4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Rayven

Part of me wanted to deny Belial’s request—now was not the time for dancing. But for the short time I’d known him, I hadn’t been any good at resisting him, especially when he had that dark gleam in his eye.

So, I took his hand, and he pulled me against him hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

I caught my breath, staring up into his stunning gray eyes as he began to lead us in a slow waltz. “Belial, please,” I said, keeping my voice low as he spun me around. “We have to run. There’s still time for us to get away.”

“I can’t do that.” He shook his head, and his hand on my back dipped lower to grab my waist.

“Why not?”

He didn’t answer at first, leading me around the dance floor with all the poise of a king until we were good and lost among the crowd. I could feel eyes swinging in our direction, but they were a blur, barely a second thought as Belial’s gaze bore into me from the holes of his mask, demanding every shred of my attention.

Part of me never wanted this moment to end, to dance with Belial forever and forget about everything else, but another part of me knew we needed to get the fuck out of here.

“Running will do no good, little treasure,” he said, dipping his head to whisper in my ear. “Even if you found your way back to the exit, you couldn’t leave. You gave me your soul. This is where you belong. Here, with me.”

The music changed to a slightly faster, more ominous pace, but I hardly noticed. Belial and I continued to dance slowly as couples whirled past at a dizzying speed.

I clung to his words, ignoring the ache that formed in my chest as he spoke. I wanted to believe everything he said, but I couldn’t shake the feeling deep in my marrow that something was incredibly off. My fear of the King of Limbo loomed in the back of my mind, casting a shadow over my excitement for the future.

My future as Belial’s mate.

The Lord of Bones would surely kill the ferryman when he arrived and learned I’d given my soul to Belial.

Would he kill me too? Or torture me in front of these spectators for a laugh?

Belial seemed confident in his ability to sway the lord’s decision. I wasn’t so sure. I needed to make the most of however much time we had left together.

Tentatively, I reached up with my free hand and slipped my fingers beneath the edge of Belial’s mask. He froze instantly, his hand flying to grab my wrist, but he didn’t pull my hand away from his face.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he said, his voice low and ice cold.

I scowled, pressing my lips together as my eyes narrowed. “You’d think after I gave you every fucking part of me, you’d trust me more.”

His grip on me loosened—only just—and with a scoff, he allowed me to lift his mask enough to expose his mouth. I rose on my tiptoes as he leaned down to kiss me, a swell of heat ripping through me at the contact.

For a beat, everything else melted away—the music, the ball guests. It all disappeared, and for the briefest moment, it was just us. Nothing else existed, and a ripple of mixed emotions flooded my system. Belial was everything I never knew I wanted and everything I shouldn’t have.

When he pulled away and snapped his mask back into place, there was a curious glint in his eyes that hadn’t been there moments ago.

“You kiss me as if you’re saying goodbye.”

The lump in my throat swelled, growing by the second. “I—”

Fuck . How was I supposed to tell him I was scared shitless by the very real possibility that the Lord of Bones would destroy him once he found out Belial claimed my soul?

Before I knew it, we were dancing again. Round and round we went, the haunting music and the chatter of the busy ballroom meshing into a white noise that had my skull spinning.

My hand clutched Belial’s shoulder, holding on for dear life. I was terrified he’d let me go, and I’d go plunging into the crowd, down, down, like I had in the oubliette, with nothing but the cold hands of the dead to catch me.

Belial brought us to a stop and pulled me close to his chest, smoothing a gloved hand over my hair in comfort. “Hey, shhh. It’s alright. You’re here, safe with me.”

I lifted my face, fat tears running down my burning cheeks. “Safe? For how long? Until the Lord of Bones kills you for claiming my soul before he could?”

Those shocking orbs of gray swam with so much emotion, like there were a million and one things he wanted to say but couldn’t figure out how to voice them.

“I…” He sighed and thrust his fingers into his hair, smoothing his dark locks behind his antlers. “You just have to trust me on this, Rayven. The Lord of Bones isn’t going to kill me. He isn’t going to do anything to me. He can’t .”

I blinked at him. “W-what do you mean?”

“I know the Lord of Bones won’t kill me because—” He paused. The words froze in his throat. Before, I didn’t think a demon like Belial could feel fear. Now, I knew that wasn’t true. Even with the mask, I could see he was terrified.

“What is it?” The sinking ball of dread in my stomach grew spikes. “What are you not telling me?”

His pronounced Adam’s apple twitched as he swallowed. “How about I show you what I mean?”

Right here? In front of everyone?

My stomach cartwheeled.

No one was paying attention to us, other than the occasional glance over a shoulder. I didn’t know what he was going to show me, but I got the feeling it was something I wouldn’t want an audience for.

I didn’t want to stay at this party for a minute longer anyway. I hadn’t even wanted to come in the first place.

“Whatever you need to show me, it can wait.” I moved to grab his sleeve so I could tug him off the dance floor to somewhere more private, away from prying eyes. “Let’s get out of here first.”

The demon snatched my wrist again before I could grasp onto him, his firm touch—lacking the warmth it had before—doing nothing for my anxiety.

“It can’t wait anymore, little human.” His voice grew darker, more guttural. “ I can’t wait one more bleeding second. I’m done with the trickery.”

Visceral dread hooked in my gut, sharp and painful. “What trickery? What are you talking about?”

Belial dropped his hold on me and took a few steps back. His demeanor darkened as powerful magic began to whirl around him in a shimmering swirl of blue and white. Sensing the oncoming spectacle, every guest cleared off the dance floor.

