He opened his mouth to respond but closed it quickly, his expression morphing into one of confusion. “I didn’t like seeing you in pain.”
“Why not?”
He huffed a breath through his nose. “I assume the magic connecting us has infused me with empathy toward you.”
“Then why won’t you let me go?”
He straightened, his chest expanding as he recovered from his moment of uncertainty. “You have no idea the extent of damage?—”
“You keep saying that. The extent of damage, the extent of wrath, the extent of my boot up your ass if you don’t stop being so cryptic.” I crossed my arms, shifting my weight to one leg. “I’ll continue to have ‘no idea’ until you tell me, so why don’t you explain it to me like I’m five to be sure I understand. Or do you think I’m too stupid to comprehend the ‘extent of everything’ I’ve caused?” I made air quotes and crossed my arms again.
“You must be stupid to voluntarily cross into Hell. Apparently, it’s genetic.” He mirrored my posture, so I dropped my arms to my sides.
“Fine. Don’t tell me anything.” I rested a hand on my hip. “Leave me here to rot, and you can deal with all the ‘extents’ yourself.”
His lips twitched. “You have two sisters.”
“And?”
“You said the curse that cost me four hundred years of my existence hadn’t come to fruition, that you and every High Priestess before you made certain it never would. Yet a third daughter exists in your realm. You lied.”
“I didn’t lie. I am making sure it doesn’t happen. That’s why I’m here.” I started to reach for the bars but thought better of it. “Wait. How do you know about my sisters?”
“The seer showed me all I missed of this realm while I was imprisoned. She attempted to show me Isabel in yours, but the vision focused onto you and your sisters before it dissipated.”
“Then you know it hasn’t happened yet. My parents summoned a demon who promised to deliver you to them. That plan didn’t work out in their favor, so I did a little breaking and entering and committed a few magical crimes to find you myself, and here we are.”
I spread my hands. “You’re going to break the curse.”
He laughed. “Perhaps I would have complied, had you not vanquished me prematurely.”
I shrugged. “My parents are suffering. I had to improvise.”
“You—” He froze, his muscles going rigid, a white glaze forming over his eyes. He didn’t breathe, didn’t so much as twitch a lip as he stood there in what looked like some sort of trance.
“Discord?” I focused on the connection I’d formed with him, searching the invisible tether that should have connected us for a sign of life, but I felt nothing. It was as if someone had plucked his consciousness from his body, leaving only an empty shell.
The tether tightened, the low demon vibration I’d grown accustomed to returning, getting deeper and slower. A snake-like sensation slithered along the invisible cord, making my stomach turn as it approached. The sigil on my arm heated and glowed, and it felt like a metal wall slammed down, stopping the sickening advance.
Discord gasped and blinked, the white film over his eyes dissolving as he locked his gaze on me. “Lucifer has summoned us.”
“Us?” My heart dropped. Attending an audience with the devil himself definitely wasn’t on my bingo card today…or any day for that matter. “He knows I’m here, and he wants to see me too?”
He nodded. “Indeed. And if you wish for your soul to survive, you will do exactly as I say.”
8
CINDER
“You will do exactly as I say.” I crossed my arms and parked my butt on the bench, mocking Discord’s last words. The moment he’d uttered them, he’d turned on his heel and strode away, leaving me here to ponder my soul’s survival alone.
“If you want me to do as you say, you actually have to say something,” I yelled into the abyss.
How dare he glare at me with those dark, moss-green eyes, make such an ominous proclamation, and then just walk away. For all he knew, Satan could have swooped in and had me for breakfast by now. Or would it be dinner? My watch had died when I’d arrived in the underworld, taking my concept of time with it.
I couldn’t tell you how long I sat there waiting, but it was long enough for me to check every nook and crack in the stones around me. The walls had to be three feet thick, the ceiling a solid slab of rock. Unless I wanted to squeeze myself through the hole in the floor and swim through eons’ worth of demon doo, I was stuck in this magic-proof box until dear old Discord decided to set me free.
“Well, Cinder. What now?” I exhaled, trying to blow a strand of hair from my face, but it refused to budge. Between battling the hellhound in my realm, summoning a demon prince, and then fighting off harpy-hounds in Hell, my skin had gotten a tad greasy.
