Page 97 of Her Darkest Devils (The Seven Sinners of Hell's Kingdom 3)

“Micah!” I call, heaving a breath.

I don’t make it all the way into the living room as Kase steps in my way, a frown knitting his brows together. A few feet behind him, Dante tightens his jaw. He tries to remain expressionless, but the green flash in his eyes screams at me that something is incredibly wrong.

I whip my attention toward the glowing fire and catch sight of Micah and Lucian quietly arguing with each other.

My heart freefalls into my stomach as their gazes jerk to mine.

Lucian scowls and disappears, abandoning us and jumping back through the portal into Hell.

“Spit it out right now. Where the fuck is Elias?” I ask, my voice quaking. “If I find out that one of Lucian’s bitch-ass minions has him, I’m going to destroy his kingdom.”

Micah opens and closes his mouth and shakes his head.

I flick my gaze to Kase and Dante and back again. Andre comes up behind me without Zade, probably scared off. “Okay, he’s not a demon’s bitch. That’s good.” It takes everything in me to keep prying. “So where is he?”

Again, Micah doesn’t respond.

Dante steps closer, taking charge of the situation. “Raven, I don’t want you to freak out, because this is a good thing in the long run.”

I blink my eyes, trying to control my emotions. “Just fucking tell me.”

Dante opens his arms, quietly asking me to step into them. “When a mortal’s life is brutally taken before its time the way Tamia took his, a soul gets reborn and the cycle continues. The same happens for those who take their own lives. It takes someone of either terrible darkness or pure light to end a cycle when they die outside of their time. Elias was unbound and teetering between Heaven and Hell. His decision to protect you is most likely why it happened. Like I said, this is a good thing.”

My mind whirls with a thousand thoughts, and I clutch his shirt between my fingers. “How? How is this good? Elias is gone! He’s gone and could end up anywhere in the fucking Mortal Realm. Even if we find his soul...I’m fucking thirty-four! It’ll be like nineteen years before he’s an adult. He could be anyone.”

“He can also still take a throne,” Micah says, getting the nerve to speak.

My heart aches, and the edges of my vision shadow.

I want to scream and tell them that I don’t care about that. I care about my soulmate and the life that we had together now. The one that will stay with me for eternity. Who knows what will happen in twenty or thirty years. I could die before then.

There is no point in arguing or telling them how I feel.

There is nothing I can do.

Bowing my head, I let my burning tears sprinkle over the floor.

“We will find him. We’ll do whatever it takes,” Kase says, hugging his arms around me and Dante.

If only they could rewind time.

Because in this moment, even knowing we have another chance to help humanity and Elias isn’t trapped as a soul in Hell, I can’t help feeling selfish. I can’t help wanting Elias as he was. As we were together. And I damn well can’t stand the thought of being without him for what could be the rest of my life.

“Raven?” Andre whispers from behind me. “Say something.”

I suppress my anger the best I can, trying not to scream my anger. “I—I have nothing to say. It is what it is.”

My chest tightens and something dark rises in my soul.

It steals my light.

It devours me whole.

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