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I snorted at his attempts to soften the situation. “You mean before they turn them into Hellburger Helper?”
Casey shrugged. “Something like that. I actually think it’s kind of nice they try to make it easier on the cattle. This cat is a meat eater. He might ingest some grass if he got indigestion, but there’s evidence of him eating far more than normal.”
I watched him move with pure confidence, a deep competence he’d only been beginning to find when we were together. He used to fumble, used to try to play braver than he was. He’d been such a weirdo, and I’d been drawn to him the moment we met.
I’d been without him for so much longer than I’d been with him. Why did he fill my every thought all of the sudden? I didn’t think about Casey all the time. I wasn’t some sad sack, can’t live without a man chick. It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about Casey, but not like this. Sometimes I’d been able to forget how much I cared.
Because they beat him out of you. They might not have done it with their fists, but it had been a beating all the same. Because they taught you it was wrong to love him. To love anything and anyone except Myrddin Emrys.
“I also found some symbols branded on his back. I don’t recognize the characters. I think it’s probably some form of Demonish.” He started to tie off his last stitch.
I moved in closer. As long as I was here, I could try to help. The sooner I got off Gray’s plane, the sooner I could try to escape. “Can I see?”
He carefully rolled the corpse over.
Sure enough, there was a small brand on his right upper shoulder. I leaned in. Casey must have an anti-stink charm somewhere because all I could smell was lavender.
My favorite. But then he would know that.
“I’ve seen it before. It’s a version of Demonish.” It was far easier to concentrate on the mystery in front of me than the fact that he’d moved in behind me. “It might be the name of the realm it belonged to. I know they don’t brand cats here. This realm raises a lot of farm stock, but this is a wild animal on this plane.”
“Yes, I find that curious,” Casey admitted. “I would think it’s a potential hit on Gray except according to him, this sucker went for Kelsey first. He might have been confused. That part of his brain was affected, too.”
I wasn’t sure about that. My bestie often pissed off someone enough that they were gunning for her. And she didn’t pick a dude who shifts into a golden retriever to piss off. Nope. She went for dukes of Hell and angels from the Heaven plane. I could only imagine what chaos she’d wrought on the outer planes.
I hadn’t even asked her what had happened. Marcus Vorenus hadn’t come back. I’d heard rumors he’d stayed behind because he’d found a companion. How did she feel about that? Marcus had saved her. They’d been so close, and I didn’t even know how she felt about potentially never seeing him again.
But for all that, there were still problems with Casey’s theory.
“Why would anyone here want to hurt Kelsey? I mean anyone who would know she’s here,” I pointed out. “I know she’s got a ton of enemies. But we need someone with access to and knowledge of the Hell plane. It’s not like she announced the trip on Hell’s version of social media.”
Casey stepped back, pulling the gloves off his hands. “They all knew. The movements of the dark prophet are followed closely by most of Hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced it on their news programs.”
I hadn’t spent much time here. “News programs?”
Casey nodded. “Oh, yeah. They love to give their take on the happenings around the inner planes. And the movie reviews are hysterical. But there are channels you should avoid. The Gutting Channel isn’t a metaphor.”
I would stay away from that one.
“Okay, so everyone knew she was coming. Do you think this is about the baby?” I asked.
“I think Gray believes so.” But he didn’t sound convinced to me.
“His father is still around,” I mused. “But he should want to kill Gray, not the baby. If he killed Gray, he would be the only living demonic relative. He would rule in the child’s place until he reached his majority.”
Not that he would because that fucker would absolutely find a way to murder his grandchild and take his realm back.
“He would also have to have someone working the inside, and because of the rules of binding in demonic households, that should be almost impossible,” Casey said.
“How does it work?” I knew a bit, but not the ins and outs of the practice. “Did the binding spell immediately transfer the oath from Gray’s father to him when he took the throne?”
“In a sense, yes. The citizens of this realm would have immediately been given a verbal oath, and if the servant was initiated in the past by someone of Gray’s blood, they’re bound,” Casey explained. “So all those who were bound to the old Lord Sloane would simply find themselves unable to betray the new Sloane.”
“What if they haven’t? Or if they’re a guest of the realm?”
“They would require Gray to perform a physical ritual to bind them to the house and the clan,” he explained.
“So we’re looking for someone who came after Gray’s dad’s descent but who Gray hasn’t turned. Do you think there are records? That’s a stupid question. It’s Hell. There are records of everything.” We had always been excellent at research, Casey and I. “Probably including that brand. Someone will know something.”
