The fae realm was pretty, but it was crowded with people, buildings, and a general sense of doom. Mother had carefully cultivated the last bit through years of terror.
This place was different; it was quiet.
Bucolic.
Another miniature pony trotted by with a pink bow in its mane. I covered my mouth and fought the urge to cry and chase after it because it was so cute.
“Is this Olympus?” I turned to the twins in awe.
Malum choked. “As if.” He pushed me toward the golden front gate of the estate. “Welcome to the Ancient Illustrious House of Malum. This is all yours, my Revered.”
I stumbled and would have fallen if he hadn’t caught my arm.
“You’re joking,” I said.
Turned out they didn’t live in a hut.
Who would have guessed it?
Scorpius smirked and sauntered past. “We don’t joke, killer.” Orion gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead.
“This is the devil realm? Isn’t it supposed to be a land of fire?”
Malum pointed up at the golden sun. “It is.”
I blinked. “Aren’t you supposed to share half a planet with the angel realm? Isn’t their side cold? Also—do you see the miniature ponies?”
I’d thought Malum had been spinning a fairytale when he’d described what peace felt like to him.
Now I understood.
He’d been telling the truth.
Malum rolled his eyes. “The sun melted the glaciers that cover most of the other side of the planet, and it plunged the angels into a perpetual ice age.”
Team devils, I’d always admired their psychotic attitudes and unwell demeanors.
“Wait.” I narrowed my eyes as I thought about geography and climates. “That doesn’t make any sen—”
He interrupted, “We don’t have any oceans or glaciers on this side of the planet, so our biomes are split. It makes perfect sense.”
I stumbled as I remembered the passage about how the OPA had come to be. The sun god had increased the temperature of the realms to kill the invaders.
He was so real for that.
“But this place is actually nice,” I said as I changed the subject, “and you’re a devil.”
Malum frowned, and flames leaped off the tops of his ears. “Now you’re starting to piss me off.”
I would have argued further, but I was too distracted because a baby goat with a purple bow jumped past. It chased after the miniature pony.
“What’s with all the cute animals?” I debated the merits of sprinting after the goat and forcing it to love me forever. “And the bows?”
Orion and Scorpius looked over their shoulders at Malum pointedly.
The leader of the kings, slayer of monsters, assassin with a knife tattooed across his throat, turned bright red.
Orion had said something about seeing a softer side of Malum at his home, but never in a million years would I have believed this.