My curiosity morphed into shock and horror as Belial’s form grew, his muscles swelling. His skin turned deathly pale, with that familiar blueish tinge. The flesh on his skull melted, and the bone elongated into something monstrous. His antlers shifted and cracked, morphing into horns that stretched out and up toward the ceiling.

Blue flames leapt to life in his eyes as he stretched to his full, terrifying height.

Murmurs rippled through the throne room—clearly, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know the Lord of Bones had two forms.

As realization set in, the guests all bowed to their host and master.

“This is why the Lord of Bones won’t kill Belial. I am one and the same.” He held his huge, claw-tipped hands out to his sides. “Do you understand now?”

My heartbeat roared in my ears, drowning out the music, the murmurs of the crowd, the Lord of Bones calling my name.

The Lord of Bones… Belial.

This whole time, they were the same fucking person.

I should have known it was nothing but a twisted joke. Of course, this magical ferryman didn’t just happen across me in the maze, looking to help out a poor random soul in exchange for a fuck.

What actual servant would disobey his lord and king?

It was the Lord of Bones, using himself as a decoy, a distraction to throw me off the trail so I wouldn’t find the exit, literally fucking the hours away until I became his.

And I’d fallen for it.

He made me think he’d fallen in love with me. He’d tricked me into giving him my soul, and for what? At the end of the three days, I would have been his anyway. That was the deal.

He probably thought it was funny, getting me to willingly give him pieces of myself.

My soul, my body…my heart.

“You manipulated me.” I hated how heartbroken I sounded, surrounded by these elegantly dressed demons and departed souls, all of whom had stopped their dancing to watch.

Even the music had paused.

The Lord of Bones’ eye sockets flickered with twin blue flames. He was so close, I should have felt their warmth, but they were cool. It was his hot and heavy breath that flushed my skin. “I did what I had to.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Murmurs broke over our audience. They were probably wondering who the hell I thought I was, speaking to the Lord like this.

I was the bitter bitch who wasn’t going to get screwed over into spending eternity with a monster who got off on my suffering.

“You didn’t have to do any of this!” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. The initial shock had worn off, and rage was setting in. “This is all just one sick fucking game to you, isn’t it? Everything was a lie.”

“Not everything,” he corrected, grabbing me by the arm again.

“I don’t believe a single thing that comes out of that maw of yours. You’re a snake. A sadistic, perverted-as-fuck snake . You made me do things, you made me give you parts of myself, all for your help through a maze I was never going to find my way out of in the first place.”

The Lord of Bones straightened to his full height, teeth gnashing with his growl. Everyone in the room watched us like we were putting on a goddamn play. He didn’t seem to care who watched.

His attention was manacled to me alone.

“Everything you gave me, you did so willingly, little human.”

“I…” I could barely squeeze any sound past the fist in my throat. “You made me believe this—this thing I’ve felt between us—was real. But it was just a game to you.”

“It’s not a game. I did this to make you mine in every way I can. I won’t apologize for that.”

I tried to yank my arm from his bruising grip, but it was hopeless. In this form, his hand swallowed my whole arm. “I don’t want to be yours.”

“You’re lying. Even if you weren’t, it wouldn’t matter. You don’t have a choice.”

“Just like Catherine didn’t have a choice?” My every syllable oozed venom.

“Catherine was different,” he snarled, flames flickering in his sockets. “Catherine was a fleeting obsession. You… I want to possess you for all eternity.”

“Your slave queen,” I said in a threadbare whisper, repeating the Lord of Bones' own words.

His grip on my arm turned sharp as his claws bit into my forearm. He jerked me close and lurched over me so his set of deadly teeth were precious millimeters from my nose. “You’re only a slave if you try to leave me.”

The silence punctuating his words suddenly had me uncomfortably aware of the guests. They were watching me through the holes of their eloquent yet somehow equally hellish masquerade masks.

The Lord dropped his cruel grip on me and offered me a hand. The music started again, and everyone gaped, waiting expectantly for me to take his hand in this next dance.

Like the obedient little pet I was.

Everyone expected me to obey. Why wouldn’t I? Belial was the God of this realm, and I was nothing but a toy for him to amuse himself with.

None of these people knew how much I loved breaking the rules, that the reason I was here in the first place was because I refused to acknowledge the laws of man. Why would the laws of a god be any different?

I made my own rules, my own decisions. I wasn’t about to stand here and be ordered around in front of his court. Especially not by this fucking backstabbing asshole.

So, I turned and ran, pushing my way through the crowd of onlookers.

There was a great crackling sound, and the room flashed blue as Belial cast his magic. The guests parted with a gasp, and something whipped through the air behind me.

I flung a backward glance over my shoulder in time to see a chain made of blue light snapping through the air toward me. It wrapped around my ankle as the Lord of Bones wound his end of the chain around his hand.

He jerked on it, viciously yanking me off my feet. With a squeak, I crashed to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of me. Hooves, skeleton feet, and rotting flesh all dressed in fancy shoes went in and out of focus as my vision blurred.

The chain slithered up my body, over my dress, and between my breasts before the end found my collar and latched on.

A blink later, massive black boots came into focus. I lifted my eyes to see the horned devil to whom I willingly sold my soul marching past me, toward his throne. He took a seat, and from across the room—the crowd had parted and spread to the perimeter—he beckoned me with the crook of a meaty finger.

“Come here, little human. My brothers will arrive any minute, and I’d like something pretty on my lap while I greet them.”