brat,” Ares confirmed.
“I think he wants to kill you,” Lucifer chuckled in his deep, velvet voice. “That’d be patricide.”
“For Marigold, the boy would kill anyone,” Ares said without a care. “In the end, it’s always about a woman. We need to transport the girl soon, Lucifer. She won’t be able to cause trouble after we siphon off a little more of her magic and put a temporary seal on her power.”
I swallowed another wave of cold fear, knowing their intentions for me were dark, inhuman, and evil.
My mates kept throwing themselves at the orb, attempting to break it with their brutal strength. Even if they succeeded, it’d be too late to reach me. And if they broke through, the devil and the god would take them out before my mates could whisk me off. My demigods weren’t ready—all five of us weren’t ready—to face off against both the devil and the god at once.
Ares and Lucifer closed in on me, and I was almost completely drained.
It was time for my demigods to save themselves and let me go. It was time for me to finally tell them what I was so they’d be able to move on.
“I’m a half-demon. I’m the lost demon princess,” I called, loud enough for all of them to hear.
The demigods paused at the barrier.
They knew now. They wouldn’t come for me anymore. I wasn’t worth their efforts anymore.
The four of them stared at me, faces pale as the dead. They were all burned to various degrees from colliding with the orb. They could stop hurting themselves now.
“I’m sorry I kept my dirty secret from you,” I said, pathetic tears flowing down my face. “But know this, I might’ve been born a demon princess, but I will never behave like one.”
The old Marigold was no crybaby, but I couldn’t help it. My heart was broken. I hadn’t planned to fall for them, but I had. I had wanted to have just a bit more time with them, but my time had run out. I’d found a home with them, but I couldn’t keep it.
I dropped my eyes as I couldn’t bear to see the disgust and blind hatred on their faces. Yet the crashing sounds resumed as they started ramming into the barrier again.
“Hang in there, lamb,” Héctor snarled. “We’ll get you out of there.”
Hadn’t they heard what I’d announced? I raised my tearstained face, and through the mist of my tears, I saw pain, fear, and devastation distort their handsome faces.
“Let’s wrap it up,” Lucifer said.
The combined power of Ares and Lucifer tightened its iron grip on me, ready to hold me captive forever.
After they took me to Hell, the devil, the ultimate evil beyond anyone’s perception and understanding, would bend me to his will using every means at his disposal. And he would succeed.
I’d be Celeste, re-forged by him in the inferno.
But even the devil had underestimated me.
I was Marigold.
I was no one’s victim.
I was no one’s bitch.
I wouldn’t allow anyone to decide who I was and set me on a dark path of no return.
I wouldn’t be that Celeste bitch who would turn on my mates, my friends, and Earth.
The devil and the god could have me—my empty shell, my corpse. That was all they would ever get from me. In death, I would defeat them and thwart their sinister plans.
And if I died, there was no reason for the God of War to go after my demigods. But if I allowed myself to be dragged to Hell, they’d come after me and lose their lives.
I had many regrets, yet I’d had more rewards. I’d had the time of the century with my demigods, no matter how brief it was.
“Forgive me and forget me,” I said. My tears dried as my gaze caressed my mates one by one, one last time. “I love you, all of you.”
With the last ounce of my strength, I brought the dagger to my chest. Residual sparks from the Flame of Rainbows danced across the steel. I plunged the flaming blade into my heart.
The dagger’s sharp tip reached my beating, breaking heart, kept going, and impaled it.
Everyone screamed at once in a cacophony of chaos.
Agony erupted inside me as my life seeped through me, and then the light abandoned me.
The elemental roared, his essence crashing into me like the last flare of light and heat from an exploding star, and the Ever Realm imploded from within, collapsing around me.
The last sight to cross my consciousness was more rage