AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” he answers softly. “This section of the palace isn’t exactly controlled, and I suspect that’s why this guy brought you here. It wouldn’t surprise anybody to find you dead in this wing. Also, we couldn’t teleport from inside the palace. If a strike team needed to leave in secret, they would use one of the private royal gardens. In the vast majority of circumstances, it doesn’t much matter where you leave from, as long as you’re clear about where you’re going.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought so, but I wasn’t confident. Whoever sent him is playing with me and using my ignorance against me. If I was more familiar with how things actually work around here, he wouldn’t have been able to lead me all the way here.”
“There’s a lot to learn,” Lucifer says gently. “And you’re proving to be a fast learner.”
I can only hope that I’m learning fast enough to save my life. The corridors in this wing are a lot more labyrinthine than in other places, which is quite a feat considering how much of a maze the rest of the palace is. Eventually we reach a corridor which smells like sulfur and makes the hairs on the backs of my arms stand up. Lucifer knocks on a door so dark it’s almost black. It creaks open a moment later.
“The Prince himself,” a creaky voice says from the shadows within. “You and your friends may enter.”
“Friends?” I ask, questioning the plural under my breath as we cross over the threshold.
“As I said, demons are difficult to kill.”
There’s a pool of dim light on the other side of the room, illuminating a slab table which reminds me of the autopsy tables on TV. Lucifer drops the body carelessly onto the table. The inhabitant of the space steps into the light and I see her clearly for the first time. As far as demons go, she isn’t the prettiest. In place of hair, she grows spiny rope-like tentacles from the top of her head. Her eyes are segmented like an insect’s, and her skin is iridescent, shifting from a sickly green to an offensive shade of purple.
Her hands have too many fingers, and those fingers have too many joints and are tipped with flailing little tendrils instead of nails or even claws. Each of those tiny, numerous tendrils moves autonomously from the others, much like the tentacles on her head. When she opens her mouth to speak, a pair of maxillae pop out and punctuate her words with creepy, insect-like gestures.
A month ago I would have blanched at the sight of her. I’ve gotten more used to the different creatures who inhabit this plane over the last few weeks, and I’m more interested in what she has to say than how she looks while she’s saying it.Hurray for personal growth, I suppose.
“The wretch has triggered a death curse, has he?” she asks as she examines the body with her sniffing, crawling tendrils.
“I suspect so, it was triggered by intention.”
“Ooh, a powerful one. Your work? No, not your work. Similar taste, but not yours. And what do you wish for? A living body, or a dead soul?”
My jaw drops open. The witch smirks at me. “Ah, the human woman. Shocked?”
“Surprised,” I tell her. “I didn’t think there was much of a difference between a dead body and a dead soul. Are you a necromancer?”
“In a way,” she says with her head tilting side to side. “But also no. Once the spark of life leaves a being, I’m as helpless as any human physician. Demons cling to their spark more firmly than other beings—it takes longer for it to dissipate. This body stopped moving less than an hour ago. Although he’s weak, a lower-level demon, I would be able to work with this body for a day or more.”
“We need to ask him questions,” Lucifer tells her. “The answers to those questions triggered his death curse the first time.”
“Not to worry,” she replies as her hair collects a few bottles off the shelves. “In all my years, I’ve never seen a death curse survive resurrection.”
She begins her ritual. I’m not sure I’d be able to follow it even if I had more context. Her wide array of various phalanges make it difficult to make sense of her movements, and the way she slips back and forth between insect clicks and more familiar syllables makes my head spin. After a few minutes, I feel like the words almost make sense. Like listening to someone speaking German, my ears are picking out anything that sounds familiar and my brain is desperately trying to translate.
The demon comes back with a whimper. I was expecting a dramatic gasp or something, but I guess that’s more cinematic than demonic. As soon as he catches sight of Lucifer, that whine becomes a screech. The witch holds the demon still with her numerous tentacles, splaying him out on the table.
“Can he speak?” Lucifer asks.
“He can,” she confirms before moving back from the table.
Lucifer looms over the table. “Tell me who hired you.”
The demon opens and closes his mouth, shaking his head frantically. Lucifer gestures to the witch’s hearth, where a poker lies in the smoldering coals, its tip white-hot.“Be my guest,” she replies casually.
Lucifer grabs the poker and holds it threateningly near the demon’s eye. “Who hired you?” he snarls.
“No, no, no!” The words disappear from the scream as Lucifer burns the demon’s cheek. My stomach rolls at the stench and I grit my teeth.
“I won’t ask again,” Lucifer threatens.
“Please,” he begs. “I’ll tell you.”
Lucifer waits as the demon licks his lips. The demon’s mouth works for a moment, but nothing comes out.”I’m growing impatient,” Lucifer warns.
“I was hired,” the demon says, then pauses. “I was hired—”
