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I twisted the string on my wrist. “There isn’t a bead on mine.”
“That’s because you’re approved for all the rooms.”
The statement sounded nice until math caught up with me and fucked me like it always did. “That means I’m not getting my own room, doesn’t it?”
Hunter didn’t eventryto look sorry. “It isn’t nearly safe enough for you to sleep alone, shadow-girl. You’ll bunk down with someone else.”
“And let me guess—you’re offering?”
Hunter offered one hell of a grin. “As much as I’d love to offer you up a spot in my bed, I have other, less pleasant obligations to deal with tonight.”
“Then why did you get a room?”
“Because I want it to look like I’m there.” He answered with such anobviouslytone, I gave him a glare. So much for spider-free sex for him.
Nothing was obvious here. I didn’t understand the rules, and it made me realize maybe I’d fit in before better than I’d thought.
“So what happens tomorrow?” Troy asked.
Hunter pulled his gaze from me before he reached over and stole Grant’s drink. “We keep moving inward, toward the Court. After this stop, we’ll sleep on the road until we reach Styx. It’s the biggest city in hell and it surrounds the palace, like a large ring. Between Styx and Lucifer is a dead zone.”
I laughed at the term, which I knew wasn’t that funny, but it seemed whatever they’d gotten for me to drink was stronger than I’d realized.
Hunter kept going. “It isn’t much fun to cross, since its entire point is to keep all the shit stuck here in hell from accessing the palace. I’m hoping Lucifer has the bridge over it for us, since he should be expecting us, but you never know with him.”
“If he doesn’t, can we cross it?” Kase asked.
“Sure, but it won’t be much fun. We’ll want to be properly supplied.” At my look, he sighed. “That means weapons, shadow-girl. Think of the dead zone as a big moat, but it’s not sweet crocodiles in there.”
“Crocodiles aren’t sweet,” I pointed out.
“Compared to what’s in the dead zone? Yeah, they are. You remember that warden in your living room the night I saved you?”
The memory of the darkness swirling came back to me, made me shiver. Yeah, I remembered it.
“Well, that was a glimpse of one, and there’re plenty of those at full power in the dead zone.”
I poured another mouthful of the drink, swallowing it before I had to taste it.
Not that I could taste much of anything anymore.
Suddenly facing all those things in the ravine sounded like a much better idea than it had before.
Kase spoke up, his tone strained. “And the Court? Should we be worried when we get there?”
“You shouldalwaysbe worried where Lucifer is concerned, but once we reach where his people are in control, I doubt we’ll need to look over our shoulders. At least, Ava won’t. The rest of us are disposable, but he wouldn’t drag her here unless he really wanted to talk to her.”
Kase nodded, then sat back. There were edges to his expression, something that hinted he wasn’t entirely okay. Then again, we were in hell headed to visit the devil. Some amount of discomfort was probably expected.
I knew better than to ask him right then. Men didn’t like outing their shortcomings or injuries, and Kase was every bit the sort of alpha male who lived by that.
The drink clouded my head, and before I knew it, I’d finished off the entire cup. When I reached for Troy’s, Hunter snatched it away and moved it out of my reach.
“That will leave a hole in your stomach the size of my fist, so maybe stick to the weak stuff?”
“Weak?” The idea that what I’d guzzled down had been considered the fruity drink of the underworld made me shudder.
Still, the way my brain couldn’t quite hold on to thoughts was rather nice. I teetered in the booth, leaning first against Grant, then against Kase. The men talked, discussed the plan, the upcoming city, the dead zone.
It all bored me. I’d never been a study-hard sort of woman, maybe because the rules had never applied to me. There hadn’t ever been a ‘how to survive seeing ghosts’ textbook, and somehow books titledHow to Draw the Perfect Cat Eyehadn’t seemed all that useful to my problems.
So I let them talk, resting my head against Kase’s shoulder when remaining upright on my own seemed like far too much effort.
The noise in the bar swirled together, and the steady collection of talking, the beat of music, the conversation of the men’s rough, deep voices, all lulled me to quiet.
I never would have figured that I’d fall asleep there, in the middle of a crowded bar in hell, but I managed it.
