RIVER STARR
Copyright © 2022 River Starr
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Covers by Christian
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ABOUT OATH-BREAKER
No one survives their meeting with the Angel of Death— except for me.
After being accused of rallying citizens to revolt against him and breaking the rules of engagement with demons to save my best friend—guilty as charged on both accounts—the Angel of Death demands to personally oversee my sentencing in his obsidian castle of demons and death.
I’m done for. This is the end. But my death won’t be in vain—I’ll die a martyr to the Order’s cause, and I'll rescue my best friend at the same time. She’ll be safe and the paladins will pick a new leader. They’ll thrive and continue the fight.
Or so I think. When judgment day arrives and I’m knelt before the Angel of Death, with his onyx eyes, his ebony hair, and his seductively imposing stature, my soul doesn’t leave me.
Itsoars.
Because when I dare to look the Angel of Death in the eyes, everything changes. And what unfolds in my anger and vengeance’s stead is a thread of events I never could have foreseen.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Monster Inside: Shadow Pact: Book One
Imprisoned Heir - Atlantis Institute For Dangerous Criminals
Soul Bound - Free Prequel
About the Author
APTER 1
Unless something outlandish happened in the next few minutes —something like the demon who had created me finally returning to reclaim my soul—I was going to die. That, I was sure of. And there wasn’t much I was sure of anymore.
The only things I knew to be absolutely true were as follows: I, Ayla, was de facto leader of the Paladins Order following my fiancé’s death. Because of that, it was my responsibility to recover my own people. Jessa had gone missing while visiting a demon fighting ring inside the demon city of Alastia—something risky she shouldn’t have done. Jessa had been captured there by those very same demons when they’d realized she was celestial-kin. And while Jessa was one of my people, she also happened to be like a sister to me.
So yes, I was going to go after her.
And yes, being caught by demons working for the Angel of Death himself, the lord tyrant of the nearest overworld empire, Alastia, was part of the plan. Well, the main part of Plan B. The only piece of it, really. Be brought to Alastia’s capital. Offer something in exchange for Jessa and the others and hope the Angel of Death was in a forgiving mood today because getting captured instead of escaping Alastia had decidedly not been part of eitherplan.
But I didn’t need a surefire strategy where Jessa was involved. I just needed action to save her.
Right now, my knees slid along the floor as I was dragged through the obsidian palace halls of the Angel of Death’s court. Smooth, cut shadowy stone scraped through my jeans to my skin. The cuts stung and my shoulders ached from the awkward way in which I was being held. But I lifted my chin and watched as my probably short-lived future greeted me.
Two dark stone doors stood flanked by silver pillars that shimmered in the early sunlight glinting through open, tall windows. Two guards stood at each side of the obsidian doors in body armor with shiny swords at their sides. They almost looked like our celestial swords, the weapons the Paladins Order bestowed at each paladin’s graduation on behalf of the Light.
I knew better. Whereas our weapons produced radiant light, demons’ weapons only brought shadows and pain and death.
I bit back a sob. It was hard to think about demons and death, about Jessa’s predicament, and not remember the night my fiancé had been killed for also being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My mate. Merek and I had risen up the paladin ranks together, he the son of the last leader, and me… well, that was complicated. I’d been raised from near birth in the Paladins Order.
Merek had fallen in battle to the very demon king whom I was being dragged to kneel before right now. His body had never been recovered. Only rumors and a raw hole in my heart remained as evidence of that night. Knowing this roiled my gut and might have squeezed my heart had it not been pounding like thunder in my chest.
I’d always known I’d face the Angel of Death eventually. He was not an angel. Far from it. As a demon, he was an enemy of the
celestials. An enemy of the Order that’d been created to fight the demons. As two leaders in the celestial vs. demon war that had ravaged Earth and borne it anew, it was fate that the Angel of Death and I would meet.
Especially when my paladins had pinned him as the murderer of my mate.
I’d sworn vengeance for Merek’s death. I’d made an oath to keep protecting the Paladins Order for Merek and see to it that no one else fell at the Angel of Death’s hands.
The only question now was if I’d be able to do so before Jessa died—or before I did.
