Page 35 of Eternal Sacrifice
“You earned your death,” Lilith hissed, getting close enough to lick a drop of blood from his lip before pulling the knife free.
He smiled in response. A mad smile that suggested not all was as it seemed.
I felt frozen in place and noticed the same when I looked around at the rest of the pack. We had come to save Lucifer, and we had failed. We stood still while the King of Hell’s heart struggled to beat.
A roar burst through my chest, and I charged forward. Lilith turned in time to look me in the eye before I barreled into her.
“Save him!”I barked the order to the rest of the pack and pinned Lilith to the wall with my body.
“Well, hello, Jax,” she purred, arching an eyebrow. “If you kill your little whore, I might make you one of my knights.”
“A mindless creature to order around?” I bit the words into existence, arching my eyebrow in return. In the absence of any rope, my hand slid around her throat. I pushed her up the rough stone wall by her neck, pinning her in place a foot off the ground.
Her fingers attempted to claw at my grip, her eyes bulging. I wasn’t fucking around.
Lilith was incredibly powerful. There wasn’t a reason to even allow her to speak.
“Fuck. I’m pretty sure he died,” Justice said from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder. Lucifer was slumped on the floor, the top half of his body draped over Mor’s lap. Tears streamed down her face, and her eyes were solid black when she looked up.
Lilith took advantage of my distraction, hitting me with a powerful blast from her mind. It filled my head with an ear-splitting screeching noise. My hand opened, releasing my hold on Lilith as I moved to cover my ears. A moment later, cold steel pressed against my neck.
“E-FUCKING-NOUGH,” Lilith shouted, her tone husky from being choked. “One waft of an attack, and I bring your happily ever after to an abrupt end.” She made sure everyone in the room had noticed the change of tide. “I almost liked you, Jax,” she whispered.
I watched Mor push off the ground, leaving Lucifer’s body to slump to the floor. By just looking at him, I could tell he was dead. His skin had already started to take on the color of ash, and smoke began to rise.
The rest of the pack came to stand around Mor.
“It’s too late. I get his power,” Lilith said, pointing her left hand toward the dead King of Hell. “You would have liked my version of Hell.” She said it almost reverently, as if she genuinely believed whatever vision she had for the realm was a better direction.
The blade held against my throat seemed to hum with dark familiarity, and I strained to get a look at it.
“Were you working with my mother?” I said through grit teeth as I tried not to move.
Lilith laughed, and the knife danced further and then closer to my skin. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead, and I tried not to swallow hard.
“She was one of my minions,” Lilith said, as if proud. The blade’s edge pressed harder against my skin, threatening to break me open and steal my voice the same way it had during my youth. “She’s the one who lost my book in the first place.”
“Your book?” Mor asked. “What were you trying to do with the soul fractures?”
Lilith’s grip relaxed, backing off the blade until my skin no longer dipped from the pressure.
“Fractures are just power,” Lilith answered. “Raw fucking power. And with enough power,” she paused, and I felt her body move to the side slightly.
I knew it was my best chance. I used my power to blast the blade away while whipping my head back. A satisfying crack of bone reverberated through my skull, but I didn’t waste a moment in victory. Ducking low, I slipped from her grip and scrambled toward the rest of the pack. My eyes were fixed on Mor’s. She reached out her hand.
I reached out to grab her offering as if she alone could shield me from the will of the universe.
I almost felt the brush of her skin against mine before her eyes went wide as she focused on something above me. Words seemed to form in her throat, starting their way through her lips when pain blossomed in my back. It cut straight through me, exiting out the front of my chest. I looked down and saw the tip of the dagger dripping with blood.
“It’s starting,” Lilith said on top of my back.
I felt the blade twist inside me, forcing a cough. Blood splattered on the floor between my steadying palms.
“Can’t you feel it?” Lilith cried out, and the weight on my back disappeared.
The ground raced toward me as my arms gave out. I felt warmth on my hands and worked to open my eyes a slit. Mor’s black eyes filled my vision, thinly veiled by stark white hair. Her eyes were ringed in red, almost as if her tears were made from blood.
