His nostrils flared at my challenging posture, his pupils tightening into thin slits as he rested his fingertips on the table’s surface. “Let it be known I’ve put a bounty on both their heads. I’ve stripped his title, and the one who brings me both their skulls will take his place at my right side.”
Ruin snapped his head toward Lucifer. “Your right side is where I belong, sire.”
Lucifer cast him a sideways glance. “Then I suggest you join the hunt.”
“There has to be something we can do.” Cinder rose, her silver-tongue magic rolling out in full force. “How can we make amends? Our lives must be worth something. Name your price.”
Lucifer tilted his head, his left eye twitching as he regarded her. I couldn’t tell if it was her magic affecting him or if he simply couldn’t turn down a good bargain. “My price is this: Find Hecate and convince her to return. Succeed, and I’ll consider sparing your lives.”
Cinder crossed her arms. “We’re going to need?—”
“We accept your terms,” I said before she could continue. “When do the games begin?”
A sinister smile curled his lips as he leaned toward us and whispered, “Run.”
12
CINDER
My heart hammering in my chest, I took two steps backward, around my chair. “Are you serious? Run…as in…run right now?”
Seraphine reached beneath the table before rising to her feet and brandishing a twelve-inch dagger with a wicked, twisted blade. “If you’d rather wait until I retrieve my crossbow…”
I snapped my gaze to Lucifer, laying my magic on thickly. “At least give us a head start so we can get out of the palace. Where’s the fun in hunting when your prey is already trapped?”
Tumult’s brow crumpled as my power took hold. “She makes a good point.”
“I do love a challenge,” Bedlam said.
Ruin narrowed his eyes. “I will revel in every second of the hunt, and when I win a permanent place by Lucifer’s side, there will be no doubt I am the only one worthy of this post.”
Such a dramatic one, that Ruin. If I wasn’t scared shitless, I’d have rolled my eyes. “What do you say, Lucifer? Six, seven hours?”
The devil arched a brow. “You have fifteen minutes.”
I opened my mouth to argue we couldn’t make it past the moat in that amount of time, but Discord grabbed my forearm.
“Let’s go.” The urgency in his voice made my pulse sprint even faster as he dragged me out the door.
I hiked up my ridiculously tight dress and did my best to match his strides, but he was half a foot taller than me. Yep, I ended up scurrying. Yet again. We made it to the foyer, or the grand entrance…whatever you called the ginormous imposing room at the front of the palace…and stopped beneath the glass and bone chandelier.
Discord glanced from the massive staircase to the front door and back again.
“I vote we put as much distance between ourselves and Lucifer’s flying monkeys as we can.” I tugged from his grasp and headed to the exit. “We need to find Hecate ASAP, and she’s obviously not inside the castle.”
He remained rooted to the floor. “They are not monkeys, nor can they fly, but they will not be the only creatures hunting us. Leaving the palace will be suicide.”
“So will staying.” I took a few more steps toward the door. When he didn’t move, I stomped toward him and grabbed his arm. “Look, you’re reeling. I get it. Betrayal, power plays, hubris, yada, yada, yada. You can tell me all about it later, but right now, we need to jet before they kill us and our little dog too.”
“What dog?” He finally moved his feet and strode with me to the door.
“It’s pop culture. Don’t worry about it.” I grabbed the iron rings on the double doors and pulled, but the damn things must’ve weighed two tons each. They wouldn’t budge. “A little help here?”
“The things you say make no sense.” He grabbed a ring and hauled the door open.
“You’ll get used to it.” Heat blasted my cheeks as we stepped onto the portico, and the aromas of frankincense and sulfur assaulted my nostrils. We made our way down the obsidian steps, but instead of heading to the main bridge and crossing the moat, he guided me to the left, across the front lawn.
Well, lawn wasn’t the right word. No ryegrass or fine fescue covered the rocky ground, but plenty of shrubbery with knotted, twisty stalks shot up from the cracks in the basalt. We hung a left at the corner of the palace and made our way past a steaming pool of orange water. Or maybe it was acid. I preferred not to find out.