Jessa was innocent. She hadn’t always made the best choices. I wasn’t even sure when last night she’d snuck out for another fighting ring—or how that search might have landed her inside the demon-controlled city’s limits. But I’d sure as hell guarantee she got home safely, even if I didn’t.
The guards dragging me along the dark stone floor didn’t stop for the obsidian doors ahead. They drew me so close, I thought for a fleeting moment that they might use my body as a battering ram to open them. But at the last second—with a fluid grace that implied the Angel of Death had many brought to him this way the guards opened the doors and we walked through.
The Court of the Angel of Death was in the tallest spire of the dark castle that sat over the ruins of a human city. Long ago, when the demons and celestials had come to this world, the Angel of Death had taken over what once, three hundred years ago, had been New York, risen the sea through Long Island Sound, erased the city’s name and history, and claimed it as his own. The court itself was a wide-open room, circular, with stained-glass windows that didn’t allow much—if any—sunlight through. Instead, sconces and
low-burning fires set inside basins lined the room. Some of the flames were black, mirroring in opposition the radiant flames of celestial power, and it chilled me to the bone. My breath caught in my throat, and goosebumps flicked up my arms and down my neck.
I was going to die today. I was growing increasingly surer of that. My only hope was that in doing so, Jessa would go free. My private wish was that it’d allow me to see Merek again in whatever lay beyond life. Humans had different words for it. Heaven. The Afterlife. Paladins in the Order called it simply “the Light.” But they called many things “the Light.” The after-place, the source of our power, the celestial who gave that magic to us as paladins. The entity that had created the Paladins Order to help fight the demons who’d overrun our world.
We had the Light. Demons had the abyss. And the human overworld was stuck in the middle, living off of what little was left of the Earth that had existed before the Veil had been torn open and a war not our own had spilled in.
My knees continued to scrape along the floor, but as the room came to an end ahead and a pair of booted feet came into view all dark leather and foreboding—I dropped my gaze. I was scared. There was no reason to lie about it and no more reason to try hiding my fear. Where I was, what I was doing—it all came screaming back. But so had the last time I’d seen Jessa after healing her from another bad night at the fighting rings. She’d been curled up on her bed, crying and holding herself.
But that wasn’t why I kept my head down. If I were being honest, I wasn’t ready to look the Angel of Death in the eyes. Not just yet. Because the moment our eyes met, I would lash out with all the power I had left in me. It wasn’t much, but it’d have to be
enough—and I didn’t want the demon king reading my intentions on my face before I acted.
If I was to die today, so too would the Angel of Death. For Merek.
Finally, we stopped, but my body rocked forward. The guards let go and I lurched toward the stone ground, barely catching myself painfully on the sides of my wrists before slamming my face into the smooth floor. My hands and wrists ached, bound together with antimagic cuffs.
“So, this is the leader of the Paladins Order.”
A voice as smooth as honey, as deep as a cavern, rocketed through me. Chills sprouted down my back. I didn’t have to look to know those words had come from him. The Angel of Death.
Merek’s murderer.
I bit my tongue. Nothing I wanted to say in that moment would help me free Jessa.
“Ayla!”
Jessa.
I glanced over to my right as Jessa called my name. She’d been handcuffed—probably anti-magic like the binds holding me captive— and was surrounded by demon guards. Her almost too-blue eyes were nearly hidden by fallen black curls. She was dressed for a fighting ring—a short top, shorts, thin shoes—and the five-bar brand on her arm gave me all the information I needed to know and hadn’t had time to ask about why Jessa had not simply returned home.
Jessa had gotten into a string of fights she hadn’t wanted to lose couldn’tlose. Although Jessa was a celestial-kin, daughter of both a human and a celestial, her magic fed off pain and suffering. We couldn’t figure out why, but that was what had drawn her to fighting rings in the first place. And Jessa was an amazing fighter. But her
power needed to be fed, and once fed, those fights had become an addiction.
My rage at the Angel of Death soared at seeing the bruises on Jessa’s arms. Her black eye. The demons who’d captured us had hurt Jessa further. I could heal her some if they’d let me. I could take away the leftover aches and pains.
The Angel of Death stepped closer to me. “I appreciate your loyalty to your people. As a leader myself, I respect the trait.”
