He lunged.
The blade in his pocket was revealed in a flash and stabbed into Paimon’s neck. Her blood sprayed like a punctured water pipe.
She opened her mouth to roar with the fury of a Queen of Hell, but she only choked as more blood spurted around the blade and poured down her front. Shaheen bellowed, rising to his feet and galloping across the room to intervene.
Seconds. Mist had seconds.
Gripping the knife, he pulled and pushed, fighting to saw the blade through her sinewy neck. If he could remove her head now, he would have time before she regenerated to conjure hellfire.
Her claws tore up his arms like tissue paper, leaving shreds of bloody tissue and tendon hanging off the bone. Her wing talons stabbed into his shoulders until he fought them back with his own. But her strength exceeded his, and he felt her overpowering him.
Her claws began carving up his face, his throat, his chest. Anything she could reach, she ravaged. Pain overtook his senses. Still, he didn’t cease his efforts, forcing his shredded arms to work the blade through her neck until it was half severed… three-quarters severed…
So close, he was almost there—
Shaheen barreled into him. His blood-slicked hands slid off the knife handle as he was thrown back with immense force, his spine smacking the stone. One of his wing bones snapped on impact.
Shaheen took his vengeance with unbridled wrath. Cloven feet stamping, teeth gnashing, the camel pummeled Mist with a force that would have pulverized a human in seconds. Mist tore his claws and teeth into the beast, fighting back with everything he had. Escaping as mist wasn’t an option, as he couldn’t spare the concentration to shift.
Finally, he managed to toss Shaheen aside and scramble to his feet, desperate to get back to Paimon and finish the job of cutting off her head.
He was too late.
She stood before him, her neck pouring blood, her head attached by a mere thread of tissue. Gravity alone kept in place atop her neck. Mist’s knife was clutched in her fist, and the fury on her bloody face was bone chilling. Somehow, she retained consciousness, and she was ready for retribution.
So close.He’d been so close.
He tried to dissolve to mist at the exact second the manacles appeared at his wrists, binding his form and preventing his escape. His heart sank, and the last of his hope died a cold and lonely death.
At that moment, he knew he’d made a mistake. He shouldn’t have come here. He shouldn’t have rejected Belial’s offer of help. He should have stayed by Lily’s side and fought to survive until the very end.
Maybe he’d been afraid of what would happen if he succeeded. Maybe he’d been afraid to find out what freedom felt like. But now that he faced the end, he realized there was nothing he wanted more.
Lily was right. His life was worth something—it was worth a lot—and if given a second chance, he would never choose to carelessly discard it again.
Unfortunately, the time for second chances had passed.
Paimon couldn’t speak with her larynx severed, but he knew what she would’ve said if she could.
He would pay for this as no one had ever paid before.
* * *
The silencein the room was oppressive. Belial felt the stares on him like spiders crawling across his skin, and he wanted to rip them off and crush them into guts and blood underfoot.
Chaos had erupted the moment Lily and Iris disappeared through the hellgate, followed shortly by this tense quiet.
“Well, don’t just stand there!” Eva finally shouted. “Do something!”
He was getting sick and goddamn tired of mortals telling him what to do. “What?” he barked, rounding on her. “What do you propose I do, Eva?” He spat her name like an insult.
Asmodeus stepped between them. “Cool it.”
He was getting sick and goddamn tired ofanyonetelling him what to do, in fact, his brothers included. “Get out of my face.”
Asmodeus didn’t budge. Bel leaned over him, using his superior height to his advantage. “Move before I make you.”
“Guys, we don’t have time for this!” Eva sounded close to tears. “Mist is in trouble, and two humans just accidentally went to Hell. We have to do something!”
