Aeacus stopped. He turned, giving me the eye. “The traitor? You know Tork the traitor?”
“Traitor? I don’t remember that about him. He’s just a demon blowing off some steam with a cherub buddy. What’s wrong with that?”
Aeacus hissed at me, the shithead. “They fell in love with a cherub, which is forbidden. They paid the price, the idiot.”
That didn’t sound good for poor Tork. “What happened to them?”
“It’s believed Tork was killed when they left Limbo to meet with the cherub. The body was found at the Gate of Hell with its head pierced by one of the spikes at the top as a warning to others.”
“When was this?”What was going on?We’d talked to those two little dudes just before the new moon.
Time didn’t progress the same way in the underworld as it did in the Human Realm. I had no idea how long I’d been in Hell already. I also had no idea how time went by in the Celestial Realm, but I guessed it had been less than a month since we’d talked to them.
“Just after the new moon. It’s also rumored that Tork was killed by the cherub at the order of you and your mate as the cherub’s penance for breaking the rules.”
I took in his words, but they made no sense. “Wait, it’s rumored that we forced the cherub to murder Tork? No. I can tell you that’s bullshit. As for his lover, Narik? That cherub wouldn’t harm a fly. Who’d you hear this from?”
Aeacus didn’t answer, so I grabbed him by the throat and held him off his feet. “You will tell menow.”
My voice vibrated through my body and into my soul. The power surging through me was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. For the first time, I could feel every artery, capillary, and nerve ending in my body. They pulsed simultaneously, and I could see things I’d never seen before. I could sense fear in Aeacus, and I was excited.
“Tell me the truth!”
The bellow that came out of me was unlike anything I’d ever said, and I was filled with rage about what was going on with Scotty and me. He was mine! I was his! Who fucked with it?
Catching my reflection in a large mirror on the wall outside my room, my face showed nothing but pure evil. My eyes were black, and my facial structure had changed to show the demon inside me. It was badass and scary.
I dragged a screaming and kicking Aeacus with me down the hall. I was raging inside because I missed my mate, and something was going to pay. If it was the valet, then so be it.
Kicking open the door of Lucifer’s throne room, there was a certain satisfaction that I wasn’t afraid of the consequences. I had not one fucking thing to lose, so I didn’t give a good goddamn about rules, etiquette, or expectations.
I stomped inside. I was tired of these people playing with me. I wanted answers, starting with the demon I clutched in my fist.
I flung Aeacus across the room with strength I didn’t know I had, and he landed on the stairs to the throne. I heard bones cracking as the demon made contact with the marble, and I chuckled at the satisfaction I felt inside.
Lucifer was sitting with a tablet, his right leg tossed over the arm of the large chair. His gaze immediately moved from the device to me. “I see you’ve embraced your place in the family. There’s no going back now.” Lucifer’s cackle made me angrier.
Had the Ruler of Hell chosen not to explain to me how I would change? Was all of this on purpose? Was this turn of events designed to manipulate me into the spot I was in at that moment?
Chapter Ten
Scotty
“Why am I behind bars?” I would continue to shout until I had no voice left.
What had I done wrong? Why would I be jailed? What the fuck was going on?
A Celestial guard stepped in front of the cell. “Shut up. Nobody is going to help you. You broke the rules.”
Uriel stepped beside him, a smirk on his pinched face. I wished to hell I could choke him. His smile fueled my anger to the point I was raging.
“Hello, Scott Locke. You never belonged in the Celestial Realm in the first place. Jophiel and Michael had an unnecessary sympathy for your plight, but I knew you were unworthy of being here. I knew you were just a street rat. You killed a man and wounded another during your human life. You got away withit then, but you still ended up dead because you were nothing. You’ve just proven it to everyone.
“I was pressured to exalt you to a level you shouldn’t have been because of your past, and you made a mockery of the Celestials’ faith in you by killing the cherub, Nakir. Now, you will pay.”
“Uriel. What’s going on?” It was Gabriel, of all people. His face was filled with anger I couldn’t decipher.
“I’m here to check on Alba Protectoris. He came before the Celestial Council and was deemed more than worthy of elevation. You were the only Arch that fought against it. Now, he’s in jail. Why?”
