Page 90 of Prince of Demons
Yerren swallowed. “He claimed he had urgent business for Lord Kirigan. He said it had been cleared. W-was that not?—?”
Kesh didn’t let him finish. “Where did he go?”
“He walked straight out to the alley,” the second guard said quickly. “Got into his car. Headed east, toward the ninth turnoff.”
Kesh didn’t wait for further directions.
He reached the alley within seven seconds.
The air was thick with motor oil and old brick dust, but beneath it, beneath everything, was her. Twisted and fading, but real.
And Mallorn’s car had gone east.
Kesh’s breath stalled in his throat.
That route.
The route to Hell.
He took her back to the brothel.
Back to Jimmy.
Back to enslavement.
His Second. His most trusted.
The betrayal struck like a blade to the spine. Not just a theft. Not just treason.
He had delivered Georgia.
To that place.
To that fate.
The air around him crackled with his darkness.
Minutes that seemed like hours passed in blur that felt like drowning, then the doors to Hell were giving way beneath his hands, slamming open with a groan that echoed through the dark.
Kesh stepped into stillness.
No lights. No movement. No scent of blood or sex in the air. Just cold, abandoned silence.
But she had been here.
That tether deep inside him pulled taut. Not her scent. Not her magic. Something else. Like the memory of her fear stamped into the walls.
He forced down the rage clawing at his throat. If he let go now, if he gave in before he had her?—
She would be gone.
He moved deeper into the brothel, past empty booths and overturned beds. No bodies. No women. No demons.
Each step made it harder to breathe.
Then—
A sound.
