Emi slaps his hand. “Don’t touch it.”
He jerks his head to her. She huffs and points to the trident. “It will kill anyone not imbued with the power of Poseidon.”
I frown. “Even gods?”
Emi shakes her head. “No, but only his offspring can wield the weapon—because only they have his power. For other gods, it’s nothing more than a trinket.” She grabs the trident and eyes it. “Pretty, shiny, but ultimately useless.”
Zee stares at the trident, his eyes full of questions or curiosity. “So Natia won’t be able to hold it after she’s made human?”
“Wrong,” Zac states, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “Natia was never human. The curse will make her mortal. But she isn’t Poseidon’s daughter,” he finishes with a frown aimed at me.
“Semantics, I might not have been made from his baby juice, but Poseidon was the one who cooled my mold and turned me from clay to flesh. I am his daughter by god standards.”
“Which is where you get your affinity for water from,” Aaden concludes. “So even mortal, you can wield this weapon?”
I nod and stuff the first slice of bread into my mouth. “Well, that’s a relief,” Zee remarks. “You’ll still have your elemental powers.”
I’m not so sure, they’re weaker than they were. Perhaps, when I was mortal, they were always this way and I have adjusted to them being stronger. Now I’ll have to realign my expectations of what I can do.
“What did you need to give the crazy old fool for this?” Zac asks.
I roll my eyes. “He’s not crazy, Zacy. Just like Archan said, he’s lonely.”
He arches a brow at me. “What did you promise him?”
I glance at Archan. “Poseidon will officiate our bonding ceremony should it go ahead.”
Zac huffs and leans back. “He always wants to be the center of attention.”
“He wants to see his daughter and the god he adores happy,” I explain. “He’s not there to upstage the bride. He’s there to take part in the bonding. Don’t worry, Zacy, you can share chief bridesmaid with Nathan.”
Nathan, who has been taking all of this in with a quiet contemplative expression, leans forward and touches the middle spear of the trident. “That was all he asked for?” he states as his gaze slides to mine.
“Yes, for once I wasn’t backed into a corner by gods with egos bigger than their brains. Speaking of which, where is Lulu?”
“Here,” Lucifer’s deep voice resonates around the room. He draws closer and drops a kiss on my forehead, causing Archan to growl. I drop in his lap, keeping him in place. Don’t want to get blood on the furniture. Lucifer smirks at Archan before eyeballing the trident laid in the middle of the dining table. “It’s shinier than I remember, bigger too.”
“Where have you been?” Archan growls.
Lucifer picks up Emi and drops her into Aaden’s lap before taking her seat. “I have been investigating reports of breaches in the dimensions. Violence has torn a hole through space and time and opened a portal. Demons spill out onto Earth as we speak.”
“Where?” Archan asks.
Lucifer grins. “Where else would a portal to Hell open?”
I look between the two of them. “Someone enlighten the baby goddess please?”
“Vegas,” Archan grinds out. My mouth drops open. Vegas is where demons flock to? Really? I thought Seattle was bad.
“Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Anger, Heresy, Violence, and Fraud. Vegas has it all in abundance, all wrapped in a neon bow,” Lucifer adds.
“What’s worse, is it’s hard to pick out the demons from the humans half the time,” Archan states. “It’s swarming with both. Sin stinks on humans the same as it reeks on demons.”
“Can we close it?” I ask.
Lucifer swipes a slice of edam cheese from my sandwich. I scowl at him as he rolls it and pops it in his mouth. “We can, but we have to find it first. Lawrence will probably have guards posted everywhere. The idea is to avoid a bloodbath and close it before anything too nasty slithers out from the portal.”
Archan reaches around me and grabs a piece of ham off my plate. I snap my hand around his wrist and pry it from his fingers. “Why does he get away with it?” Archan breathes in my ear, causing goosebumps to erupt along my still damp flesh.
