around the corner, walking quickly toward us. His eyebrows are knitted together, and he’s already signing before he reaches us. I’ve been trying to learn his language, but I’m still pretty freaking bad at it, so all I pick up is the word “demon” and the word “servant.”
I wrinkle my nose. What?
“You sure?” Ryland asks. Knight nods emphatically.
“He saw a demon with the mark branded onto his skin,” Remi murmurs, translating for me. “He thinks it’s a servant of whoever put the mark on you. If we follow him, maybe he’ll lead us to his master.”
My heart jumps with excitement. “Let’s go, then!”
It actually takes a few minutes, since we can’t go anywhere until the servant leaves the market. But Knight keeps an eye on him and signals us quickly when the marked demon is on the move. The rest of us follow, leaving so much distance between us and our target that I worry a bit about him slipping our grasp entirely.
But luckily, every time he slips out of view, we catch sight of him again quickly. We walk across the city into an area where the buildings are larger and spaced farther apart.
My footsteps pause when the servant stops in front of a large gate outside a building that’s set back a bit from the road. As he unlocks the gate and begins to step through, Ford lunges forward. Wrath shoves the gate open wider with one hand while grabbing the back of the demon’s neck with the other. A forcible shove sends him flying into the wall that borders the property. The demon servant’s head hits the hard rock with a loud thud, and he crumples to the ground.
We’re in a sort of courtyard, although like everything else in Hell, it mostly just looks like a burned out ruin. The building in front of us appears to be a large residence. It looks like the world’s spookiest mansion, honestly, and the fact that a demon who wants to kill me might live here only makes it scarier.
As if drawn by my thoughts, a man steps through the front door, his brows pulling together as he takes in the prone body of his unconscious—or dead—servant.
This guy is a demon, I’d bet anything, but he looks almost entirely human. He’s got a pointed nose, white hair, and shrewd eyes. He scowls at the crumpled form on the ground.
“What the—”
Before he can finish, Ford is moving again. The white-haired man looks up in shock, finally noticing all of us standing near the gate. He raises his hands, but before he can do anything, Ford pulls the same move on him that he just did to his servant.
This guy is obviously more powerful, because the blow doesn’t even drop him. But it stuns him enough to give Ford the chance to wrap an arm around his neck, choking him from behind.
“Don’t kill him!” I yell out.
Ford gives me a furious but also sort of annoyed look, as if to say, How stupid do you think I am?
I know he’s not stupid, but the warning still seems necessary. His rage is what’s giving him the strength to keep this demon subdued, but it’s also making him want to murder the demon. Wrath is powerful, but it’s also chaotic. It’s not easy to control, and I’m a little worried that Ford might go too far.
But he’s listening to me, and he’s holding on to his self-control. And that means a lot to me. More than I can say. Or at least, more than I can say to him in this particular moment.
Ford keeps the guy in a headlock, and Ryland crouches down in front of him. His smooth, cultured voice is cold, even colder than I’ve ever heard it before, actually. “Why did you mark Trinity?” he demands. “Who are you?”
The demon narrows his eyes at Ryland. “Pride. I should have thought you were above this kind of thing. Slumming it to protect an angel.”
Ryland raises an eyebrow. “The brother who is holding you is not the one that you should be afraid of—that would be me. He just wants to kill you. I want to do much more than that. So.” He smiles, and it’s utterly chilling. “Why did you order the hit on Trinity?”
The demon chuckles. “You think you can intimidate me? You think you can beat me? My plans are too well laid for seven pathetic sins and a puny angel to defeat me. I am unstoppable. Soon, all of