“But the princess is too attached to you to want anyone else,” Pythius said. “And Prince Loki respects her will as much as his own. In a nutshell, we’ll end this war, once and for all, not on Earth but in Hell.”
“On that, we can all agree,” Héctor said.
We hurried through the secret, narrow passage, heading toward our beloved mate.
Let us not be too late for her.
CHAPTER 16
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After classes, Angelled me down through twisting corridors.