“Ayla, no!” Jessa cried. The guards pulled her back, but she fought them. I didn’t want Jessa to have to keep fighting. But I couldn’t help the smile from curling my lips. Paladins fought for each other. We always had each other’s backs.
My smile faltered. No one had had Merek’s back the night he’d been killed by the man in front of me.
Rage warmed my veins again, but still, I didn’t bring myself to look at him. I focused on Jessa. On trying to calm her. “Let Jessa and the other paladins captured with me go. They’re innocent.”
I saw the Angel of Death point toward Jessa in my periphery. “This paladin,” he said, nearly spitting the word, “entered my city. She broke our rules of engagement for the precarious truce we hold. The price for such action is death.”
No one in the court gasped. Not the soldiers or the courtiers. They’d expected this outcome. I had expected this outcome. But hearing the words and knowing Jessa—my best friend, my sister, someone who very much did not deserve all the hardness life had brought her—was in danger sent my mind reeling.
“She’s just a kid,” I argued. “She’s eighteen. Let her go and take me in her place.”
“No!” Jessa shouted. “Ayla, you can’t!”
I shot her a look—one hard enough to cause her to flinch. I felt bad about that. But there was no way in hell I was letting Jessa die. “Merek left me in charge. He cared about you, too. I’m not letting you die at the hands of his murderer.”
The Angel of Death chuckled. He actually chuckled. “Your previous leader was weak and died to demons along Alastia’s border before I had a chance get there. To accuse me of murdering not only the leader of the Paladins Order but, in doing so, also destroying the precarious truce between our people, is perhaps not the smartest move while you and your people are within my grasp.”
My blood boiled. I trusted my paladins’ word over this lying demon’s any day of the week. Screw playing nice. I wished Jessa weren’t in the room. But I also knew that my pain right now emotional though it was—would feed her power enough to help me fight if a skirmish broke out.
I glanced up to meet the Angel of Death’s stare. “Merek was not weak—”
I froze as our eyes met. It was like someone or something had punched me right in the gut. My breath hitched. My heart stopped. For a moment, it even felt as though time had, too.
The Angel of Death was breathtaking. Gorgeous. And it wasn’t just his fathomless onyx eyes and tussled ebony hair, although those had drawn me in first. It wasn’t the hard cut of his jaw or his statuesque features. Not even the faint scar along his chin that brought questions to my mind. No. None of those things were anything in comparison to the aura around him—power, position. Nor even his scent—earthy and smoky—that slammed into me a moment later. It also wasn’t the way his eyes widened a fraction the longer this moment drew on, as if he had realized it, too, now that our eyes had met.
They say that when you meet the love of your life, you just know. That that was how it also worked with your fated mate.
Now looking the Angel of Death in the eyes, not only seeing him for the first time, but feeling the weight of his presence and power, I knew what I’d always assumed to be true: Fate had never been on my side, and She was notfunny.
Merek had been my mate. I’d known it the first moment we’d met. We’d clicked immediately and loved fiercely until the night of his death.
And here I was, staring down the Angel of Death, the demon king of this city, begging for him to let Jessa go, and realizing that he, too, was somehow my mate.
My fated mate. A stronger pull. An impossibly powerful connection.
The recognition was instantaneous. The bond as powerful as the sun.
I’d heard you could have more than one mate. I’d even known a few paladins in the Order whom it had happened to.
But this—now, after Merek’s death—was too much to process. This aura flitting between us was stronger than anything I’d ever felt in my entire life.
The Angel of Death growled, his lips curling. I stood straight and met his anger with my own, my fists curled and ready to attack, clunky as it might have been with my wrists bound as they were. It wouldn’t be graceful, but I wasn’t going down without a fight.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one pissed about this,” I said as I drew up my bound fists. I refused to believe fate had given me another mate—especially one responsible for killing my first.
Before the Angel of Death or any of his soldiers could react, I swung wide at his face.
CHAPTER 2
EARLIER THAT DAY
“I
t’s Jessa.”
Those were the words that had propelled me out of my apartment in a heavy haze and across Lightport, out of the humanlands, and toward the dark, ancient den of the Angel of Death. To his demon city, which he stood king of, a destroyed and remade New York renamed Alastia.
It’sJessa.
