7. I’ll do anything for love.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE."

I open my eyes.

To my surprise, I'm not lying down. I'm standing. And immediately, I'm welcomed by the familiar surroundings of Infernus. The coral-bright sky. The sulfur in the air that pervades anything and everything and the sand dunes of Tormentia are as vast as they are dangerous.

"I have to say I haven't missed home at all."

It's the truth. Earth has always been more appealing, more inviting. Not just to me. But to most of my kind.

"Awww, but, dear husband, home has missed you." Her voice, like usual, sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

It wasn't always that way. There was a time when her voice was a melody I couldn't get enough of. But that was before her betrayal. Her multiple betrayals.

Or adventures, as she liked to call them.

Her silhouette appears before me, but visibility is so limited that I can barely make out anything else.

"Too bad there isn't anything at home I care about." I try to bring my hands up, but I stop midway, the chains around my wrists and feet blocking me from fight or flight.

"How could you say that? I'm here." She steps within feet of me, and I can't help the bile that climbs up my throat.

She's wearing her wedding dress, a long, puffy dress full of lace and bad memories she stole from a poor woman on Earth almost two hundred years ago. The veil draped over her face does little to hide her ruthless eyes or horrible smile.

I hate this woman. I hate this woman so much. But I don't care. All I care about is him. He must be here, right? He has to be.

"I stopped caring about you the moment I found half of Infernus buried deep inside you," I snarl, but I know she won't listen to reason. That's how she's always been. That's what she's always done. Taken what she wants, when she wants it.

And to think, once upon a time, it was one of the things about her that charmed me.

"Oh, Lucian, still dwelling on the past, haunted by the same ghosts. Move on, would you?"

I growl at her.

"I have moved on. And the moment I did, you came back and tried to hurt me. To hurt us. Yu-jin!" I shout the name sitting on the edge of my tongue since I woke up.

What if he isn't here? What if I gave in to her trap for nothing?

"Lucian!" I hear a voice in the distance.

"Yu-jin, are you okay?"

Lilith grabs me by the mouth and turns my focus back to her, eyes as red as her fury.

"Forget him. I'm your wife. I'm your queen."

"You? You're no queen. Definitely not mine. I burned our rope a long time ago. You're nothing to me but a distant memory."

Lilith watches me with a stone-cold expression before she starts fake-sobbing.

"That's okay. I will make you mine again. I mean, that's why we're here after all, aren't we?"

She flings her hands to the side and the air around us clears. I can finally see not just her, not just shadows, but the world around us. Row after row of hell-vespers, creatures of the night, creatures of blood, creatures she adores.

They're all watching us, their heavy breathing creating a creepy chorus, their shoulders rising and falling in unison as if bracing for war.

But it's not war they want.

When one of her vespers steps beside us, I know exactly what she has planned.

"I assume you remember Mammon?" Lilith smiles and lifts her veil to pet her favorite bat creature.

The first of them.

The hell-vespers are dark humanoid creatures with big bat wings, red glowing eyes, and sharp teeth perfect for tearing flesh.

"Master," Mammon says, their voice low, husky, barely understandable, and I flinch.

"You…you made them talk?" I glare at Lilith, who looks far too pleased with my shock.

"Of course I did, sweetheart. Mammon was the first. The rest of my babies will soon follow."

This was unnatural even for demons. Vespers were animals. Creatures of the moonlight. Not puppets. What the fuck had Lilith been up to all this time?

"Come on, Mammon. Let's not waste any time. Daddy is home, and it's time he and Mommy are united in unholy matrimony again."

Mammon bows to their mistress and retrieves a dagger and a rope.

"No!" I shout. "No way. I'm not marrying you again. Forget it."

"Of course you will." Lilith smiles like the lunatic she is and points at something behind Mammon. "You will, or you can forget all about your little play-thing."

Mammon steps aside, and I see what their mistress is pointing at.

Yu-jin.

"Lucian!" My name on his lips is like a song despite the current situation.

He's bound to a rock in his wedding suit that looks torn and drenched in blood. There is a single scratch on his face, and it's painted his white complexion red.

"Yu-jin. My darling Yu-jin!" I call out to him even though I can move only as much as he can, which is not at all.

"Yes, yes. Reunions are so sweet. Whatever. It's time to bind you back to me."

I snap back at Lilith and step toward her as far as my chains will allow.

"I'm not binding myself to you ever again, Lilith. What's so hard to understand?"

Lilith pouts and crosses her arms, but she's not deterred.

