Free Execution (The Divine Book 6) by M.R. Forbes Page A

demon to you?"
    I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. My mind wandered back further than it had in a long time. All the way back to Rebecca. She had been the first demon I met, and I thought she had been able to change. Maybe she did in the end, but not before she screwed me a few times for believing in her.
    I reminded myself that Alyx was not Rebecca. Not in any way I could discern. Was it true that she could be completely playing me with the sweet, naive Great Were act? Of course. Demons were good at that. Rebecca had been. I was more experienced now. I hoped I was wiser. I didn't see anything in Alyx that I had seen in Rebecca. She had decided I was her mate because Ulnyx had been the Alpha of her pack, and I had absorbed the Great Were's powers at one point. It made sense from a Divine perspective, and it was the simplest reason anyone could have given for anything.  
    Simple was always more believable.
    "You're more than a demon to me," I said. "You know I don't choose my friends by their affiliation to good or evil. That's not my way." I couldn't afford to be that narrow-minded.  
    "Do you love me?"
    "Alyx, how many times are you going to ask?"
    "Until you say yes."
    "What if I never say yes?"
    "Then I'll keep asking."
    Simple.
    "What if I did say yes?"
    "Then we should mate. I will make you happy."
    My heart was pounding by now. I was starting to feel like every time she asked I was getting closer to saying yes, despite every intention not to.
    "You make me happy as a friend," I said.
    "I'll make you happier as a lover." She paused, looking down at her lap. Her voice softened. "Landon?"
    It was odd behavior from her. "What is it?" I asked, concerned.
    "I knew that I loved you because I was intended to be one of Ulnyx's mates, and you were once the Alpha of my pack. But-"  
    Her voice trailed away. She looked uncomfortable, and vulnerable in a way I hadn't seen and could barely imagine.
    "But what?" I asked.
    "I have other... feelings. From here." She put a hand on her heart. "And from here." She put her hand on her gut, where I believed the soul rested. "Not just obligation and a desire to mate with you. Something more. We've been together for the last three weeks, and when I think of being parted from you, I don't like it."
    I stared at her, my heart ready to thump right through my chest. Was she telling me that she really loved me? Not only in the way she had believed love was but for real? I knew demons were capable of real love. Izak had loved Josette and Sarah.
    "What does it mean?" she asked when I remained silent for too long.
    "It means you're more than a demon. A lot more."

Sixteen

    The two stops before the Desolation were the Spikes and the Pit.  
    The Spikes were a series of sharp mountain peaks where the torments of the damned echoed from the spires, the actual torture generated deep within the mountains. I didn't know what kind of souls were sent there, but I could hear the difference in their screams from those of the Kitchen, and from those fueling the train. Judging by that, they were not in a happy place. Not. At. All.
    The Pit was the more classic representation of Hell. It was where the fire and brimstone hit it hard. The train paused at a station there to take on more passengers, who seemed to pick up on their counterpart's attitudes and instinctively know not to look at me. From my position near the window, I could see the massive pit in the ground, and the cliff faces where damned souls were chained and screaming out as fire licked at their bodies. I had wondered as we began moving again how those souls ever got free to become demons. They didn't have use of their hands or feet to get themselves out of the chains. Did they call out to their keepers? Or were the eternally trapped? Maybe that was what happened to the demons who died?
    The Desolation made me cry.
    I did it silently, and I tried to hide it from Alyx. I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to look weak. I was glad none of the