Page 68 of Live Like Legends

I wasn’t scared of him. His power could shake me to my core at times, but I wasn’t scared of him. I reached back up and hissed at the sizzling sound that came from our hands connecting. I tugged while screaming and pulling.

A growl of frustration came from his throat as he released me and I staggered back. The guards moved towards me but stopped a few feet from me as Dimitri grabbed my throat before I could get too far from him. My eyes burned and seeing him was a struggle but I could see that his eyes were tinged red again. “Silly, frustrating girl, you are.”

He tossed me backwards and I fell, landing hard on the ground. I didn’t get up immediately, I just placed my hands on the stones and let my breathing try to get back to an even level.

“You care far too much. Caring for them in the first place was your initial mistake, my love,” Lilith said, the look of pity in her eyes was nauseating.

“How would you know a fucking thing about being cared for!” I screamed at her.

Dimitri rolled his eyes as if he was bored and annoyed at this entire interaction. He moved his hand to the side of him, the image of Leah and her children appearing. “You truly care about an entire realm of angels who would rather use you and fear you, than save these precious little faces right here, right now.”

He made things sound so easy, but Dimitri was also a businessman, just like his father. I knew the things he said weren’t always as simple as he made it seem. There was alwayssome caveat that no one noticed. I stared at the image of Yuri and Jasmine; they were sleeping, their mother huddling around them to make sure they were safe.

I blinked and then blinked again, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw a shadow in the back of the cell. It swished back and forth, almost like….

Like a tail.

Like a dog tail.

No, not a dog. A hellhound.

Before I could let myself be happy that they were being watched over, Dimitri took the image away and shook his head. He had shown me horrible things, things I would be haunted with when he left me alone in this cell for the next few hours.

Dimitri shrugged. “Or maybe you are waiting for your adorable group of friends to find you and then you can make everything right in the realms and pretend like you will have made any difference at all. If that is how you’d like it well then…I promise, I have my plans for them if that plan should come to fruition as well.” He ushered Lilith along with him towards the door.

The guards followed after them and once they were on the other side, I pushed myself off the ground, running to the door. I grabbed hold of the bars at the only opening the stone door had. With all the confidence I could muster I said, “he will find me. Nickwillfind me.”

Dimitri’s shoulders stiffened before he turned around. His larger tattooed hand crowded my smaller one as he held it against the bars. “Oh, I sincerely hope he does find you. I’m planning on it.” His mouth curved into a smirk and my stomach turned.

I felt my hands tingle as tiny light sparks trickled out. Not enough to do any damage, but enough to give Dimitri something to grasp onto. His eyes danced with delight as he watched thelight drift away into the dust that percolated in the air. “Well, well, isn’t that interesting. Next time, I advise you to be a bit more forthcoming with what I know you can do. It brings me so much pleasure to crush every little piece of hope you have, pretty girl. Though, my patience will run thin, even for you.”

He let go of my hand and walked away, leaving me alone. Leaving me to my own thoughts. I pressed my forehead against the bars and felt my eyes burn from the tears that threatened to fall. Lilith had offered him so much before, while he only had to do so little. He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, so he was ruthless enough to take matters into his own hands. Dimitri wasn’t the kind of prince-like hell born demon thatpreferredto just sit back and he was proving that now. He was greedy, like Lilith, but he had all the power to back it up and no one to answer to—except for his father and Lucifer, but from the looks of it he was doing a pretty good job of maintaining his stature while mapping out an entire plan for a domination of realms. The Son of Hell, honestly, didn’t evenneedme, but the fact that hewantedme to just gain power and hurt others…

I made sure the tears stayed where they were as I looked into the darkness of the hallway. There was a part of me that knew Nick would find me, but there was an even worse part of me that hoped that he wouldn’t.

We stepped out of the portal, landing right in front of Natalia’s large residence. After so much back and forth, my father had told Daya and Alex to stay put while he went back with me. I’d told him he didn’t have to, but Maurice Cassial was stubborn. He was also a really good dad and my biggest supporter; I’d mentally hit myself realizing that there had been a time that I’d forgotten that. We still had some rebuilding of our relationship to do, but for now I felt like something had reset inside of myself. I would always feel a sadness and slight anger at the past. The future, though, that looked clear. There didn’t seem to be anything muddling my mind and despite Dimitri’s complete lack of personal mental space, I knew I could fight against it if I had to.

What lay ahead was finding my girl. If I knew Dani at all, she would hate to be in the position of the one in distress. I knewthat it nearly hurt her to not have freed herself and come back to us—come back tome—already.

My father placed his hand on my shoulder, grinning over at me as if just being beside me made him the happiest man in any realm. Once the portal minimized and closed, Reese and Elise rushed down the front stairs and headed straight for us.

Elise looked my father up and down and then did the same thing to me. She casually sniffed the air, but I had a feeling what she was searching for. “Seems as if you took my advice to heart, pretty boy.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Seems like I did.”

Reese shoved her shoulder. “Leave the guy alone. You had one good idea and it looks like it worked out. What do you want? A fucking cookie.”

Elise narrowed her gray eyes at him. “No thanks. I would like to go murder, rather brutally, a Son of Hell.”

I looked over her shoulder to see Garrett and Beetee coming out the front door. “Is everyone ready?”

“Yup. Weapons are in the house as we speak. You coming on this little life-threatening adventure, Mr. Cassial?” Reese asked, rubbing his hands together.

My father chuckled. It was a genuine laugh, one that came from his belly. “No, but I’ll be right here when you get back. And just in case you all decide to end up at my house again, Daya and Alex are waiting as well.”

Reese clapped him on the shoulder but placed his hazel eyes on me. “Hey, Zane said he got this off the floor when you collapsed earlier.” He reached into his back pocket, pulling out Jonah’s leather-bound notebook Dani and I had found in the Divine Library.

“Collapsed?” My father eyed me carefully. I could see the various things going on in his head and the million and one questions he, yet again, wanted to ask.

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