“I know.” I sigh. “It’s hard to wrap my head around the time thing.”
Jessica leans forward, eyeing me with a strange focus. “You look different.”
I scoff. “Besides the fact that I’m a balloon?”
“No,” she says, dragging the word out. “You’re just… I don’t know, more confident. Like you feel good in your skin.”
My eyes tear up. Theseputainepregnancy hormones! I’ve been crying since the girls showed up at the manor. Well, laughing and crying.
“I guess I am,” I say, leaning back against the couch cushions. “Oh!”
Lana’s eyes widen. “I felt that! The baby’s playing football in there.”
“Yeah, and my pancreas is the goalpost,” I mumble, rubbing mydistended belly. I love my little tenant so much already, but he or she has been seriously active lately.
“I bet Corson taught it cheap shots,” Jess says, setting us off again.
“Speaking of,” I say, hungry for any scrap of information, “how are the Fallen? Oh, and Ethan and Liam. Can they come visit too? Or do you think I’d still be welcome at Abaddon?”
Lana and Jess exchange glances, and suddenly I’m having difficulties swallowing. Will they shun me at Purgatory after all?
“I guess no one told you,” Lana starts, wringing her hands in her lap. It’s uncharacteristic for her—our team leader always deflects everything with sarcastic jokes, not letting herself feel awkward.
“Told me what?” I ask carefully.
“Simone, honey… Ethan is dead,” she says, her voice full of pain.
My heart freezes in my chest. “What?”
Jess nods sadly. “Yeah, that fucker Andras had him killed. We saw it happen.” Her head hangs low. “It was horrible.”
I shake my head. “I can’t believe no one told me. When did this happen?”
“In their defense, it wasn’t long ago,” Jess says. “We were on a mission and got ambushed. They wanted to take someone we love from us. Punish us for our role in what happened.”
“I’m still not sure what exactly happened.” I look from Jess to Lana. “What did Belial do? And Andras? Az actually told me he’s my ancestor.”
“You call him Az, that’s so sweet.”
I glare at Jess. “Don’t change the subject,coquine. Or we’ll talk about your two boyfriends.”
Jess beams at me. “Always happy to talk about them. It’s a much more pleasant subject.”
“Yeah.” Lana sighs. “Belial almost killed me.”
“And Andras almost killed me,” Jess adds. “Your great-great-great-grandpa is a dick.”
I stare at them, wide-eyed. “Where is he now?”
“The Pits,” Lana answers. “They’re both there, actually. Andras and Belial. Aim brought him to Lucifer in exchange for Amy’s life.”
I furrow my brow. “Who’s Amy?”
“Aim’s girlfriend.”
“Lana,” I groan. “That tells meabsolumentnothing.”
“Okay, okay!” she raises her hands in surrender. “So, a while ago, I was on a mission, Kevin got led to Naamah by his dick, and I met Ash. He saved me from death via golem crushing.”
