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He hated her answer, but he wasn’t going to punish the troll when she was trying to be helpful.
“I do know that they disappeared a while back,” the troll said. “Leafrot went to visit them, and they were gone. He said they just disappeared. Dishes still on the table. Wash hanging on the line. Wouldn’t shut up about it.” She stared down at Leafrot. “I know he don’t look like it now, but he’s normally a talkative sort.”
“I remember that,” the tavern keeper chimed in. “Several of my customers were speculating about what had happened to them.”
On his hunt, Lucifer had learned not to dismiss even the most innocuous sounding gossip. “Any conclusions reached in their speculation?”
“Most believed they’d upped and legged it,” the keeper said. “But they never could say what from. Others thought they’d been taken.”
Taken or told by Ashe to disappear and do it fast? Ashe knew him well enough to know he would punish disloyalty and might have wanted to make sure he got his folk out of the way before he turned traitor.
“Leafrot always said Ashe took care of them,” the troll said. “Used to come here on days he wasn’t working for you. Sent goods and food. That sort of thing.” She frowned and clicked her tongue. “There was something wrong with one of them. Couldn’t work. So the others had to watch them.” The troll sighed. “Honestly, my lord, that’s all I remember. Leafrot’s a big talker.” She glanced down and winced. “I don’t always listen to all he says.”
Lucifer made another design adjustment to future demons he might raise, better listening skills for trolls and less bullshit spewing for gnomes. Clearly gnomes needed some rethinking. If Ramiel could slap a truth telling imperative on his seraphim, there was no reason why they couldn’t make a few tweaks to demons. If he’d thought to do to Ashe what Ramiel had done to Haziel—made it impossible for the seraph to lie—he wouldn’t be in this position now.
“Anything else?” He took in the troll and the tavern keeper. A jolt along his arm reminded him that he still had Blot suspended by the horn and he lowered the imp to the floor.
“I remember something.” Blot patted his horn as if to reassure himself it was still attached. “It was only the offspring,” he said. “The sire and dam were ended a long time ago. Back before I was born.”
As imps had as much value for the concept of time as they did for truth, that could mean anything from a day to a millennium.
“Mixed couple is what I heard.” The keeper took a tankard from the shelf behind him and ambled over to a large keg mounted on the bar. “Dam was from Gluttony and sire was one of yours.”
Mixed couples in the demonarchy often denoted a pair who originated from different demesnes as much as it did a cross demon breed pairing. Strange that Lucifer had never picked up anything but his own power signature in Ashe. Although it looked like he could write a book about all he hadn’t known about Ashe.
An odd twisty sensation tightened through his chest. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to. It had happened a few times around his brother, Wrath. He felt…hurt, rejected and not good enough. Not that he would let either Wrath or Ashe in on his dirty secret. Those fuckers didn’t deserve his wounded feelings.
Of course, the problem might be hunger. It had been weeks since he had last sought sustenance. Hell princes didn’t have the same pressing needs as humans, especially not whilst in hell, but they did have them. And he really enjoyed a good feed. Not as much as Zeb, obviously, but a great meal went a long way to soothing a hell prince’s rough edges. And while he was thinking about his rough edges, it had also been a while since he had enjoyed the company of a bed mate. All this running around after Ashe was seriously compromising his self-care regimen. He needed to find the fucker, end him, and get on with the business of being the king of hell.
Miraculously, Leafrot twitched, and his eyelids flickered open. He fastened his gaze on Lucifer and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“No.” The troll kicked him, and not gently. “You’re not doing that again.”
Lucifer smirked. It was such a burden to always be the big bad. It was nice when someone else stepped up as the villain.
The troll crouched beside Leafrot. “Lord Lucifer has questions, and you’re going to answer them for him.”
“He didn’t end you?” Leafrot blinked at the other tavern occupants.
“Not yet.” Blot beamed at Leafrot. “But he might change his mind if you don’t tell him what he needs to know.”
Wincing, Leafrot struggled into a sitting position. He probed the back of his head with his fingers. “Did nobody think to catch me?”
Lucifer crouched beside him. “I understand you are acquainted with Ashe’s folk.”
The summoning hit him like a wave of icy water through his body. Gritting his teeth, Lucifer ignored it. He was finally getting somewhere in his pursuit of his missing, traitorous second. No fucking human witch was going to summon him now and drag him out of hell. “When was Ashe last here?”
“Hmm?” Leafrot tapped his temple with his forefinger.
Lucifer suppressed the urge to bellow at him to hurry up before that fucking witch had another go.
“I don’t rightly remember, but it was a while ago,” Leafrot said. “He didn’t get here as much as he liked because…” Leafrot started guiltily and averted his gaze.
“Because he was busy following my orders.” Lucifer finished for him. “Give me some idea of what a while ago means.”
The summoning hit him again, harder this time and fastening around his being like invisible manacles.
Lucifer leaned into his power and refused the summoning. “Ashe.” His voice grated as the summoning heaved at him and he fought it. “When did you last see him?”
“I’m not sure.” Leafrot whimpered. “Don’t end me, lord. I’m thinking.”
“Think faster.” The summoning pulsed stronger, urgent and demanding. It tore into his muscles and sinews and insisted he obey.
“It was after his folk vanished.” Leafrot clicked his fingers. “I remember now because he looked so shocked when he found them gone. Also, he looked sad, but not shocked sad, kind of like he knew that they were gone, and now he had to do something. He said?—”
The summoning snatched Lucifer into the abyss and sent him hurtling through the hell gate. He bellowed his rage as he journeyed. Some fucking human witch was going to rue the day she’d summoned him.
* * *
