Page 70 of Eternal Sacrifice
Can’t quit now. The bases are loaded.
“Fine,” I huffed. “Go get him, and you can stay for the conversation.”
Jasper turned, and I could feel his eyes boring into the side of my skull as Beelzebub left.
“Are you insane? Wait, never mind, I already know the answer.”
If it’s not an ‘if, then,’ then it’s a ‘then, if.’
I turned to face Jasper, narrowing my eyes. “I am sick of dealing with your war-filled, mercurial, grumpy troll ass. While you’ve been busy running away from Mor,Ihave taken care of her.Isit with her, day in and day out. And I get to watch her slip away. Now I have agreed to talk to my father, the demon I trust least with my mate because all I really give a fuck about isher.”
“Now, boys,” Mammon said, and my head snapped at my father’s voice. While he wore a shifting face, his voice maintained a distinct tone, like a museum curator’s. “Make sure you refrain from fighting around the common demons. They have been through enough uncertainty as of late.”
“How do we stop the withering?” I asked, not wanting to have a full-on conversation.
“It doesn’t stop. It only escalates,” my father said, his tone low.
“Then I don’t need you to waste any more of my time,” I said in dismissal.
“You can’t stop it, but you might be able to slow the descent into madness,” my father said in a quick amendment.
“You have one last chance to either give me the information plainly, or I’ll have Jasper stick you on a pike to see how long it takes you to free yourself.”
“She’s in pain,” my father said, stepping toward our thrones, and I growled, stopping him. “More than you can imagine,” he said, picking up where he left off. “There is a broken bond inside her, and as long as that’s where her mind is, it will unravel like the severed bond.”
I filed the information away, not revealing if I found it helpful in hopes that he would divulge more.
“Putting her in a state of suspended animation would likely help as well,” he mused before looking over at Beelzebub.
“Looks like leaving her in my dungeon was the right call, after all,”I taunted Jasper.
“She can’t stay like that,”he said back, but his tone wasn’t as convincing as his words.
“Is that what you do to mother?” I said, focusing back on all the reasons why I didn’t trust my father. That was a much more convincing reason not to do as he suggested.
“Let me show you,” he said with a smile that suggested he had waited my entire life for this moment.
“You know I will kill you,” I said.
“If anything happens to your mate. I know, son,” he said, guessing there was more to my sentence.
There wasn’t.
“We can take a look,” Jasper said, groaning as he stood. I could hear his bones cracking as he stretched, and I wondered how long it had been since he last moved.
My father turned to lead the way, and Beelzebub followed Jasper and me. We traveled down the hallways of Hell, not bothering with conversation.
The wing of the palace dedicated to the Sin of Greed had been my home for many centuries, but I had hoped I would never have to return to the ominous walls painted in red. My father opened the door, and the magic of Hell recognized him and allowed passage. Jasper and I followed my father through the doorway, and Beelzebub closed the door after he stepped through.
“We should stop in and see if any of your mothers are having tea,” my father suggested, as if we had simply stopped by for a visit.
“Where’s Liberty?” I said, coming to a halt. I had no plans to continue until he told me where she was.
“She’s in her room,” my father sighed as if it disturbed him that she was placed there. Even though he was the one doing the placing.
I motioned for him to lead the way.
“Fine. Fine,” he huffed. “I’m not looking forward to the earful I’m going to get when they find out their son stopped in and didn’t even say hello.”
