“Are you still here? Shoo, little boy. Before I make you join the padre over there.” She flicks her head toward the dead officiant, and I huff.
I grab her by the throat and squeeze.
“What have you done to Yu-jin?”
She struggles, bringing her hands up to pry my fingers free of her throat, but that makes me even angrier, so I squeeze harder.
“Speak now, you pathetic little demoness!” I yell in her face.
She stops fighting me and instead smiles and shifts into Yu-jin again. My hold wavers for a second, but it’s long enough for her to get the upper hand and set me on fire.
I stumble back and put the fire out with just a thought. She knows she can’t hurt me with fire. We’re both hell-demons. We’re made of the stuff.
“What do you want?”
She shifts back into herself and crosses her arms.
“You.”
I shake my head.
“You can’t have me. I don’t belong to you anymore. It’s been centuries. Why can’t you just accept that? I met my soulmate, and you’re not it.”
She laughs.
“You made a vow to me, Lucian. Do you think because you scorched our handfasting rope those vows are no longer valid? You think we’re done?”
The day I took the rope from our wedding ceremony, the rope that bound us together in sickness and health till death do us part, and burned it to ashes was one of the best days of my life. Second only to the day I met Yu-jin.
“Yes, Lilith. That’s how this works. I don’t love you anymore. I haven’t loved you in a very long time.”
“You’re lying.”
“Watch my lips. Look into my eyes. I. Don’t. Love. You.”
Her face contorts, and she growls.
“You will love me again.”
“Never.”
She smirks. “You will if you want to see Yu-jin ever again.”
I bite my tongue. I want to tell her where to go or what I’ll do to her, but I need to find Yu-jin first. I need her to guide me to him because if she doesn’t, I may never find him. Hell is so vast it would take me hundreds if not thousands of years to get to him.
“If you hurt him, you hurt me. He’s my mate, Lilith. He dies, I die.”
She shrugs.
“Then I guess I won’t kill him.”
“Where is he?” I shout.
She closes the distance between us, grabs me by the tie, and hovers her lips near mine.
“Kiss me, and I’ll take you to him.”
“No.”
