I rushed toward him, and he swept me up into his arms, crushing me against him with a sigh. I wanted to stay there in his arms, but there was no time.
I pulled away. “We need to move.”
Mal took my hand, and we broke into a run, away from the tavern and across the road, headed for the tree line for cover. Keon and Conah lugged the demon who was barely semi-conscious. I think Conah may have punched him again.
We hit the tree line and kept going for long minutes. Mal tugged me along, his grip tight. I wanted to stop and hug him. To tell them both how fucking relieved I was to have them back, but we weren’t out of the woods yet, pun intended.
“Can you fly?” Keon asked Azazel.
“I think the drug is mostly out of our systems, but I wouldn’t risk a flight.”
“This run should help metabolize,” Mal said.
“There’s a barn a quarter of a mile up ahead,” Keon said. “We can regroup there.”
We picked up the pace. I had my guys back, now all I needed to do was keep them safe.
Chapter Sixteen
The barn was isolated and abandoned, but it kept out the worst of the chill, and the acres of land around it meant that the demon’s screams wouldn’t be heard by anyone but us. I stood by the doors as Keon worked on Mammon’s man, unable to watch him slice and remove talons.
“Are you all right?” Mal asked, joining me by the doors to look out at the night.
I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I’m fine. What about you?”
“Better for seeing you.” He slipped his arm around my waist. “For a moment there, I thought we were fucked. That I’d never see you again.”
My mind drifted to Limbo, to my sacrifice. “You have no idea.”
“Huh?” He nudged me to look at him. “What happened in Limbo?”
“Tons.” I filled him in on the weird nature of the place, on the man, and on how Uriel had been captivated by the music. I told him about Keon and how he’d tried to kill me and what I’d done to bring him out of his trance.
“You kissed him.” Mal’s jaw tightened.
I licked my lips. “It felt…right.”
He searched my face. “Fee…not him. Please tell me you don’t have feelings for that creature.”
I wanted to tell him exactly that, but the words wouldn’t come. I shook my head. “Look, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the power is free. It was the man all along.” I recounted what the divine power had told me. “So, the end of the worlds has been postponed.”
Mal touched my face. “You offered your life?”
Ah, yeah, I’d glossed over that part, hoping he wouldn’t dwell.
“Fee…”
I shrugged.
He looked pained. “When will you learn how much your life means to us? Did you even stop to consider what your loss would do to us?”
“I did. I considered it all, and I couldn’t sentence another soul to burn. It just isn’t who I am.”
He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me to his chest. “I fucking love you, Fee. More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. Please, don’t put yourself in the line of fire like that again.”
His tone was calm, but his heart was thundering against my cheek.
I slipped my hands up his back and clasped him to me. My breasts were squished against his hard torso. The contact was warming and soothing, and for a moment, I allowed myself to imagine we were back at quarters and everything was in order—no looming war, no quest for a queen, nothing but the regular grind.
Keon’s victim’s shrill scream of pain pierced my head.
I pulled sharply away from Mal, stomach churning as the scream tapered off into a gurgle. “How can he do it? Hurt someone so coldly?”
“He’s not Lilith’s Blade for nothing,” Mal said.
But I’d seen the vulnerable side of him, the soft side, the side that could save a life, not take it. “It’s just so brutal. He’s so brutal.”
“I have something,” Keon said from behind us. His tone was even and cold.
I looked at his blood-spattered face. He leaned his head to the side and regarded me evenly.
“He’s a grunt. Doesn’t know details but had a location. Something he overheard.” He dragged his attention from me to Mal. “The pit.”
“Fuck.” Mal blew out an angry breath.
“What? Wait…Weren’t the circles called the pit?”
“Maybe as a nickname a long time ago,” Mal said. “But