“Exactly, it doesn’t, because they want no part of Heaven or Hell. They came together due to their mutual distain of Lucifer, and to add insult, Silas lost his wings because of him,” I said, piling on the lies. “Silas was in love with Ursula, one of my sisters, but she was only using him for information. Heaven found out he was consorting with the enemy, and he paid the price.” Half-truths worked best. Silas had most definitely been in love with Urs, but Lucifer had no part in their short-lived relationship.
And with Sera being on the outs with Heaven, there should be no way for her to confirm my story.
“Roxy’s going to tell me how to overthrow Lucifer, what do I need with his grandson?”
“I can tell you Lucifer’s weakness, but you’ll need more than that, you’ll need an army. He’s strongest in Hell. If you truly want to take his throne, you’ll need to get him aboveground, and this is the only way to do it.”
“What do you think?” she asked Beelzebub.
His cold gaze slid over me, then Lothar. “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “If they’re telling the truth, we could have some powerful allies. The knights have always wanted Hell and its demons under tighter control. If you can reassure them that’s what you want, too, as well as taking down Lucifer, it could work. But if Roxy’s lying? If Zenon is Lucifer’s devoted grandson”—his nostrils flared—“we’re dead.”
“Roxana’s right, we’ll need an army,” Sera said. “We have demons willing to fight with us, but if we had the knights and the hounds as well? We’d have an excellent chance. Will your brothers join you, Lothar?”
His nostrils flared. “When I tell them what Lucifer did to me, yes. I know they will. We’re pack. If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us,” he growled out. “And just so you know, Sera, that includes you as well. Best you think about that the next time you threaten to take my fucking head.”
My stomach knotted. The hounds were all going to hate me as much as Lothar did once this was over. Relic would despise me for what I’d done to his sire. My heart broke a little more, and I quickly shoved down the pain. I couldn’t think about that now.
Sera’s gaze sharpened. “You suddenly seem a lot more in control, Lothar.”
He bared his fangs, his eyes still glowing red. “I can control myself just fine…now.” He thumped his chest.
“And who am I talking to? Lothar or his beast?” Sera asked, eyeing him shrewdly.
“Both,” he said. “We are in full accord when it comes to Lucifer.”
I grabbed his arm, doing what I had to, playing the part of wounded mate and loyal warrior to Lucifer. “Please, don’t do this.”
He jerked his away. “You don’t touch me unless I tell you to. The mating bond is what’s keeping you alive, and that’s the only thing, understand?” he snarled.
He was walking a fine line. He had to convince Sera that his drive for revenge outweighed his connection to me, despite his instinct to protect me, and in that moment, I didn’t know if he was acting anymore.
Sera’s gaze slid between us, her eyes sparkling with sadistic pleasure. She liked what she saw. “Why doesn’t Zenon take Hell for himself? Make it all he wants, control the demons from the inside?” Sera asked.
“Because the last time Zenon tried to enter Hell, it almost killed him. I saw it myself.” That was the truth. He had been as close to death as an immortal could get without decapitation.
She advanced on me. “Show me,” she demanded, then placed her hand on my head, her nails scraping my scalp. I’d been locking her out all this time, and the idea of letting her into my head in any way made my skin crawl, but showing her this memory could be the only way to get her to go along with this.
I called the memory forward, showing her Zenon entering Hell, the panic from his brothers, the horror, then finally, him being tossed back out a while later, lifeless and on the verge of death. Sera tried to prod for more, but I slammed the doors on her, shutting her out.
She studied me for several moments. “I think it’s worth meeting with this Zenon and testing the waters,” Sera said to Beelzebub, then tossed me my phone. “Set up the meeting, but do not tell him what it’s about. And he must come alone. I want to see with my own eyes how he reacts to what I have to say.”
“Where?” I said.
“I’ll sort it,” Beelzebub said. “Tell him you’ll get back to him with a location.”
I nodded and opened my family text chain with Eve and Kyler and quickly typed out a message.
Then handed it back. Sera looked down at it. “A surprise party for Lucifer?”
“Zenon hates him, but he plays the devoted grandson well. This way no one will be suspicious of me asking him to contact me directly.”
When my girls read that, they’d be instantly suspicious, which was what I was banking on.
Now all we had to do was wait.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
