She pushed his hands away and sat up, having forgotten what she was wearing—or rather, not wearing. For a moment, Bael’s eyes flicked down her body before he averted his gaze. She pulled the sheets up around her. “I used Emerazel’s fire to bring us here. You were bleeding to death.”

Bael looked at the window, unwilling to make eye contact. “Fiore cannot hide from me. I will rip his sinews from his bones until he talks.”

“I’m not sure he’ll be talking any time soon. I pinned his body to the ground with his own sword before I cut off his head.”

Bael head swiveled back to look at her, and his eyes darkened. “You did what? I needed information from him.”

“I only cut off his head after he told me me where to find Abrax.”

A hint of surprise flickered in Bael’s eyes. “Where is the usurper hiding?”

“I’m not sure I entirely trust you yet. You did offer up my soul to Fiore, if I recall.”

“That was a tactical decision. Fiore wouldn’t have agreed to a duel if there weren’t something in it for him.”

“What if you’d lost?” She looked him straight in the eyes. “Oh, wait you did lose.” Bael let out a low growl, but Ursula held his gaze. “If I tell you where Abrax is, you must promise never to sell me out again. One of those promises on the honor of Nyxobas or whatever you said before.”

The demon’s jaw tightened, but he nodded. Ursula suspected that the nod might have been a tactical decision as well—not nearly as binding as a verbal pledge.

“Fiore said Abrax went back to Oberon’s,” said Ursula. “Probably should have gone back there to begin with, since that was the last place I saw him.”

“What’s he doing with the fae?”

“No one seems to know, except that they’ve formed some sort of alliance.”

“The fae don’t form alliances with earthly gods.”

“Things have changed, I guess. You have no clue what they’d be doing together?”

Bael looked at the window again, considering the question. “If Abrax and the fae were united, they could make a play for Nyxobas’s shadow kingdom.” He coughed, wincing in pain.

“Are you ok?”

“I’ll manage.”

She eyed the belt binding his enormous chest. “I’m not sure if it helped, but I bound your wounds.”

“Of course you did.” His pale eyes threatened to pierce her soul. “You won’t stand a chance against Abrax without me.”

“I did pretty well against your vampire friend.”

Bael’s fists clenched so tightly his knuckles whitened. “Fiore was a dead man as soon as his second became involved,” he said through clenched teeth.