Page 95 of Hidden Sacrifice
“Anyone notice a demon missing? Or a skinny demon?”I asked.
“I noticed a demon with black hair staring,”Jace responded. “Lower level, shadows on the left."
My eyes scanned the lower levels, looking into the shadows until my gaze met with a demon’s hard stare. I sent the mental image of the demon into the minds of the others, hoping one of them could give me some more information.
“That’s Lilith,” Jax whispered into my ear.
I had heard the boys mention her name a few times in passing. She was more potent than the sins. I purposely fixed my gaze on her, letting her know she has been noticed.
“She looks entirely normal,” Jax whispered as he caught me staring.
“Doesn’t mean anything,” I muttered, instinctually feeling that she didn’t care for me. If looks could kill, I would have been dead already. I bet she was disappointed when I took a drink from the plague doctor and didn’t explode. Holding her in my stare, I took a pointed sip of my Hell-given drink.
Her eyes narrowed before she sunk back into the shadows and disappeared.
The elite demons around us talked animatedly as they devoured their meals. I heard my name several times, but I couldn’t figure out exactly who was saying what. The music slowly turned livelier as the evening marched on, and the dancing started. Dancing quickly turned into blatant pocket orgies, as the common demons celebrated.
Seats at the table slowly emptied as even the elite abandoned their position, favoring debauchery.
“My mother finally showed up,” Jax grumbled.
I followed his gaze down below, sifting through the wiggling masses of far too much-exposed skin before landing on the demon that threatened to kill me when I first arrived. Her hair was long and black, striking against her pale skin. She wore a bulky red dress that hid her figure from the rest of the room.
“She looks different,” I ventured as my eyes evaluated her more critically. I distinctly remembered her having obnoxiously large breasts before; now, they were average in size. “Your mother wouldn’t have nearly killed you, though, would she?” Based on my limited interactions with her, she seemed to love her son fiercely. I couldn’t imagine that love translating into hurting Jax as Fachnan had.
Jax seemed to consider it for a while. The emotions coming off him cycled as his mind flipped through eons of memories. His faint scar shimmered above the collar of his shirt, reminding me that all his trauma was the result of his father.
“What about your dad?”
Jax’s gaze hardened as darker memories swept through him. Anger and rage swirled around us, sharp like a knife. My eyes scanned the crowd for familiar forms before landing on the demon with salt and pepper hair and a matching goatee. He was standing on the opposite side of the room from his wife, surrounded by demons. Their hands reached out to caress his black leather jacket as if they could absorb some of his power through contact. Hatred filled my veins as I vowed to kill him one day.
“Father is plausible, but he isn’t damaged,” Jax sighed.
“Maybe we should get down there and see if we can force a hand into motion?” Jace suggested.
“Marlene is headed toward the pit of Hell,” Justice announced. I watched his eyes refocus as his sight returned to his body.
“You followed her?”
“Don’t worry, Fox. I was quiet as a mouse,” he replied with a wink.
“What’s in the pit of Hell?” I didn’t want us to just run into a trap, but I wanted to end this tonight.
“It’s the center of ring one. Instead of a hole, it’s a pit. No one has ever made it to the bottom and returned. Demons claim that is where Lucifer throws all his failed creations. He makes them disappear as if they never existed in the first place,” Jasper answered.
“That sounds like a trap,” I muttered. I envisioned pushing Marlene into the pit and walking away as all my troubles disappeared.
“We do not want to go near the pit of Hell,” Jax said firmly as if he could see the cogs inside my head working through the fantasy. “Maybe it is time I had a good talk with my father.”
CHAPTER32
JAX
Icould never have imagined the day I chose to stand up against my father was a day that I had no power. Power was the only thing my father ever cared about, and I wore a permanent reminder of that. I double-checked that the necklace Justice made was securely around my neck. I wasn’t sure what would happen if it was removed from either Jace or me. Before the spell was finalized, it had saved Jace from the pains of my burns, but I wasn’t sure how that would work with the alterations. Justice had stressed we both needed to wear one, but he hadn’t elaborated on the consequences.
The chair groaned in dismay as I got to my feet. A younger version of myself screamed out inside my mind to remind me of all my father was capable of. Endless nights of blood seeping from my neck, unable to heal against the wounds he inflicted. My screams only echoed inside my mind as my vocal cords were severed.
Eventually, the screaming stopped, even inside my mind. It had become a macabre routine for decades as my throat was slit every night, and my mother would come into my room to talk to me every morning. She would rub the back of my neck while my throat slowly healed.
