Page 49 of Her Personal Demons (The Seven Sinners of Hell's Kingdom 1)

“Trust me, Lucian. They’ll be back with Micah. Let me help pass the time.” I crawl on my knees through the hellfire, glancing once over my shoulder at the hallway.

Kase better fucking find Micah and force him here. I know he lingers nearby, because he refuses to give up on thinking about anything other than how he’ll redeem Raven’s soul. Angels love picking losing battles. They can’t help it. Micah will find out soon enough that Raven isn’t just bound to Hell by a deal with Lucian. Her pretty soul chose to tie itself right around my cock and there is no way she’s letting me or Kase go. I felt it in her mind as she gave in to Kase’s filthy fantasy. She wouldn’t let him screw her any way he pleased otherwise.

Lucian growls deep in his throat and snatches my hair in his hand, yanking my head back to look at him. “I always knew Micah would reunite with us first. He never could truly resist the allure of free will and punishment.”

“You were right. Like always.” I force my mouth to grin and grab onto Lucian’s hips, trying to pull his cock to my mouth.

Tightening his fingers through my hair, he stops me from molding my lips around his fat cock, far from being as sexy as mine or Kase’s. A little manscaping would go a long way, but this fucker likes to repulse over seduce.

“And you were always overcompensating when you know you’ve failed.” Lucian jerks me forward and rams his dagger right between my shoulder blades, forcing my wings to automatically unfurl and stretch from my human façade.

I holler in pain and annoyance, swinging my fist out to punch him in his knee. Lucian doesn’t expect me to fight against him and stumbles back. I flap my wings, launching myself to my feet. Unsheathing my serrated knife, I flick my wrist and throw it at Lucian’s chest. It sinks into the bone-hard armor of his hellish form, surprising him. It shouldn’t have been able to penetrate him, but it crackles and hums with what looks like holy light.

Instead of slowing his rampaging ass down, the dagger sets him off into the powerful devil he is. I can’t dodge away from him and out of the hellfire circle fast enough to escape his wrath. He grows several feet in height and slams his clawed hand into my shoulder, impaling me. I hiss and snap my fangs, putting Lucian’s power and strength to the test. I only get in one bite to his muscular forearm. He’s tethered to Hell, after all. His strength comes from the suffering souls he tortures, devouring their darkness to feed his power. To be on this plane, Kase and I had to sever the line to our levels of our burning kingdom, which is the only reason Lucian can overpower me in this minute.

Grunting, I take another blow from Lucian as he stabs me in the back again. He wasn’t lying about taking my wings for failing to bring others as a gift to him.

“Lucian, stop,” I snap, summoning my super strength. “You know I need my wings for the mission.”

I lock my fingers around Lucian’s ankle and squeeze, feeling his armor crush under my fingers. If I could get to my feet and do the same to his neck, I could force his ass back to Hell until he cools off.

He roars and jabs his blade deeper into my wing, twisting it in an attempt to leave me weak. Grinding my teeth, I suppress the pain he inflicts. It’ll be nothing like the pain I plan to put him through once we return to our kingdom. He’s let his power get to his head. His impatience turns him into the devil he’s been painted as for as long as I can recall. If he doesn’t remember what our plan was or that none of this is solely about him, it could fuck everything over.

“Lucian! Get it the fuck together! I’m not your enemy,” I holler again, managing to jab my fist into his knee, forcing him back.

“You’re worse.” Fire ripples across his body, eating away at his former glorious façade.

Fuck.

I don’t have to look over my shoulder to know Raven lingers nearby. Her soul calls to mine, the sudden whirlwind of her emotions pushing me to attempt to get Lucian in his place before she tries herself.

I flap my fingers, singeing my feathers on the hellfire as I stretch them past the summoning circle. Lucian smashes into my chest, knocking me against the fiery wall. If he wasn’t holding me, I’d fall to the other side of the barrier alone. As long as he has his hands on me, I’m stuck within the circle with him. I can’t go if he can’t.

“I’ve waited far too long for my prophecy to come to fruition. This should’ve been easy, Dante. You let the mortal realm weaken you.” Lucian grabs me by the wings and forces me to my knees. Punching me in the solar plexus, he winds me and stomps his hoof into my back. I fall forward, trapped under the strength of his power. “You don’t deserve the gift I left with you. Those wings are too much of a reminder. They must go.”

I grind my teeth as Lucian locks one hand to my wing and stretches it out. Searing pain explodes over my back, the heat of his dagger ripping into the base of my wing as he slowly saws through the top in his mission to remove them from my back.

I can’t stop the holler from escaping my mouth, the agony of his torture consuming my ability to fight back.

“Lucian, no! Stop!” Raven’s voice echoes through the air, cooling the wave of intense pain blazing through me. “Stop!”

A bright flash of light erupts through the room as Raven charges through the ring of hellfire. I blink through the haze of my pain, my vision faltering as it only allows me to see the vivid light of her essence.

Strong hands lock onto my ankles, dragging me from the summoning circle. I gasp at the wave of fresh air and relief, the agony turning into a more bearable ache. Kase towers over me in his hellish form. Roaring, he whips his tail at Lucian, trying to protect Raven from his wrath. I gape in awe, watching as our beautiful soul smacks Lucian in the face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so incredibly sexy in my life. No mortal has ever stood up to Lucian as much as she has, and my body awakens with a massive boner.

“You bastard!” she screeches, trying to slap Lucian again. “I’ll cut your fucking dick off for hurting him. You have no right!”

Is it possible to fall madly in love with a soul in a matter of seconds? Who fucking knows. Whatever bursts inside me steals my breath and brings a strange emotion crashing over me. Her disobedient, protective attitude envelops me, strangling me the way I like. The light of her soul casts through the room so brightly that Lucian hollers in rage, throwing her at the wall with a thunderous boom. He tries to push his way through the summoning circle’s hellfire, but it ignites, billowing higher, building a flaming wall he can’t cross.

Raven hits the hardwood floor, knocked unconscious. That kills my boner, seeing as I can’t rush and fuck her brains out, showing her how much I enjoyed watching her attempt to protect me from Lucian’s bastardly behavior.

Kase jumps over me and charges across the room on all fours. Smoke billows from his mouth, a breath of fire escaping with his wrath. Lucian tries again to break through the barrier, hollering and screaming for Kase to stay away from his soul. I push to my feet and release a low hiss. Lucian spins to lash at the barrier in front of me, and I flip his ass off, turning back to Kase. He lies on his stomach next to our girl and nudges his big head into Raven’s stomach, flipping her over to check on her. Her soul shines brighter than ever, though a chord of Lucian’s darkness squeezes it so tightly I’m afraid she’ll break at any moment.

“Leave her to suffer,” Lucian bellows, his deep voice heating the room. “You two have failed to prove yourself worthy as my equals, and I will not stand idly by and watch my ungodly plan suffer because of it.”

“We’vefailed?” I ask, fury burning me to the core. “How the fuck have we failed? Micah is moments away from jumping from grace head first and right where he belongs. The only fucker who will cause this whole damn plan to fail is you, Lucian. You treat Raven as an expendable soul when she is not. We need her—not just to break these fucking angels. We need her to completely cement our levels of Hell. There aren’t many angel-kissed souls who will follow through. You’ve already endangered everything with your lack of patience.”

Lucian snarls and beats against the barrier, shaking the whole damn apartment building. Fire blazes around him in bright orange and yellow, his power testing the strength of the Higher Power’s cage that contains him.

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