“That’s alright. They aren’t allowed downstairs,” Amelia said, making me twist my lips in annoyance.
Fucking rules.
She handed the dress around the edge of the partition, leaving me to pull it over my head. The straps were so thin they dug into the tops of my shoulders, the square neck dipped low. It hugged me through the stomach and hips, falling in an asymmetrical hem that skimmed the tops of my thighs. From there the fabric shifted to lace and fell to my knees, leaving far more revealed than I would have liked, but the necessities were covered. It wasn’t lost on me that it was far more modest than the rest of the dresses I’d seen and what Amelia herself wore, and I couldn’t help but feel gratitude for that at least.
I stepped out from behind the partition, watching as Amelia’s mouth spread into a wide grin. “He doesn’t stand a chance against you,” she said, her face lighting with the delight of a challenge.
“Who?” I asked, allowing her to take my arm and guide me to the door of her bedroom.
She laughed, the sound full and hearty without a hint of the seductiveness I’d found watching her earlier. “Oh, this is going to befun.”
18
BEELZEBUB
“Come on, Asmodeus,” I groaned, glancing around the communal area where his favored pets waited to entertain him. Some of them had already engaged with partners, seeking pleasure from one another while they waited for him to make his choice of who he might favor that night. Like he was some kind of a blessing and not a pain in the ass, as if it was an honor to engage in sexual games with a man who got off on suffering as much as he did pleasure. His favor was easily gained, but just as easily lost, and each of these poor souls who existed in the luxury of his home believed they would be different. That he would favor them for an eternity the way he did Amelia, keeping them here and allowing them to avoid the pain of the fate that awaited them on those cliffs. But in all our time here, in the centuries since Amelia had arrived and filled the void, nobody had even been aware how Asmodeus felt, no one had piqued his interest in such a way. No one had earned the right to remain, and all had returned to their eternity when he tired of them. It shouldn’t have been possible for the witch to ensnare him as the lord of Lust, yet his infatuation with her company never faded.
“You know I cannot just allow her to pass. She has to earn the right like any of the other souls who think they can just stroll through my circle,” he said, keeping his voice low. It wasn’t common knowledge among the souls that they could avoid theireternity of suffering by earning the approval of each of the circles, by passing through each one and offering up their sins for judgment. While some knew, I was sure, few ever made it past their own circle. Few could conquer the sin that had claimed them, keeping them trapped endlessly.
“She’s not even fucking dead! Why should she need to pay the circles with her own sins when she still breathes? She’s hardly looking to become one of us,” I said with a scoff. The idea of my sweet Margot desiring to become a demon was an impossibility, her fear and terror of this place founded in a lifetime of lessons about the evils at play here. I couldn’t blame her, because I’d seen them for myself over my eternity of life, but I had to admit, I’d seen less pure goodness on the surface than I’d expected.
Her Coven had been misguided at best, cruel and deserving of their eventual fate if we focused on reality.
“The rules are the rules, Beelzebub. If I waived them for her, it would open my circle up to the possibility of needing to do so in the future. I cannot allow souls thatbelong to meto have a free pass just because you want to fuck one of them,” Asmodeus said, the tone of his voice hardening. He wasn’t known for his anger because the lifestyle he led was one of casual, late-night comforts and sleepy mornings in bed. He was flirtatious and at ease, relaxed where I had to be structured. For him to be the stickler for rules was a flip in our relationship I had never seen coming. Usually I was the one who had to harp on the other lords to keep to our natural order.
“She isn’t yours,” I said, watching as his brow rose at the growl in my voice. At the way the Enochian runes covering my body seemed to shimmer with their agreement. I grasped my necklace between my fingers to calm my violent energy, fingering the scythe that was my weapon of choice. With a flick of my wrist, I would have it in hand, able to defend Margot should it come to that.
But no matter how hard I fought, no matter who I killed,I wouldn’t be able to drag her through the boundary between the Second and Third Circles if the lust here didn’t will it to be possible.
Asmodeus readied his stance, having known me long enough to recognize when I was ready to fight. Our impulses ran hot, but where mine ran to fighting for the ability to consume my possessions thanks to the gluttony that was mine to command, his ran to fucking them. He glanced over my shoulder, his eyes straying to the top of the stairs as his brows rose. “Tell that to her magic,” he said, leaning closer to speak the words softly.
He was right, I knew. Because even though Margot so rarely dared to touch the magic that hummed within her, it was impossible to miss. It radiated off of her like waves of light, making her skin appear to shimmer faintly like a goddess. “She is more than her magic,” I said in dismissal, despising the order of things for the first time in my long existence. The need to protect her was so at odds with the way I was meant to feel.
I was supposed to revel in the fact that another witch would suffer.
I sighed, hating that I’d had to resort to the second part of my plan to get Margot through the Second Circle without any cost to her. “If you won’t let her pass out of loyalty to Lucifer and what He would want, then do it as a favor to me.”
Asmodeus stilled, his face turning thoughtful. Favors were not something the archdemons handed out often, a commodity we rarely dared to deal in with one another. The ways that the receiving party could demand they be paid back were often far more terrible than just facing the initial problem.
Yet here I was, offering myself up on behalf of a witch that had wormed her way beneath my skin and sung a song I couldn’t unhear.
“Tempting,” Asmodeus drawled, lifting a hand and tapping his fingers against his bottom lip thoughtfully. “I never thoughtI’d see the day that the great and mighty Beelzebub would need a favor from me.”
“Don’t expect it to happen again, so I suggest you take me up on this offer while it lasts,” I grunted, crossing my arms over my chest as I waited for the inevitable.
Only a fool wouldn’t take the offer of a favor from me.
“No,” he said, drawing the word out far too slowly for my liking. “She matters to you if you’re willing to make me an offer like that. Now I am very interested in finding out why. I can only do that if I have some more time with her, you see?” he asked, a twisted chuckle escaping his mouth. It was gleeful, almost childlike, as if he enjoyed the prospect of keeping my favorite toy trapped in a cage to which only he held the key.
“You fucking asshole—”
“There is a way for you to avoid all of this, you know,” Asmodeus said, his grin spreading as he turned to make eye contact with one of the women who trailed her hand over the back of his shoulders as she passed. “Invoke Dominion and she’s all yours. None of us would be able to attempt to lay claim to her if you do,” he said, and I pursed my lips in frustration.
I hadn’t shared that option with Margot, because I’d known beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not an option. She would never forgive me if I tried to do it, would be repulsed by the very notion that I would lay claim to her and tie her to me and me alone. It would make me no better than Itan, acting without thought or care for what she wanted. “I can’t do that to her,” I said, and the words seemed to surprise Asmodeus as much as they did me.
I couldn’t do that toher.No mention of what being bound to one woman for eternity would do tome.
Fucking witches.
