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“Really? I rather like hell.”
I gave her a look that said exactly how stupid I thought that was. “What are you even doing here?”
“I’m always on the party list and given Lucifer hasn’t had a real one in ages, I had to assume you were at the root of this one. Whenever things become chaotic, I know you’re at the center.”
“What does he want with me?”
“Believe it or not, I don’t know everything.”
I crossed my arms and blew out a long breath. “I just want to gohome,Gran. I’m tired of this game. Do you know I almost got chopped into little pieces and buried as plant food? I got kidnapped by a hellhound—”
“Oh, but Hunter is cute. I’d let him kidnap me.”
“It wasn’t him.”
“Pity.” Gran offered me an indulgent grin. “But you’re here, and you’re fine.”
“Fine seems like a very generous word. I’m stuck in hell, by myself, and am a prisoner of the devil.”
“You’re not alone,” she said.
“I don’t even know if Kase, Troy, Grant and Hunter are okay.”
“They’re fine. Even if they weren’t, you’d be okay.”
“You like to say that, but I’m not so sure, especially after all this.” I pressed my lips together, then asked her, my voice low, “WhatamI? I went incorporeal, like a ghost, and my blood is dangerous to creatures here. I know you said it doesn’t matter, but I need to understand.”
Gran’s eyes did that thing when they went white, when she stopped focusing on me and wentsomewhereelse. Her voice took on a distanced quality, as if distracted. “You are something unique, Ava, something that isn’t supposed to be.”
“I don’t find being cryptic cute right now.”
“I’m not being cryptic. You are something that has never been, something that may never be again. How does someone explain something that hasn’t existed? I told you before, when you’re ready, you’ll know. And when you do…” She shook her head, the white clearing away like fog rolling out. “You will have choices to make, ones that will reach far and wide.”
I wanted to ask more, but the conversation was cut short when Lucifer walked up, his back straight, his hands folded behind him as before.
“Gran,” he said, nodding politely. “I see you have met our guest of honor.”
“I’ve known Ava here since she was a baby.”
Lucifer showed no surprise, but I couldn’t tell if that was because he’d already known or if his poker face was just that good. “Of course you have. Foolish of me to think such a thing could have gone unnoticed by you.” He focused on me. “I assume you are enjoying yourself? I see Persephone abandoned you. My apologies, but she is easily distracted.”
“Bloody chunks of meat, demons, the wails of the damned—what’s not to like?”
He offered a half smile, as if to humor me. “Exactly. Now, the competitors for the show will arrive shortly, and as the guest of honor, Ms. Harlin is expected to greet them. It was…” Lucifer paused, as if searching for a word. “Niceto see you, Gran. Please, enjoy yourself.”
“I always do,” Gran said and offered me a wink before Lucifer gestured to follow him.
He paused and leaned in to speak to a guard. “Please keep an eye on Gran. Do not get in her way but watch her very carefully.”
I frowned when he started to walk again. “Really? With all the people andthingsyou have here, you’re worried about one little old lady?”
Lucifer huffed, the least regal thing I’d heard from him. “There has yet to be a party she has attended where she did not kill, banish, blackmail or sleep with someone she shouldn’t have. There is only one other person who has managed to give me more headaches.”
“This is hell. I didn’t think you had ‘shouldn’t’ here.”
“We don’t, unless they end up causing me problems. Do you not recall what I told that hellhound?”
“I doubt Gran caused you that much trouble…”
