“Why don’t you make a deal with me?” Asmodeus offered, a sly grin stretching across his lips. “Tell me what you want most in the world. Demons can grant wishes, you know, and—”
“You want to give me my wish with a plot twist where I wake up with three heads? No, thanks. I’ve read about you.”
Asmodeus started. “And? What did you find out?” he asked, sounding curious.
“That you are called the Lord of Sin and Lust and once blessed a man to make him rich beyond all reckoning, and then cursed him to have warts sprout all over his favourite part.”
Asmodeus grinned. “Yes, it was quite funny actually, watching him squawk about it. He tried to hire another demon to curse me back. I can tell you about it, er, perhaps another time.” He paused, shrinking slightly under the withering look Caspian sent in his direction.
“But Lord of Sin and Lust. I do like that,” Asmodeus repeated, looking smug like a cat. “The women give me the best titles. Sounds a bit conceited if you ask me, but I won’t complain.”
Charlotte stood tall and unimpressed before a demon who had slaughtered hundreds. Not a lick of fear rolled off her. “How such a man was painted as frightening is beyond me.”
She turned to face Caspian fully, ignoring Asmodeus, to his dismay.
“So. The reason you have come,” she said, surveying him. “What do you want from me, exactly? Unless Asmodeus here just wanted to pop in for a friendly chat over his escapades.”
“I need to find her,” he said.
“You will have to ask for something else. I will not hand her over to you.”
“May we come in? I don’t want to give your neighbours a fright,” Caspian suggested, hoping to ease some of the tension with a change in location.
“I don’t think I want you in my house, actually,” Charlotte said, an amused expression still plastered on her face. “No, in fact, I can think of several other things I’d rather do than play host to demons. Let’s make this quick, if you please, gentlemen.”
“Didn’t your mother teach you manners?” Asmodeus asked, seemingly unable to stop needling her.
Charlotte grinned broadly. “Oh, she did. She also taught me not to open the door for strangers and not to trust strange men.”
“And you.” She strode up to Caspian and pointed at his chest. “Shame on you.”
Shocked, he stepped back as the mortal woman jabbed at him with a manicured finger.
“She deserves a man. A human man. Who can make her happy and give her healthy, human babies. Someone who loves her, or is at least capable of that emotion.”
“I need to find her,” Caspian insisted, allowing desperation to surface for the briefest moment. He was worried that if he didn’t find her soon, she might get hurt—or worse, meet another man who would take her from him forever.
“Want. Not need. And why do youwantto find her?” Charlotte asked. At least she wasn’t throwing them out on their asses yet. “Why does it even matter? Find someone else for your games.”
“Because … I can’t put it into words, but I think she is meant to be mine,” he said, hating the vulnerability in his voice. This was the only person on the face of the Earth who knew where Elizabeth was. And if she didn’t help him, he didn’t know what he would do.
Charlotte laughed harshly. “Meant to be your mistress, but not your wife? And what about what she wants? Whatshedeserves? You sicken me.”
Elizabeth, brave-hearted and stubborn as she was, had had a normal human response to his presence: to run. Charlotte was a law unto herself. Wrath and rage laced every word she uttered in blind loyalty to her friend. Frankly, he would have admired her resolve if it hadn’t hindered his goal.
An awkward silence stretched. They were at an impasse. Charlotte would not utter a word that would be helpful, and he had no way to coerce her without endangering his reunion with Elizabeth.
Charlotte edged towards her door. “She is in the last place you will ever think to look,” she said softly. “And by the grace of the gods, you will NEVER find her.”
Charlotte backed away, not giving them her back. “Tell your friend his game is over, Asmodeus. The girl left because she doesn’t want him.”
She gave them a final little wave before closing thedoor completely.
***
Caspian and Asmodeus flew back in stony silence.
“Cas, maybe she is right—”