It’d always been Jessa. Ever since I’d found her, broken and terrified, in the streets of Lightport. No more than a child, a lost celestial-kin with magic that had caused society to shun her. We were kindred spirits and now the best of friends. A sister in all but blood.
It’sJessa.
And that alone was reason enough to risk everything, to break the rules of engagement with Alastia and the Angel of Death, to try rescuing her. At some point early last night, Jessa had left Lightport for a fighting ring on the outskirts of Alastia. It hadn’t been the first time—Jessa’s magic fed off pain and suffering, and where better to find that than in a fighting ring? Time and time again, I’d begged
her to find a different way, to fight the urge to draw power from that source, but it’d become an addiction necessary for her survival.
I feared how long she’d hold out in his court. She could handle herself against a demon or two, between the years in fighting rings and paladin training, but her twisted celestial magic wouldn’t hold out against an entire city of demons, or the court of the Angel of Death.
We had to save Jessa before she was taken prisoner. She’d already been a prisoner to her strange celestial magic for so long, thanks to the pain and suffering required to feed that magic, to keep her sane. To keep the shadows at bay.
We’d save Jessa—we hadto.
I collected a contingent of paladins as soon as Ian, my secondin-command, reached me, and we’d run out of Lightport and across the Singing Hills to Alastia’s city line. We were almost there, and the fighting ring Jessa had frequented stood only a few blocks inside the city.
We should be in and out so fast, not one demon will notice, right?
I bit my lip and clung to the lie. It wasn’t a matter of ifwe’d be noticed. What mattered was if we could get back out of the city before droves of demons or the Angel of Death himself descended upon us for breaking the rules of engagement.
The rules were simple. We could fight and dispose of the demons that crossed the line into the humanlands. But we, as paladins, were not to enter Alastia in return. That’d been the peace struck between the Angel of Death and a previous Order leader. And here we were, breaking that peace.
“Are you sure this is the right play?” Ian asked, jogging beside me. He was taller than I, built, and covered head-to-toe in body
armor. We’d trained to be paladins together what felt like a lifetime ago. He’d been Merek’s best friend before my fiancé had died.
Although the celestials and demons and their war had ravaged our world—and entirely transformed it in places—some amenities had survived. Electricity, for instance, along with Kevlar, jeans, and other human fashion. Three hundred years had been long enough to convince the celestials and demons that despite our world not being theirs, humans had plenty to offer them. That they didn’t have to kill us all off as they had explored their new home.
“I’m not leaving Jessa in Alastia, Ian,” I said, looking straight ahead at the city’s edge coming into view. It wasn’t a wall or a fence, but a literal line that had been drawn in the ground. A single brimstone contour encasing the entire city like children’s playground chalk. As we approached, I ran the toe of my boots through it, destroying the line, just for the hell of it. The line reformed before me.
“That’s not what I asked.” Ian turned on me and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to focus on his dark brown eyes the same shade as his hair.
I brought my hands to his and leaned in. “I’m not leaving her there, Ian. We’ll be fine. The fighting ring she loves is just inside the city.”
“I promised Merek I’d take care of you,” Ian protested. “And Jessa knew the dangers of going into the city.”
I couldn’t argue with what Merek had told him, nor the genuine fear in Ian’s eyes. But I could no more promise anything to a dead man—even Merek when the living still needed help. “It’s Jessa,” I argued. “I’m not leaving her in Alastia. I wouldn’t leave anyof you in Alastia.”
Unlike the paladins who had gone with Merek to the border the night he had died. Merek had heard of humans trying to escape the demon city. When demons had gotten in the way of Merek’s rescue operation, when a demon with shadow magic had killed him, the rest of the paladins in his party had left Merek behind to die. Or Merek had told them to run and held the demons off.
Merek’s body had never been recovered from where the Angel of Death—the most famous demon with shadow magic—had killed him. I turned to the city once more, a transformed New York in a country renamed Serenia. History books had survived. Even the Internet had been reconnected eventually. So I knew what this city had once looked like. But nearly nothing about the desolation around the city that had leveled everything, through the erasure of human civilization and the reconstruction of life through the eyes and culture of the celestials and demons, had left room for recognition. Even the Empire State Building, simple as it was, was basically a caricature of what had once existed.
