“No. I can’t agree to that.”
She shrugged. “Negotiations take time. I guess it depends on how badly you want his help.”
He clenched his jaw. There wasn’t time for negotiations at all. Murmur was a powerful demon, but not more so than Bel. If it came down to it, Bel could take him out.
“Fine. Tell him I’ll owe him one favor.” He’d just kill him later if it turned out he wanted something Bel couldn’t give. Problem solved.
Naiamah’s slender brows lifted like she knew what he was planning. “Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the Necromancer.”
“Did I ask for your opinion? Get to it.”
“Yes, sir.” She smiled wickedly. “Or should I say, yes,Daddy.”
“No, you should not.”
She just laughed.
She turned around, allowing him to discover that the back of her bodysuit was a thong, and her thick, round ass wasn’t even close to hidden by the gauzy skirt. Against his will, his eyes feasted on the sight, and his nostrils flared like a bull as he sucked in a breath.Damn her.
“Only ninety-nine favors left, precious.”
With a wink and a sassy wave, she was gone.
22
Gate Crashers
“Where are we? What just happened? Why are you bloody glowing!”
Lily didn’t answer. She was in too much shock to speak.
The air was hot and stifling, ripe with the pungent scent of sulfur. They were surrounded by rock, the only sound the distant dripping of water, the only light source her own luminescent skin.
As Iris had pointed out, she was indeed glowing.
Immediately, panic set in. She’d been standing in the hellgate that had taken Mist to Paimon’s lair. She’d felt traces of his magic and focused on it, but she’d been unable to complete the connection until Iris was beside her. Together, they must have reactivated the gate, though Belial said it was impossible.
Blood-borns were the only humans that could travel through hellgates without demon blood in their veins—which likely contributed to the myth that they were descended from a demon-human pairing in the first place—but that didn’t make this any less miraculous.
Another time, she would’ve spent hours sputtering with disbelief about how a failed witch who hadn’t practiced magic in a decade had managed such a feat, but not right now.
Now, she had other stuff to worry about. Like the fact that they were currently standing in Paimon’s lair. In Hell.
“We are in Hell.” She tried the words out aloud to see if it helped. It didn’t.
“You’re shitting me,” Iris said. “We can’t really be in Hell. No way.”
They really were. They were two blood-born witches trapped in real, actual Hell. They were doomed.
Stop it. There’s no time to panic.She had to stay calm. Giving into her fear would be a waste of time and energy. No one was here to help them. If she wanted to get them out alive, she needed to get it together and figure out how.
“How did you reactivate the gate? Damn, Lil, when did you become such a powerful witch? And why aren’t you freaking out about the glowing thing?”
“Wereactivated the gate,” Lily amended. “I couldn’t do anything until you touched me. And I’m not freaking out because it’s happened before.”
“What? When? And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Like you told me about the fire?” She shook herself. She was still angry, but now was not the time. “It’s a long story. We can talk later when we get out of here.”
