She climbs out, and I sigh as the door slams behind her.
I should let the human sulk, thinking she’s been rejected. Let her go about her life where she’ll stumble into a rebound with the first person she comes across who owns both a set of eyes and a dick. But if I’ve learned anything about me and this chick, it’s that should doesn’t fucking matter, and I turn the key off in the ignition.
She keeps going, almost to her building when my door shuts.
I stalk up the sidewalk after her. “Nyx.”
Her body freezes, her fists clenched at her sides. As she turns, I slow down, stalling out completely once she faces me. She looks like heartbreak, features crumpled with tears streaming down her cheeks. And I want to make her forget everything I just said.
I start to close the space between us, but on step one, the last words out of her mouth hit me. You’re not at all my type. I told her that last night while I wiped her memories. She shouldn’t have remembered.
A shadow moves behind her, and my muscles tense. A figure slowly steps out. He comes to a stop beside her, and she glances at him. Now, the light casts a yellow hue over her, over his slicked black hair and the suit to match. The demon from the fight. His pupils begin to glow a deep red before they drift over my shoulder, and then Nyx’s line of sight follows.
Part of me already knows what they’re looking at—or who. The scent of sulfur seeps through the air along with some tacky-ass cologne. I turn around to a smirk that ignites an existence worth of hatred.
The black-on-black-suit-wearing motherfucker tips his head to the side. “Chazaqiel.”
Lower-level demons pour out of a portal next to him. I glance back at Nyx, under the arm of the other Upper.
She set me up.
Shaking my head, I chuckle, bringing my attention back to Abaddon. “Well, this should be—”
Chains. The Demon of Destruction, and he needs chains to hold on to an angel without any fucking powers? Abaddon is a disgrace to the name. My head throbs where I assume a Lower took a fucking cheap shot, but when I open my eyes, they connect with the slimy Upper from earlier, so maybe he’s the one I’ll have to fucking kill later.
I survey the rest of the dank concrete room. I’m on my knees in the center, my arms outstretched. A single caged light hangs above me, three Lowers hovering by a doorway off to the side. Shadows conceal one of the corners in front of me while the Upper perches in the other with Nyx nearby, her head down and hands hidden in the sleeves of my hoodie. If I were in any sort of a bargaining position, I’d demand she give that shit back, but we’ll save it for another time.
The chains clink when I rotate my wrists, testing the give. Not much, but here’s to Avery seeing a mouse in the next thirty seconds. A rough spot on one of the links digs in when I yank a little harder, but I keep tugging to fill the room with the irritating clanks.
“Probably not necessary since I don’t have my powers,” I shout over the noise, waiting for the ringmaster to reveal himself in some showboat, master-villain bullshit entrance. “Unless you plan on taking our will they, won’t they to a whole new level, Abaddon. In which case, you should know my safe word is actually a phrase.” I stop my assault on everyone’s ears and roll my head toward the cluster of Lowers. “It’s Donny can blow me. But given the situation, maybe I should switch it to Justin Bieber.”
A set of red ovals lights up in the dark corner. “Just when I think I can’t get any more joy out of killing you, you open your mouth.” The rest of Abaddon appears, the demon slinking out with a smug smile that causes the scar just below his right cheek to dent.
I straighten up, pushing out my chest and raising my head, matching his expression with a smirk of my own. “Afraid I’ll huff and puff and blow your flame out?”
He flicks his palm open, the blue flame springing to life as he marches toward me. His hand flattens against my chest. The fire eats at my skin, and a growl escapes me, but I don’t back down. I push into the burn, jaw clenched tight and muscles fighting to pull away. Every second I challenge him pisses him off until he shoves me backward. Not having my powers leaves me at a disadvantage, and my ass lands on my heels.
When he moves to the side, my eyes connect with Nyx. Her hand covers her mouth but falls away when I wink at her.
“Don’t worry, beautiful. I’ll be loose in no time. Then the real fun begins, and I can hunt you down to return this little favor.”
Her shoulders pull back in a sharp breath, her chin tipping up. But I catch the hint of doubt behind the façade. Donny’s still walking away, being dramatic as shit, so I stare her down.
“What are you?” I ask, taunting her. “A demon groupie?”
She starts to take a step when the suit beside her places a hand on her shoulder. She shakes it off, shooting him a warning glare, and I whistle to bring her attention back to me.
“Please tell me you fucked Donny because I’m dying to know who’s better.”
“You sure about that?” She arches a brow and smiles.
All fucking bravado. But she confirms she remembers our time in the ladies’ room. I wonder how she kept my light from working on her. A spell? Enchanted object?
“If you’re finished whining about being outsmarted by a human…” Donny finishes his runway walk and holds his hand out to the suit beside her. “Hex.”
I throw my head back, laughing. “You’ve got to be fucking joking. An Upper named Hex? You guys aren’t even trying anymore, huh?”
The suit’s cool demeanor slips. The darkness grows from his hands, vining up his arms, but Donny steps in front of him, hand still extended. After killing me a thousand ways in his mind, Hex reaches behind him. It’s not until Donny turns around that I see what they handed off between them.
And my fucking body ices over—muscles, blood, soul.
Light glints off the steel, Donny’s talons wrapped around the handle.
The Dimming Blade.
“Surprise,” Donny says, flicking his wrist and slicing through the air with the only thing outside of God that could end me. And I don’t have my powers to defend myself. No Cass or Rosdan for backup. Nothing and no one.
“You good?” he asks, bending his knees to dip down closer to my level. “You look a little dim.”
“Save the puns, asshat.” I swallow, refusing to show him vulnerability, no matter how fucked I am right now. I lift my chin to gesture to the weapon. “I’ll bet my eternity you can’t even work that little knife. You think you can just poke me and hocus-pocus happens?”
“Oh, Chazaqiel, you are always underestimating me.” He twists the point on his fingertip—thin, dark shadows leaking from where he punctures his flesh. “I’m going to watch the light drain out of you, and then I’ll wipe you from existence once and for all. Because an eternity of nothingness isn’t enough. I want you to be nothing.”
I might not be able to access my light, but it’s still a part of me. Locked down, but there. Without the light, I’d be mortal with an angel soul. Killable yet unable to die. It’s a strong blip in the matrix of existence, resulting in one of two outcomes. Either I fill the void of light with darkness and become a demon—an upper-level, of course—or when my mortal life ends, I cease to exist.