Page 16 of Snowed in with the Demon Lord
That shocked a laugh out of me. “I have nowhere to retreat, even if I agree to.”
“You’re mistaken, Lord. There is one option. The gate.” She shoved me through the doors and into the corridor beyond. Statues of earlier spirelords looked down at me, judging. I doubted they liked what they saw.
Belial was happier to see me. I’d left my hellhound guarding the door, and now he leaped up to follow me, wagging his tail. At least someone was having fun at the end of everything.
Behind us, the outer wall of the throne room crumbled, hellfire bombardment doing its work. The doors swung shut, cutting off my view of the destruction, and I hurried onward.
“And where would I go?” I objected, though I had no other suggestion. “Baal’s forces are already attacking every world I have a stronghold in. He takes no chances.”
At least this plan gave me a destination to head for. Grateful for that, I hurried toward the center of my spire. Everywhere, chaos reigned, battle filling the corridors and gardens. Baal’s infiltrators were everywhere, his treacherous attack carefully planned. Where we identified intruders, we slew them. It wasn’t enough to turn the tide, but it felt good.
My companion threw blasts of hellfire behind us, collapsing corridors as we withdrew. Between the battle and the demolitions, her wreath of flame had faded to crackling green sparks by the time we reached the gate chamber.
The chamber itself was one of the largest in the spire, and in its center stood a complex arch of silver and iron. Black stone held channels of molten gold in complex shapes, movable panels allowing the patterns to be shifted and altered. I felt power thrumming through the walls as I stepped inside, enough to shake the room free from the world.
The entire chamber was a cube carved from a single block of stone, the walls thick enough that it would survive the spire’s collapse, and the esoteric construction was strong enough totake more power than Baal could throw at it. If nothing else, it was a secure location for a last stand.
A futile one, with just two warriors and a hellhound. We’d hurt Baal’s forces, but not so much that he’d notice.
“What now, Captain?” I asked. It took her a moment to remember that meant her now.
“Now, lord, you vanish into another dimension, and?—”
“—we,” I interrupted. “I have no intention of leaving you behind to die in my service.”
“If you die beside me, does it help anyone? No? Then shut the fuck up.” Despite the disaster of a day, I smiled. “Without you, I’m nobody. I can walk out of here while Baal searches for you. If you stay, we both die.”
That made some sense, though I didn’t like admitting it. A loud rumbling crash outside made it obvious we didn’t have long to argue.
“We both go, then.”
“One of us has to remain to scramble the gate, or Baal’s forces will simply follow. Besides, Lord, my husband is somewhere in that mess.” She waved her hand in a gesture that encompassed everything. “If I leave with you, I can’t save him.”
Reasonable. Damnably reasonable. I snarled, but thought quickly, looking for flaws in her plan and finding none. It might actually work.
“Captain, scramble the gate first. I will not go to one of my strongholds to be trapped by Baal’s forces. Send me to a random mortal dimension, scramble the gate again, and he’ll have a hard time following.”
“But—” I cut her off with a sharp slashing gesture.
“No time to argue. If I run to another stronghold, Baal will still have me bottled up. I have to go somewhere new, or this only delays his victory.”
The captain didn’t look convinced, but she leaped into action anyway. I joined her, redirecting the flow of gold into different channels, sending energy to the gate through the arcane architecture of the chamber.
It took too long to find a stable configuration, but at last blue flames wreathed the central arch. A portal to a mortal world, one so far unclaimed by any demon house. A desperate gamble, but the only one I had left in me.
Outside, Baal’s heralds called for surrender, their voices echoing through the halls. The fighting was over; my spire was theirs. Filled with the urge to destroy him, I seethed, but the coward wasn’t even with his legion. If I stayed, I’d slay many of his followers, but they’d overwhelm and kill me.
Or worse, they might capture me. I had no intention of becoming a prize for Baal to gloat over. Denying my enemy that might be the only victory left to me. “As soon as you’ve rescrambled the gate, surrender. Live. When I return, I will rebuild the house, and there will be a place for you and your husband.”
“There’d better be,” she said. “Now go.”
12
HOLLY
“You’re in exile?” I said, watching my demon lover. His face hardened while he told his tale, and I saw the pain and loss in him. “How long have you been here?”
My voice called him back to himself, and when he looked at me his frown lifted, like I’d taken a weight from his shoulders just by being here. His fiery eyes blazed like embers given fresh air, and the intensity of his gaze knocked the breath from my lungs.
