His teal gaze locked on mine.“I want you to share everything you know about Lucifer and his handmaids.”
As I stared back at him, I saw the madness and the greed burning in his eyes.He’d succumbed to his weakening mind.“I haven’t entered Hell, you know that.I live with the knights.I have nothing to share with you that would be of any use.”
He rushed forward and grabbed the bars between us.“Lies!You have lain with Lucifer’s Hell spawn.I can still smell her on your skin.You debased yourself, sinned without repentance as if you were one of them…because that’s who you are now.A filthy sinner fornicating with the dark dregs of Hell.”He pressed his forehead against the bars.“But I can wash you clean, Silas.I can cleanse you of your sin.I can free you, restore you.All you have to do is tell me what you know of Lucifer and his powers.Has he grown stronger?Tell me of the handmaids.Did the one you allowed to defile you tell you Lucifer’s weakness?I fear Hell has made him far too powerful, and I can’t have that.You must understand how dangerous that is.”
“I don’t have the answers to your questions, Uriel.Like I said, I don’t spend time with Lucifer, and until the tournament, I haven’t spent any time with Ursula either.”
He straightened sharply and his eyes narrowed.“I can see that you’ve allowed yourself to be thoroughly corrupted.You have to know I won’t put up with your lies.You will tell me what I want to know, whatever it takes.”
Something had caused him to fracture.This wasn’t him.“You’ve seen something, haven’t you?”I said.“Has a prophecy come to you?What have you seen, Uriel?”
“Darkness, that is what I see, Silas.And you are going to help us defeat it.”
Two angels came forward, opened my cell, and dragged me out.They carried me out of the dungeons and up to Uriel’s wing of the palace.Shoving me into a chair, they strapped me down, and I was too weak from blood loss to do anything but slump there, waiting for whatever torture he was about to rain down on me.
He was going to have to kill me.
I’d rather die than betray Ursula again.
Twenty
Ursula
I staredinto the crackling fire and tried to keep my mind utterly blank.It wasn’t working.Silas was there, forcing his way into every thought.
Some might say running off and avoiding everyone was a cowardly move.I didn’t give a shit.Why couldn’t a girl go camping alone in Skull Forest without everyone being so fucking judgmental?In saying that, so far, Lucifer had left me alone, either he was giving me time or he couldn’t bear to look at me after my failure.
My sisters, on the other hand, had been calling and messaging nonstop, including Uma, who suspiciously wasn’t being a bitch.They pitied me.All of them, and I hated it.Ursula the Relentless didn’t need anyone’s fucking pity.
Groaning, I rubbed my hands over my face.I needed to go back and own what happened.Silas had fucked off and left me to deal with this mess alone.I should hate him.I should loathe him.Instead, I felt hollowed out.I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get why he did it.Losing his wings, his home, had to have been a living nightmare for him.Of course being welcomed back into Heaven was more important than his deal with Lucifer—than me.
Why would he turn that down?He wouldn’t—not for me.
He hadn’t said it out loud, and neither had I, but the male knew my biggest fears, and not the simplified version he’d given Felditch during the game of truth.It wasn’t just being alone, and it wasn’t losing my sisters and Lucifer.While I’d been in my hallucinogenic state, what had nearly killed me—was losing Silas.I told him I didn’t remember what happened during the poison event.I’d lied.When he’d fed me the final poison, I’d been taken somewhere else, somewhere where Silas was mine.It had been so real, had felt so…so fucking wonderful, then he’d been snatched away from me.What seemed moments for Silas, had been days for me.In the illusion, he’d loved me.He’d loved me so fucking much.Then he was gone.
I’d called for him, screamed for him, but he’d been snatched away—and in that moment, I’d given up.I’d wanted to die, and I’d felt myself slipping away before I’d finally been engulfed in darkness.
Silas knew, he heard me calling for him, he’d felt me go limp in his arms.He’d promised never to leave.But he had anyway.I didn’t need him to tell me he didn’t care about me, I didn’t need a lie detector to know he’d lied about everything, because he’d shown me—in a way I couldn’t miss.
A whistle came from the distance, echoing through the trees, someone announcing themselves.
I’d known it was only a matter of time before Roxy would come after me.It wasn’t like I could send her away.Pressing my thumb and finger to my lips, I whistled back, telling her it was okay for her to approach.
A minute later, a huge hellhound walked through the trees, Roxy on his back.She flung her leg over his shoulders and slid to the ground before Lothar could drop to his belly for her to dismount.She buried her fingers in his fur and said something in his ear.He chuffed, jerked his big head up in my direction, then strode away, giving us privacy.
Roxy turned to me, and her eyes were filled with tears.“Urs,” she choked out.“I promise I was going to leave you be, but I couldn’t bear the thought of you out here all on your own.”
“I’m okay, Rox.”
I stood when she ran at me, then wrapped her arms around my body.“I don’t know what to do, how to make this okay for you.I want to cut Silas to shreds, but there’s no way for me to get to him.I just...I couldn’t leave you here alone, not for another day.”
I hugged her back, and when she finished squeezing the life out of me, I grabbed a beer and handed it to her.“How pissed off is Lucifer?”I asked as we sat.
“He’s not.He’s just worried about you.”
I tightened my fingers around my bottle.“I fucked up, Rox.I failed him.Heaven got the prize, a prize we desperately needed.”I sipped my drink.“Glad to hear you and Lucifer are talking though.”
She shook her head, her wide blue eyes still glistening with unshed tears.“We’re not.For now, at least, Lucifer can’t be part of my life.I need time.”