I’d barely had time to register what I was hearing when Joriel’s hand closed over my arm. The chain keeping him tied to the wall clinked as he pulled me to my feet and moved us so my back was to the rock wall and he was inches away from me.
“What are you—?”
His hand covered my mouth, silencing me. He bent so his lips were at my ear. “When the demons get here, I want you to stay behind me. If anything happens to me, run. Don’t look back and don’t stop until you’re far away from this tunnel.”
I tried to shake my head, but I couldn’t move with his hand over my mouth. I couldn’t just run. It wasn’t only that I didn’t want to leave him alone with the demons, I didn’t have anywhere to go. If the demons really wanted to find me, they would. And if I managed to get away, what then?
Joriel’s skin heated, and he pulled back before his hand could burn me. The slight glow of his halo surrounded him. It looked odd. Shadows danced within the aura of light. He looked like an angel of death. I’d never seen anything like it. He was stunning, unique and thrumming with power.
He spun around, settling into a fighting stance in front of me.
Half a dozen demons came into view. At least I assumed they were demons. I’d never actually seen one in the flesh before. All of them had the same shade of dark pink skin, the same pointed ears, and some variation of horns growing out of their heads. They weren’t as monstrous as I’d been expecting. Beyond those very nonhuman traits, they didn’t lookthatdifferent from anyone else.
They wouldn’t have been all that terrifying if it weren’t for the gleam of malice in their dark eyes.
I shrank back against the wall as Joriel let out a low warning growl that I was pretty sure only delighted the demons.
He didn’t move from his position in front of me until the first demon was practically on top of him. His hand shot out so fast it was almost a blur and sank into the chest of the closest demon. He yanked it back out, the demon’s heart clutched in his fist. Said demon disintegrated into red smoke as if he’d been nothing more than an illusion. The heart must have dissolved too, because Joriel wasn’t holding it anymore as he reached for the next demon and the next.
There was something elegant and graceful about the way Joriel fought, despite the brutality of it. He was savage but also light on his feet and deliberate in all his movements. It added to the angel-of-death look.
Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew I should find him terrifying, but I was too busy staring in awe as he decimated demon after demon to be afraid of him. He was death incarnate, and he was extraordinary.
I was very glad I wasbehindthe efficient death machine that was Joriel. Compared to him, I wasn’t worth noticing.
A man moved through the demons. He was dressed impeccably in a suit with his hair slicked back. His eyes were fixed on Joriel, but he stopped far enough away to not quite be considered a threat. His lips moved, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
More demons flooded the tunnel, and I wondered where they were all coming from. I’d been here for weeks, at least, and had never seen a demon before. But they kept coming now.
Joriel couldn’t fight them off forever. It didn’t matter how good a fighter he was, he still had limits. Eventually he’d run out of strength.
I felt useless as I watched the battle playing out in front of me. I didn’t have any kind of weapon or the skill required to help Joriel.
The human-looking man’s gaze flicked to me, and I didn’t like the way his expression turned calculating. I had a feeling that if I took one step past the shield Joriel was creating with his body, the man would go straight for me.
He smirked as if he knew what I was thinking and was thinking the same thing himself.
Heat blasted through the cell as the light around Joriel intensified. He was like an inferno, and I pressed as far into the wall as I could, trying to escape the searing heat.
It wasn’t comfortable, but somehow it didn’t hurt. I felt the warmth rolling over me, but it didn’t burn like I’d expected it to. Heavenly fire was the single most deadly weapon in the universe. It was strong enough to incinerate even from several feet away, and I was definitely close enough to be in the blast zone.
The two demons closest to Joriel turned to ash in a matter of seconds. The other demons backed up, regarding the angel warily.
I glanced at Joriel, trying to understand how I was still standing here unscathed despite the fire wrapping around his body. Was it because he now had my fire flowing through his veins in addition to his own? It was the only explanation that made sense.
But all speculation vanished from my brain as I took in the sight of him. I stared in horror as the metal collar around Joriel’s neck melted, turning to red-hot liquid that dripped over his shoulders and down his back and chest. I couldn’t imagine what he must have been feeling, but he didn’t so much as flinch. His focus was solely on the man who looked human but was probably a demon since we were in Hell and he looked to be in a position of power.
Joriel sprang forward, and every demon that got in his way was turned to smoke within seconds. When he reached the human-looking demon, he didn’t hesitate as he shoved his hand into the demon’s chest. “Only benefit to my soul belonging to Lucifer—I don’t have to worry about which demons I kill. I don’t work for Heaven anymore.”
This demon turned to a cloud of black smoke instead of red when Joriel pulled his hand out of his chest, but he was still gone.
The few remaining demons turned and ran, leaving us alone in the cell with the smoke of all their dead brethren.
Joriel turned to face me, the glow around him receding until it was completely gone.
I blinked. The tunnel seemed so dark now that his halo no longer lit the space. My eyes adjusted quickly, and I took him in. The collar was completely gone, leaving nothing but a necklace of burn marks. They also streaked his chest and probably his back too, angry and bubbling. Practically every inch of his body was covered in a mix of dark red and black blood. He looked more like a shadow than a man.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice quiet and full of concern.
