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"After," heher expression? Surely not

"Very well," she said No emotion "After But Geryon, I must warn you There is a chance ill not survive"

"What do you mean?"

"After we have repaired the wall, we must hunt and kill the demons ould destroy it Are you sure you wish to wait?"

Hunt and destroy the demons Of course The ansas so clear, he was eh Lords, they would be co a crime, and they would be punished Perhaps be put to death

"So…your kiss?" she prompted softly

Had he not known better, he would aler

But he did know better Agreeing to Lucifer’s bargain had been difficult Or so he’d thought at the time This was a thousand times more so "After," he repeated He would earn that kiss, and hopefully, she would not ever think back on it and consider hiain looked away froin our work"

CHAPTER FIVE

FOR HOURS G ERYON WORKED at repairing the outer wall, pleading with Kadence all the while to reerous, he said Demons liked their prey alive and fresh, he said What he did not say was that she was fragile, breakable No, he did not need to say it; she read the thoughts in the ever-growing concern in his eyes

Through it all, she refused to allow hi that would surely earn her the wrath of the gods, only to send him on a mission he could not hope to ithout her

While the demons were not hers to command, she could force theile and breakable, but she possessed a core of iron

So she’d finally proven to Lucifer earlier As well as herself

As a child, she had been an indo and everything in her path It had not been intentional She’d sis inside her head Dominate Master

Do you really wish to think of this now?

No better ti to think about hy Geryon had not wanted to kiss her when she’d offered Why he’d actually looked alarmed A few ideas came to mind: he did not really want to kiss her--but why then would he have requested one? Or he resented her for asking for his aid--this was the most likely--and last, he was simply desperate for a woman, she was the only one available, yet he had to force his body to react first

E

She could have helped hi, but he had shooed her away every time she tried When she joined him anyway, he’d threatened to leave her if she did not stop So here she was, doing nothing Useless

I ah, for the most part, I have acted like it

When, as a child, she’d realized she had chipped away at her own oddess into a lifeless shell, she had retreated inside herself, afraid of who and what she was Afraid of what she could do, unintentional though it was

Sadly, with those fears came others, as if she’d opened a doorway in her mind and placed a welcome mat out front Fear of people, places, emotions For centuries she had acted like the mouse Lucifer had called her

Underneath the fears, however, she was still the goddess she’d been born to be: Oppression She conquered She did not cower Please, do not let er

"I have done all I can for the outer wall," Geryon suddenly said

Kadence had been perched on a nearby rock, and now stood Her robe fell to her ankles, swaying

"Once I pry the gate’s boulders apart--" boulders that blocked the cavern fro pit "--we h, but we cannot let that slow us"

Or so--could escape "I understand," she said, closing the distance between thee for us to stand upon We must hold on to the boulder and work our way down the pit"

Only after she nodded did he shove and push, creating the aforementioned slit

Instantly flames and scaled arms reached out Screa all to recede To her surprise, the demons darted away, the flah, her body swinging from the natural world into the spiritual one Part of her wanted to believe they had done so because they’d been afraid of her The other part of her knew they’d feared Geryon’s wrath

She held onto the boulder with every bit of her strength as Geryon closed the slit To let go was to freefall into Hell, a fiery pit just waiting to gobble theoddess?" He inched his way toward her He had swung to the left of the gate, and she the right "Ready?" he insisted, reaching for her To protect her? Aid her?

"Yes" Finally, I will know his touch Surely it will not be as divine ascould be But just before contact, heher She sighed in disappoint her feet on a rocky protrusion as best she could