Celestials and demons had torn into our world, destroyed it with their war, and transformed it with magic and power beyond our knowledge and grasp. Entire swaths of land had been physically transformed. Country lines had been redrawn, some added, some taken away entirely. Governments had been toppled and taken over by a demon king or celestial. There were dozens of them around the world.
The Light had saved New York. The Light had created the Paladins Order. The Light had given us all a bit of celestial magic. And now I’d use those things to save Jessa before the Angel of Death added her to another list of things and people he had destroyed and conquered in Alastia.
“It’s time,” I said to Ian as we stood on the city line. “This won’t end like Merek’s last mission did.”
“I hope you’re right.” He steeled any misgivings, his face becoming neutral, and he gave me one last hug before gesturing for the other paladins with us to follow me.
I placed a hand on his forearm. “Stay. I need you to be safe in case things don’t go quite right.”
“Ayla—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “If we’re captured, the Order will need you to lead. Stay. We’ll be back within an hour.”
Ian’s lips pressed into a thin line. His gaze hardened, but he nodded tightly. “Okay. But you better come back, Ayla.”
“We will.”
Given the three o’clock in the morning hour, the streets of the demon city were pretty empty. The few demons we would have run into were easily circumvented with quick hiding and cautious movements. Of the contingent of paladins that had accompanied Ian and me to Alastia’s border, only three went with me into the city. The other five stayed behind with Ian, to assist with extraction if we were followed on our way back.
We made good time from the border into the city outskirts and the few blocks to the fighting ring. I thanked the Light for all the times Jessa had come clean about the ring and its location; otherwise, we might not have known where to go. But the less and less resistance we encountered, the more worried I became that this might have been a trap.
I stopped our advance as we rounded on the unassuming, onefloor building. A quiet, still air set me on edge. I knew from Jessa’s stories of the ring that most of the structure was underground—a fact that did not dissuade me from the worry we were walking into a trap. From everything Jessa had said, the demons either didn’t recognize her as celestial-kin or hadn’t much cared as her fights— and win streak—had brought in customers. But if she’d lost or that sentiment had changed, it was possible they were holding her captive.
And they knew we’d come for her.
“We take it slow,” I told the three paladins with me.
Kinzie, Aaron, and Cole nodded in understanding. They were all about my age, and they didn’t need to speak for me know they agreed with my assessment. It was all too obvious.
It’sJessa, I reminded myself, these thoughts warring with my gut instincts. All three of them had come knowing the risks. But I would have ventured into the city to rescue Jessa on my own if necessary.
A quick exploration of the perimeter revealed a side entrance that, while locked, was easy enough to break into with some magic and the glowing celestial blades all paladins carried. We breached the structure and entered into a service wing with kitchens and offices. The main lobby and a small bar were visible through doors with windows in the top center, but we didn’t pause to investigate further. My focus was on retrieving Jessa and my only fear at this point was that demons were waiting for us with Jessa in a cage. Surrounding her. She wouldn’t be able to escape that, and we’d have trouble rescuing her from it.
It didn’t matter. We were already here, so come what may, I wasn’t going to leave her behind in the demons’ clutches as Merek had been left.
“Here,” Kinzie called as she pointed out a set of service stairs that went downward. Though the space was dimly lit, each stair had a set of softly glowing guide lights.
“Let’s go,” I said, taking the lead.
We took the steps with practiced quickness, our group having worked and trained together for so many years. It made anticipating each other’s actions easy and to an extent, nonverbal communication as well. A fact I was grateful for as we landed on the basement floor of the structure, passing through tight corridors until we exited the service area and into another bar, beyond which sat rows of audience seating. At the center stood the fighting ring itself, a circular cage that extended floor to ceiling.
To accommodateflying contenders. Contenders like Jessa, who, like all paladins, could sprout ethereal wings for a short amount of time.
Jessa. My heart dropped as I recognized her sitting in the center of the cage. Her arms were bound behind her back with bloodstains coating the cement flooring. She was staring right in our direction, along with the two demons standing guard beside her.
“Ayla!” Jessa screamed, shifting against her bonds. Both demons clamped hands to her shoulders to hold her in place, which only made her cries more desperate. “Ayla, please! Help!”
