I nodded. He had a point there. Lucifer had always been fantastic at anticipating an enemy’s next move. He was always one step ahead of everyone else. If anyone could keep the beasts at bay, it was him.
“The only problem is,” Eva piped in, “even if you’re right and Lucifer has this shit totally under control, the fae don’t believe he does. Plus, the cult also wants the gate open. These people have magic powers. They seem to think they’re going to be able to open it from this side somehow. Maybe they’ve found a way to do it.”
We all turned to Stolas who had a pile of books on his lap. He hadn’t bothered to open any of them yet.
“Well?” I asked him.
He shrugged. Stolas was the smartest of us. The most knowledgable and the most well-read. And if he had no clue what was happening, then how could any of the rest of us hope to know how to tackle this increasingly insane situation?
I sighed and folded my arms. “It would be really useful to know if the fae could actually open the gate to Hell. Seems unthinkable, but I know better than to make assumptions about magic.”
There was so much happening. It felt as though I had two dozen glass balls flying through the air, and it was impossible to juggle them all without some inevitably smashing into the ground. The shards would be sharp. Someone would get cut. And potentially die.
I fought back the urge to drop back my head and roar at the skies.
The cult. The fae. Eva’s cure. RunningInfernal. It was all too much.
“Alright,” Stolas finally said. “So, while I can’t be sure, I have to admit there’s a slim chance the fae might actually be onto something.”
I jerked up my head to meet his eyes. That was exactly the opposite of what I’d hoped he would say. “Wonderful. Care to elaborate?”
“It’s simple, really. Lucifer created the original gate. It wasn’t always there. So, it stands to reason that if he could create a portal then someone else could create another.”
“They don’t have Lucifer’s power,” Bael said with a raised brow.
“No, but maybe they don’t need it.”
A phone buzzed on the coffee table, and the room went silent. Everyone looked at the little black box vibrating away like it was a snake ready to strike the hand that reached out to touch it. Finally, Phenex leaned forward and flipped it over. It was a missed call from the fallen angels.
He flicked his eyes up to me. “Should I call them back, boss?”
My heart thumped. “Yeah. They wouldn’t call unless it was important.”
With a nod, Phenex tossed the phone into my hands. An unspoken signal that he was deferring to me. When Az had first left me in charge, the others hadn’t been thrilled that it was my turn to run the club. All the shit that went along with it wasn’t my thing. Paperwork, administrative tasks, keeping the dancers and the patrons happy. But now they all seemed to accept me as the leader, at least until Az got back. Hopefully, that would be soon.
The thing was, I felt less like a leader than I ever had before. So far, I’d donenothingto solve the rapidly building pile of problems. It was one thing after another, and I swore I was only making it worse. Plus, I’d dragged Eva into this mess. I’d have felt better with one of the others in charge. Stolas would do well. But I couldn’t say that out loud. Not now. Not when they were looking to me to lead them. Someone had to step up to the plate, and it had to be me.
The last thing I wanted to do was let them down more than I already had. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t delegate.
I passed the phone back to Phenex. “It’s your phone. They wanted to speak to you.”
Phenex nodded and made the call. He pushed up from the sofa and vanished down the hallway, speaking quietly to the angels. I caught a snippet of their conversation here and there. The words ‘attack’ and ‘demons’ told me everything I needed to know. Dread curled in my gut, dark and heavy, like a lead weight that wanted to pull me down into the depths of despair. Eva met my eyes across the room. She nodded, and a silent conversation swept between the two of us. The increasing strain of the past few weeks was catching up to me, and it was all I could do to hang on to the shore with desperate fingers.
But she was here.
If only I could throw out everyone else, leaving us alone for more than one fucking minute. Without any threats hanging over our head. That bloody cure. The Cult of Lilith. All of it. I just wished we could have our time together, me and her. I would rip off her clothes and drag my tongue across her—
“Boss,” Phenex grunted as he strode back into the room. I blinked my eyes, ridding myself of those thoughts. As much as I wanted all of that to happen, it couldn’t. Not right now. Because I knew what Phenex would say even before he opened his mouth. The fucking cult had done it again.
“Tell me what’s happened,” I said, folding my arms and putting on the display of a leader who knew how to handle the pile of shit being dumped on our heads.
“Another attack,” Phenex said with a grimace. “This time, they hit Central Park. People are screaming and running around in circles, and there are news vans everywhere. The bastards are hunting humans, like they’re animals.”
Eva stiffened.
Anger ripped through me. “Right. Everyone needs to grab their weapons and head to the park now. We’ll fly there. It’s the quickest way. Don’t worry about being seen. It’s too late for secrecy now.”
Eva pushed up from the sofa, her knees wobbling. “How many people have they killed?”
