“Just...anything, really. What it’s like to be a demon, how to control the weird hunger pangs.”
“Yeah, about those hunger pangs.” Sarah flicked her eyes up to my face. “You’re feeling okay, right?”
“I’m not going to eat you if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Maybe if you did,” Anya piped in, “I could have some peace and quiet and actually hear the TV.” She flipped to the next channel.
“You’re not actually watching anything, you know,” Sarah quipped. “You’re doing that thing you always do. Looking at every single option available for hours, and then not ever actually watching something.”
“Hmph.” Anya flicked to the next channel, and a smile ghosted across my lips.
I’d been tense since Caim had left the loft to hunt down the demons. Not for myself but for him. It felt like they were walking straight into a trap. And what if they wouldn’t win the fight? But that was ridiculous. Caim and the others were strong as hell and more powerful than the cult could ever be. It wouldn’t be the same as last time, when the cult was using power-muting magic against the Legion. If they tried that now, they’d only be muting their own powers, too.
Still, I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax until Caim walked through that door with his trademark lopsided grin on his face.
Sarah, Anya, and I fell into easy silence as my eyes drank in Lucifer’s words. He was quite the storyteller with a penchant for flowery prose and poetic turns of phrases. His origin was something of a mystery. There was much of his past that he couldn’t remember, just like Caim and the others. At the time of his writings, he’d clearly had a soul, though Caim had mentioned he’d lost it somewhere along the way. Only a year or so ago, the Legion had found a way to reunite the King of Hell with his soul. The hellgate had been closed ever since.
He dealt with something he liked to call his dark friend. The lust inside him for chaos and blood and death. Ruling over Hell was difficult for him. He hated many of the monsters beneath his reign, but he knew if they fell into the wrong hands, they would turn far more cruel.
Images began to dance in my mind. Of another time and place. Of flames and kings on thrones surrounded by beasts who snapped their jaws at the poor mortal souls who ended up there. My imagination began to wander. I even pictured Caim there, his sword held high before him in a salute to the churning skies.
Sarah sighed and snapped her book shut. I jumped, jolted out of my reverie. “I don’t know what Stolas was thinking. These books are endlessly boring. Do you know what this one is? A list of every single demon and their place within the seven circles.”
“The seven circles?” I reached out for the book. “Gimme that.”
Lucifer had only briefly mentioned the seven circles in his journal. The geography of Hell. He apparently lived with his castle tucked away from the most brutal parts of the underworld, beyond a desert-like tunnel that connected with the seventh circle.
She laughed. “It’s really not as interesting as you think it’s going to be. It’s literally a list.”
“I still want to look,” I said.
Caim was certain he’d find a cure for me, but I didn’t have that kind of faith. The fae who currently had it were the very ones that had helped the Cult of Lilith. They weren’t going to just hand the damn cure over to us.
So, I wanted to learn as much as I could about the life I might face.
My demon life.
I shuddered.
“Alright,” she said with a yawn, pushing the book into my hands. “But I’m absolutely exhausted. I’m going to call it a night and try to get some sleep.”
“Me too,” Anya said, glancing up. “Or do you want us to stay up with you? I know you’re worried about all this...”
It was sweet of her to offer, but I could see in her red-streaked eyes that she desperately wanted to go to bed. “I’m fine. There’s some more reading I want to do, and you don’t need to stay awake for that. Besides, if I get too bored, I can go bug Phenex on the roof.”
I wondered if he heard me say that...
Sarah gave my shoulder a squeeze and drifted toward the back corner of the apartment where we’d fashioned a makeshift bedroom for them to share. A thin, black sheet hung from the ceiling to give them a little privacy. Behind it, Caim had set up two cots piled with pillows and blankets. It wasn’t much, but it was better than sleeping on the floor.
My heart ached as I watched them vanish behind the sheet. What kind of mess had I dragged them into this time? And yet, they hadn’t complained about it once. They could have shouted at me, blamed me for rendering them homeless for a few days. At the very least. Hell, they could have run screaming from me. I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had.
With a sigh, I shook out my troubled thoughts and turned back to the book. The best way to get their lives back to normal was for me to find answers to the dark puzzle within myself. To keep them safe. Not just from the cult but from me.
As I read, my eyes began to blur. Sarah had been right. The mention of the seven circles was nothing more than that. A list of demons that belonged in each one. It was like reading someone’s grocery list. Only with a bunch of weird names I’d never heard before. Vassago. Gamigin. Marbas. All of the third circle.
My mind began to drift, my eyelids so heavy I swore there was an anchor pulling them down into the deep. Darkness flickered in the corner of my vision like a warning. And then sleep claimed me.
* * *
