“Obliterated you. Decimated your soul. You know what I mean.” I focused on my mark emblazoned on her arm, and it glowed softly in response. “It is in my best interest to keep you in your current state of existence, remember?”
She looked at her arm and ran a finger over the sigil, making my entire body hum as if she’d wrapped me in silk. “Then it’s in my best interest to keep this baby here as long as possible.”
“Indeed.” I opened a cabinet and dialed the code to my safe. Inside lay three stacks of ashmarks. I took them all and handed one to Cinder.
“What’s this?” She tilted her head, examining the bills made of magically flexible obsidian. Their denominations were marked in ancient sigils, and red veins pulsed through them as if they were alive.
“Ashmarks. Money. We’ll need it to buy food and supplies on our journey.” I shoved a stack into each pocket. “Can you cast a cloaking spell to change your appearance?”
She put the ashmarks into a small pouch on the front of her bag and crossed her arms. “I might have been able to if I had my grimoire. Spells like that require potions.”
“You don’t have one memorized?”
“I’ve never needed one.”
“At the very least, I will change mine.” I turned toward the mirror and focused on my face, allowing my magic to build in my chest before forcing it upward. My skin heated and tingled as it should have, but my appearance did not change.
“You still look the same to me,” she said.
I tried again, focusing harder, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Now you just look constipated,” Cinder said.
I opened my eyes and blew out a hard breath. “It appears some of my powers were stripped along with my title.”
“Well, that’s frigging fantastic.”
“Not in the slightest.” My stomach soured, my fury finding a new culprit to focus on.
“I was Lucifer’s right hand for eons, his most trusted advisor, his confidant…his friend. This bounty he’s placed, the stripping of my title and my powers, is nothing short of betrayal. And all this over a woman? It’s unfathomable.”
“Not really.” Cinder stepped toward a window, pulling the curtain aside to peer out. “Love makes people do crazy things…like curse an entire bloodline.”
Lucifer had been in love with Hecate. I knew that because he had confided in me about their relationship many times. But to completely uproot his court…to ask for his right hand’s head on a stake…all because of a woman scorned?
“If she meant that much to him, he never should have wagered the amulet,” I said.
She shrugged. “Maybe he thought there was no way he could lose.”
“We must find her.”
“Pretty sure that’s been our plan since the game began.” She stepped to the side, dropping the curtain and peeking through a slit. “How many people know this is your house?”
“None.” I stepped behind her and peered out the opening in the curtain, where a throng of mid-level demons fanned out around the front of the building.
“It looks like a few dozen or so just figured it out,” she said. “Got a back door?”
“This way.” I paced down the hall with Cinder on my heels. When we reached the exit, I checked the window and held up a hand to stop her from barging out the door.
Six shedims blocked our escape.
“How do you think they found us?” Cinder peered out, curling her lip at the sight of them. With their cracked charcoal skin, flat noses, and jagged teeth dripping with black drool, they appeared grotesque even to me.
“They sense my energy. Mid- and lower-level demons are drawn to my power. Before I became a fugitive, they would also do my bidding.”
“And you didn’t think to cloak your so-called secret house?” She scoffed. “I’m surprised no one found you here before.”
“I had it cloaked. The magic has apparently worn off.” I ground my teeth. “Would one of your spells last four hundred years?”
