Page 60 of Hell Gate

LILY

Once we reach the others, we don’t sit around. Valerian decides motels aren’t safe anymore. Within minutes, we’re in the car speeding away in a winding path to the nearest city, circling around and trailing in a different direction. At certain points of our meandering journey, he makes us get out to purposely leave a trace of our scents before we’re on the road again.

Then at random, he directs Alder to pull in when we pass a remote cabin in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. It looks like a vacation home. The quaint house has a dead garden and stale dust coating everything when we get inside after me and Matthias find a rusty spare key hidden under the porch.

The garden makes me think of Lane again. She didn’t deserve to die because of me. I hug myself, wishing I could’ve saved her.

“There’s practically no human scent here,” Matthias says. “Should be safe enough with the scents we left to throw them off. We’ll triple the barriers on our perimeter to be sure. The gates in this area are far off. The nearest one feels like it’s at least two hours away.”

“As long as they’re unable to track us after we doubled back to the mountains from the opposite direction. They’re not likely to expect us to return to the same area near where they attacked you,” Alder mutters. “Now, tell us what the hell happened? Did the knight set you up?”

We only gave a brief picture of what we went through at Lane’s cottage, Valerian unwilling to divulge more details until he was sure we were safe.

He sets his jaw. “No. Rainer owes me a life debt. Besides that, he wouldn’t betray me. He’s one of the few that believed losing my charge wasn’t my fault.”

His gaze seeks me out. It’s the same strange look he had in the cottage. I cover the insistent thump of my heart with a hand.

“We were attacked by assassins. The Shadow Vanguard, going by their white hair and swords,” Valerian says. “They have to be tracking the witches because I could smell the blood of the coven I met with that sent me to this witch.”

I cast my eyes down. More blood on my hands. Alder said I’m not a monster, yet I’m feeling the label fits right now.

“Damn. That highly classed? They only go after the priciest bounties.” Alder scrubs the top of his head, tugging on the longer brown locks on top. “That was smart since the hellhounds haven’t been able to keep on us. How did you fight them off?”

“Lily. It makes more sense to me now.” Valerian studies me. “She has an incredible amount of dormant power at her fingertips. More than we sensed. She took all four assassins down with one attack. Her demon is someone important, high ranking—highvalue.Someone that others would benefit from by getting rid of her with the level of power she has. It’s more than enough to rival the Devil’s and must be why the demon council has every faction hunting us to protect their seats.”

The reverence and respect coloring his tone recounting how powerful my counterattack was when he was injured catches me off guard.

“Do you know who?” Alder asks.

Valerian hesitates. He covers it quickly, but I don’t miss the flicker in his eyes. “Not yet.”

“Did the witch break the seal?” Matthias grasps my chin, bringing his face close to study me. “You don’t look any different, pretty girl.”

Needing him, I close my fingers around his wrist and press on my toes to kiss him.Oh. My heart swells at the swipe of his tongue. I missed this. Missed him. He wraps me in his arms with an affectionate hum that chases away my guilty sadness for the witches.

As long as my demons are okay, I’ll be okay.

“No,” Valerian answers. “The only answers we got are that she might have been forced to reincarnate.”

Alder releases an unhappy rumble, pressing against my back while Matthias strokes my hair. Between them I’m safe and warm. Could it be this easy to have them both? To share their love and fit them both into my heart? An empty void tells me I still have room for more in my hungry heart.

“No demon I know would challenge our laws like that.” I lift my head and Alder elaborates for me. “It’s forbidden. Reincarnation is a gift from the fae gods demons descend from. Forcing it is sadistic torture, keeping the demon from healing, on the edge of death until they trigger the regeneration.”

I shudder, picturing the swirling black portal that swallowed me whole. Is that what awaited me on the other side?

“The witch put her in a meditative spell to access the seal, but we were interrupted before we could find out for sure,” Valerian says.

“It felt like something pushed me out.” I frown. “I thought maybe it was because her concentration broke, but could it be the seal keeping me out?”

“Yes.” Matthias touches my temple. “The mind is a complex thing. Like when you broke free of my persuasive thrall to stay in the car. It can be swayed, but for the complete block of a binding seal, the magic has its own layer of protection to convince the mind to stay away.”

“What did you see when you entered your mental plane?” Valerian asks.

“I was in a castle. It had an eerie gothic vibe, like Dracula would definitely live there.” Matthias snorts, kissing my forehead. “It also felt…familiar. I knew the hall I was in would lead to a throne room.”

The three of them exchange a glance. Alder squeezes my shoulders. “That’s Lucifer’s castle at the heart of Hell in the Towering City.”

I nod slowly in acceptance. There isn’t any running from this or ignoring it.

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