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Hellfire lashes upward. Grace punches through it in brilliant streaks of white-gold. The chamber shakes hard enough to send pieces of stone crashing from somewhere above.

“No!”

I run as Malgrave’s hands slam downward.

So does the power.

“NO!” I scream, and I reach the edge as Carnage’s hellfire and Sentinel’s Grace plunge straight down into the chasm, twisting together as they fall through smoke, fire, and darkness.

Deeper.

Farther.

Until the flames below bend toward them.

Then something laughs.

I freeze. The sound rolls up through the chasm, deep enough that I feel it through the stone beneath my hands.

One slow, satisfied chuckle.

Then another.

My blood runs cold.

I know that laugh. I heard traces of that same presence beneath Malgrave’s power. Heard it wrapped around Thessaly while she stood there believing every decision was her own.

But there’s nothing faint about him here.

The Devil is laughing.

Carnage’s power disappears into the fire, and the laughter gets louder.

“You fucking bastard!”

Malgrave’s head snaps toward me.

Shit.

Another pulse tears through the chamber, and Malgrave turns straight back to the binding.

The Devil’s laughter fades, but it doesn’t disappear completely. I can still hear the bastard somewhere below, a low chuckle rolling up through the chasm while Malgrave turns back to the symbols carved into the floor. His fingers spread over them and the chamber answers immediately, red light burning brighter beneath his hands.

So does Carnage. Another streak of hellfire tears into the room with Sentinel’s Grace trapped through the middle of it, both powers bucking hard enough to make Malgrave’s arms shake when his hands close around the binding.

“No! Stop!”

He doesn’t even look at me. He’s already done this enough times that I know exactly what comes next. He’ll force the two powers together, lock them inside whatever Hellwarden shit he’s using, then send another piece of Carnage over that edge for the Devil to collect.

Fuck that.

I move before Malgrave can finish. My boots hit the symbols between him and the chasm, putting me directly in the path he’s been using to send the power down.

That gets his attention, and his black eyes lift slowly to mine. “Get out of the way, Siren.”

I open my mouth instead. The first note comes out low, barely more than a hum, but the effect is immediate.

Malgrave’s head jerks toward the binding.