“So, what do I do?”
Because I still didn’t know. I had a bunch of pieces, but not the full puzzle. Even if we found Lucifer, I had no idea what I was doing.
“Darling, I honestly don’t know, but you unsettle them. Between your choice in men, clothing, and that mouth of yours, I’m betting they slip up. Satan and Abaddon are my friends and Lucifer was my lover, but they are so scared one of them is going to turn on them, they don’t challenge each other, even now, when one of them obviously has.”
“So, you want me to unleash my inner menace?”
“I’m fond of your inner menace,” Nero said.
“The rest of the lower demons will too,” Celix said.
Before I could say anything, Kujo stirred. Lilith was right. He wasn’t out long at all. And he realized he had his head in my lapwith his arms wrapped around my waist. He bolted to a sitting position.
“Shit, please tell me I didn’t drool all over you.”
“No. You just looked really uncomfortable sleeping on your face.”
“We would have intervened if you went for a throat punch,” Celix laughed.
“Thanks, brother. Is that it? Do I need to do anything else?”
“Well, your third eye should be wide open. You just need to figure out your best self for receiving visions, hot stuff. I’m guessing for you, it’s not Namaste and breath work.”
Kujo and I were a lot alike. I loved yoga, but it wasn’t going to work for Kujo. My mind was usually a jumble of messy thoughts and plot bunnies. I could quiet it when I needed to. Now that I’d met his family, he probably neededloadsof therapy before meditation was an option and we didn’t have time for that.
I knewexactlyhow to clear his mind for visions.
“We’re going to silence your lambs and Namaste your shit by going back to Lucifer’s and practicing all the fight techniques Wrathhog taught us.”
“That’ll do, Killer. We can also teach you a bit about managing your wings.”
“Yes, well, while you’re silencing your lambs or whatever, teach the heir to Hell to protect herself. Lucifer taught Kir to fight literally any type of angel who would have come for him and it didn’t help in the end.”
Yeah, I guess that was one of those daddy daughter things I missed out on. I wasn’t getting gutted by a bitch pigeon.
I refused to go out like that.
Iknew this didn’t make much sense, but some of my favorite things in this world were fist fights, fucking, and reading. I had layers. I could never find that shirt on Etsy, though. Pity.
One thing I could appreciate about Lucifer’s gigantic house was the enormous room meant for sparring. We couldn’t start fighting right away. Lilith found out someone was trip trapping in Lucifer’s secret passages and decided to come help, yet again. She told us Wrathhog never would have been able to show me how to re-key those locks because Lucifer and Lilith figured out a bunch of blood magic together and didn’t teach it to all the Fallen.
She also threw the ultimate wrench into everything. Lilith told us Lucifer didn’t trust his brothers long before Kir was murdered. Well, he trusted afewof them, but not all of them. The only people who could have been watching us and attacked Satan would have been someone Lucifer trusted enough to let in. And it would have been someone he trusted tonotrevoke access after his son was murdered.
“So, Satan and Abaddon,” I said. “Because those are the only twoItrust.”
I didn’t want it to be either of them. I liked Wrathhog, and I knew she loved her dad. She’d be gutted if it was him. Satan and Abaddon had also been decent to me since I got here. I didn’twantto think that was a lie, but who else could it be?
“Not just those two. I don’t know what happened after I left, but Mammon and Lucifer used to be friends. It wasn’t the same kind of friendship he had with Abaddon and Satan. Mammon used to keep his thoughts about women to himself around Lucifer. They used to stay up at all hours talking politics, philosophy, science, you name it.
“Mammon is a Cherubim. They aren’t fat little cupids like mortal realm depictions. Mammon’s real visage has four wings and four faces. He chooses to appear how you see him. Cherubim are typically allowed in spaces other angels aren’t, so they pick up all kinds of things. Mammon passed vital information to the rebellion. When he’s not being an asshole, he’s actually brilliant and fascinating to talk to.”
Ah. That asshole. Somehow, I didn’t think we’d be sitting down to any type of stimulating conversations any time soon. He wasn’t as openly antagonistic as Asmodeus, but he made no secret he hated me and wanted me gone.
“I don’t think it’s Mammon,” Kujo said. “He’s utterly lost his shit over your shirts and that mouth. Whoever did this has gotten away with murder for thousands of years and kept Luciferin a cage for forty-six years. If I was the one who did this, I wouldn’t make it that obvious.”
“Itcouldbe him,” Celix said. “Keeping secrets is an enormous burden. If someone is doing this alone, they have no one to talk to. They’ve gotten away with it this long, but they made a huge mistake. They grabbed Lucifer and didn’t pay attention to his lover. I’m guessing whoever cursed Sydney’s mother didn’t know who Sydney’s father was or Sydney wouldn’t be here.”
“It’s like what we said. No one knew Lucifer had a kid out there. No one even knew he had a lover on the mortal realm. Someone would have brought you both here or killed you both. Sydney being here was a fuck up. Trying to take Kujo out of the equation was a massive fuck up and made Sydney stronger. Insisting Sydney deal with the breach was a fuck up because it ended up on mortal news where Lilith could see her picture and realize who she was. It’s all starting to crumble.Of course,someone is going to start getting sloppy,” Nero said.
