Inferno of Darkness (Divisa Huntress #2) - J.L. Weil Page 0,35
my dagger pressed against his windpipe. “I’d be very careful what you say and do next, or my blade just might slip.”
Confusion clouded his eyes but quickly gave way to rage. “Bitch.” He winced, hissing under his breath as I let the knife pierce his flesh.
“I warned you.” A glimmer of ire flashed across my face.
Silence.
“Good, now I have a few questions, and if you answer them truthfully like the good little soul-sucking scum that you are, I’ll make sure you don’t suffer… much.” God, I loved being in control. Oh, how I missed this so damn much. For months, I’d felt broken and lost, but this, squaring off with the very things I loathed to my core, gave me a sense of empowerment that was like being oxygen deprived and taking my first breath of air. I needed the rush to live, to breathe.
His nostrils flared, and I knew he was taking in my scent. Something like disgust creased at the corners of his curled lips. “What do you want to know, halfling?”
“Tell me how the gate to Hell works?” Every good schemer needed a plan B. My trust in Kira and Cayden wasn’t particularly high. Shit always seemed to go awry, so I would be proactive in my reckless plan to help my mate… a mate I wasn’t even sure I wanted, but I’d be damned if I let Hell keep me from finding out.
If anyone deserved a second chance at happiness, it was me. But then again, revenge was just as sweet.
“You want into the underworld?” he hissed. “No one wants in.”
Kira was supposed to get me to Hell’s Mist. From there I had to find one of the five gates into Hell, ideally the Gate of Darkness, where Cayden would be waiting for me. But getting from point A to point B was where it got fuzzy. “Yeah, well I’m not your average girl. Now talk before I start carving you up like a roasted pig.”
He tipped his face closer to mine, his hot breath clogging my nose. “Die,” he replied, laughing. “I can help you with that.” Bastard thought he was being funny. The joke was on him. I was in no mood for demon humor.
I traced the tip of my blade along his neck, letting it slice through his skin as it burned and boiled at the touch of metal. He hissed. “Don’t bullshit me,” I seethed. “I’ve been to the underworld, and as you can see, I’m very much alive. Tell me about the Gates and how I navigate them.”
Without an invitation, a deal with a demon, or death, there was no way into the underworld unless you were a demon or royalty like Angel, which wasn’t an option. One: she was super preggers. Two: Kali wanted to kill her. Three: Chase would kill me, and that in itself was enough.
FML.
A phantom gust of wind blew through the alley, picking up strands of my hair and carrying my scent with it, along with a sensual and smooth laugh that caressed inside my head. “Be careful, luv.”
The demon’s eyes darkened. “That smell,” he murmured. “Why do you smell like the darkness, halfling?”
My hand trembled slightly at the sound of Ashor’s voice fluttering through my thoughts. Was that really him or wishful thinking on my part? A trick of the mind? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He knows who you are. This lowlife is one who serves under the queenless court.”
Angel’s sector of Hell—the Court of Inferno.
“You’ve been to the Court of Darkness, but there is something else.” His gaze darted from my face to the corner of my neck and shoulder where I knew traces of mating mark peeked out. Panic seized over his face. “You bear the Prince of Darkness’s mark.”
“And?”
Those wide eyes brimming with fear shifted back to my face and tipped upward to the top of my head. I knew what he was seeing—what I saw every day I looked in the mirror. “And his crown? You’re his—”
“Mate.”
“Mate,” I supplied at the same time Ashor’s voice echoed in my head. Why hadn’t he immediately noticed the smoky projection of a crown? “Took you long enough. What do you know of the prince’s whereabouts?”
“Careful now, luv, or I might think you’re up to something nefarious.”
I hushed him, which only brought another chuckle of wicked delight. My heart skipped at the sound.
“What makes you think I would know anything about royalty? I don’t know where your mate is,” he said, playing dumb.