My hands clench into fists. “We’re in Hell,imbécile. Everyone is a foreigner here.”
His eyes flash in a way that triggers a familiar fear response within me. But I’m too tired of always being the victim to give in to it and cower.
“Why can’t you just be nice to me, Simone?” he says lowly. “Plenty of chicks here would be thrilled to have me interested in them. Why do you have to be such a bitch?”
A hysterical laugh crawls up my throat. “I can only imagine how enchanted they are by your charms.” He takes another step closer, and I raise my voice. “Stop.”
Nick freezes, waiting to see if anyone heard me.
“Leave right now, or Iwillyell,” I say, my tone brooking noargument. I’mdonebeing pushed around by infantile men. “Come near my room again, and I will tell our trainers you are harassing me.”
Nick’s teeth grind together audibly, and I can see the wheels turning behind his beady little eyes. He opens his mouth to say something undoubtedly brilliant, but I don’t let him speak.
“Don’t say another word. Turn around and leave.”
With another second of hesitation, he finally listens, leaving my room with stiff motions and closing the door with another bang. All the fight leaves me as soon as he’s gone, and I lower myself onto my bed with shaky legs.
There’s a quiet knock on my door, but it makes me jump anyway.
“Simone? I heard banging. Are you alright?”
Akira, a Cambion from Corson’s team who’s so quiet, I don’t think he actually ever addressed me before. I only know it’s him because of his faint Japanese accent and the fact that his room is across from mine.
I clear my throat and speak up, not feeling up to opening the door. “It’s alright now. I’m fine.”
Akira is quiet for a moment. “Very well,” he finally says. A few seconds later, I hear the quiet snick of his door closing behind him.
I release my breath out through my nose and let myself fall back onto my bed.
I was so worried about the dangers that await me tomorrow in Hell, I let my guard down to the dangers around me here. It won’t happen again.
5
ASMODEUS
Irecline on the pillows and wave off the Lamia demon feeding me grapes. I’m bored with them and her. One of my sons is talking to me, and I really am trying to pay attention. But I’m too… bored.
“Father?” Agares says. Or maybe it’s Valefor? There are just so many.
“Yes…”
“Nereth,” the incubus answers with only a small sigh. They’re used to it.
“Ah, yes,” I say, marginally cheered by the revelation. I remember now. Nereth is one of Naamah’s brothers, and while I don’t want to play favorites, I never forget her name. “What were you saying, Nereth?”
“I merely said Zagan spotted the Elioud out in Hell today,” my son says.
I raise an eyebrow, pondering. “Is that so? And where exactly has he seen them?”
Nereth pushes back a stray lock of hair that fell over his forehead with his tail. “By the Phlegethon, Father.”
“My brother’s territory,” I muse, evaluating just how bored I really am. I decide it’s enough to warrant an excursion and get to my feet. “He won’t mind.”
Nereth takes a step back, blinking at me. “I—ah. Sorry?”
Someone moans on the other side of the room, the sound coming from a pile of entwined bodies writhing in ecstasy. Even that doesn’t hold my attention.
“We’re going to look at the mortals,” I say like I’m suggesting a trip to the zoo. Not that I’ve ever been to a modern zoo, being confined in Hell as I am.
