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I’m not sure the other way is any better, frankly. I give him a worried look. I haven’t had anyone dress me since I was too small to do it myself, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. He puts a reassuring arm around my shoulders and squeezes.
“I believe you’ll be grateful for her assistance before long,” he says. He leads me out into the other room, where a small demon woman, barely as tall as my shoulder, is waiting for me. I was right about the footsteps, she does have hooves. I can’t see her legs beneath her skirts, but there are two stubby little horns sprouting off her head, and a tiny golden goatee on her chin. She smiles at me, not meeting my eyes, and her teeth are tiny and sharp.
“Your dress,” she states with a curtsy. She gestures to a hook beside her, where a green dress—the same shade as my eyes, which sort of creeps me out—is hanging. It’s gorgeous. It also looks extremely complicated. I shoot Lucifer a look and he smiles at me.
“Told you,” he says.
I look from the attendant to the dress and then down at my towel-clad body and sigh helplessly.
“Your underthings,” the woman says, gesturing to a small bundle of clothes as light and shimmering as spider silk. Had I just not noticed them before, or is she magicking them into existence somehow?
Out of excuses, and not wanting to hold Lucifer up any longer than I have to, I lose the towel and get to work. Or, more specifically, I get my panties on and then the little goat woman puts to task the chore of dressing me. The process takes forever and I don’t understand most of it, but eventually I’m all set. My hair is done, the dress is on, the shoes fit like Cinderella’s, and with a couple of sparkling accessories I feel ready for a ball.
Only I don’t know what ball it is I’m getting ready for, which is making a little knot form in my stomach.
“Your appraisal?” The goat woman turns the full-length mirror to face me.
“Oh, wow,” I sigh. My reflection steals my breath away. Is that narcissistic? Is this place turning me into a narcissist? Or is the dress justthatgood? The way it hugs my curves and highlights my eyes makes me look like the best version of myself—the picture I imagine when I see a really great dress on one of those stupid pop-up ads and consider compromising my bank account by purchasing it. Nothing I’ve ever worn fits more perfectly than this dress.
“Oh, wow,” Lucifer breathes behind me.
I turn around with a grin. “I just said that.”
He walks over to me, looking me up and down, looking utterly enchanted. “Well, it bears repeating. You’re beautiful, Sophia.”
“It’s the dre—”
He kisses the deflection out of my mouth, pulling me into his arms, completely dominant. His arms curl possessively around me, holding me close. When he releases me, his eyes are dark with desire. “Come to dinner with me. And don’t forget, be wary. Trust no one.”
I take his arm, clinging to him with all the power of my jittery nerves. Glad as I am to be free of the dungeon, I almost miss the security of those bars. Now I’m free to learn how to survive in Lucifer’s world.
Chapter7
Sophia
We take a different staircase downstairs,and I’m dazzled. Gleaming gold creatures are sculpted onto the walls as large as life. At least I assume that’s the size a dragon would be in life. It’s so intricately detailed that for a moment I could swear I see it breathe. Its red, jeweled eyes seem to follow our descent.
The handrail—which is ten feet to my left while the dragon is ten feet to the right on the massive staircase—is cluttered with more carved creatures, black gargoyles and gold demons, red slithering things and green crawling things. That’s all my brain can describe them as, overwhelmed with the visuals of so many new beings. Every few steps, I spot another bit of gauzy fabric hanging off one of the sculptures. It takes five of them in a row before I have to ask.
“Is that… underwear?”
Lucifer casts a casual glance at the handrail. “Looks like it. The stewards must not have made it up this far yet.”
I give him a curious look, and he nods ahead of us. We’ve reached the lowest twist of the staircase, and a wide hall opens in front of us. It’s lined with pillars and populated by a lot of similarly-dressed demons, all running around frantically scrubbing the floors, pillars, and walls. In the distance, I can see two of them dragging a body away. I can’t tell if it’s unconscious or dead. I don’t know which I would prefer, either.
As we pass by the pillars, I notice the trophies contained within. Some are grotesque, too horrible and grim for my eyes to take much care of analyzing, and so I look away quickly. Others are glittering, intricate weapons formed in a light, airy style which seems completely opposite of all of the artistry and structure around here. One pillar, standing apart from the rest, catches my eye. A full suit of golden armor is contained within it, all upswept curves and glistening edges.
“Woah,” I breathe. “What’s that?”
“The armor of a fallen archangel,” he says. “Stolen from the battlefield.”
As we come closer, I can see that the armor is apparently in perfect condition. It looks perfectly useful—better than useful, really. Comparing it to some of the demonic armor I’ve seen, I’d say it’s far superior in both defense and offense. We pause for a beat in front of it.
“You know, if this were an Earthly battle, something like that would be used by whoever stole it—reverse engineered, even.” I give him a doubtful glance. “You really just stole it to put it on display?”
Lucifer chuckles humorlessly and gently urges me to keep walking. “Not intentionally,” he says. “When it was taken, everyone who saw it dreamed of being the one to use it. Of course we all tried, but none of us could use it. So yes, in the end, it was taken to be put on display. Cephalus keeps it there as a reminder of what we’ve won. A beacon to keep everyone focused on the war to some degree, even when they are fully occupied by whatever hedonistic pursuit currently suits their fancy.”
A shiver runs through me. The armor doesn’t seem so beautiful anymore now that I know what it represents. The eternal, endless war—the war that Lucifer is soon to be embroiled in once more. A battle so vicious and deadly that it took down Lucifer’s own brother, not to mention a fucking archangel. I’m not so well-versed on my biblical lore, but I do know that archangels are meant to be the second most powerful beings. Only outmatched by God himself.
