20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Rayven

When I woke, Belial was gone. I lay on the bottom of the cage, staring up at the point where the bars came together, replaying the dream from last night over in my mind.

Too bad I had to wake up, back to my hellish reality where I was hopelessly trapped. I hated feeling so helpless.

This damsel in distress thing wasn’t my vibe. While Belial was fighting his way through the upper layers of Hell to rescue me, I was expected to sit here and wait.

I closed my eyes, trying to slip back into the plum dream, but the spell was over. My demon was gone. His absence made my eyes sting, tears welling in the corners.

“Don’t cry, pet,” Leviathan’s voice slithered around me, sticking to my skin.

I looked over, the hot tears spilling down my cheeks, and found him splayed over his bed with his hookah pipe pinched between his fingers. Had he watched me sleep?

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I gritted out.

“No.” He took a long drag off his hookah. What the fuck was this guy smoking like an absolute freight train? “What could be better than admiring the prettiest thing in the nine layers?”

A chill shot through me, and I dragged myself up, pulling my knees to my chest. It didn’t do much, but it gave me a modicum of modesty.

“You could let me out,” I offered, batting my eyelashes at him. “That would be better.”

His serpent tongue flicked the salty sea air with his laugh. “And risk you running off so one of my brothers can snatch you from me? Not a chance. None of them will ever have you, little human. You’re mine. You’re never getting out of that cage.”

The blood in my veins crystalized. Leviathan had no intention of handing me over to Belial.

A cold little smile curled my lips. This would end badly for him.

“Can I at least have some water?” I snapped at the serpent demon.

Leviathan scooted to the edge of his bed, still admiring me. I was getting used to his constant gaze, but it didn’t make it any less fucked. I wished he’d go away for five minutes, or at least take a fucking nap. Anything for a little privacy.

He rubbed his scaled chin, lost in thought for a moment. “I have something else you can drink.”

The suggestive bend to his tone had me rolling my eyes. “You’re disgusting.”

After being forced to suck Asmodeus’ cock, the thought of Leviathan touching me made my stomach churn.

He said he wasn’t a brute, but would he force himself on me too if I didn’t obey?

Slinking to his feet, he sauntered over and stopped next to the cage. He towered over me, his slitted eyes burning into mine with a demented gleam. “Why don’t you prove to me just how thirsty you are?”

He reached through the bars, trailing a single finger along my jawline. Dread washed over me, and I shrank away, pressing myself against the bars farthest from him.

“Keep your hands off me if you want to keep them attached. I have this thing where I bite off appendages that venture too close to my fucking face.”

“You’re always so feisty,” he said with a wicked laugh, tapping his fingers on one of the copper bars. “Like a rabid animal. Wild, with feral beauty. I see why Belial was so enrapt by you.” I was sure he meant for those to be compliments, but the way they oozed off his tongue made them much more insulting.

“What do you say?” His eyes roved over me hungrily. “Put on a little show for me. Dance for me like you would your precious Lord of Bones, and I’ll give you a drink.”

He wants me to dance for him?

I doubted it was because he wanted to admire my body. He wanted to revel in my discomfort.

“Why don’t you go suck your own dick instead?” I snapped, despite how badly I wanted something to soothe my dry mouth and scratchy throat.

There was no way I was dancing naked in a cage for this asshole. Not on his life.

Belial would be here soon to save me, I knew that—he’d promised me—but I didn’t know how long I’d have to suffer before he got here.

How long could a human body survive without water? Much longer than I’d been stuck in this cage, but there was no way in fuck I’d last more than a day or two, not after all the running I’d done since the ball. My lips were already cracked, my mouth feeling like it was full of cotton. The more I thought about it, the drier it got.

Leviathan chuckled as I attempted to lick my lips, but somehow, they remained just as parched. I was so damn—

“Thirsty, are we?” he teased, cockiness evident in his tone.

I stared at him, my throat beginning to ache. I was thirsty when I woke, but as the seconds flicked by, I grew way more parched. Suddenly, my throat was drier than a desert, like something was draining every drop of water in my body.

“What are you doing to me…” My words came out scratchy, cracking mid-sentence.

