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Kiran did me a service and looked away, after which I felt my wolf begin to settle. The fact that she was becoming more and more a part of me should have been alarming; I hadn’t even realized she was paying attention to the half-fae across from us until he pointed it out.
“No, I don’t really shift a lot.”
His expression is pensive.
“Being half-Unseelie made Atlan and me a bit more frightening to look at than some of our packmates as kids—” Reese snorted here, obviously recalling Marilyn’s very stern warning about not looking directly at them in shifted form. “—but we prefer to be in fur than skin. It’s quite the conundrum, considering most people can’t stand the sight of us at all, much less hold our gaze. You should run with us sometime. It’s good for the soul.”
I made a noncommittal sound and stuffed a forkful of my own eggs in my mouth, but he didn’t seem offended.
I hadn’t had a problem with the glimpses of them I’d caught after training—neither had Zuzanna that time we’d watched them trot off into the trees—so I wasn’t entirely sure how accurate their ability was being portrayed. But I also wasn’t sure that I wanted to risk it, even if my wolf was bouncing around like an excited puppy at the prospect of getting to stretch her legs.
Kiran left us shortly after that, and Reese and I made ourselves useful washing up dishes as people started returning their trays.
It never failed to fascinate me that people could actually live like this; maybe I was romanticizing it, but this way of life seemed so much simpler than trying to thrive out in the segmented world. I could see why they were so protective of it.
Hopefully, I could help them keep it when the big threats came knocking.
13
HIGHWAY TO HELL
SARIEL
Ishouldn't have acted like that.
Blowing out a breath and rubbing a hand down my face, I berated myself for making AriaandAuren feel like shit in one fell swoop. It wasn't even anything that Auren had done that set me off, necessarily—it was just that he'd had to do it at all.
I wanted to tear everyone apart for how his life had turned out.
Someone should have stopped it.Anyone. The evolution of a sweet, sunshine child into a man who casually had people executed gave me whiplash; all I could do was try to weather the mixture of emotions that came with that.
Auren deserved a good life, anormallife with a family who loved him and took care of him.
Instead, he'd gotten shoved into one with Azazel, and whatever cosmic being had made that call deserved to have their ass beat.
Pacing the training grounds wasn't as soothing as I had hoped it would be, and there's this itching under my skin that made me feel insane. But, of course, rubbing at my arms did nothing, and I chalked it up to the drinking.
I wasn't expecting what came next.
When Barimuz appeared like some kind of fucked up apparition and trapped me in a sea of black smoke, I didn't even think to try escaping for a moment. He'd been harmless, borderlinefriendlyat times, so it took me off guard that he was suddenly trying to manhandle me.
Our previous “friendliness” didn't stop me from fighting back, but it was like trying to swim in ice water. The smog curled and folded until I was completely submerged, my body rigid and straining with the effort to get free.
"Bari—"
My words were halted by a tendril of smoke forcing its way into my mouth. I wasn't sure if I was more horrified or amused.
In another beat, we're moving, the world moving by us in a blur, and then we're in Hell.
This did not bode well for me, given the last time we had been here was at the behest of Lucifer himself. The giant demon didn’t bother acknowledging me, simply dragging me along in his abyss of smog.
When we arrive in Lucifer's throne room—this time, it's more medieval—he's giddy to see me. I guess I should be flattered, but I'm mostly pissed off by how this all had transpired.
That anger melted slowly into fear, though, when I spotted the cage in the corner of the room.
"Welcome back!" Lucifer said. He stood with a flurry of movement that bordered on dramatic, arms outstretched, a red substance splashing from his cup to the floor. This reception was unexpected, given that I was just hogtied by his subordinate.
"It's so good to see you again. We're going to have so much fun together."
