A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(40)

With a snap of his fingers, we were back in our office. Lukas and I were on the couch, while Valefar sat behind Mom’s desk with his feet kicked up. Huh. I bet even the cocky demon would run for the hills if Mom got a load of that. She threatened to soak my sneakers, then toss them in the freezer last time she caught me with my feet up.

He picked up one of Mom’s pens and rolled it between his fingers. “The Shadow Realm is like a pyramid. Each layer has a Master and Regent and Minions. A Regent is like a second-in-command.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously. Lukas was purposefully averting his eyes, and that bugged me.

“I”—Valefar dropped the pen and picked up Mom’s Bon Jovi bobblehead—“am the direct Regent to Lucifer, Son of Pride, and you are now mine.” He winked at Lukas. “My Regent, I mean.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “That explains the House of Pride crack he made.”

The demon chuckled and tweaked poor Mr. Jovi in the head. “Our dear friend is a bit bitter. Loyalty can be a bitch sometimes. Besides, our houses, Pride and Lust, have never gotten on very well.”

I resisted the urge to smack him upside the head and settled for rolling my eyes. That was about the most I’d get away with. “You chose me to be your Regent? Either you’re stupid or Dad’s right—you’ve got a trick up your sleeve.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Peaches. You’ve got potential. I know it when I see it.”

Oh. Yeah. That was totally a burn on some super secret. I could tell by the way he waggled his eyebrows. Val and subtle didn’t exactly go hand in hand. He snapped his fingers, and with a rush of cool air, the three of us were outside. Not just outside, sitting, but on the edge of a rooftop. I stretched my neck and peered over the edge.

A really tall rooftop.

Focus, Jessie. I needed some answers.

Lukas beat me to it. “Something tells me Lucifer’s threat isn’t idle, and I doubt he’s going to give us much time.”

I nodded. “Normally I’d say the job was cake, but—”

“Gressil is unlike anything your agency has encountered,” Valefar confirmed. “He’s the Regent of Asmodeus, Son of Lust, and very powerful.”

“Wait a sec. Why can you say his name?”

Valefar rolled his eyes. “The fool would never willingly show himself to me. Feel free to get your fill of spitting his name while in my presence. I assure you it’s safe.”

“Getting back to the facts… Why were Lucifer’s brothers banished?” Lukas asked. We watched as Valefar snapped his fingers again, and a spread of food from sandwiches to roast chicken appeared on a red and white checkered blanket. The guy definitely had a thing for food…

“Lucifer banished them so he could take control of the Shadow Realm.” Valefar popped a grape into his mouth. When he was done, he snatched up a turkey leg and went to town.

Lukas, braver than me, picked up an apple and took a bite. “Why did Lucifer take over the Shadow Realm?”

Valefar shook his head, and in the blink of an eye, the rooftop was gone and we were sitting on a ski lift trudging across a frighteningly high gorge. “Lucifer was the best demon for the job. He and his brothers didn’t agree. Everyone wanted to play king.”

I snorted in an attempt to suppress a shiver as the wind kicked up, blowing gusts of snow into my face. Don’t look down. “’Cause that’s not Pride talking.”

Valefar’s lips twisted into a sly grin. “Maybe just a little, but it is true. The others had no regard for the rules.” He fixed a heavy gaze on me. “We talked about the rules, didn’t we, Jessie?”

I rolled my eyes. “So the others were breaking the rules? Sure Lucifer didn’t use that as an excuse to go all Napoleon?”

“Some things are necessary to ensure order. The Shadow Realm is a place of unimaginable power. If things are not kept in check, we all suffer. Lucifer did what he needed to ensure everyone’s survival—including the humans. You should be grateful.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Grateful? Is that the same kind of grateful I should be about you tricking me into being your Regent?”

Valefar’s expression grew dark. “You were given a place of great honor. You’d do well to respect that. And me.”

“Maybe we should focus on what we’re going to do about Gressil,” Lukas said, eyeing Valefar with disdain. It wasn’t clear if he hated him because of his newfound loyalty to Dad, or if, like me, he found the demon annoying and totally pretentious. “How powerful is he?”

Val shrugged. “At the moment? Not very—but that will change quickly.”

The knot in my stomach grew bigger. We’d been working with not very? I didn’t want to see him at full strength. “What do you mean, that will change?”

“He will be looking to break back into the Shadow Realm. He’s free, but trapped in the mortal Realm until he gathers his strength.”

I got the feeling a V8/Red Bull combo wasn’t going to do it for him. “Do I even want to know how he’s going to go about that?”

“You already know the answer. To gain power, he will have to ingest powerful souls. He’s already well on his way.”

Well on his way? My brain kicked into overdrive, going over all the information we already had—which wasn’t that much. Powerful souls. Powerful souls…