Page 122 of The Road to Hell

I lay curled against Rathiel, his arm draped over my waist, his body warm and solid against mine. The ruined platform beneath us was cold, uneven, but I hardly noticed. Not with him here. Not with the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath my cheek, his heartbeat a quiet, grounding rhythm.

The world felt…still.

It wouldn’t last.

Even now, I could feel the weight of reality creeping in, tightening around me like a noose. We had taken back this piece of ourselves, but the war wouldn’t wait for us to bask in it. It never did.

Lucifer obviously knew I was here. And he was one problem we couldn’t outrun. Nor did I want to.

He would come for me. He would send his forces, his hellspawn, his remaining fallen, and he wouldn’t stop until he had me in his grasp—or dead. Clearly, the latter was his preference.

I sighed, my breath ghosting over Rathiel’s chest. Eliza’s plan was still the only way forward, and now, with more allies at our back, we had a real chance of making this happen. But I wasn’t ready to tackle any of that just yet. Not when I was here, wrapped in Rathiel’s arms, warm and content for the first time in what felt like lifetimes.

His grip on my waist tightened slightly, not to hold me down, not to keep me pinned against him, but because even in sleep, he reached for me. I traced my fingers over the firm lines of his chest, allowing myself these few moments before the world came to find us.

Iwantedto stay here forever, but alas, there was so much to do.

Reality always had a way of killing a girl’s mood.

Sighing, I sat up.

Rathiel’s arm slipped away as I moved, and his eyes blinked open instantly alert despite the haze of sleep. His gaze found me first, sweeping over my face, searching for any sign of trouble before scanning our surroundings, instincts honed from centuries of war.

“What is it?” His voice was rough with sleep, but his body tensed beneath me, ready to fight.

I shook my head. “Nothing. But if we don’t get back soon, the others are going to come looking for us.”

He dragged a hand over his face before pushing himself upright beside me. He didn’t argue. Didn’t ask me to stay in this moment with him just a little longer. Because he knew as well as I did, this wasn’t over. Not yet.

“When all this is done,” I murmured, reaching for my clothes, “we’ll have as many moments like this as we want. But right now, we still have five fallen to kill, and we need to rebuild the rebellion. As much as I’d love to stay here with you, we don’t have time.”

“Three,” Rathiel told me.

I glanced at him. “Three what?”

“Three fallen,” he said, pulling on his shirt. “Gremory’s dead. And Mephisar killed Raelia.”

I froze, one sock in my hand, and stared at him. “What?”

He grinned at me, slow and wicked, his fangs peeking out just enough to make my breath hitch. Bastard. He knew exactly what that did to me. But now was not the time to get distracted—no matter how tempting it was.

“They attacked us before you woke up,” he said, reaching for his boots. “And in the words of one Lilith Morningstar, we kicked a little ass.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that as I yanked on my pants. “Eliza told me about the attack, but never said anything about Gremory and Raelia’s deaths.”

“I ordered her and Calyx to leave with you,” Rathiel said, pressing a kiss against the top of my head before straightening. “So, Eliza wouldn’t have known.”

Wow, only three fallen remained? Gremory and Raelia were dead?

The weight of it hit me like a hammer. Three fallen still stood between us and Lucifer. Three. Not five.

We were closer than I’d thought.

A slow sense of satisfaction curled through me. We had a real shot at this. At cutting down every last one of my father’s champions before we dragged him from his throne.

I finished dressing in record time, barely taking a second to fix my tangled hair before stepping toward the edge of the ruined platform. Rathiel was already beside me, fastening his pants, his gaze flicking toward the encampment below. Or what remained of it.

The only signs of life came from the figures still moving within the wreckage—Mephisar and Sable, their massive forms curled near the outskirts like sleeping sentinels, and beyond them, the distinct silhouettes of our other allies.

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