This was how he carried me when we flew, but his mouth on my neck, on my breast, teeth grazing my collarbone before sucking on my chin and claiming my mouth, were all new. He reached between us and unzipped his pants, and then his cock was rubbing against my swollen, wet clit.

“Fuck, Fee. Fuck. Friends don’t fuck.”

I rolled my hips against his cock and then adjusted my angle. “I don’t care.” I slid onto his length, taking him deep.

He thrust up into me, grunting and then moaning as his balls met my ass. My head fell back as he began to pound into me, raw and desperate and angry. He fucked me violently, all the while cradling me with his wings. Sobs clawed up my throat and escaped my lips.

“Yes, yes, yes.” I leaned my head to the side, offering him my neck. “Please.”

He didn’t protest, he didn’t ask me if I was sure. He just took what I offered, sinking his fangs into me, and soothing my scream with the delirium in his saliva. I came like a supernova, body jerking and bucking as my sheath milked his cock. He made a strangled sound, pulling his fangs from my neck and planting his lips on mine as he came.

Copper filled my mouth. My own blood, his tongue, his fangs. His kiss tore at my mouth while we crested again and again.

And, in that moment, I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for this demon. No lengths I wouldn’t go to in order to save his life. I loved him. I fucking loved him.

We lay in a heap of tangled limbs. He was asleep, heavy and deep. There was color back in his cheeks, and it dawned on me that he’d been super pale ever since we’d left for the Underealm.

He’d gone to feed at the whore house in the village, but he’d still been pale when he’d returned.

He hadn’t done it. I knew it in my soul. He hadn’t slept with anyone since me, and he needed it. He needed to feed, and I needed him to feed only on me.

He was mine.

I stroked his cheek and lightly kissed his brow. No more running. No more pretending.

I needed to pee.

Five minutes later, I padded out of the room in search of food. Being fed on was hungry work. The corridors were dark, but there was enough moonlight to see by. In fact, the sky was beginning to get decidedly gray. Where were the kitchens in this place? The scent of coffee found me and drew me around a corner and down a flight of stairs into an open plan kitchen with an epic view of the sea.

Asmodeus sat at a table nursing a mug and looking out at the expanse.

“The sun is about to come up,” he said. “Would you like to watch it with me?”

“Is there any more coffee?”

He smiled and jerked his head to a coffee pot on the counter. All the benefits of technology, eh.

I found a mug in the cupboard above the coffee pot, poured myself a cup, and joined him at the table.

“You’ll have to be stubborn,” Asmodeus said. “You’ll have to hold on hard even when he pushes you away.” He sounded nostalgic. “You mustn’t give up.”

“Did you give up?”

His smile was upside down. “Yes. And I regretted it ever since.”

“You loved him?”

“I did, and I thought he loved me too, but I realize now his attraction was merely admiration. He admired and idolized me, but love…Mal hasn’t loved anyone until you.”

My pulse fluttered. “How do you know he loves me?”

“Lust is my gift in the Underealm, but once, eons ago, when I lived in the Beyond, my affinity was love.”

He was a fallen angel like Samael, Mammon, and Belphegor. “You were thrown out of the Beyond?”

“No, we chose to leave, to forge a new path. But there are only a handful of us originals left now.”

“The princes that ruled the circles.”

“Yes,” he said. “Conah told me you spent the majority of your life among the mortals. You have a human mother.”

I nodded.

“Your humanity will be the anchor that will save Malachi from his inner demons. You see, humans build machines and weapons of mass destruction in the name of ensuring peace, when in truth, the most powerful weapon is forever in their arsenal if they chose to use it.”

“And what is that?”

“Love.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded, as I absorbed his words.

“Love him, Felton. Love him with all your heart, and you might succeed in saving him from himself.”

We sipped our coffee as the sun came up, coloring the sea amber and orange. And I came to the conclusion that Asmodeus wasn’t a dick after all.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The drake loaned to us by Asmodeus carried us over the Circle. From high above, it was possible to see the remnants of the walls that had once separated the circles. Some had crumbled, others still stood like towering monuments, and huge arcs had been cut into them to accommodate roads. The closer we got to Imperium, the more modern the terrain became. Obsidian towers that glittered as if they were set with gems, and domed structures that reflected the sunlight became the norm. And then a wall of shimmering crimson rose up into the air, curving back on itself.

I leaned out of the window, wanting to see better. “What is that?”

