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It fucking closed.

I look at Sentinel, who’s already staring at the opening.

He remembers too.

I push up onto my feet, every muscle protesting after taking my power back hard enough to nearly tear me apart. Sentinel starts toward me before I can move toward him, his wings spreading behind his shoulders as white-gold light builds beneath his skin.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” he calls over the fighting.

Hearing his voice almost makes me laugh because for the first time in weeks, I can fucking answer him. “Let’s seal the bastard.”

Sentinel grins. “Fuck, it’s good to hear your voice!”

I have my power, and this time I know exactly what I’m going to do with it.

Sentinel reaches me and plants his hand against my shoulder. Grace pours through the contact, and my body tenses automatically. The last time we did this, the power took us both by surprise. Hellfire and Holy Grace smashed together with enough force to tear through everything around us, and neither of us had a fucking clue whether we were controlling it or hanging on while it controlled us.

I’m not letting that happen again.

I close my eyes for a second and feel for him. Sentinel’s Grace is cool against my fire, his power moving through me without trying to smother what I am. My hellfire rises to meet it, heat building through my chest until the two touch.

Every muscle in my body locks because the power wants to explode. I feel that old violence in it, the instinct to tear outward and take everything around us with it.

Not this time.

I drag it back.

Hold it.

My hellhound fights me for half a second before settling beneath my skin, and slowly the pressure changes. The fire stops clawing for a way out, and Sentinel’s Grace stops flaring against it.

They move together.

My eyes open, and the Devil is watching me now.

Really watching.

His red eyes narrow as white-gold light threads through the hellfire glowing beneath my skin. Good. Watch this, motherfucker!

I turn toward the chasm. Lava crawls over the edge less than twenty feet away, thick bubbles bursting across its surface while the screams below roll up through the fire. I can feel Hell through that opening, the same place that held me, hurt me, tried to turn me into something obedient enough to use.

For most of my existence, my power has been measured by what it can destroy.

Tonight, I get to decide what else it can fucking do.

Sentinel’s fingers tighten against my shoulder, and I draw in a breath, then I roar.

But this time I aim it.

Hellfire tears from my throat with Sentinel’s Grace blazing through the center, but instead of exploding across the chamber, I drive every bit of it straight into the chasm.

The impact shakes the floor beneath my feet. Lava erupts upward, spraying molten rock across the chamber as the fused power slams into both sides of the opening. Stone groans beneath us, and the edges of the chasm shudder, fighting against the force driving them together.

I push harder. Sentinel pours more Grace into me. The light spreads through my fire and races along the broken edges of the chasm, sealing cracks as fast as Hell tries to rip them wider. The molten stone darkens beneath it, orange fading to red, red turning black as the opening starts to close.

A scream tears through the chamber.

Not from below.