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“Where am I?” I ask. My voice sounds alien to me, hoarse and low.
Cephalus gives me a vaguely surprised look, as though genuinely concerned that anyone could ask such a stupid question.
“Hell, of course.”
Hell. I’m in Hell. I’m in hell, and I’m trapped. Speaking to the king of Hell. Literal, actual, Hell.
Nope, I can’t make it feel true no matter how many times I think it. It’s just one bridge too far. Leaving Earth—fine. Space is right there, I can see it every night. Demons on Earth—took me a minute, but I got there. My leaving the Earthly plane entirely, existing in a whole different—what,universe? What even is a plane, really?Fuck.
None of that actually matters right now, though. Hell, Earth, Heaven, whatever. I’m not about to waste away in a prison cell for the rest of my life. I have shit to do. I have Cassidy to look after. It’s not like I can join Cephalus’s army or anything anyway. I’d be a bite-sized appetizer on the battlefield. Which begs the question…
“What do you want from me?” I demand. The panic in my scratchy voice feeds back on itself, sharpening the hazy emotion I wasn’t even aware of a moment ago. “Why did you bring me here? Let me go!”
He chuckles cynically, darkly. When he speaks, his voice is smooth. Almost kind. It creeps me out, knowing what lies behind it.
“Well now, we both know I can’t do that.”
No, as a matter of fact, I don’t know that at all.I’m pretty sure the fucking king can rustle up some keys. But that’s not what he means, and I know it. He gives me a long, almost pitying look.
“This is bigger than you,” he continues. “It’s even bigger than me. This isn’t about disrespect or mingling above your station. This is about a war which has been fought since before time was time.”
There’s a resigned certainty in his tone which belies the stories I’ve heard from Lucifer about a crazed, manic warmonger. Maybe he’s grown comfortable in his insanity. He tilts a half-smile in my general direction and I really, really wish he wouldn’t do that.
“I never thought the key to it all would be a human. But even the King of Hell can be surprised,” Cephalus tells me, his lips curving upward slightly.
The key?To what, the war?
My confusion shows on my face, and he gives me a look of sadistic sympathy.
“It’s nothing personal, you know,” he says. “The blame lies with Lucifer. This is what he gets for falling in love with someone so fragile.”
The compassionate mask falls away from his face, leaving it hard and cold. His eyes glitter like a snake’s, staring into my soul as he takes a step closer.
“Because fragile things? They can be broken.”