"You will or no more Yu-jin," she says.

I laugh.

I laugh so hard it shakes all my insides out of place.

"How many times do I have to tell you? If you kill him, you kill me. We're mates. We're bound to each other. Marriage is just a formality. A symbol of our union. Us claiming each other in front of the world."

The more I speak, the more her face sours, and I can't help but savor her discomfort.

"Lucian! What are you talking about?" Yu-jin asks. "You said that would only happen after we get married."

I take a deep breath and turn to look at him.

"I know what I said, darling boy, but…but that was a lie. I didn't want to scare you. I didn't want you to think you had no choice in this ordeal. But the truth is…we were bound from the first moment we made love."

Lilith scoffs.

Yu-jin's jaw drops.

Mammon and the rest of their kind watch us quietly.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, my love. I know what you've been through. I didn't want you to think you were trapped once more."

Yu-jin shuts his mouth and shakes his head.

"Don't apologize, Lucian. I-I understand. I'm not mad, just shocked. If…if I'd known, I would have been more careful. I would've been even more mindful of the dangers around me."

My sweet, sweet boy.

He really is one of a kind. Unlike my ex-wife, who doesn't seem able to ever let go and is just as cruel as the humans who made life miserable for my boy.

"But I didn't want you to feel like that. I didn't want you to feel the burden?—"

"That's enough with the melodrama," Lilith snaps. "You, my dear ex-husband, are going to marry me again, or?—"

"Or what? I've already told you what will happen if you hurt one of us. The other also bleeds. So go on. If you really love me, all you'll do is hurt me too. Go on. Do your worst."

I hate even thinking the words, let alone speaking them, but I have to say something. I have to play her game, hoping she will see reason and fold.

Lilith tuts and presses her fingers against my lips. "If you'd let me finish, sweetheart, you would know I'm not going to kill your little boy. I'm simply going to send him to another dimension. Sell him to the highest bidder. I'm sure an immortal human would go for quite the price. And then good luck ever finding him again."

I shake my head.

"What is wrong with you? What happened to you? Even the Lilith I once knew wasn't this unhinged."

Her smile turns into a scowl.

"What happened to me? What happened ? You happened Lucian. You did. You abandoned me, and life was never the same again. No one could ever measure up to you. No one compared to an inch of you."

I sigh. "If that were true, you wouldn't have betrayed me the way you did."

"I was stupid. I was young and stupid. I should have known better and I didn't. But now I do. And I can't let you marry…that. I simply can't. You're mine, Lucian. Only mine. My husband. My soulmate."

"I'm not, Lilith. Yu-jin is my soulmate, and I am his. You're not part of this equation."

Her face hardens again. And to think, for a moment, she allowed a fraction of vulnerability to come through.

"Keep talking, sweetheart. Make me angry. I was willing to let you keep your play-thing if that made you happier, but you're only making it worse for yourself the more you talk."

"Are you hearing yourself? Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? You want me, you want to marry me, but you threaten my true love and tell me if I don't cooperate, you'll send him away, and if I do, I can keep him as a side-piece. How does any of this make sense, Lilith? What's the point of marrying me then? If you're willing to let me keep him, what's the point of being my wife?"

Lilith grabs me by the back of the neck and kisses me for the second time in a day, and even though it no longer tastes bitter, it still feels like poison.

"I love you, Lucian. You're mine forever and ever," she pants as if her whole world has been turned upside down.

"I think you should let me go," I tell her.

Lilith smirks.

"I think you should marry me before the guests get hungry."

The hell-vespers watching us start crowing, and one even flies up to Yu-jin and nips at his cheek. My own cheek burns as if it's my flesh that's been torn.

"Stop it," I growl as another vesper flies to him. "Stop it. Stop it now."

"What is it, dear?" she asks.

She's taking way too much pleasure in all this. What the hell happened to her during all the time we've been apart? Has she completely lost her mind?

I can't let her hurt him. And I can't figure a way out of this. I can't even call for Brimfang. Just one look at her and Lilith's vespers will tear her apart.

"I'll do it," I whisper.

"What was that?" She puts her hand to her ear, and I have half a mind to rip it clean off, but I hold back.

"I said, I'll do it. I'll marry you. Just stop hurting him. Don't hurt him. And promise me I get to keep him."

Maybe if I play along, maybe if I go along with this charade, she will keep her promise. Then, I can free Yu-jin and kill her and all her pets.

"Of course, sweetheart. I'll do anything for my husband. Anything for love."

And so will I.