I was expecting a nice, calm, lovely family dinner.
I did not expect jealousy, but that’s exactly what I feel when Blair reconnects with her snake, and Lilith has her cat, Doom.
Toth pulls out my chair while I just stare at the creatures. Blair must notice and shakes her head at me while her very-fucking-cool snake wraps around her arm and just looks around the room.
“I thought we were having a strategy meeting,” I ask.
“I found your records from the orphanage,” Lilith states.
I quirk a brow at her. “Is there anything else you did at the orphanage?”
She shrugs her shoulders and pets her cat. “Maybe. But that’s not the point. Today is your birthday,” she says. She definitely committed some crimes. I smile at my stepmother. She might hate the term, but she’s more of a mother than I’ve ever had. I just won’t say it to her face.
They never told me at the orphanage, birthdays were irrelevant.
Judd comes into the room, holding an all-chocolate cake, with pink frosting that saysHappy Birthday Maraon it. The smile that takes over my face makes my cheeks hurt as the people in the room sing Happy Birthday to me.
“Aren’t we going to eat before cake?” I ask, looking at my father.
“Let them eat cake,” he cheers with a laugh, and I shake my head but eagerly take my plate of cake and shovel it in my mouth.
“Daddy, can you hand me a glass of wine?” I say nonchalantly when I catch my mistake and watch as both Toth and my father reach for the wine. When I look over at Blair and Dax, they both look like they want to crawl into a hole.
Lilith just laughs behind her own glass, and my father balls his hands into fists on the table. Toth looks like maybe he would like to go back in time and not send his soul back to Hell, but shakes his head.
“Sir,” Toth starts.
“Please shut the fuck up. Can we just give her the gift?” my father grits out, rubbing his temples, which only makes Lilith laugh harder. He glares at his queen, but then his gaze softens. Fortunately for all of us, the moment of tension is quickly broken as the door knob to the dining room turns.
I would have been happy with cake if I’m being honest. The cake and the singing were almost enough for me to feel something tragic, like overwhelming joy and happiness.
But what happens next makes me fucking sob.
Elvor goes out of the room and comes back with a baby-fucking-raccoon and puts it in my hands. The small little trash panda cuddles up against my chest, and I have to hold back everything bursting inside of me before I make a fool of myself.
“He’s mine?” I ask with a sniffle.
“She’s yours. We noticed how much you wanted a pet of your own,” Judd says.
I hold the baby raccoon just far enough to look at her face. “I’ll name her Tabby,” I announce, and Toth laughs next to me while shaking his head.
“You owe me a new dagger, Judd,” Toth jests, and Judd just shakes his head.
“We have something else for you,” my father says. He gives Toth another glare, making my warrior lover clear his throat and sit a little taller.
I’m not sure what he could possibly give me. I can’t believe I ever doubted him, that I let Beelzebub feed me lies for so many years. Or that I ever thought of overthrowing him when I first got here.
In all truth, his job pretty much sucks. I like being able to take a back seat role. Killing angels and eating souls are what I’m best at, and he sees that in me.
He looks at me the way I’ve always wanted him to, like I’m special and precious to him.
“For you and your companions,” he explains, though he shoots Toth a shitty look as he hands me the envelope,
“But we need to be on alert. What about the angels?” I counter.
“They’re regrouping. It’s important to get out of Hell every once in a while. Enjoy the land of the fated, darling,” he encourages.
Toth leans over and looks at the note I pulled out of the envelope.
