A trace of hellfire sparked on Lucifer’s horns.
“I’ll have a word with you after this is over, Ares,” Lucifer said softly.
The God of War wasn’t Lucifer’s match in Hell’s realm, so instead of going against Lucifer, as I’d planned for him to do, he snagged his attention on me while fending off the demigods.
“I await the day I will truly break you and make you scream, you lying bitch!” he hissed.
“You won’t lay your filthy claws on my mate,” Axel snarled. “You fucking filthy old dog! We’re going to end you today.”
My demigods battled the god in a blur again.
“I’ll kill you, brat.” Ares’s voice reached me while he fought my mates in the vortex. Yet none of them could have their full power in this realm. “And I’ll take your woman.”
“You’ll die, fucker,” Paxton told the god. “We’ll cut you to pieces and feed you to my mate’s hellhound.”
I sailed my swords toward Lucifer’s middle. “Your queen got back at you for your betrayal, too. Instead of giving you the most powerful heir, as you’d dreamt of for ages, she chose to mate with a more powerful male and birthed me. But without your friend Ares, she could never have gotten to the Void and had her revenge on you.”
Lucifer pulled his lips back and snarled like a beast. “Silence!”
Loki chuckled in delight, loving every minute of it, but he shouldn’t have laughed.
Hellfire blasted out of Lucifer, hotter than heavenly fire. Loki’s and my hellfire surged out to meet Lucifer’s.
My Titan power stirred at the depths of my magical well. Since my mates had fed me, I was starting to break through the dark spells Lucifer and Ares had placed in me, but I needed more time to completely break free and get stronger.
My Living Flame was still not activated, though I could feel it twirling inside me as it tried to rise and defend me.
Beads of cold sweat dotted my forehead, and I breathed icy steam as Lucifer’s hellfire overcame the combined hellfire from Loki and me.
We staggered back at the devil’s brutal force, and he smiled coldly.
“Hold on, Loki,” I called with effort. “Just hold on a little longer. We can do this!”
Loki nodded, his teeth clattering and clenching.
Burning, pressure, and agony filled my body as Lucifer’s power kept pressing on us.
Just as my bones felt like they would shatter, a stream of cool strength flowed into me. New powers were forming inside me like springs of water.
The buried spark caught, blossoming into a tiny fire. My Flame of Rainbows finally came around, though it wasn’t strong enough to do anything yet. A wild wind twirled around the tiny rainbow flame, fueling it. An ice storm came next, pushing the flame up. Death light popped up, shielding my flame. And then lightning appeared, entwining with my fire and infusing it with demigod power.
My mates’ magics had just joined my Flame of Rainbows to create the Living Flame.
A sense of joy brimmed in me, but then worry also washed over me.
The Living Flame was only half-formed since my last mate and I hadn’t finished the mating ritual. And I wasn’t sure if an incomplete Living Flame could take down the devil and the god.
With only half of the Living Flame, I had only one chance to strike my enemies. I had to wait for the perfect window.
I was tempted, but there was no way that Paxton and I could finish mating while the battle raged on in every corner of the room.
Lisa, her mage friends, and our half-blood classmates fought beside the dukes against the pureblood demons. Some of my allies had fallen.
My hellhound had lost an ear, and there was a long gash on his massive shoulder, the blood from it coating his shiny fur. My valiant hound jumped onto another giant demon, snarling and clawing and biting his foe.
My demigods pushed the sheet of their joined energy beams at Ares. The god countered with his Glory, but his power was weakened in Hell. They were at an impasse for the moment.
Lucifer’s hellfire grew even more powerful, caging Loki and me. It singed us and blistered our skin. Loki groaned in pain.