Samuel peered over the side of the stairs at the lava pit below, which now lay motionless and black. “Oh, Lucifer will not like that at all.” He shivered and rubbed his hands over his shoulders. I didn’t see that it did much good, as he only reproportioned the blood coating his muscle. “In fact, I think I’ll leave you to it. No need to get involved if he loses his head.” He nodded as he slid down the staircase past us, making for a door. The frost beat him to it though, and he looked uncertain as he stepped upon it. Immediately, the frost climbed up his feet and legs, racing over his glistening body, freezing it into a hard shell of ice.
“Oh, dear,” Samuel said softly before his face was stiff with cold. In a moment, the ice around him had thickened, and he toppled over, tumbling down the steep staircase, landing on different parts of his body that slowly chipped off like ice.
After a moment of watching his descent, and dwindling body mass, Freya gestured to the door. “Shall we? Before we join him?”
“Yes,” I agreed, grabbing the skull-shaped door knocker. “But to be fair, Samuel probably enjoyed that. Immensely.”
“Well, I won’t,” Freya insisted, gesturing for me to hurry as the frost continued to climb after us.
The door knocker resounded deep and loud before the door clicked open.
I slid inside with a relieved sigh as Freya shut the door firmly at our backs, leaving the frost behind, at least for now.
“I wasn’t expecting it to beyou,” Abigail said, crossing her arms and looking put out. I imagined the same look crossing Lucifer’s face. And like her handsome father, her green eyes seemed to hold an intelligence well past her years. But that was only an illusion created by her youthful appearance. I had to remind myself constantly that this was not a fourteen-year-old girl, but rather a spawn of the Devil, decades old.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to see you again, at least,” I said, ignoring her rude greeting.
Abigail seemed to be assessing us, eyes sliding from Freya to me. She smiled, her features softening even as her razor-sharp teeth came into view. I felt Freya go stiff at my side. “It’s always a pleasure,” Abigail said. “I expect you’ve come to see Father?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “It’s rather pressing.”
She turned on her heel, marching deeper into the room.
We followed. I wanted to warn Freya to be ready for anything, but she seemed to be of that mind already, two of her hands gripping the handles of swords.
The room opened into a throne room, but rather than a buffet laid out, as was the usual custom when I arrived, a large pit lay before the thrones, where lava could be seen below. Three walkways traversed the hole in the floor.
“You’ve redecorated,” I called out lightly to Lucifer, who was sitting languidly on his throne. A green demon with a body similar to an armadillo, with a tapered, stretched face, rubbed his feet.
Lucifer’s face lit up and he kicked the demon to make room as he got to his feet. “Ah, Callum. Always a pleasure.” His eyes slid to Freya, and he lifted an eyebrow, noting where her hands had wandered. “And who is your overzealous friend?”
Freya lifted her chin. “Greetings, Prince of Lies. You may call me Freya.”
“Prince of Lies!” Lucifer laughed, putting a hand over his heart. “You wound me, Freya. A silver tongue doesn’t make me a liar, so much as a distorter of truth.”
That was basically being a liar.
“But enough of these awful, ignorant labels,” Lucifer said. “Come join me.” He gestured to the pit. “Just mind your step.”
I rolled my eyes. The walkways weren’t narrow by any means, but they had no guardrails. I imagined that if the Devil wanted us in that lava pit, he could make the bridges tip right over so we would slide in. It was best to comply with him, to humor him, since he would do whatever he wanted to in his realm anyway.
“And to what do I owe this unexpected visit?” Lucifer asked as soon as we’d crossed the pit and stood mere feet away from him.
I exchanged a look with Freya.
“He clearly wants his soul, Father,” Abigail said, huffing, as if that should be obvious. “He met your terms. His side of the contract is now complete.”
“Is it, now?” Lucifer asked, watching me closely. “Did you not interfere with Erik? Or was that some other rash, handsome witch who tried to free Augustus?”
It didn’t escape me that he’d called merash, a term I would have applied to Auggie as of late. I bet Auggie would be proud that I’d earned the descriptor for turning on the Devil. I straightened, trying not to get distracted. “We’re here because trouble is brewing, and it’s headed your way. In fact, it just made a pile of mush out of Samuel. If he’s reached the bottom of the staircase by now, that is.”
“Oh?” Lucifer sounded intrigued. “I do love a good spot of trouble.”
“I doubt you’ll like this.”
“But the matter of Callum’s soul,” Abigail interrupted. “He’s earned it back fair and square.”
As much as I appreciated Abigail’s insistence, her father was correct. “I’m afraid I did try to liberate my charge after delivering him to the address. That’s one of the reasons I’m here.”
