Page 66 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
The lighthearted joking didn’t calm my nerves. I wanted to feel ready for our mission, but the tourist clothing and cheap strappy sandals were the best we’d been able to come up with in our rush to have sex. In hindsight, spending a few more minutes outfitting me might not have been a bad idea.
At least then, I would have felt a bit more like I belonged. Like I would be able to hold my own against whatever came next.
“What now?” I asked, wondering why we were just standing around, lava on all sides of us, sweat dripping down the middle of my back. Not to mention my temples, my armpits, between my boobs, under my boobs, behind my knees. It waseverywhere.
I hated the place already.
“Now, we fly,” he said, snatching me up and jumping into the sky without warning.
Yelping in surprise, I clung to him like a giant spider-monkey, legs wrapped around his waist and arms linked behind his neck. It wasn’t easy to keep a grip. His skin was slick from the heat as well.
“Hold tight,” he said as I adjusted, and suddenly we were swooping to the left.
“What was that for?” I cried a second before something dark slashed through the air we’d just occupied.
“Just trying to avoid the welcoming committee,” he grunted, darting another direction, then rolling up and over.
As we did that, one of his wings flicked out and bashed a dark shape, sending it spiraling down into the lava fields, where it was almost instantly incinerated. A brief flicker of flame gave me a glimpse of something with wings and a lumpen head.
“What are these things?” I asked, adjusting my grip again and backhanding one of them away as it tried to land on his wing.
The creature made no noise, simply falling away into the sky before catching itself on the airstreams and heading right back toward us.
“Valrils. They live among the lava fields.”
“And they don’t like intruders, I take it?”
Belial shot us upward, spinning as we went, shedding a trio of creatures that had managed to latch onto him from different sides.
“Not at all,” he grunted and suddenly grew in all directions, shedding his human form as we flew upward.
The hue of his skin darkened, shedding its paleness for a dull shade of ochre. His eyes lost their humanity, becoming bright yellow with small pupils. One of my legs shifted as his tail pushed it out of the way before slicing to the side, cutting a valril in half.
“Much better,” he rumbled, his voice deeper now. But it was still Belial. He held me tight, guiding us through the attacks until they gave up their pursuit, leaving us behind. It was his domain, and he reminded the flying creatures of such by killing more than a dozen of them.
I watched as each one spiraled down to their death. Only one hit an island of rock, but that one was long dead before it landed. Belial showed no mercy.
“At least it would be quick.”
“What would?” he asked as we winged toward the horizon, the sky a ruddy red like someone had spread dried blood over it.
“Falling into the lava,” I said with a shiver. “Hurt like hell, but over real quick.”
“I won’t let you fall,” he assured me.
Something ripped through his body as he said that. I felt the tremor under my fingertips, and it tingled against my torso.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, trying to shrug it off.
“Didn’t feel like nothing.”
“I caught a chill.”
I worked my jaw. “A chill. You caught a chill. Here. Where it’s a billion degrees. Heat so hot I’m wetter than … than …”
“You were back in the hotel?”
