saw the lines of ebonite poisoning spreading towards his shoulder.
“Come on.” If I sounded confident, maybe it would rub off on him. Maybe he wouldn’t notice the poison emanating from the wound until we were far from here and I could find a healer.
I hooked his arm over my shoulders and led him to the edge of the precipice, my wings fluttering in anticipation.
“God, it burns.” He looked down, saw the spreading streaks, and gave me a wry smile. “Not how I pictured going out.”
“This isn’t the time for levity, Lucifer,” I hissed. “We’re going together or not at all.”
He shook his head slowly and yanked me against him before pressing a quick kiss to my lips.
Then he pushed me off the shelf with a shouted “Go!”
I flapped hard, catching myself in midair before I tumbled down to the rocks below.
And someone grabbed the back of my neck, yanking me back to the ledge.
For a wild moment I thought it was Lucifer. That he’d changed his mind and decided to come with me, or that my effort to weaken the soul-bond hadn’t worked.
But he was kneeling on the ground. The ebonite dagger was buried several inches deep in his shoulder.
The man holding me by neck rotated me, a slow smile spreading across his handsome face. My feet dangled uselessly above the ground.
Nergal had been beautiful. And now that all that beauty belonged to Satan. Touches of oily pitch still lingered at the corners of his full lips. One of his eyes was bright blue, and the other was a muddled mix of blue and black.
Even as I watched in horror, the blue slowly washed the black away, becoming a brilliant sapphire.
He licked his lips, lapping up his oily essence. “Like what you see?”
I couldn’t say anything at all. His fingers tightened, sending shooting pains down my neck and up into my head.
Lucifer looked up, his face twisted in fury, and he launched off the ground at Satan.
Light flared, bright as the morning star, but Satan backhanded him easily. Lucifer went flying and landed face down in the ash. Blood dripped slowly down his back.
The streaks of ebonite poisoning were twining outwards, crawling up the back of his neck.
I kicked hard, but Satan just laughed, spreading a pair of black bat wings wide and refolding them. “It feels good,” he told me conversationally. Several fat black flies buzzed around his head, and one landed on his lip, feeding on the oily remains left behind.
A rushing sound filled the air. Satan’s arm lowered, letting my feet touch the ground, but my struggles were in vain. Nergal’s body had been powerful, and he had several feet of height on me. It was as useless as struggling against the Princes of Dis.
Demons dropped to the ledge all around us.
They wore bits of black silk, showing off their skin and the tribal tattoos inscribed on their bodies. Their wings were dark and leathery, some of them pierced with gold hoops in the webbing, and all of them carried spears or swords.
One of them bowed before Satan, going to a knee and pressing his forehead to the ground.
“My king,” he said reverently. “The queen has sent us to guide you home.”
Satan looked at me, his sharp teeth displayed in a wide smile. “Every queen needs her king,” he whispered.
He let me drop. I went to my knees, gasping for breath and inhaling ash, but my first instinct was to crawl towards Lucifer.
He was still bleeding freely. The poison was taking hold, determined to destroy his body.
I gripped the dagger and pulled it from his back, but the damage was already done. One of the demons kicked the dagger right out of my hand and then stepped on me, driving me towards the ground. I hissed out a gasp of pain as he put more of his weight on my fingers, threatening to snap the bones.
“What do you desire with this one?” the demon asked.
Satan was running his fingers over his arms and bare chest, admiring his new body. He glanced up at us before returning to his exploration. “Bring them. The little one will make me a pretty songbird.”
“Yes, King Nergal.” The demon who’d paid him fealty snapped out orders to the others. I was to be bound and gagged, but kept whole and unharmed- mostly.
Satan looked at me from under his eyelashes. His sly smile made me want to vomit.
Were they not aware? Didn’t they realize this wasn’t Nergal, but a usurper wearing his flesh