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Lifting off his chest, my eyes open. There’s an undertone in his voice… something that tells me this deal will never leave us be. Even when the fates aren’t meddling, the thought they could start at any moment lingers just above our heads like an anvil in some old cartoon comedy.
“What about it?” I ask, placing my hand over his.
“I can’t shake the feeling that we’re missing something. It can’t be a coincidence that it all stopped the moment you died. I’m beyond happy, but it’s hard to enjoy it when there’s so much waiting for us to walk out that door in the morning. We’re going to war in a matter of days. What if they come back while we’re fighting Michael and I lose my focus for two seconds? I could be killed or worse, it could hurt you.”
With a huff, I push to my feet, holding out a hand to him while adjusting my slip. “Then we ask thosee questions to the man who struck it and we get the answers you’re looking for.”
“I’ve already been to see him. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a play for sympathy. It’s a manipulation to let him out. He can’t lie, so I know it’s the truth, but how selective is it? What is he leaving out?” I pinch the bridge of my nose before my thumb and forefinger.
“You talked to him before you were married to a witch who can see auras. I’ll know if he’s withholding things or sharing with ill intent. Come, your queen demands it.”
His hand drops and his eyes lock with mine before he snorts. “After you, Your Grace,” he teases, ushering me toward the door. Before I can reach the handle, he slides a thin dress the maids left in the room over my head, and adjusts the fabric over my satin slip. “You’re going to want the extra layers,” he says. Taking my hand, he pushes open the door and leads me into the garden.
The hell flame is gone, and night drowns out the colors of the world, painting everything in dark hues of blue and charcoal grays. In the sky, I can make out the three eclipsed islands, owned by the dragons, and a golden ring of light from the hell flame barely visible around their puzzle-pieced lands. Just enough to outline their contours, but not enough to light our way through the garden.
My hand sparks and a ball of fire flints to life, but I still let Kai lead the way. Instead of going through the backdoor of the castle, he pulls me around to a stairwell that ventures below and we descend into the blackness, the fire barely illuminating the harsh edges of stairs until we reach a door that leads to the tunnels.
The icy air bites at my flesh, making me shiver, and growing colder the deeper we go. It’s not until we stand in the dungeon and I hear the shuffling that my blood heats. Kai stops in front of a cell around the bend in the tunnel and, as I step around the clay and stone mixed walls, I find Lucifer standing at the bars of his cage.
“Long time no see,” he quirks, a smile pulling on his lips. It’s only then that I remember our sigils of runes painted on our foreheads from the ceremony. “I see you’ve finally made it official. I’m sad to have missed it.”
Kai’s face stays stone cold, but I can feel the unease radiating off of him. “That’s not why we’re here.”
“Is it to let me out, then?” Lucifer’s hand juts through the bars to grab onto the large padlock holding his cage closed. “Is she going to siphon the lock?”
“No, but I’ll consider letting you out, letting you help us fight the war you started, if you tell me why the fates have left me alone. Your deal caused them to drive me to the brink of madness, then all of a sudden the castle returns and they stop.”
“Did you look back through your mother’s memories?”
“Yes,” Kai snaps, seething the word as if it alone could drip venom.
“And did you see the truth in what I told you? Did you see all the ways the war will end?”
“Yes,” Kai answers again, his fists clenching at his sides until the knuckles of his hands turn ghost white.
“Then you know I’m no threat. Thatyouneedme.”
“Answer the question, and with my queen’s consent, I’ll see to your release in the morning.”
Lucifer laughs, lunging against the bars as his blue eyes turn to a glowing red. “No. You will let me out and then I’ll give you the answer you seek. Not a moment sooner.”
My third eye opens, seeing the wisps of colors swirling through the air, clashing with others around it. Kai steps closer, shoving a blackened hand through the bars to clutch a fist full of Lucifer’s shirt. “How dare you?”
“Let him go,” I say, shutting my third eye.
Kai’s mouth drops open as he turns squinted eyes toward me. “Just let him go? He could’ve led you to your deathtwicenow.”
“He holds no malicious intent against you or me. He has no crown, nor do I think he has a wish to take it back. We’re about to go to war with someone we’ve never met, thatheknows better than anyone. We could use his help and if the answers he’ll give you about the deal will put your mind at peace, then so be it.”
“The moment he’s out, he’ll have every right to try to kill me to take back his throne. He’d have the full kingdom’s support if he does,” Kai says, turning his glare back to his father.
“If he wanted to kill you, he would’ve, Kai. You told me yourself that he didn’t put up much of a fight. Why do you think that is? He’s the Devil, and the man hasn’t aged a day since he wreaked havoc on the seven realms and quite literally conquered it almost single-handedly. Make him swear a blood oath to not harm you and be done with it,” I say, waving the two of them on.
Kai summons a dagger, splitting the skin he cut not long ago during our wedding ceremony. Lucifer smirks, sliding his hand through the bars for Kai to repeat it on his palm. “Swear it, that you won’t harm anyone I love or that of my blood. That goes for my wife, my future children, my brother, Finn. Must I continue or do you get where I’m going with this?”
“I understand. Cross my heart, and should I break it, it’ll cease beating. A horrible death for an immortal, I must add. You never truly die, only exist in a constant state of limbo. The pain is menacing and never ending,” Lucifer says, sealing the deal.
“Answer, while Alice breaks the spell on the lock,” Kai says, nodding me forward. My hands press against the cool textured iron and I siphon the magic binding it.