The demon's wicked smile gave me my answer. Whatever magic he possessed was dehydrating me.

His eyes turned dark, a smile twisting his mouth. “I told you I can be rather persuasive. Now dance, pet.”

“I fucking hate you,” I hissed out, an ache working its way through me. My whole body was affected, from my dry eyes down to my veins.

“Is hate really all that different from love?” he mused, stroking a scaly finger along one of the copper bars of my prison. “A feeling so intense, it shapes how you see a person. Both can make you believe untruths and trust blatant lies. Whether you hate or love someone, they live in your mind, even when you don’t want them to.”

Yeah, I fucking hated him.

And I hated that he was making the tiniest bit of sense.

“Now, dance.” His order came out sharper this time, and I could see the beast lurking behind his eyes. “Or this will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.”

I wanted to refuse. I was fucking sick of having men—asshole demon lords in particular—tell me what to do. The only lord I wanted to obey was Belial, but if I didn’t get up and dance, Leviathan would probably leave me as a pile of dust for him to find.

I couldn’t stomach the thought.

“The clock is ticking,” he sing-songed. “I’d hurry if I were you.”

Reluctantly, I stood, mind whirling as I tried to come up with a plan to get out of this. Unfortunately, I was faced with the very real possibility of turning into a shriveled fleshy raisin. There was no time to think.

He had me in his claws, and he knew it.

With a grimace, I swayed my hips back and forth like I would to some basic pop music in a bar, my arms crossed over my chest to shield my breasts from his gaze. My movements came out stiff, discomfort making my skin crawl.

“Happy now?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“You can do better than that.” He shook his head slowly. “The Lord of Bones wouldn’t be pining for your scarred flesh if that was all. Show me what you do to him.”

I hated how he commented on my scars, his cadence making me feel as though they were something to be ashamed of. Belial worshipped them.

My skin felt tighter and dryer by the second, constricting around me and making it more difficult to move.

Fuck.

It’s just a dance, that’s all, I said to myself in an attempt to ground my nerves. I wasn’t much of a dancer, but if it meant Leviathan would stop whatever the fuck he was doing to my bodily fluids…

“Then you’ll give me something to drink?” I wasn’t sure why I asked. He probably wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway.

Still, a yes would make me feel better about the fucked up situation. At least he wasn’t asking me to suck his dick or offer him my asshole as payment.

Just a dance.

“I’m a man of my word.”

I scoffed, anger bubbling through me. Of course he wasn’t. He was a fucking snake.

Too bad I didn’t have much of a choice.

Trust him or die.

Dance or suffer.

Those were my options.

With a groan, I dropped my hands as my face flushed with heat. I hoped Belial carved Leviathan into tiny pieces and fed him to sharks or something.

Were there sharks in Hell?

I moved my hips, this time slower, more seductive. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine Belial standing in front of me, hoping it would make the act more appealing, but my skin still crawled. I ran my hands over my breasts and down my waist, hoping it was what the serpent lord wanted.

When I opened my eyes again, he’d moved closer, his face pressed against the bars. He was rocking his hips, rubbing the bulge in the front of his pants against the copper.

“More,” he urged, his tongue snaking out to wrap around one of the bars.

Suddenly, I was extra thankful for the cage separating us.

With a grimace, I turned around and bore my ass to him, wiggling it a little before whirling back around. He was smiling, drool dripping off his tongue and sliding down the metal bar, eyes locked on me as his hand slipped beneath the waistband of his pants.

I swallowed hard. Was this demon really about to jack off to me?

His tongue slipped back into his mouth, and his eyes dropped lower. “Run your fingers through that delicious hair.” I balked. He wasn’t talking about the hair on my head.

“You said dance,” I bit out, eyes narrowing on him. I wondered if I’d be fast enough to punch him in the face if I tried. “I danced.”

“True, but we’re not done.” He shook his head.

My mouth was completely dry now, my eyes aching from the lack of lubrication. My muscles ached.

I cringed, wanting nothing more than for all this to be over, but Leviathan’s eager eyes were waiting. With shaky fingers, I did as I was told, running my fingers through my pubic hair while he watched. A throaty groan escaped him.

