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prevent an eventual fall, he did not add.
    â€œYes. Knowing demons as I have come to, they will return and inflict more damage.” Once more she turned to him. Once more she lifted her gaze to him, kernels of fear swirling where there should only be satisfaction. A crime. “Geryon,” she began, only to press her lush lips together.
    What was left of his heart skidded to an abrupt stop. She was just so lovely, her gentleness and goodness setting her apart from everything he represented. He wanted to duck his head, hide his ugliness from her. “Yes?”
    â€œI should not ask this of you, but I know not what else to do.”
    â€œAsk me anything you desire.” He would see it was done, no matter the consequences. “It will be my pleasure to aid you.”
    â€œI pray you remember those words. For after we’ve repaired the wall, we must enter hell—and hunt the demons who would destroy it.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    For hours Geryon worked at repairing the wall, pleading with Kadence all the while to remain behind. Demons were dangerous, 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 warmth of his eyes.
    Through it all, she refused to allow him to go alone. She had not bartered something that would surely earn her the wrath of the gods, only to send him on a mission he could not hope to win without her.
    While the demons were not hers to command, she could force them to bow to her. She hoped. Besides, she might appear fragile and breakable, but she possessed a core of iron.
    Something she’d finally proven to Lucifer earlier.
    As a child, she had been an indomitable force. A whirlwind that trampled anything and everything in her path. It had not been intentional. She’d simply followed the quiet urgings inside her head. Dominate . Master . When she’d realized she had chipped away at her own mother’s strength of mind, turning the once vibrant goddess 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 me cower. Not any longer.
    Only a few moments ago, Geryon had reluctantly pried apart the boulders blocking the cavern from a yawning pit—only a small slit—flames and scaled arms instantly reaching out. He had entered first, commanding both to recede. To her surprise, they had obeyed the instant she came through. 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.
    â€œReady, goddess?” he anchored himself on a ledge of the wall. He was to the left of the gate, she on the right. “Ready?” he insisted, reaching toward her. To protect her? Aid her? They were hanging onto a massive rock, after all, a fiery pit waiting to catch them should they fall.
    â€œYes.” Finally, I will know his touch . Surely it will not be as divine as my body expects. Nothing could be . But just before contact, he lowered his arm and inched further away from her. She sighed in disappointment and tightened her grip on the wall, balancing her feet on the thin ledge as best she could.
    â€œThis way.” He motioned toward the crack with a tilt of his chin.
    â€œAll right. And Geryon? Thank you. For everything.” Usually she whisked herself to Lucifer’s palace without ever opening the gate, too afraid to fall into this smoldering pit and explore the wasteland waiting below. Not