Belial took my hand and pulled me off the bed, leading me into the hall and shutting Vyra’s door behind us. I tried not to think about how the click of the door sounded like a death knell to my ears, like I was shutting the thought of her behind it.
Even though he was always the first one to push me into action, Belial was the voice of reason now.
He locked my bedroom door behind us. I shed my clothes and ran a bath in the massive pool instead of showering, conscious of all the bandaging around my wing.
“It’s going to be impossible to get all the soot out of my feathers if I can’t stretch it out,” I grumbled, slipping into the hot water and standing upright in the deep bath so my wing wouldn’t get soaked.
“That’s why you have me.” Belial sat on the edge, his legs dangling in the water. He reached out and pulled me closer until I was wedged between his thighs, adjusting me so my wing was draped over his leg.
I leaned against him as he smoothed my hair over my shoulder and out of the way, then dipped a cloth in the water and wrung it out.
A shiver ran through me when he ran the wet cloth over my feathers, carefully brushing so he wouldn’t move the slowly-healing bone. He worked his way through the layers of feathers bit by bit, his touch so gentle I barely felt it.
I pressed my marked palm against his thigh. Even with the bathwater steaming, his skin was hotter still, and the gentle flex of muscle moved under my hand as he shifted in place to clean my wing.
I had no idea how I’d gotten so lucky as to win him over.
“I know what the others would say,” he murmured, running the cloth over the fine feathers near my shoulder blade. “I shouldn’t encourage you. I’m supposed to tell you to stay inside, stay out of trouble, stay out of the way. But that’s just not what you’re meant for.”
I shook my head, wrapping my hand around as much of his muscular thigh as I could manage and pressing my fingertips into his skin. “Is it selfish of me to not give this up with Sarai on the way?”
He trailed his fingers down my spine, making my skin tingle, and carefully resumed cleaning the long pinfeathers. “No. It would be selfish and cowardly to hide away and let everyone else take care of it. That you refuse to stop is just one of the many reasons I love you. I would rather have a mate who keeps fighting to her last breath than one who runs from war.”
Belial slicked the cloth over the outside of my feathers, then dropped it to the side and carefully pulled me back against his chest.
“Good,” I whispered, burying my head under his chin. “I can’t stop. I won’t stop until we have them back, and it makes it all easier knowing you have my back on this.”
“Of course I do.” He stroked my hair, and I caught sight of his palm when he pulled his hand away. It was streaked black with grime.
I lifted a strand of my hair. Hardly any of the violet was visible; every strand was coated black and gray. “Ugh. Get in here and let’s get this off.”
His sharp teeth flashed when he smiled, and he got to his feet. “Thought you’d never ask, angel. Make room.”
I barely managed to duck aside in time to shield my bandaging before he dove in like a cannonball. He surfaced a moment later, shaking water from his hair and laughing.
I pulled him close to me, touching the glint of dark stubble along his chin. “You’re incorrigible, you know that?”
“Would you want it any other way?” he asked, giving me a devilish look.
Belial sat on the underwater ledge and pulled me into his lap, keeping my wing just above the water. I felt his cock harden and push against the inside of my thigh, even though he made no move to fuck me while I was exhausted.
“Not at all.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned my forehead against his. “But if Sarai is anything like you, we’re going to have problems.”
“Now that you’ve said it out loud, she will be,” he said. Water beaded and sparkled against his full lower lip, and I interrupted him to kiss it away. “Joke’s on you.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s not how it works.”
“Yes, it is,” he said.
“No, it’s not.”
The argument hadn’t ended by the time we left the lukewarm bath. I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep curled against Belial’s side, feeling a little more peaceful than before.
4
Melisande
We woke up to someone knocking on the door.
Belial groaned, snuggling against me tighter. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, pretending for just a moment that nobody else was there.
Whoever it was knocked harder, refusing to be deterred.
“Time to rise and shine,” Belial said muzzily, rubbing a hand over his face. I got out of bed feeling much better than the day before, even though I still had to move gingerly with my wing.
He strode towards the door stark naked, but before I could open my mouth to say something, he’d already pulled it open. “What?” he said, sounding far more snarly than usual.
An Overseer was there, his hand still raised to knock again. I recognized the porcine snout and gold ring. “Hi, Tabor,” I called, waving from behind Belial.
His piggy eyes widened in horror, and his next words spilled out in a flood. “My Prince, the Brightside needs your assistance in the excavation of the arena. Your assistance. Just yours.”
I held up a dress against myself. I’d slept in one of Belial’s shirts, which came down to my knees. “Aw. You don’t want to stay and help me pick out clothes?”
Poor Tabor was already backing away. “It’s urgent, my Prince. Some of your safeguards are too powerful for the Overseers to break, and they’re nervous about some of the… uh… things locked in there.”
Belial leaned against the door frame and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I’ll be there shortly, Tabor.”
He closed the door as the Overseer fled. “You really left a lasting impression on that poor demon.”
“When you brought me in, my goal was to be as big of a pain in the ass as possible.” I smiled sweetly at Belial and discarded the dress. “I think I managed quite well.”
He pulled a clean shirt over his head and tied his long hair back in a ponytail. “Damn right you did. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to handle this first, angel. There are some things I have buried under the arena that shouldn’t be disturbed without me being present. We can go together later, if you’d like.”
I picked through my clothes until I found a leather shirt with straps that laced in the back. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know what sort of things Belial was talking about. “Can you help me with this? And I can handle this on my own. Just tell me where the succubi temple is. I’ll ride Capheira up there myself.”
Belial helped lace me into the shirt, keeping it a little loose around the edges of my wing. He adjusted my bandaging as well, ensuring the limb would stay neatly folded in place.
“You’ll ride up through the main thoroughfare,” he said, twisting my hair up and pinning it into place with a silver hair stick that would double as a weapon in an emergency. “When you reach Lust, go left. Ride past Asmodeus’s little playground and continue on until you reach a fountain. You’ll know which one, trust me. The temple’s entrance is in front of it- and if you come across Asmodeus and he gives you trouble, stick him with this.”