“What are you going to do, you pathetic human?” she bit back. “I have her delicate little neck. It would be so easy to snap⁠—”

She cut off, her head darting towards the kitchen bench. Towards the pulsing light that I glimpsed over her shoulder.

Oh, shit.

My Soul Token. Flashing wildly with the whirlwind of my emotions.

“That lying piece of …” Hellen muttered against my face, and then there was another hot gust of wind, a metallic tinkling, and the Soul Token flew from the bench into her free hand.

“What is that?” Joe demanded, taking a step closer.

The wind swirled, shoving him back onto the lounge. He struggled, but against the air battering him, he was powerless. His jaw twitched with effort, his muscles strained.

“I am starting to see the appeal of a human toy,” Hellen remarked, spinning me so my back hit her front. She was taller than me, not much, but enough that combined with her inhuman strength, and whatever this … magic was, that she commanded the air with, I was at her mercy.

I whimpered as she brought the Soul Token up in front of my face, rolling it between her fingers. “So much power. And all from one insignificant little human. You know, my brother never let me touch this, despite promising me it was the key to Hell’s salvation. I understand why, now.”

Joe’s eyes were fixed on the token, which strobed pink and white in Hellen’s fingers. “What is that thing?” he repeated.

“This is a teeny little piece of your sister’s soul. Put there by my wayward brother, to control her.”

“What?” Joe breathed.

“I … it sounds much worse than it is!” I coughed—Hellen’s hand was too tight for speaking to be comfortable. “And he gave it back to me. He wanted me to keep it.”

“Of course he did,” Hellen interjected smugly, and the light in the room dimmed as she closed her fist tightly around the token. “Another lie. My brother’s loyalty is clearly no longer with Hell. What a shame he’s not here to rescue you from your fate.”

“What fate?” Joe grated. There was a vein in his neck that bulged as he strained against the air pressure holding him down on the lounge. “If you harm a single⁠—”

“Save it for someone who gives a fuck!” Hellen snarled, all that smug politeness gone. Her fingers caressed the bones in the back of my neck. I shivered, closing my eyes, wishing that something—someone—would come to save me from this. But SJ, wherever he was, wasn’t coming.

He’d hurt me to protect me from this monster. And in the end, it hadn’t made a scrap of difference. She was going to hurt me, too.