Joriel’s thumb swept over the strip of bare skin between my shirt and waistband in a soothing gesture.
“We could still stay here,” I said, already knowing that wasn’t what we’d be doing.
“We’re so close, sweetness,” Joriel said, pressing his lips to my temple. “We can do this.”
I climbed off his lap, and we both stood, ready to face our next and hopefully last challenge.
“What’s your name?” I asked the demon prince. I was well aware that it was awkwardly late to be asking that now, but every time I’d seen him before, I’d had more pressing things weighing on my mind.
“It’s not important,” he said with a shake of his head.
I frowned at him. How was his name unimportant? “Will you at least tell me what sin you rule over?”
He smiled, a sad or maybe bitter smile. “I’d rather not be defined by the sin that became mine after the Fall.”
I could respect that, though it felt a little odd to keep thinking of him as Prince Beautiful. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
“I didn’t do anything worthy of your thanks, angel of the light.” In that second, he reminded me so much of Roth the night we’d met, and I felt the same urge I had then to reach out, to soothe this man’s pain and sorrow.
* * *
The stairwellof nightmares wasn’t all that much better going back through. Joriel and I were together, but after Eden—which we got out of fast enough for no clothes to come off—we were never together in the visions that dragged us into worlds of pain and torture. Sometimes we didn’t even both fall victim to illusions at the same time. But eventually we made it to the top where Prince Beautiful was waiting for us.
“That only took you two weeks,” he said like that wasn’t a ridiculous amount of time to climb a set of stairs. His lips quirked as he read the expression on my face. “It took you three weeks to get down. I think the amount of time you spent in Eden made the difference.”
“I was in Eden fora weekthe first time?”
He waved a hand as if that was no big deal at all. “We’re wasting time. You need to get home. You’re running out of time.”
“For what?” I asked.
“You’ll see when you get there. Come on.” He started walking at a brisk pace that forced me to jog to keep up.
“What about Roth?” I asked as we practically ran through the palace. “Can I say goodbye?”
“There isn’t time.” He pushed open a door into the same room I’d been in months ago with the doors to all the different realms of Hell and the elevator that would take us out of here.
Prince Beautiful pushed the button, and it glowed a soft blue for a second before the doors slid open.
TWENTY-NINE
Joriel
The ride feltdifferent than I remembered. Every time I’d ever used the elevators that connected, Heaven, Earth, and Hell, it had felt pretty comparable to a human elevator. I’d hardly felt the movement at all, just a slight sense of ascending or descending.
This time we moved in fits and starts, like the elevator was constantly meeting resistance. The air felt heavy, as though it was trying to push us down.
I reached for Laila’s hand, pulling her tight against my side as my muscles tensed, preparing for a fight.
Then the doors opened into a dim tunnel made of dirt.
“Where are we?” Laila whispered.
“I don’t know. Feels like Northern Europe. Or rather,underneathNorthern Europe.” I had no fucking clue what we were doing here. Was this some kind of last trial, a parting gift from Hell?
We stepped out into the tunnel, and the elevator doors closed behind us. There were no buttons here, no obvious way to open the door again.
Light trickled to us from somewhere, but I couldn’t see the opening to the tunnel from where we stood.
