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“Yes.” Peter threw one more longing glance at him and then Wrath. “If you do ever decide to audition—”
“They’ll let you know.” Eddie got him by the elbow and assisted him from the greenroom.
“This MacDuff?” Wrath looked after Peter. “Does he fight?”
“Yes.” Eddie clapped her hands. “Back to the pressing issue, stabilizing the seals.”
“Right.” Shade couldn’t resist touching her any longer and he flung an arm around her shoulders. He hated to be the one to break the bad news to her. “I’m afraid it’s back to hell for you, my darling.”
Wrath puffed up and scowled. “She is not your darling.”
Shade smirked to piss Wrath off further. “She is if she wants to be.” And he hoped with everything in him that Eddie did want to be his darling.
Chapter
Thirty
The trip through the nothing and then into hell felt much more comfortable this time. Dee—who had insisted there was no way she was not coming—handled it like a veteran. Xerxes and Cronus went through moments before Eddie, and the comfort of their presence made her feel braver. Also, the two hell princes standing at her back had a little something to do with that. But she might like the hounds better.
Maybe. If she could sort out her own emotions and trust them.
Carnage greeted them as they stepped into Shade’s demesne. Demons were milling everywhere, weapons flashing, yelling war cries and generally trying to end each other.
“Oh, shit!” Dee grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back.
Eddie didn’t know if it was a mark of how far she’d come or how low she’d sunk that she barely flinched.
All activity stopped as the princes appeared. Their power emanated from them in palpable waves that made the hair on Eddie’s arms stand on end.
Demons froze mid battle. A sword clanged against the ground.
“Cease!” Wrath yelled. His voice echoed through the forest surrounding them.
Shade sauntered closer to Eddie and jerked his head in Wrath’s direction. “What he said.”
“My prince?” A massive blue demon whose head had a central horn like a rhino stepped up to Wrath. “You wish for us to cease?”
“I not only wish it.” Wrath looked at him like he’d scraped him off his shoes. “I demand it immediately. The war is over.”
Low mutters sprang up amongst the demons. A few weapons were tucked away, but for the most part, they remained frozen in their fighting tableaus. Over to her left, one demon had a knife halfway in another’s chest.
Rhino demon sniffed and locked on Eddie with pale yellow eyes. He dropped to his knees and lowered his gigantic head. “Seed of our sire. Hail!”
It was like someone had jerked the rug out from beneath half of the demons as they hit their knees as well. She was going to go ahead and guess those belonged to Wrath.
“Umm…” Eddie glanced at Shade and then Wrath.
“They recognize your position as my daughter,” Wrath said with more than a touch of smugness. “As such, they grant you authority over them.”
Eddie had enough trouble controlling her theatre people. She did not need a demon horde looking to her for instruction. “That’s okay.” She kept her tone light and airy. “They don’t need to do that.”
“Yes, they do,” Shade said. He lowered his head and whispered in her ear. “They are demons, Eddie. They fight, they fuck shit up, and they kill. They need to know you’re off that list.”
His proximity warmed her skin and made her nerves skitter. She took a self-preserving step away and nodded. She would talk to Wrath about the demon thing later, when she got her brain out her pants again. Shade had called it right at the theatre. He was Valmont, and she would do best to remember that. The women who had tangled with Valmont hadn’t ended up in a good place.
“This is the Nephilim Edme,” Shade shouted. “And she is under my protection.”
There was more kneeling, slower and less enthusiastic this time.
