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“The Lucifer?” At last, a hell prince she’d heard of. But hang on. “Isn’t Lucifer the king of hell?”
“Huh!” Shade glowered at her. “Only if you hear him tell it. Fucking king of fucking hell.” He spat. “That prick.”
Eddie was going out on a limb here as she asked, “So, not the king of hell?”
“No,” Shade snapped. “Just a hell prince like the rest of us with no shame about pushing himself forward and an out-of-control ego.”
Out-of-control egos were a theme around here. Back to the original topic. “According to Yesterday, I can repair the seal.” And she couldn’t stop herself from adding. “A detail you did not share with me.”
“In theory.” Shade studied her through narrowed eyes. “It’s only a theory because, as I’ve said a number of times, we don’t know what Nephilim are capable of, because there aren’t many of you.”
Not being the only one sounded comforting to Eddie. “When you say not many, how many?”
“I only know of two in my lifetime, and they’re both dead.” Shade shrugged. “Guardians killed one, and the archangels got the second.”
“Ouch.” Eddie was beginning to feel like a hunted woman. Uriel and Dee had said she was safest in hell, but with an unconscious hell prince who wanted her dead, and his demons who wanted her dead even more, she wasn’t feeling that. Then again, on earth the guardians had it out for her. Uriel had tried to help her. “Even if I can repair the seal, I don’t know how. And hanging around it until we find out isn’t an option.”
“Agreed.” Shade nodded and flinched. “Fuck, that shithead hits hard.”
The futility of walking hit her, and she stopped. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you knew that.” Yesterday rolled his eyes at her.
“We can’t stay here.” Eddie waved a hand around to indicate hell. “We can hide, but it’s only a matter of time before his demons find us, or he wakes up.”
“You could cut his throat,” Shade suggested.
Eddie couldn’t believe he’d said that. “Firstly, I thought you said I couldn’t kill him, and secondly, and I probably should have made this the first point, I am not slitting anyone’s throat.”
Shade shrugged. “It won’t kill him, as long as you don’t sever his head from his neck entirely.” He grinned. “But it will hurt like a motherfucker and take him a while to heal from.”
“Still not slitting anyone’s throat.” She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. She couldn’t believe any of this. Except it was undeniably happening. “And why am I the one who needs to do the stabbing and the slitting?”
“Demons can’t touch that blade,” Yesterday said.
“You did.” Eddie glared at him. “When you stole it.”
“I wrapped it in leaves and moss, and I’m a lower order demon.” Yesterday didn’t look one iota apologetic for his theft. “It doesn’t affect me like it affects the more powerful demons.”
She was so tired of running around in the dark—literally and figuratively. “Huh?”
“It’s a weapon of enormous power,” Shade answered her. “The more powerful the hell being who handles it, the greater the power the blade has. For Wrath and me”—he shrugged—“it’s near fatal.”
That stopped Eddie in her tracks. “Near fatal?” She stared at the weapon hilt sticking out of Wrath’s back. “Then that is killing him right now.”
“Eddie.” Shade sighed. “Technically, you stabbed him and not me. Only a hell prince can end another hell prince.” He nudged Wrath’s head. “And he’s still with us.”
“But when I stabbed him with it, I weakened him?”
Shade nodded. “It does enough damage to seriously slow us down.”
At this stage, Eddie wasn’t sure they weren’t all making the rules up as they went along. “Right.” Back to her original point. “That still leaves us with no options on where to go.”
“Back through the hell gate,” Shade said.
Eddie shook her head at his obtuseness. “Did you miss the part about the guardians being there?”
“Uriel can handle them,” Shade said. “And the situation here is going to need a full gathering.”
