I finally looked at the boys, ready to start to gloat about how awesome I was, when I felt a little faint and had to hold on to the chair that was next to my vanity to make sure I didn't fall.
“Well done, Your Majesty. I think this will work perfectly for you and your mates,” Reginald said from the doorway, his arms behind his back as he looked around the room.
His eyes widened for a second when they landed on me before they coolly looked over at the men. “I think you all should check out your rooms while Her Majesty gets some rest from her trip. I’m sure she hasn't gotten a wink of sleep in the past twenty-four hours.” He clapped at the guys, then moved to push them into their rooms.
Con winked at me before he went into his space. I could hear how excited War was because he started to boast about all the things in his room. It almost made me laugh as he started calling things out and how he could make use of them.
As Reginald was pushing Death into his room, Death resisted. He looked over at me, gave me the stink eye, and said, “We still need to talk, and you need to explain all of this to us.”
I nodded, but something must’ve shown on my face, because his abruptly softened as he let Reginald shove him into his room on the right.
Fame was at his door, hand on the handle, before he looked back at me. “Are you all right, princess?”
I was shocked at the concern lacing his voice, but I was determined to show them that I would not crack, so I straightened and nodded.
“Of course I am. Reggie is just a mother hen who likes to worry over nothing. I'm just going to check out my room and make sure I have everything I need. Then we can all talk about… well, everything, and you all can ask your questions.”
He eyed me again, his jaw clenched as his muscles bunched up, then he gave me a slight nod. His voice was deep as he replied, “That will work for us.” Then he went into his room and shut the door.
Now that I had a moment to myself, I knew I needed to contact Cassandra and make sure everything was okay. I went to my vanity, sat down, touched the mirror, and called to her through the seal I placed on her.
She quickly came into view as I saw she was at home with a tub of ice cream in her lap. As soon as she saw my face, she shoved the ice cream aside and rushed over, “Are you okay, Lils? You don’t look so good. Do you need me to get you a car to take you home? Let me know your coordinate–”
“Hell,” I croaked out, a piece of me still wishing that this all was a very vivid dream.
Cass’s mouth dropped open. “Wait, do you me…”
“Hell. The underworld. Birthplace of demons. Opposite of heaven. My childhood home.”
“Oh shit!” Cass cursed. Even though I was dead tired and running on empty, her foul mouth made me laugh and I realized I needed that. I needed a little lightness after all the heavy shit that was laid on me.
She gave me a sad smile in return, and it just reminded me of all the shit that I still had to deal with, but at least I could make sure that my business didn’t fail. “I think it’s time to enact plan Zero.” Her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open.
“But… but… I don’t…” She was shaking her head, trying to fight the inevitable. She started looking around her apartment, tugging at her hair and fumbling over words. I could see her starting to freak out with all the responsibility that I was placing on her shoulders, but it couldn’t be helped.
I clapped my hands to bring her attention back to me. “Cassandra, I need you. I need you to follow the plan that you and I made together that said if I ever got taken into Hell that you would be in charge and would run the day to day for the company. You already have a signed affidavit and a recorded video from me saying that I was of sound mind when we made that, which should take care of all of the legal stuff.”
She nodded before her soft voice spoke again, “When are you coming back?”
I didn’t want to lie to her so I shrugged, trying to be strong about all of this. “I don’t know, Cass, but I will be keeping in touch with you about it. Hopefully what my dad needs to accomplish will be done soon but it could be a month or two.”
She nodded again, gulping like she just couldn’t get her throat to work correctly. Since the hard stuff was out of the way I decided to ask her about her date, but judging from the ice cream, I’m thinking it didn't go so well. “Besides that, how was your date?”
She gave me an annoyed look, and just like that my Cassandra was back on track. She flipped her hand out as she laughed. “Oh you know, he opened up and told me his dream of becoming a farm designer. He had a five-year plan to move out of the city and start up his own farm.” I was shaking my head and laughing because that wasn’t the worst that she had ever dated. “Then he dropped the bomb that he is looking for his wife to birth seven to ten kids, and they would all work the farm together as a family.” I winced at Cass's angry tone at that last part.
“Yikes,” I said and she agreed. She snagged the tub of ice cream again and took a big spoonful of it.
“I'm not in the business of popping out kids for your manual labor, dude!” she vented and I just nodded, because she wasn’t wrong.
I lifted my arms and made a strangling motion. “Want me to kill him?” She started to laugh before she choked on some ice cream and made weird noises as she gasped and pointed at me.
“What the fuck are those?” I looked back around me and saw nothing. “No, Lillian! The marks on your wrists!”
I slowly turned back towards her and slumped against the vanity desk as I mumbled, “My mate marks.”
“What?!”
I lifted my head, resting my chin on the desk as I looked at her and repeated myself, “My mate marks.”
