“I can’t believe you brought that shirt down here with you.”
“It’s one of my favorites. How was I supposed to know the Princes of Hell were going to find it offensive? They’ve got to be shitting toothpicks with that stick lodged so far up their asses.”
“I mean, notallof them.”
“Obviously. Did you find anything at Lucifer’s?”
“Okay, first things first. All the princes fought a brutal rebellion and then got banished to this place. Over the years, some have had regrets, but there’s not much they can do about it. They’re all paranoid, even my dad. There are hidden rooms and secret passages all over their estates. The locations are generally hidden from the other princes, but I happen to know where they are at Lucifer’s.”
“How?”
“Well, the reason Iknowyour dad would have brought your mom here as soon as he knew she was pregnant was because he loves kids. I was over there all the time as a kid. Abaddon’s too. I played hide and seek all over their estates, and they trusted me with the best places to hide.
“As far as I knew, I was the only person who knew where the hidden passages and secret rooms were in three of the prince’s estates, but apparently not. The servants don’t even know about them, so they haven’t been cleaned since Lucifer went missing. I don’t really have access to the passages anymore, but I can kind of tell one of the doors have been opened recently.”
“Well, they better not have been peeping on my demonic threesome. How do I keep them out?”
“Isthatwhy you saved Kujo, you minx?”
“Gross. Celix and Nero.”
“Methinks thou dost protest too much. Anyway, if you want to keep anyone out of Lucifer’s passages and secret rooms, you’re going to have a donate a little blood for the spell to re-key the locks. Dad and I can’t do it because they were originally keyed to Lucifer. You can do it because you share DNA.”
“So, this may be a stupid question, but we don’t have magical locks where I grew up.Iknow how to break into places because I was a latchkey kid who sometimes got locked out of the house and I didn’t want to sit on the porch until Mom got home. I’m guessing they can’t be broken into.”
“In theory, the only people who can bypass a lock that’s been blood spelled are people who have been allowed in, but Ithinkif you had the blood of the original caster, you could still get in. We share DNA with our parents, but ours is still unique. Yoursshouldkeep anyone out if you can master the spell. You shouldn’t do any magic with your wings like this.”
Neat. I wasn’t setting foot in that house until I could make sure someone wasn’t creeping through the walls.
Sydney probably looked powerful and beautiful, exploding Kujo’s family. I wasn’t the only one who wished I’d been conscious for that. Celix probably would have puked, but Kujo should have at least had that satisfaction.
What were they doing in there? I was good at girl time and I was worried about her. Winged demons weren’t born with wings thanks to Lilith. It would damage our wings and it wasn’t fair to our mothers who were already pushing a whole baby out.
I remember when mine came in, though they didn’t remotely look like hers. She managed to cut the painful waiting time in half, but it was always heartbreaking when someone’s wings got damaged and they’d never fly. Some of the upper demons shat on any demon it happened to, like their kids weren’t at risk too.
Sydney had way too many people after her. Kujo too, now that everyone knew he couldseethrough Enochian warding. I hesitated for a second because I didn’t really trust that Satan could save me if I used my magic on an army of Furies. It could have cost me Sydney and Kujo.
Never again. Satan had given me permission more than once. He didn’t need to do it again. That was why I didn’t think he was the one who kidnapped Lucifer and betrayed us. Yeah, he was massive and strong, but he wasn’t immune to me. Satan had Wrathhog start teaching us how to kill an angel.
I didn’t need pressure points. I could influence emotions. I could inflame lust, but I could also just make someone happy. It was why Abaddon surrounded himself with my kind. I could also completely overload certain emotions and fuck someone up, which was why Asmodeus and the rest of the Fallen had forbidden that kind of magic.
The door finally opened, so I guess girl time was over. We all tried to rush in and got wedged in the doorway. Why was Kujo stepping on my tail? He didn’t even like her. He’d been downright rude even when she gave him a promotion and got him out of a job he hated.
“Wow, I don’t know if that’s desperate or I should high-five you, Sydney,” Wrathhog drawled.
“Maybe we should oil them up. It would be hot, and they’d get unstuck.”
I had no problem with that. A little oil in the bedroom was hot. Kujo and Celix weren’t remotely into men, so they probably wouldn’t enjoy that as much as Sydney or I would.
“Get off my tail, you menace.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have put your tail under my foot.”
“I’m fond of that tail and the things it can do, so you’d better not damage it,” Sydney said.
“You’re going to have to step off my tail and get us unstuck because if I do it, you may break it.”
“And then I’ll break your nards again.”
