Page 73 of Dragon Her Heels

SEVENTEEN

“I love you, but not the same way Darlene loves you.”

While I worked at building a new future for Ashley, the forces of hell went on a barn building rampage. I’d expected a scoured foundation with everything destroyed being removed. Instead, by dusk, I had a collection of four new buildings. Two I identified as two-story barns. One seemed to be a tack shed. The third, which was almost as large as a barn but only one and a half stories, baffled me.

A rather proud Lucifer postured in the light of the setting sun.

I pointed at the mysterious building. “I don’t get it. What is that?”

“That is your show arena and your tack room. There is also a set of ten stalls meant for quarantining new animals on the far side.” He pointed at the building off on its own, which I had assumed to be for tack. “That’s where you’ll be storing your grain and housing your barn cats, not that you’re going to have a rodent problem due to your charms.” He pointed at the barn closest to the cattle pasture. “That is your cattle barn, where the pasteurization unit and carousel for your dairy cattle is located. You can house twenty cows in individual stalls, and there is a communal area that can hold another thirty. If you need to bring any additional cattle in from a storm, you’ll need to use the arena.”

I could work with that, especially as I didn’t have fifty head yet. “Dare I ask what you did with my horse barn?”

“You will be able to comfortably house fifty horses; once you make the acquisition next door, you will have plenty of acreage for them, and as I’m opening that much housing for your animals, it’s my problem to set up the land for them. The basement area is reinforced and protected against flooding, so you won’t have to worry about that. If you become concerned, you can move the downstairs residents to the arena or your garage.”

My poor garage would never be the same, but at least my animals would be safe. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. The joy of you punting that mean old dragon into the lake was well worth the investment fixing what I broke.” The Devil snickered. “Only ten of the stalls are up to your standards right now, so there will be some construction left to do; I was able to get the materials for ten right away, but the rest are being ordered. I expect a month or two, so you can’t go buying more horses than you have stalls right now. Don’t forget you need a stall for the stallion you’re working towards rescuing. There’s also the matter of the minis.”

Right. “Can you merge two of the stalls so the minis and stallion have sufficient space? They’re going to need to stay together if he has as many issues as you said.” Without waiting for an answer, I hurried to the horse barn to see what I had to work with, pushing open one of the standard doors along a line of windows meant for the horses to look out over the landscape.

A horse’s paradise waited within, with most of the space going to stalls large enough a horse could be put on stall rest comfortably without feeling cramped or being at much risk of casting themselves against the walls.

Lucifer pointed at a series of pulleys along the ceiling. “Each wall is set up to move, allowing you to shunt a casted horse to the center of the stall without you having to manually get them up. The pulleys take about twenty minutes to adjust, but the problem of a casted horse is resolved. I made a fucking asshole design the system a few years back so an older woman could help her horses. You won’t have casts often, but when you put a horse in a stall, it happens.”

“I love you, but not the same way Darlene loves you.”

During our pizza and brawl session, we’d screamed at each other over the appropriate ways I could showcase my affection for the Lord of Lies. After a few adult beverages, we’d agreed he was a lovable lout, set boundaries, and joined forces, much to Kanika’s horror and Lucifer’s resignation.

I’d emerged with limited scratches, and Darlene boasted a black eye from where I’d nailed her with my elbow.

Lucifer sighed. “Did you really have to hit her in the face, though? Every devil that has spotted those bruises has about shit their pants. Someone dared to punch my darling in the face and live to tell the tale?”

I pointed at my chest, which had a scratch across one breast. “If she hadn’t hit the boob, she wouldn’t have earned herself a whack to the face.”

The Devil bowed his head. “That’s what I told them, and upon finding out my wife went after a greater hedge witch, they worried. And then they checked to make certain the world hadn’t been eradicated.”

“I’m not an idiot. I need the world, else I don’t have a place to live.”

“I did remind them of that, and I pointed out you’re a reasonable hedge witch—and that you hadn’t been forced into your role. You naturally took that path of your own volition. You won’t suffer the way the Fates suffered. And that is why you will have longevity where they did not. I regret that they were not able to enjoy their slumber before they went to true rest. Those events were out of my hands and were required for the facets of Death to fully awaken. Without Death, there cannot be life. Should that ever be knocked out of balance, the End of Days begins. We dodged it by a few breaths with my daughter. We dodged it again, once again by a few breaths, when a mortal woke the third facet. We might forever dodge it because of you.”

The Devil’s tone, one of staunch determination, reminded me of the stakes he fought for, and that everything he did and would do involved protecting his beloved wife and the children of his heart. “May I look at you, really?”

“You mean with your magic.”

I nodded.

“You may, but you will not like what you see. You have progressed enough that my visage will not destroy you—or even harm you, not really.”

Once again, I noticed the regret in his tone and bearing. Rather than answer, I closed my eyes so I might be better able to feel and see the weave that made Lucifer who he was.

At first, I beheld a void, all-encompassing and ready to devour at a moment’s notice. Glimmers, much like distance stars in a fading sky, made an appearance. Puzzled, I tilted my head to the side, attempting to locate one of the ends of a thread.

Any thread would do.

All I needed was a moment to peek at what was hidden beneath.

After a few minutes, one of the glimmers revealed the tiniest of tendrils marking the end of a line. Tattered and worn, I wondered what future the weave had once been linked to and how the loss of the possibility had led to such darkness—or if the darkness had been what had severed the thread.