Revealed in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights #9)(73)

He stopped in the doorway and changed into his humanoid form. Cahal the druid rose from a crouch, his expression flat.

A woman sat at his feet, and a pang hit Lucifer’s heart so fiercely that he nearly staggered, nearly rushed to her, nearly commanded his subjects to go to war right then and there.

He knew her face, though he’d never seen her up close. Knew her poise—her challenge—even as she sat bleeding on a stone floor. Knew her magic, since it was his own. Knew her potential, because he could see her strength. She would not break, this woman. Not from life, not from the elves, not from anything.

“You are Amorette’s daughter,” he said, and it wasn’t a question. He could see Amorette in the lovely face covering that hard edge. In her obvious stubbornness. In her immediate ability to wrap him around her little finger, even if this time it would be as a daughter does a father.

“Hey, Pop. Nice to meet you,” she said with a wheeze. “I’d get up, but I’m in the middle of something.”

He laughed. Though her voice was weak and scratchy, her confidence could not be misinterpreted. Her swagger, her blasé attitude, even while suffering a pain so great it dulled her gaze…

“She reminds me of you, sir,” Victoria said, peering over his shoulder. “And she is already speaking our language, even here.”

“I learned when I was in the Underworld. Somehow. That was me, by the way. In the Underworld.” Reagan grimaced, trying to keep sitting, but gravity was pulling her down. “Surprise…”

“Yes, I’d gathered,” he responded, a feeling of lightness coming over him. Also an urgency to ease her pain. “Give me a moment, and we’ll get you cleaned up. I assume you can wait?”

“Yeah, sure, why not. I’m not in incredible pain or anything. Better yet, why don’t you head on back to the Underworld, and Cahal will take me out of here as planned.”

“Can’t, I’m afraid. I’m using you as an excuse to start a war. I’ll need to take you with me.”

“Super. My day keeps getting better and better,” she grumbled.

He grinned. She was delightful.

He eyed the druid before shifting to the druid language very few knew existed. It was the language the druid had turned to when he was praying for strength those many long years ago, alone in his cell. And he had found it. Those accursed, meddling angels had stuck their noses in and hardened his resolve. Lucifer hadn’t known then that the druid was a favorite.

“How interesting to find you with another of my heirs,” he said to the druid.

“I was recently hired to protect a mage. Your heir is the mage’s good friend. I knew Reagan’s magic instantly, and have kept an eye on her since. I trained her as best I could.”

“You trained her…”

“As best I could.”

“Interesting. Angels again?”

His brow furrowed. He didn’t speak.

Lucifer laughed, long and low. “Ah. They have forsaken you, have they? Just like humanity. Pity. Well, Sir Darkness, I am indebted to you for helping my daughter. Will you come with us?”

“Yes. But not as your ally. I will attempt to keep her from going the road of the last.”

“Ah, but you see, that makes you my ally, Mr. Shadow.”

“Until it does not.”

“Leave the riddles to the vampires. They are better at them.” Lucifer waved his finger behind him. “You tried to frame them?”

“No. That was not me, and I don’t know why it was done, quite frankly.”

“But you know who?”

“Will you torture me to find out?”

He tsked and turned toward his daughter. “You bore me, druid. Torture was my last son’s hobby, not mine. I just kill and be done with it. But you have some uses, and so I will forget your involvement in his death. It would’ve happened anyway, I see that now. You merely…sped things up. No, let us look to the future, shall we? My heir will be crowned the princess of the Dark Kingdom, and together, she and I will tear the rest of this castle to the ground, and maybe the Realm with it. It is time for the Underworld to rule all the magical land below the clouds. One day, maybe the clouds as well, who is to say?”

He wrapped Reagan in numbing ice before bending for her and lifting her gently. “Go to sleep,” he told her softly, “and when you wake, the pain will be gone.”

“But my nightmare will be just begun,” she mumbled softly, and her eyes fluttered shut.

***

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