Page 77 of Hell Gate

Lily. Valerian’s voice in my head cuts through my anguish.Hold on, little flower. We’re coming. I know it hurts. We sensed it. We’re almost there.

I stagger, clutching a pinball machine within the boundary trapping me. He’s alive. They’re all alive and they’re coming for me. The cracked open cavern in my chest throbs, the cord connecting me to them pulled taut in the opposite direction.

The demons lured me with a trap, but it’s not real. They’ve messed with my mind. Preyed on my worst fears with the cruel illusion of my mates in trouble.

With the last of my strength, I push a thought to him, hoping it reaches him.I’m sorry.

I believed I was coming to their rescue, but I only fell for the trick. Now they could truly be in danger needing to rescue me. My vision is woozy from trying to use my power.

Hold on for me, Lily.

“What are you waiting for?” The demon in the suit unfolds his arms. “She stepped in the curse circle. Kill her now, Petra.”

“Yes, sir.” Petra approaches me with a gleam in her yellow eyes.

“Hell no, bitch,” I wheeze. “I didn’t survive sink or fucking swim just to die here.”

Her brows furrow, not getting my meaning. It doesn’t matter because the darkened windows shatter behind us and a strong gust of humid air knocks over the cluttered arcade games. My sweaty, blistered grip slips on the pinball machine as a relieved sigh escapes me at the sight of my guys charging through the broken window.

Alive.

I push through pain and exhaustion to drink in the sight of them, my faint heartbeat echoing as I bounce my gaze between them. Fresh tears well in my eyes, and I hate them for the few seconds they take away my ability to see my guys clearly.

“Petra?” Alder barks. “Cessair?”

“You understand duty best, warrior,” the sinister demon in a white suit drawls. “If you stand down now, I’ll show you mercy. My brothers and sisters on the council only demand Valerian’s head for his betrayal to the demon court.”

“No. The council is wrong. You will pay for attacking my mate!” Alder’s bellow shakes the building.

“Then you die alongside the she-demon,” Cessair says.

“You fucking bastard.” Valerian’s eyes flash a cold, deadly shade of blue, then he rushes Cessair.

Alder and Matthias flank him, their assault coordinated without speaking. Valerian clashes against a wall of flames Cessair erects while Matthias deals with the laughing demons, pinning one under his knee before he uses his claws to slice it from the corner of its jaw to its chest, black blood oozing out. Three of the demons vanish as if they never existed.

“I see through your shitty illusions, old man,” Matthias grits out. “They’re not as good as mine.”

Alder has Petra by the throat after knocking her away from me with a fireball. His grip digs into her neck without mercy. My warrior is stronger than her and her eyes bulge as he squeezes with such force her throat collapses with a nauseating crunch. Not satisfied, he locks an arm around her body and twists her neck until her flesh tears, her head dangling from his white-knuckled grip.

“Cessair!” he shouts as he joins Valerian’s fight.

The three of them trade fiery blows while Matthias creates his own illusions to distract and give the others an advantage over Cessair. Several doubles of my guys materialize to join the fight.

Though I’m in excruciating discomfort, I see the difference. If he hadn’t announced his were illusions, I’d believe these doubles of the three of them were real compared to the ones Cessair conjured to torture my mind with. Cessair’s versions lacked the right details—the shades and length of hair off, their eyes not as bright—that Matthias perfectly nails in his. I only missed it because I was so fraught by the belief they were captured.

I try to keep my eyes open. My lids grow heavier with each labored, rattling breath I take. Darkness ebbs at the edge of my vision, the shadows encroaching until I’m unable to fight them off.

Someone yells my name as I collapse to the musty floor while the cacophony of fighting rages on.

* * *

“Is she alive?”Alder’s gruff question sends a sharper needle of agony through me than the sweltering fire I wake to.

Did they burn the building down around us? My eyes refuse to crack open. It’s so hot and my tongue sits heavy in my mouth.

Matthias lifts my upper body. I’m out of it, consumed by pain, but I recognize the comfort of his scent. It’s sharper, tinged with anger.

He curses when he touches my scorched arms with shaking hands and draws a strangled noise from me. “Barely. She’s all burned up and overheated. She needs to heal now.”

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