It was a good thing I’d assumed we weren’t surprising anyone. I rushed forward, already calling my paladin magic to my hands, which lit up the runes along my celestial sword.
“Let her go!” I called as my paladins and I moved. The other three flanked me, one at each side, and one behind, as we made our way to Jessa.
That was when the lights in the arena snapped on. I raised my arm up to block the near-blinding light. Only when I dropped it a
moment later did I see the far side of the arena, teeming with demons and radiating with magic.
My jaw locked hard. As expected. But my determination didn’t waver. I had to save Jessa and get all of us out of here alive no matter what.
I would not let history repeat itself.
I felt my paladins stiffen around me and, taking it as a signal that they shared the same thoughts, I pushed off my feet, charging right toward the two guards at Jessa’s sides. My celestial sword would cut through metal as sure as it would give all of these demons fatal light sickness.
Radiant magic swirled around my sword as I ran forward. Demons sprung out of everywhere, clashing with me and my other paladins. Cole came to my side, fighting at my back, as Kinzie and Aaron also advanced. For every demon that fell, Jessa screamed louder—calling us to stop, but I also knew her power was growing because of this pain. This fighting. This suffering of wounds.
And yet… she didn’t fight.
My stomach twisted violently with the realization: the demons had put anti-magic handcuffs on her. Which meant they likely had a set ready for each of us.
We could not get captured. There’d be no way to fight our way out of here without our magic.
I summoned all of the magic I could at that realization and stormed forward, breaking through demons that charged us. I had a single, wild focus: Jessa. My celestial sword cut through light armor and clothing, slicing to the demonic skin beneath. These demons were mostly humanoid, looking no different from humans except for demonic blood and magic. But a few were hideous creatures with wings and fangs and horns, the stuff of fairy tales and myth.
They all retracted from our celestial swords. I sliced through one’s chest, leaving radiant sparks crackling across its skin. The demon—which looked a cross between a giraffe and a lion—cried out in agony as the light sickness, the radiant magic, spread across its skin like live wires. I kicked the spot where my blade had cut, shoving it backward and out of the way.
The fight seemed endless, and our group was not without injury, but as I scrambled closer and closer to the cage, it was like I could feel Jessa’s fear and desperation. It stole my focus; my sister was in trouble. I needed to save my sister.
That tunnel vision was why I didn’t notice the third demon emerging from some sort of invisibility magic as I cut through the fighting ring’s cage. It was why I noticed a moment too late the serrated claw coming to rest along my throat.
I froze, my warm breath fogging along the monstrous demon’s talon.
“Move and she’ll watch you die,” it said in thickly accented English, its voice curled and inhuman and just wrong.
“Stop!” I called out to my paladins.
Aaron, Kinzie, and Cole froze too, only turning to look at me, but they did not drop their weapons.
“Tell them to disarm,” the demon said.
I met gazes with Jessa. Her eyes were red and puffy. Tears poured down her blotched cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and then her tears fell faster. “I’m so sorry, Ayla. I shouldn’t have come here. I know I’m not supposed to. I just —just—”
“I know,” I said, my voice softening. “I know. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Now!” The demon demanded as it pressed its serrated talon harder against my throat.
“You heard it,” I spat. “Disarm.”
“Ayla—” Aaron said, but he stopped as a blade was held to his throat.
“Do it,” I told him before locking eyes with the demon holding me still. “Take me. I’m the Order’s leader. Exchange me for Jessa and let the rest of them go.”
“Ayla, no!” both Kinzie and Jessa cried.
I didn’t respond to them, just held the demon’s hard, inhuman gaze. “Take me instead. Let. Them. Go.”
A heavy locking sound echoed throughout the arena. Then another. And another. I didn’t realize what it was until it was too late. Cuffs locked around my wrists next.
In an instant, my magically enhanced awareness of the world— the power that ran through my veins—felt distant and left me bereft.
Anti-magic handcuffs.
We were all powerless.
“As leader,” I tried, “I demand to speak to yours. Bring me to the Angel of Death as our rules of engagement demand.”
I was more than sure that if the demon king knew I was here and he wasn’t given the pleasure of killing his second Order leader, these demons might have a pretty bad day ahead of them.
