“I would like an answer!” she asked, slapping my hand away from the serving spoon. She stared at where she’d touched me as if she couldn’t believe she’d done so, and I resisted the urge to smile at her.
Telling her she was adorable when she was angry would get me nowhere.
“No, the fastest way would be for me to fly ahead and leave you behind. But this is the way that is most likely to result inyour returning home at all. Facing the lords on your own will not go well for you, and whatever it is that has you so antsy to return to Hollow’s Grove won’t matter much when you’re condemned to Hell permanently, or dead,” I answered, placing my fork on the table beside my plate and steepling my hands over it.
“I don’t understand why they wouldn’t be loyal to Lucifer. Surely they know that He could return at any moment now that Willow knows the ways of her magic,” she argued.
“They are demons,” I said, wishing that she understood how brittle loyalty could be between our kind. Allegiances were constantly shifting and evolving, reshaping and creating something new. With Lucifer gone, I trusted no one fully in this place.
It was literally new territory, a kingdom without its king, because I had stepped in to fill the power vacuum and now with me gone…
There was no one.
“So are you,” she spat, the venom in her words accompanying the motion of her pushing out her chair. She stood, staring at me with the faint sheen of tears in her eyes.
“Exactly,” I growled, pushing to my own feet. My hands curled around the edge of the table, leaning into it and closer to her as I spat the word. “I know what they are all capable of, far better than you ever will. It is the very same thing thatIam capable of, and you would do well to remember that the next time you think to doubt that I know what is best for you here. My only goal is to keep you safe, so the last thing I need is you making that difficult at every turn.”
Margot stared at me for a brief moment, huffing out a breath.
And then she turned on her heel, fleeing the dining room and making her way back to the false haven she’d created. I stared after her for a moment, wondering if I’d pushed too far.
God be damned.
15
MARGOT
I retreated to the bedroom Beelzebub had taken me to initially, not having the words left to fight with him. Even his outburst was one of frustration and not true anger, and that left me reeling more than it should have. IknewI was being difficult in my need to return to the surface as quickly as possible, and I would suck it up and do what was necessary to make that happen.
But that didn’t mean I had to be thrilled that I would do it with Beelzebub at my side. I wanted a lonely, empty room where I could lock myself away and wait until it was time for Willow to open the door to Hell; instead I’d have to travel with the one male I found insufferable.
Would he keep me safe? Yes.
Would he also be so hot and cold that I didn’t know what to expect or even what I wanted to be true? Also yes.
I hauled open the door, slipping through the passage into the red bedroom. My hands slid into my hair, tugging at the roots as my mouth opened on a silent scream.
I just wanted to go home.
I wanted the comfort of my own bed, of the chair I placed in front of my door every night and the bells that hung from my doorknob to alert me if anyone even attempted to open it. I’d done everything I could to create a place that felt safe to rest my eyes and sleep, and I didn’t know how I would function withoutit in this place filled with demon lords who wanted to test me and would trap me here forever if I failed.
I turned to close the door behind me, barely glancing up from the floor as I grasped the doorknob and used it to swing the door closed. The sound of flesh slapping against it drew my stare up to meet Beelzebub’s fiery stare. He glared down at me, the tension in his jaw hard enough to chisel stone as he held the door aloft. His fingers were splayed wide, revealing just how massive his hand was with knuckles slightly bent and fingertips that dug into the wood to reveal the anger that corded his every muscle.
“I am doing my best to remain patient with you,” he said, holding the door still. He didn’t move to step into the room, but kept himself planted in the doorway, pausing on the threshold as if he didn’t want to invade the room I’d claimed as my own.
“This is patient?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I backed away from him.
“Yes, it is. You’re being difficult strictly for the sake of it at this point. I have explained why you need to come with me,” he said, continuing on with whatever reprimand he thought to give me like I was an errant child having a tantrum and not a woman filled with fear over what was to come. “But it is beyond difficult to reason with you when you fight me every step of the way,” he added, and I moved farther into the room to put distance between us.
I sighed, dropping my chin to my chest. My cheeks burned with warmth, a feeling that was distinctly reminiscent of shame flooding through me. “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head as I moved toward the window to look out.
Beelzebub took my words as an invitation, stepping over the threshold and entering the bedroom when he felt my anger slip away. “I just want to help, songbird, but you’ve got to let me. We can’t keep going around in the same circles. We’re wasting time,” he said, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
Not for the first time, I wished the bastard would wear a fuckingshirt. His comfort in his own body was disarming at best, distracting at worst.
A distraction I neither wanted nor could afford, to be exact. Of all the people in the world for me to feel that frisson of awareness for, that tingle of attraction and thewhat if,he was the last one I would have chosen.
What if I was normal? What if I could stand the thought of being touched?
