“To be fair, he isn’t one of theevilPrinces of Hell.”
Snorting, she laughed. “So, how was it?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m guessing you got an answer about what his dick looks like.”
“It definitely does not have a weird spade demon thing on the end of it.” I grinned back, relaxing from the familiar banter between us. It had been a terrible past few days, but Serena was alive and I was alive, and that was all that truly mattered.
The door clicked open, and Az stepped into the room. My smile died as the flames in my cheeks grew hotter. I really,reallyhoped he hadn’t overheard our conversation. How mortifying.
Serena cleared her throat and plopped back onto the sofa. She grabbed her blanket and hid behind the book, clearly abandoning me in a sea of awkwardness. I shifted from one foot to the other and eventually settled on joining her. There was nothing left to say. Az had made up his mind, and I had too much pride to beg him to reconsider.
“How’s Jon doing?” I asked Serena.
“Oh,” she said sadly. “He’s about to get stabbed. I hate this part.”
I shot her a fond smile. “Then, why do you keep reading it over and over again?”
“Because your favorite books burrow their way into your heart.” Her eyes turned to the page, and awkward silence filled the penthouse. Az still hadn’t said a word, and he’d made no indication he’d overheard my conversation with Serena. Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t. Demons had better hearing than humans did.
A heavy knock sounded on the door, rescuing me from humiliation. Az growled and stalked toward it, yanking it open. Phenex stood on the other side with a slip of paper between his fingers. He held it up, waving it in the air.
“Looks like someone got an invitation to the Covenant Ball.” He craned his head over Az’s shoulders and waggled his eyebrows at me. “Your little date worked.”
Relief and panic tangled together in my gut. This was a good thing. It was exactly what we needed. Now, we could get inside that ball so Az could do his thing and save some souls. Great, right? Except it was probably going to be pretty dangerous. And it would be the last time we would ever see each other.
Az took the invite and nodded. “Thanks, Phenex, but I’m not sure this is a good thing. I’m having second thoughts about this.”
Phenex frowned and ducked inside the penthouse. The door slammed shut behind him. “Second thoughts? But we’ve been working toward this for weeks.”
“It’s too dangerous,” he said, stalking toward the dining table and tossing the invite on top. “Mia is a human. What if something goes wrong? She needs to go back to normal life before we get her killed.”
“Um, excuse me?” I strode over to the table and snatched up the invite. “You honestly can’t be backing out of this now. This whole fake relationship was so that you could get inside the Covenant Ball. It’s why you hired me. It’s why you made that deal.”
“I know.” He turned to give me a tortured look. “I never should have put you in this position to begin with.”
“Nope. Absolutely not. I’m not letting you back out of this now.” I waved the invite at him. “There are human souls on the line, and this is your only way in.”
“I don’t want to put your life in any more danger, Mia.”
“I don’t care,” I snapped back. “We said we were going to do this thing, tosavepeople, and so we will.” With a glare, I whipped toward Phenex. “You agree with me, right?”
“Ah.” He shifted uneasily on his feet, running his fingers through his red hair. “I think maybe I don’t want to get in the middle of…I, oh hey, Serena, what you reading there?”
Phenex drifted off, leaving me and Az glaring at each other. Again. We seemed to do this a lot. With a frown, I folded my arms and met his gaze. He could kick me out of his club and his life. He could hide me away with a fake name in an apartment far away from here. But I wasn’t going to turn my back on all of this now.
“We have to save them,” I said.
“Mia…”
“We’ll have the Legion with us. I’ll get out of the ball before anything goes down.” I took another step closer to him, steeling my nerves. “As soon as we get inside, I’ll leave. You’ll stop the sacrifices and save a bunch of souls. And then we can part ways, just like you want.”
He winced and flicked his gaze away. “You don’t know what you’re asking to do.”
“Yes, I do.” My heart pounded as he reached out, and his fingers grazed mine. “It’s just one more fake date, Az. One more, and then all of this will be done.”
“You’ll do everything I ask you to do?” he asked insistently. “You’ll listen to me if I tell you to run?”