The demons exchanged glances with each other. Maybe even telepathic words, for all I knew. My sole focus was on Jessa, on trying to reassure her without words of a future and safety I couldn’t promise. Because even if I bought us time right now, even if these demons brought us all before the Angel of Death, I could not guarantee that all—or any—of us would make it out of Alastia alive.
This would still end like Merek’s mission had ended: in death. More likely than not.
I lifted my chin. No, I wouldn’t let them die.
“I demand it,” I snapped in the demons’ continued silence.
The demon beside me grabbed the chain binding my wrists together and yanked hard, dragging me toward the hole I’d made in the cage. Its inhuman voice curled awkwardly around the English words once more. “As you wish.”
APTER 3
My bound fists sailed through the distance between me and the Angel of Death. It wasn’t graceful. In fact, I almost lost balance entirely but stopped just short of teetering toward the demon king. But instead of connecting with its intended target—his jaw—the Angel of Death’s strong, warm hand closed around mine and held me there.
No recoil. No indication at all of the power behind the swing.
Frustration zipped through me like lightning, and had I not been wearing a leather jacket, the demonic marks on my arms would have been glowing red light into this entire space. Instead, the markings hummed along, unnoticed, save for the power they flooded through my veins.
The Angel of Death closed his fingers around my fist and pressed his lips into a thin line, turning his entire expression statuesque like a marble artwork of old.
I wouldn’t be stopped like this, but Jessa’s words stopped me in my tracks.
“Ayla, don’t!” she screamed.
I tore my fists from the Angel of Death’s grasp but didn’t remove my gaze from his. Our eyes met, our stares frozen as we took each
other in. As much as I hated him in this moment—and I had plenty of reasons to hate him—I could not deny the magnetic pull that made it impossible to look away. At first, I’d thought it was anger that kept me staring him down. Now, I realized his very presence was a gravity unto itself. He was pulling me in with his obsidian eyes. The magic between us gathered us together like a star pulling in planets.
My breath caught in my throat. My mouth had gone dry. I licked my lips to wet them, to try speaking once more, but the Angel of Death’s gaze dropped to where my tongue touched my lips. A small quirk of his mouth was the only indication that he was as affected by this pull between us as I was.
This fated mate bond.
As much as it sent disgust through me, as much as hatred wormed from my gut to my heart at the realization of being this close to the man who’d taken Merek from me—who’d stolen so much from humans everywhere in Serenia—I couldn’t deny it. Much as I wanted to. Much as I hated to even think of it.
This wasa mate bond.
But that didn’t mean I had to accept it.
“Let them go,” I spat through gritted teeth.
“She is my prisoner. They all are.” His voice, deep and honey-like, sent shivers down my spine every time he spoke. I hated the way my belly warmed at the sound of it. The way heat coiled through my chest.
I hated this demon man. I hated everything he was and stood for.
And yet I knelt before him either way, and there was a part of my mind—tiny as it was—that almost liked it.
“She’s innocent,” I argued for Jessa. “Confused and not always in her own mind. Let her go. She’s no threat to you.”
“All paladins are,” the demon king countered.
Jessa really wasn’t. But there wasn’t a way to argue that without also talking about how her power seemed more demonic in some ways than celestial. And I didn’t really want to give the Angel of Death leeway enough to question if the Paladin Order might have some demons amongst it.
I lifted my chin. I was the leader of the paladins. Merek had left me in charge. It was my duty to keep them safe.
There was only one thing I could do.
“If you need to capture someone as an example…” I started as I tried to pull back my fist again. The demon king held fast. “Take me and let her and the others go. I’m the bigger threat to you than they are.”
The Angel of Death raised a dark eyebrow, but it was impossible to read if it was in curiosity or amusement. He turned his head to look Jessa over before glancing back to me. “They mean that much to you?”
What kind of question was that? “I don’t think you have the capacity to understand how much Jessa means to me and all of the paladins.” Something told me a demon like him didn’t understand the concept of family, much less having friends. Or how living in a country corrupted by him and his demonic empire meant that we’d all had to bond together like family even if we’d lost our blood relatives to demon attacks.
The Angel of Death, I had no doubt, was out of touch with the reality his empire and those of the other demon kings had created. From up here in his palace that stood in the middle of the city, there was no way he knew how far the demons ran. How the Light had
