I nod my head quickly, digging my nails into him.
“We will fix this.” He pulls me tighter to him, pressing his head into the curve of my neck. “I just…” It’s now he begins shaking, one of his hands snaking up to the back of my head, the other encircling around my waist. “Why can’t I protect you?”
The sound of splintering glass echoes in my ears, and I wonder if it’s my heart or my mind that’s shattering.
“Damn them,” he whispers, and in the words that follow, I hear the faint crack in his voice. “Damn them all.”
Warm liquid trails down my collarbone, and I unravel at the seams. Clutching him tighter, I can only hope that one day, we won’t have to save each other anymore.
Chapter 52
Xeraphine
“No, that isnotwhat I agreed to, Belial!” I like this side of Alaric. He’s angry because it seems we are both being fucked with this deal.
All the great ruler of the Beyond does is laugh while looking down at me. “You will give birth to a part Divine, part Demon and part Mundane. Then, hand it over to me. That… is the deal.”
Alaric steps in front of me, and shouts, “It was meant to be my revenge! You can’t have what you promised me!”
Wrapping my arms around my waist, I look at Proserpina. She’s leaned off to one side, hand on her hip staring at her… husband? Her father? That concept still shakes me, but it’s been thousands of years, I imagine that doesn’t even cross her mind anymore.
“You will know your place, Fallen,” Belial snaps.
“You cannot break a deal. If she so chooses—” Interesting… He wants to give me a choice now. “—to give me that child, it is mine. Not yours.”
A low, throaty rumble escapes Belial’s chest. “Do you remember our deal, Alaric? If I recall, you denied my offer of her. Which means anything that comes out of her, I can do whatever I want with.”
“I’m standing right here, you fucking vile men,” I groan. “Disgusting…”
“Do you understand the consequences of such a child?” It’s the first time Proserpina has spoken since consoling me moments before the deal was brought up. She’s not concerned about my feelings, but I’m not surprised. “You will be culminating the three worlds. That child will be…” She trails off.
As though I’m carrying it already, Belial stares directly down at my stomach. “Yes, I do.”
Heat rolls through my abdomen straight to my chest, but before I can scream obscenities, Alaric puts his hand in front of me… right over the place Belial is beating his gaze into. “No. I don’t agree, and this deal needs me to be fulfilled.”
“Growing a conscience?”
Shaking his head, the Fallen hisses, “I will notrapeher, and that is the only way this would happen. Even if she said yes right here, right now, the moment we get back to the mortal world, that will change. Bounding us to this deal will make me force her into carrying a child out of manipulation.”
“The Divine, so fucking ethical,” Belial spits. “Then fine, the boy dies, Tali takes her, and rapes her to reproduce.”
I nearly jump out of surprise when Alaric turns to face me, his hand resting on my upper arm. “We will figure it out, come on.”
I’m aware that his actions right now are for selfish reasons. He wants a child to use against the Vayl for what they did to him. What the child would be used for… I’m unsure. Maybe just a big ‘fuck you’ to them for hurting Alaric, who knows.
It’s obvious that Belial would use the child to bring war.
That won’t happen, not for a long time—No, actually, it will never happen, because I’m not here to offer up my body.
I nod at Alaric, and prepare to walk away when Belial says, “I heard you calling for me.” Slowly, I tilt my head to gaze in his direction. “Your cries for freedom, for peace. You didn’t know this but you should have been calling for Proserpina.”
I’m not ignorant to that now. If I had called for her, things may have been different. Likely, I would have been saved from the misery of my life, and wandered down here in the Beyond.
But then I think of Kairhyse, and the prospect of never having met him.
“Even still, you are damned and the one that holds your domain is your mother. Unless she were to summon Proserpina to take you, you’re stuck on Earth.”
He’s a snake, strategic with his wording. As I turn my head to see Proserpina looking at me, my words catch. “You… would take her if she was to be damned?”
