Lucifer nods. “What are you planning, temptress?”
Natia smirks. “Oh, a little double cross, a misleading line here, a blatant lie there. Zeus won’t know up from down come morning.”
Lucifer grabs the demon and disappears.
“They aren’t transmitting yet?” Natia checks, nodding at the wires in Duncan’s hand.
He rolls them in his hand. “No.”
She rubs her hands together and drops into the chair at the head of the table. “Take a seat everyone, we have a war to plan, a double cross to execute and a god to mislead.”
Everyone drifts into their seats just as Lucifer returns and sits on Natia’s other side, opposite me. She eyeballs Zee. “Zeus is planning to have you kidnapped in the early hours of the morning, I assume as a backup should my blood fail to control me.”
“Did you murder the perpetrators of such a plot?” Lucifer growls.
She glances at him. “No, I’ve been advised to think with my head, not my heart.”
“What does that mean?” Zee asks.
She grins. “Do you trust me?”
Zee arches a brow and leans back as he studies her. “With my life.”
“I want you to let it happen.”
“How does that help us?” Duncan asks, leaning forward on the table.
“With my blood and my friend, Zeus will be confident in his power over me. He won’t for one second consider that I will be the one to control him.”
“And you just command his ass back into Tartarus?” Zac asks with a frown as he glances at me. He senses it, too. Something isn’t adding up.
Natia nods and grabs a tiny sponge cake from the table. “The Duchess has power over the major monsters that have slithered out of Tartarus. Zeus is holding something over her. Once he’s gone, she can command them back into Tartarus. The rest we will have to battle.”
“And what about you?” Nathan asks as his eyes bore into her head.
She swallows the cake. “What about me? I only need to fool him long enough for him to drink the blood. Then it’s game over.”
“So you just order him into Tartarus and bang, lock him back up?” Zee asks.
“Not exactly,” Lucifer mutters. “I have started the preparation to reseal the gates. But I will need about five minutes once everyone is back inside Tartarus to complete the spell.”
“Not a problem,” Natia says as her hands drop into her lap, but not before I catch the tremble. “The spell in my blood should last at least twice that.”
“That’s true,” Marsha says, cocking her head at Natia, who is studying the food rather than the powerhouse at her beck and call.
“Who is going to address the elephant in the room?” Zac roars.
Natia’s head snaps up, and looks around for said elephant, then drops her mouth open. “You are choosing now to come out?” she says.
Zac blinks. “What? No.”
“Oops, my bad,” Natia answers with a grin.
“You are clearly hiding something,” Zac shouts, slamming his hands down on the table.
She leans back and crosses her arms. “I am in the depths of Hell facing gods, demons, and monsters. I am allowed to be a little nervous.”
“You are lying.”