“It’s a ward,” Conah said. “It protects Imperium from unwanted guests. There is only one way in, via the main checkpoint.”

The carriage shuddered as we began our descent, and beside me, Conah stiffened.

Mal pressed his lips together. “It’ll be fine, Con. We play ignorant and stick to the plan.”

Conah nodded tightly, and my stomach churned. It was highly likely that Lilith or someone with access to a royal seal wanted Conah out of the way. They’d tried to have him kidnapped, but now that had failed, there was a high possibility they’d try something more drastic. For all we knew, we were about to enter the lion’s den.

I covered Conah’s hand with mine and squeezed. “We stick together. One of us with you at all times. Got it?”

“Unless one of you plans to share my room, I doubt that will be possible,” Conah replied.

“Then one of us will share your room,” Mal said.

The drake landed, and the carriage shuddered. I swallowed my nerves and smiled brightly at the guys. “It’s three nights. We can do this.”

Problem was, a lot of shit could go down in three nights.

I barely registered the various checkpoints we passed on the way to the Keep. Four, I think. At the last one, Conah returned with three pins. He passed one to Mal and one to me and slipped the other onto his cloak. As we continued our journey, the towers grew taller and the air so cold Mal and Conah were forced to flank me to keep me warm. My human heritage meant I couldn’t withstand this subzero temperature like the pure demons. Even though Conah was a son of Adam, so also part human, his bloodline had been raised in the Underworld, so he had adapted to the environment. He was pure demon in every way.

The world outside the windows was a metropolis made of ice.

“That’s Shoel tech.” Mal pointed out the window to a massive domed building made of reflective glass. “Lilith’s baby,” he added. “The technologies created by Shoel power the whole of the Underworld. At least the parts that choose to accept it.”

An obsidian arch loomed up ahead. The inside of the arch shimmered like water. It had to be a portal.

The carriage came to a halt, and Conah pushed open the door.

“We have to go through the portal,” Mal said. “It’ll take us straight to the Keep. The pins give us access.”

I stepped out onto the snow that went halfway up my calf and followed Conah to the portal. The etchings on the stone glowed crimson as we approached.

“They’re reacting to the pins,” Mal explained. He took my hand for a moment, and we laced fingers. “Just follow my lead when we get there, and don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”

He was worried about me. About Lilith seeing through the glamour and the façade.

We hadn’t spoken about last night, but he hadn’t pulled away from me either. Things were different between us now. Better.

I squeezed his hand. “It’s going to be okay. And when we get back, you and I are going on a date.”

I felt his gaze on the side of my face but kept my eyes on the portal.

“A date?”

He said it as if he’d never been on one.

“Uh-huh, we’ll go for a meal and then catch a movie, maybe even go ice skating. Can you skate?”

“Fee…I…”

“We’re doing it, Mal. We’re going to do it all.”

He sighed and kissed my temple. “It’s a date.”

Hope unfurled in my chest, and then we stepped through the portal. The world splintered and reformed in an entranceway carved from obsidian and gilded with gold. A burly demon, bare-chested but wearing pants that were too tight to be decent, greeted us.

“Lilith awaits.” He padded barefoot across cream marble floors toward a massive set of double doors that swished open, sliding into the walls as we approached. My heart thudded painfully in my chest as we entered the vast chamber held up by pillars and hung with golden tapestries. I recognized this room. I’d seen it in Azazel’s memory, and there she was, sitting on her throne made of gems.

Lilith.

Except she wasn’t dressed in figure-hugging robes, and she wasn’t wearing an opulent crown. She was garbed in black-and-gold pants and a tunic. Her hair was pulled back off her face and woven into hundreds of braids, and she was sipping from a golden goblet.

She looked totally badass, and she wasn’t alone. A male daemon sat on the dais at the foot of the throne, one leg dangling off the ledge, the other boot braced on it, so his knee was bent with his wrist resting casually on it. He was dressed in tight trousers, soft leather boots, and an open waistcoat that left his lithe, muscled chest bare. His skin was a steely blue that gleamed in the warm light, and strange navy-blue patterns were visible beneath the waistcoat, trailing up over his collarbone, his neck, and over his cheek before spiraling up to hug the horns on his head. Black horns that curved away from his face. His hair was a deep royal blue, loose and wild around that dangerous face—straight nose with flared nostrils, a wide slash of a mouth in a slender face, and yellow cat’s eyes that were fixed on me. He looked as if he could leap, twist, and climb. He looked as if he could fight. He looked…wicked.