“Lower,” he said, licking his lips again.

My throat swelled. “Lower?”

He couldn’t mean for me to…

“Touch yourself for me, pet.”

“Fuck no,” I said, but even as the words left my mouth, my bottom lip cracked, and I tasted blood.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Touch yourself,” he hissed, his voice wrapping around my throat like an invisible chain. “And all the pain goes away.”

I doubted that, but I did it anyway, desperate for him to stop. My fingers slid through my folds and found my clit. I was so far from turned on that I would have been dry even without him zapping the moisture out of me, but I swirled my fingers around my clit nevertheless.

“Yes,” he hissed, shoving his pants down until his dick sprang free.

The Lord of Envy’s dick was thick with iridescent scales that ran along the base, the rest soft green flesh wrapped in a complicated network of veins. A copper hoop looped through the tip. His hand worked over the rock-hard erection, his eyes never leaving me as he pleasured himself to my writhing form.

I thought about Holga and how she was probably worried sick about me. I thought about the masquerade guests, twirling in their pretty costumes. I thought about taxes. Puppies. Belial’s talking furniture. His vast collection of horn jewelry—how the silver spider charm was my favorite. Anything to get my mind off what was happening.

All this for some goddamn water.

“Come closer, pet.”

“Fuck you,” I choked, my voice hoarse.

“Is that a request?” The eagerness in his gaze turned dark, lustful.

My eyes narrowed on him.

“If you don’t want me ripping this cage open and coming in one of those pretty holes, I suggest you come closer,” he demanded, his voice sinister.

With my heart in my throat, I inched closer to the bars until the metal pressed against my skin.

Fucking hell, did this feel disgusting. The Lord of Envy was jerking his dick while he forced me to touch myself, but at least that’s all this was. He wasn’t touching me. He wasn’t hurting me—not physically, anyway.

I looked away, trying to focus on anything but the smell of salty seaweed pouring off him, but he clicked his tongue.

“Fucking look at me.”

Cheeks heating with anger, I met his gaze again. A second later, he came, warm cum spurting across my stomach, dripping into my navel.

I jumped backward a second too late, desperate to get it off. I didn’t want to touch it, but there was nothing in my cage I could clean it with.

“You slimy motherfucker,” I growled.

He was tucking himself back into his pants, adjusting them. “Any female of my realm would be grateful to receive my seed, you bratty little bitch.”

I wanted to stab him. I wanted to claw his eyes out. I didn’t want to wait for Belial to get here to see him ripped apart. I wanted to do it my damn self.

“Now can I have some fucking water, you fucking prick?” I choked, my hoarse voice hardly more than a whisper.

“I guess, since you’ve been such an obedient pet.” He reached through the bars with the hand he’d just finished jacking off with, cupping it like he was offering me something. A second later, water pooled in his palm. “Drink.”

I stared down at the liquid, every part of me screaming for me to take the offering despite the little globs of cum floating in it.

Gross.

“Ew. I’m not drinking your dick water, you sick fuck.”

“I guess you aren’t that thirsty after all,” he said, his gaze turning sinister.

Was he going to drain more from me? I wasn’t sure how much more I could take before my organs shut down and I collapsed, dead.

With a scathing glare, I put my lips to his hand and allowed him to tip the water into my mouth. It was warm and had a slightly salty aftertaste, but I choked it down.

Thankfully, he refilled his palm a couple of times to let me drink. It wasn’t enough—far from it—but it alleviated the ache, for which I was grateful.

“What a good pet.” He withdrew his hand. “Maybe I can tame you after all.”

Footsteps in the distance cut him off and caught my attention. They were wet slapping sounds that grew louder as the seconds passed, and my heart slammed painfully into my ribcage at the flicker of hope the sound sparked.

Someone was coming.

Leviathan instantly tensed, and the look on his face told me he wasn’t amused.

Every muscle in my body tightened as my hope grew, my eyes straining deep into the cavern, searching for a familiar face. All the while, a question burned in the back of my mind.

Had Belial already made it to save me?