Lost in Prophecy: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Ascension Series) (Volume 5) Read Online Free Page B

was chained on his knees with his arms above his head. His scale armor had been stripped away, leaving his muscular, human-like body bared to the harsh air of Dis. His skin was bone-white and translucent. Red veins gripped his ribs and crawled down his thighs.
    “Father,” Gremory said, “what a pleasure to meet you.”
    Elise didn’t bother replying.
    Gremory had been Belphegor’s praetor when he still possessed the army. They were also the same type of demon, although Gremory was much weaker. That didn’t mean much. Considering Belphegor’s power, it would have been hard for anyone to match him.
    “We found him trying to lead one of your centuria away,” Gerard explained, taking position beside the gibborim. “The twenty-sixth.”
    Elise lifted an eyebrow. It wasn’t surprising that Gremory had been trying to undermine her, but the twenty-sixth had been camping right by the gates—a dangerous place for a dissident to appear. “Were they leaving willingly?”
    “It seems so. He was trying to transport them to the House of Volac.”
    That House wasn’t allied with her yet, but she did have its daughter, Sallosa, as centurion of another century. More dissent within the ranks. “Send men to watch the thirtieth century—the one that Sallosa is commanding. Reassign the twenty-sixth to the wasteland perimeter. Kill the ones that resist.”
    “Sure we shouldn’t kill them all?” Gerard asked.
    Tempting. But Elise couldn’t kill every single demon that didn’t like her. Besides, she’d needed to move more forces into the hostile wastelands anyway. The forces she sent to patrol there kept going missing. Might as well put the centuries that disobeyed at risk.
    “You heard my order,” Elise said.
    Gerard sent one of his men out to take care of the twenty-sixth centuria. The trap door opened and slammed shut again.
    Elise held out her hand. Without asking, Gerard gave her a knife.
    Gremory’s eyes tracked the motion of the blade. There was no fear in his eyes. Elise would have to see if she could change that attitude.
    “What’s at the House of Volac? Is that where you were going to meet Belphegor?”
    The answer came from him easily. No threatening required. “He’s not there. I was merely planning to run an errand for him.”
    “Then where is he?” she asked, circling Gremory.
    “You already know that I won’t tell you. Attempt to torture me.”
    He sounded so calm about it.
    Elise’s eyes flicked up to the walkways ringing the room. Half of the Palace was watching. She needed to handle this as she did all things—swiftly, and without bullshit.
    She stepped close to Gremory. “This isn’t going to end well,” she muttered. “We don’t need to do it like this. It’s a waste of time.”
    “However long you waste attempting to beat information out of me is entirely within your control, Father.” A lazy smirk curved over his lips, and it was unsettling on a face so similar to Belphegor’s. Belphegor didn’t smile. Not like that. “There’s an alternative way to reach my master, you know. Let me go. I’ll arrange the meeting.”
    Belphegor had offered to teach her to perform warlock magic. He was the only surviving demon that knew the archaic skill now that Abraxas was dead.
    Elise hadn’t taken him up on the offer. She still didn’t know why Belphegor regarded her as an ally, and, frankly, she didn’t want to know. There would be a price for that knowledge, and Elise wasn’t going to pay it.
    She dug the knife into Gremory’s chest.
    At least, she attempted to dig it into his chest. The blade deflected from his skin, grating as though he were made of stone.
    When she struck again a second time, harder than before, the blade simply shattered.
    Gremory was still smirking.
    Elise slipped the hilt of the broken knife into Gerard’s hand, careful not to let the spectators see that it had failed.
    “What’s your backup plan?” Gremory asked casually, as if he were one of the guards