Lilith grabs me by the mouth and turns my focus back to her, eyes as red as her fury.
“Forget him. I’m your wife. I’m your queen.”
“You? You’re no queen. Definitely not mine. I burned our rope a long time ago. You’re nothing to me but a distant memory.”
Lilith watches me with a stone-cold expression before she starts fake-sobbing.
“That’s okay. Iwillmake you mine again. I mean, that’s why we’re here after all, aren’t we?”
She flings her hands to the side and the air around us clears. I can finally see not just her, not just shadows, but the world around us. Row after row of hell-vespers, creatures of the night, creatures of blood, creatures she adores.
They’re all watching us, their heavy breathing creating a creepy chorus, their shoulders rising and falling in unison as if bracing for war.
But it’s not war they want.
When one of her vespers steps beside us, I know exactly what she has planned.
“I assume you remember Mammon?” Lilith smiles and lifts her veil to pet her favorite bat creature.
The first of them.
The hell-vespers are dark humanoid creatures with big bat wings, red glowing eyes, and sharp teeth perfect for tearing flesh.
“Master,” Mammon says, their voice low, husky, barely understandable, and I flinch.
“You…you made them talk?” I glare at Lilith, who looks far too pleased with my shock.
“Of course I did, sweetheart. Mammon was the first. The rest of my babies will soon follow.”
This was unnatural even for demons. Vespers were animals. Creatures of the moonlight. Not puppets. What the fuck had Lilith been up to all this time?
“Come on, Mammon. Let’s not waste any time. Daddy is home, and it’s time he and Mommy are united in unholy matrimony again.”
Mammon bows to their mistress and retrieves a dagger and a rope.
“No!” I shout. “No way. I’m not marrying you again. Forget it.”
“Of course you will.” Lilith smiles like the lunatic she is and points at something behind Mammon. “You will, or you can forget all about your little play-thing.”
Mammon steps aside, and I see what their mistress is pointing at.
Yu-jin.
“Lucian!” My name on his lips is like a song despite the current situation.
He’s bound to a rock in his wedding suit that looks torn and drenched in blood. There is a single scratch on his face, and it’s painted his white complexion red.
“Yu-jin. My darling Yu-jin!” I call out to him even though I can move only as much as he can, which is not at all.
“Yes, yes. Reunions are so sweet. Whatever. It’s time to bind you back to me.”
I snap back at Lilith and step toward her as far as my chains will allow.
“I’m not binding myself to you ever again, Lilith. What’s so hard to understand?”
Lilith pouts and crosses her arms, but she’s not deterred.
“You will or no more Yu-jin,” she says.
