Page 108 of The Road to Hell

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Pitiful,” Lucifer murmured, almost to himself.

Then his fingers curled tighter around my throat, and the world exploded.

Agony.

Not the kind that burned, not the kind that bled.

Worse.

His power was deep, raw, a terrible rending of something beneath the skin, beneath the flesh, beneath the soul. It wasn’t fire, wasn’t ice—it was pure, unrelenting erasure. It seeped into my marrow, curling through my veins, breaking my bones, peeling apart the threads of my soul with the ease of a god tearing down a temple.

I convulsed, my vision blurring at the edges aseverythinginside me splintered.

I tried to move, to fight.

But I was nothing in his grasp.

Darkness opened within me, vast and endless, ready to swallow me whole. I was slipping toward oblivion, toward nothingness. It would be easier to let go. To stop struggling. To just stop.

A broken roar split the air.

Fury, raw and violent.

I couldn’t see through the haze of pain, but I felt it—an explosion of force slammed into Lucifer, severing his hold over me in a single, brilliant strike.

The unbearable pressure vanished, the weight of annihilation lifting just enough for me to collapse, gasping, as I hit the ground. I couldn’t move, couldn’t lift my head, couldn’t do anything but exist in this moment, unsure if there’d be another.

Somehow, I forced my eyes open, blinking sluggishly as my vision swam in and out of focus. But what I saw nearly stole my breath entirely.

Lucifer reeled backward. He clutched his wrist, blood pouring from the stump where his hand had been. He looked…thrown.I’d never seen him look so shocked before.

Rathiel stood between me and Lucifer. Blood slowly dripped from his blade, sizzling against the ground like acid.

I blinked as the pieces slowly came together. Rathiel had saved me bycutting offmy father’s hand.

Lucifer clutched his bloodied wrist, his eyes blazing with unbridled fury. He stared at his severed hand, laying in the dirt in front of me, then at Rathiel, then back at his hand. His fingers, the same ones that had ripped my wings from my back, curled uselessly before going still.

Before my father could retaliate, Rathiel slammed his palm against the ground, blood still wet on his fingers. His power surged, a pulse of raw, untamed energy radiating outward. From Lucifer’s spilled blood, he erected a massive, shimmering barrier. It expanded and grew before encircling my father and sealing him inside.

Lucifer lunged forward, slamming into the barrier with all the force of his fury, but the blood wall refused to break. It reverberated with his impact, absorbing the force, holding firm. No matter how he struck, how his power raged against it, the prison remained intact, sealing him within the cage.

Rathiel had trapped my father.

Rathiel turned to me, his movements swift yet careful as he lifted me from the ground, cradling me against his chest. I barely registered the movement, my body nothing more than dead weight. His arm pressed against my back, where my wings had been, jostling wounds too fresh to touch, but I didn’t feel it. Or maybe I did, but my body simply couldn’t process anything. Too much damage. Too much loss. Too much everything.

“I’ve got you,” Rathiel murmured, voice low, steady, but there was something frayed beneath it. “Just hold on.”

I wanted to answer, wanted to say something—his name, a reassurance, anything at all—but my throat refused to work. My body was too battered. The light inside me sputtered weakly, struggling against the poison Lucifer had left behind, the remnants of his power still curling through me like an infection. His attack had done its job too well.

The world tilted as Rathiel took to the air, his wings beating hard, pushing us far away from the battlefield—and from Lucifer. The wind roared in my ears, but it felt distant, like I was already slipping into some place beyond the world, beyond sensation. My head lolled against Rathiel’s chest, and even though I knew I should fight it, should force myself to stay awake, the blackness kept tugging at the edges of my vision.

I had to stay awake. Ihadto.

I forced my gaze up. Met Rathiel’s eyes.

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