I choked, fear strangling me for all that I wouldn’t let it show on my face. “D-do it,” I forced out. “Put it in the contract or we have no deal.”
He made no move to do so. “If we have no deal, you have no way into hell. You won’t save dear little sissy. It is you in the desperate position, darling. Not I.”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” I replied, lifting my chin. “You said there are other fallen angels and demon lords in hell—all as strong as you, and hoping to get stronger. If you don’t want to do a deal with me, I’m sure they will, because I did do my hellish homework over the last few days, and I’ve learned a few names.”
I raised my voice loud enough for the neighbors to hear. “I’ll sell my soul to Azazel if that’s what it takes!”
Lucifer’s grin vanished in a flash. “Stop that.”
“I’ll sell my soul to Leviathan if that’s what it takes!”
“I said stop!”
I shouted even louder. “I’ll sell my soul to Asmodeus if that’s—"
“STOP!”
The boom resounded in my chest, stuffing my voice so far down my throat, it shot out of my butt. I gasped, choking and coughing as the ever-present fear grew stronger... but so did my resolve.
“Very well,” he growled—menace like I never heard in my life lacing his voice. “Your terms are accepted and agreed.”
The quill cut me flying out of my hands. Before my voice could even think to return to me, it signed his name with my blood, and then mine.
“The deal is signed and bound. I, Lucifer of House Lucifer, pledge myself and my powers to the protection of Charlotte Marie Hunter until she succeeds in infiltrating the all-men’s institution, Abaddon Academy, and rescues her sister, Adora Rose Hunter, from hell and returns her to earth. Upon the completion of this mission”—he pinned me with a glare that flayed the skin from my bones—“her soul is mine.”
One word in particular finally reached my ears. “Wa— Wait,” I cried. “Men’s? Did you just say all m—!”
“Let’s begin.”
Lucifer snapped his fingers, and we were gone.
Chapter Three
Iwoke alone.
Peeling my lids open, hot, fetid, burning air immediately rushed in, making them water and sting. I sat up hacking and coughing, trying to see through the haze.
Where am I?
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind when the world slowly appeared before me... in all its dead, burned, soulless horror.
I was in a forest, if it could be called that. The trees surrounding me were hollow, white, dead things with not a leaf in sight. Beneath me, hard, life-sucking earth faintly burned my hands and exposed skin like a sandy beach on a scorching day—but nowhere near as picturesque.
Rising to my feet, I spun around—my gaze landing on nothing, nothing, and nothing. A glance down showed me I wasn’t in my sparkling red dress and shoes anymore.
Simple black pants and a black shirt wrapped around me. The only thing distinctive about the outfit was the large black-and-gray patch woven into the front—the logo of Abaddon Academy. Also very distinctive, were the two size C breasts pushing against my shirt.
“How am I supposed to get into an all-men’s academy in this outfit? This badge does not hide my boobs,darling!” I croaked, sweeping the miles upon miles of dead trees and black earth. “Not that there even is an academy anywhere near here. Where am I!”
“Where elssse? Hell.”
I twisted on my feet, eyes bugging. “Who said that?” I demanded, then coughed some more. My lungs did not like this air. “Who’s there?”
“Down here, human.”
Down here?Slowly, I tipped my chin. I couldn’t make out a thing until the ground moved.
Slithering over the charred earth, a snake as black as night came straight for me.
