Avernus || Book 1 ✔️

||Rescued||

"Y-Your Highness. Please, stop this. He's going to get hurt." I whispered after tugging on his jacket to get his attention.

I saw his jaw twitch before he looked down at me, his eyes taking in my appearance before lingering on what I presumed to be the tears marring my cheeks.

"He needs to let his anger out; I can't have him returning back with us in this state."

My bottom lip trembled, and I shook my head in disagreement.

"I'll calm him down, I-I promise. Just please, stop this. I-I can't watch him...We can't let this happen; he's getting hurt!"

The King stared at me for a moment, taking in the distress in my expression and the shakiness in my voice. He looked back at the two daemons who were still engaged in their primitive affairs before glancing at me once more.

"Bael can handle himself, he will be fine. He's only playing right now, letting Cyprus get enough hits in to think that he has a chance, but he never did. I won't let Bael kill him but this I will allow. It will be over shortly."

I released a breath of frustration and turned around, pressing my hands to my ears in an attempt to tune out the noise and distract myself from my surroundings.

He wasn't going to do anything, nobody was. It was cruel of him to make me stand here and watch my mate engage in this kind of danger.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to calm my breathing, quietly counting to 10, my lips parting open and closed as I mouthed the numbers.

However, my eyes flashed open as I was suddenly grabbed roughly and pressed against a chest. I felt something cold touch my neck and I froze, the blood draining from my face as I realized what it was.

"Enough! Enough of these games. You will not take her from me—you won't! If I can't have her, then neither can you so what's it going to be boy?!"

My eyes were wide as I slowly registered the current situation—Cyprus had taken me hostage, and I was being held to his wet, bloody chest with a knife to my neck. The sharp point was being pressed into my skin, threatening to puncture it with just the slightest of movements.

I stared at my mate, our eyes locking as he watched me. He appeared stoic, his face not moving an inch as Cyprus applied further pressure to my neck. But I knew that he was panicked, I could feel it.

His dread, his helplessness squeezed the air out of my lungs more harshly than my captor's grip around my chest. I was going to die, but all I could think about was my mate and how much it would hurt him to see me that way.

"Put the knife down," Bael ordered lowly. But his words caused Cyprus to shift the weapon against my skin and nick the base of my neck, making me yelp.

"Don't—"

"You're not in a position to be making demands. So again, I ask, are you going to kill your mate? Or are you going to leave here...alone?"

Leave me

I begged and pleaded through the bond, but he had blocked me out. I could only watch as his composure began to unravel, and the nervous tells that were once hidden were starting to surface.

Bael seemed to give up control in that moment as the familiar combination of earth and fire was looking back at me, staring helplessly, desperately. I gave a watery smile, trying to comfort him as best I could, knowing that those emotions had the potential to bottle up and explode, and I didn't want him to do something that he might regret.

It's okay

I said to him once I no longer felt his block on our mind link

I'll be okay. You can go