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“Shorts and tees are acceptable beachwear,” she muttered.
“Not if the tees are baggy, and you’re trying to catch the eye of a hot sex demon.” Raika sat back in her chair. “I’ll bring you some swimsuits to try. Or…we could go shopping.”
Amber didn’t look up. “I’m not going shopping.”
“Excuse me. But, Amber…you’re Logan’s sister, right? So, Thanatos—Death—is your father?” At her nod, Eva frowned. “Would he be okay with you dating a sex demon?”
Raika choked on her drink. When she was done coughing, she laughed. “Oh, my God. Are you kidding? He’d castrate the poor guy and make him eat his own dick. And then he’d hang him from the castle walls to deter anyone else from touching Amber.”
Right. Regular people. They weren’t insane at all.
Amber sighed. “He would not. He loves Talon. Wraith is Dad’s best friend. He’d never hurt Wraith’s son.”
“Uh-huh.” Raika rolled her eyes and gave Eva a no-way shake of the head. “Are you wondering about anyone else here?”
Eva took a sip of her drink, which turned out to be a pineapple margarita. “Well, I don’t know your story.”
“Oh,” she said brightly. “My mother is an angel, and you’d probably know my father as the Grim Reaper.”
Of course, he was.
Eva drained her cup and grabbed the pitcher. “I recognize your name now. The Aegis has been pronouncing it wrong. They call you Ree-kuh.”
“Ree-kuh? Like I reek? Rye-kuh is not that difficult. Morons.” She shrugged at Eva. “No offense.”
“None taken.” She set the pitcher down. “Are you really tasked by Heaven to gather the souls of the demons your father set loose on the world?”
“Sounds a little judgy,” Amber said quietly. And yeah, it might have been. But Raika’s father was the reason the human world was dealing with so many demons and demonic spirits.
“It’s okay,” Raika said. “I get it. She’s only heard one side of the story.” She shifted to face Eva. “Do you know why my father destroyed Sheoul-gra?”
“Publicly, The Aegis’s official take is that it was the first real sign that the Apocalypse was near. Azagoth destroyed Sheoul-gra to release all the demons to be Satan’s army.”
“That’s ridiculous. Ugh.” Raika’s eyes narrowed. “And unofficially? What do you guysreallythink?”
None of this was secret information. Not exactly. But she still hesitated, tucking her hair behind her ear as she bought herself a moment to unpack The Aegis’s internal stance on the topic.
“We know that Satan has been imprisoned,” she said carefully, not wanting to offend the Grim Reaper’s daughter in any way, “so it doesn’t make sense for Azagoth to have released the demons in Sheoul-gra. Not yet. There are two theories. That he released them to wage war on the current King of Hell, Revenant, is probably the most popular. The second is that Revenant wanted them released for his own purposes, but no one knows what that could be.”
Raika laughed. “Not even close.” She glanced over at Amber. “Should I tell her?”
Amber shook her head. “That’s not to be revealed to the world yet. And it’s going to be one of my plot twists.”
Right. Logan had mentioned that his sister was a writer.
“Anyway,” Raika continued, “after Dad released the souls, Heaven punished him by cursing me to spend my life catching the worst of the worst demons he freed. Demons like Lilith. I capture and deliver them to Hades, who stores them while he rebuilds Sheoul-gra.”
“It’s being rebuilt? By Hades?”
Amber plucked a red pencil from the caddy next to her notebook. “Plot twist.”
There was so much The Aegis didn’t know. No wonder Maja had been so anxious for Eva to stay with Logan. These people were a treasure trove of information. Her unprecedented access to the Horsemen and their families would secure Eva’s career in a million different ways. She could even see a book deal in her future.
Her parents would be so proud. She’d be invited onto talk shows and to speak at events. She’d make a documentary that would earn accolades and millions. The kind of success she’d always dreamed of would become reality.
And you’d hate yourself for it.
Shame stabbed her right in the chest. How could she even think about exploiting these people? With a couple of exceptions, they’d been good to her and were nothing like The Aegis described.
