Chapter 173: Break the Bond

Luceriel’s POV

Everything about the past few hours had worn on his nerves, and Pazuzu most of all.

Under any other circumstance, Luceriel would not have wasted a single thought on him, would have simply removed the problem the way he removed every other problem that dared cross into his kingdom.

But Pazuzu was his mate. And so instead of acting, he found himself doing something he had never once done in his long existence: standing still, tolerating it, playing the fool.

"What is wrong with you?" Luceriel demanded, tearing open a rift of green light that swallowed them both whole and dropped them inside a cave, damp and hollow, water tracing thin, endless lines down its jagged black walls.

A shallow pool had gathered at its center, black with age and stagnant runoff, and it was into that pool he threw Pazuzu, letting him land hard against the stone.

The plan had been simple enough. Make Pazuzu pay for everything he had caused. Make him understand, once and for all, that he could not go on humiliating Luceriel in front of his own brothers and expect nothing in return.

This was the Cave of Misery, and Luceriel had grown tired enough of the constant disrespect that bringing him here felt like the only option left.

Pazuzu laughed, rolling his eyes as he landed, his back pressed flat against the weeping stone. "Do you not find it exciting, meeting someone who could finally excite you? Someone who could make you smile? Someone who will walk beside you for the rest of your existence?"

"No. Especially not someone like you." Luceriel’s voice tore through the chamber, echoing off every wet surface it touched. "I do not care what you believe we are, or what kind of bond ties us together. I never wanted any of this, and I hate that it came from you of all beings. The very last thing I ever wanted was a mate at all, and I hate you for it with everything I have. You are nothing but a demon, born to bring ruin to this world, and I am somehow meant to accept you as mine? Never." The walls trembled under the weight of his shout, and he pressed a hand to his forehead, breathing hard.

He hated this so thoroughly. Why him? Why could he not have been given someone docile, someone quiet, someone who would not make him a target for Sariel’s endless envy for the rest of his life?

"Ah..." Pazuzu chuckled, his eyes finding Luceriel’s. "How sad. Because I do not hate you. In fact, I find you rather fascinating as a mate, and I stand by every word I have said. Whether you hate me or not, you will marry me, because it is the only way I can guarantee you survive what is coming."

"Be silent," Luceriel snapped, slashing his hand through the air.

A thin blade of light followed the motion, opening a shallow cut across Pazuzu’s cheek, blood welling up and tracing a line down his jaw. "I do not want you as a mate. Find a way to end this bond between us. I will never bind myself to someone as insufferable as you. You are a plague on my existence, and I should curse Azriel for ever waking you, though he is my brother, so I will not. As for you, stay away from me, or I will make certain you spend the rest of your existence locked in this very cave." He closed the distance between them and wrapped a hand around Pazuzu’s throat.

"You are an ancient demon. You know a way to sever this bond between us. I refuse to be disrespected in front of my brothers a single time more. Find a way to end this, or I will find one myself, and I will free myself of you either way."

Pazuzu said nothing for a long moment, his violet eyes fixed on Luceriel, unreadable.

Luceriel could not tell whether that silence meant something, some quiet calculation running behind those eyes, or whether it was simply the look of a demon already reconsidering, already searching for a way to retreat from the ledge he had walked himself out onto.

Then Pazuzu burst into laughter. "Truly?" He grinned and leaned into the grip around his throat rather than away from it, his skin flushing red beneath Luceriel’s fingers. He raised a hand and rested it lightly over Luceriel’s own, still wrapped tight around his neck. "You wish to break our bond?"

Luceriel offered no answer.

"Well then. Do you no longer require my help against the Demon King?"

"We never required your help. You are simply another obstacle we will have to remove eventually."

Pazuzu clicked his tongue. "You must truly despise me, given how little your green eyes hold besides anger and hatred whenever you look at me. A shame. I had rather hoped you might have fallen in love with me by now, dear mate."

That drew a frown out of Luceriel despite himself. He had tried, more than once, to see past whatever Pazuzu chose to show him, to find whatever lay beneath the theatrics and the endless, maddening confidence, and every time he had come away empty-handed. That failure alone was enough to make him despise the bond between them.

There was something else to Pazuzu, something beyond the raw, staggering power he carried, beyond the reckless attitude he wore like armor, something Luceriel wanted to understand and simply could not. Not because understanding it would change how he felt. Only because it might, at last, make sense of any of this.

"How sad indeed, Luceriel, son of Ophaniel. I had thought you might welcome me with open arms, eventually. But setting that aside, you will still need me, because how else do you intend to defeat my father? How?" Pazuzu demanded, then he burst into laughter. ’’I am the only one who knows how cruel he is! how the world would turn out to be once he wakes up! You should seek answers from me instead of acting like a fool!’’