4
S till shaken, Simone finished throwing ‘all the words’, as Emma had suggested, into an email for Graham, closed her eyes, made a wish, and sent it. She raised her head as she heard shouting from her father’s office: Michael’s father, the White Tiger God of the West, sounded furious. Simone’s father replied, his usual calm self, and then Emma loudly and defiantly said something unintelligible. Simone didn’t attempt to listen to what they were saying. They were probably both giving Simone’s father grief about allowing her to stab him and the damage to the mats, which Simone wanted nothing to do with it. She left them to it and pulled up her prospectus to work on it for an hour or so before she went to bed.
After twenty minutes of the Tiger yelling in Xuan Wu’s office, the Tiger and Emma both spoke into Simone’s head at the same time.
Don’t listen to him, Emma said.
Children will die and you’re the only one who can save them! the Tiger said.
What? Simone asked the Tiger. Children?
Come into Ah Wu’s office and I’ll show you.
Simone made a loud sound of annoyance and pushed her chair back, then stormed into her father’s office. It was the usual disaster area, with papers strewn everywhere, and a large Ninja Turtle figure next to his computer monitor. Emma and Xuan Wu were in their usual black Mountain martial arts uniforms, and the Tiger was wearing a tailored, three-piece, gold-coloured suit with a white shirt and gold tie. He was the same height as Simone’s father and heavy muscled, with a shock of white hair and the square, gold face of the people of Western China. His long white sideburns covered his cheeks, and his tawny eyes were full of desperation.
‘You don’t need to do this,’ Emma said.
‘Don’t listen to the Tiger, we’ll find another way,’ Xuan Wu said.
‘There is no other fucking way!’ the Tiger shouted. He gestured angrily towards Xuan Wu’s computer screen. ‘Watch this and tell me there’s any alternative, Simone. It can only be you or Michael, and Clarissa’s due any day so it can’t be Michael. It has to be you, otherwise these poor kids will die.’
Emma waved one furious hand at Simone as she spoke to the Tiger. ‘After killing the King, she absorbed most of his essence. You know she can’t travel to the Celestial.’ She spoke with more force. ‘She may have lost her Immortality!’
‘Oh,’ the Tiger said, dropping his arms and deflating. ‘Really?’ He glanced from Emma, to Simone, to Xuan Wu. ‘Are you—’
‘Don’t you dare ask me to confirm the truth my wife just shared with you,’ Xuan Wu said, glowering.
‘Never mind, then,’ the Tiger said. ‘I will find another way.’
Simone ignored them all, went to the monitor, and pressed ‘play’ on the video. The Tiger’s Number One, Katie, was giving a voice-over as someone wearing a headcam walked between snow-covered trees.
‘Do you sense anything?’ Katie asked, her voice clear.
A woman replied through the patchy audio of the headcam, her voice a whisper through the throat mike—she was the one walking through the trees and carrying the camera. ‘I don’t sense anything. No demons around here at all.’ She slowed. ‘Humans ahead.’ The view from the headcam lowered as she crouched and crept through the snow-covered undergrowth. ‘There they are.’
Two women in bulky fur coats stood together under a snow-covered tree.
‘Clear,’ the woman holding the headcam said.
‘Who is that carrying the headcam?’ Simone asked without looking away from the screen.
‘It’s one of the Mad Fucking Witches, Katie’s little strike team,’ the Tiger said. ‘Don’t know her name, daughter number thirty-something. One of the good ones.’ He turned and spoke to Simone’s father. ‘You should do that too, have an elite woman-only strike team. They’re fucking awesome.’
‘We don’t need to,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘Our Disciples are completely mixed, all races and genders. The borderline Disciples are screened in the first week, and if they fail a basic test on treating a vulnerable person with respect then they’re expelled.’
‘I couldn’t do that, I’d be throwing out all the White Horsemen except for the Seraglio guards,’ the Tiger said, then added under his breath, ‘even some of them too.’
‘Which is why the Mountain doesn’t need an all-female strike team,’ Simone said.
‘Hopefully, the younger generation are a bit more aware,’ Emma said. ‘Even the Horsemen.’
‘Clear to approach, Katie?’ the woman behind the camera asked.
‘Go, Sid,’ Katie said.
Sid stood and the women spun, alert, then noticeably relaxed when they saw her. She walked up to them and shook their hands.
‘I’m Sid. Katie sent me,’ Sid said.
‘Ilyana,’ the younger, dark-haired white woman in her mid-thirties, said. Her appearance had been altered by extensive plastic surgery to make her look younger and much more attractive than was natural.
‘Galina,’ the older woman said. She’d had similar major surgery done, making her look in her forties when she was probably much older.
‘Katie said that your husbands had been in contact with Ineke Prochazka and that their behaviour had changed dramatically afterwards.’
‘Yes!’ Galina said. ‘Before, my husband was all about our national purity. Our way of life, our language, our independence from the Soviets. We fought so hard for our freedom when the Soviet Union fell, and now?’
‘Now both of them—father and son—are obsessed with pleasing the Russian masters,’ Ilyana said. ‘They’ve steered the entire country in a completely different direction.’
‘This is one of those small Eastern European states that turned into a dictatorship after the Soviet Union fell?’ Simone asked without looking away from the screen.
‘Precisely,’ the Tiger said. ‘Wife of the current President, who’s been in control since the mid-nineties, and wife of the President’s son.’
‘And then this happened,’ Ilyana said, and Galina pulled her in and held her as Ilyana leaned on her. ‘My little girl—she was only twelve—he gave her everything. He loved her! And then he met with Prochazka, and changed, and he ... he ... did awful things to her ...’ She gasped for breath and clutched Galina’s hands. ‘And then he killed her! I found him standing over her body and he turned to me, and he smiled ...’ She looked directly into Sid’s headcam. ‘I never want to see a smile like that ever again. His mouth was ... full of blood.’ She screwed her eyes shut, as if to reject the mental image. ‘He said, “Oops. My mistake. She shouldn’t have resisted, I don’t know my own strength. Humans are so fragile.” And then he laughed and looked down at my little girl, lying on the floor dead and cold, and said, “What a waste of good blood.” Vampires? Vampires aren’t real.’ She turned to the older woman, still clutching her hand. ‘Galina, tell me vampires aren’t real.’
‘Vampires aren’t real,’ Sid said with conviction. ‘But you are in danger, and I think your husbands, both your husbands, have been replaced, and we need to move you and your children somewhere safe.’
‘Replaced with what?’ Galina asked.
‘We’ll explain everything after we have you safe,’ Sid said. ‘Where are your husbands right now?’
‘They’re in their offices in the capital square,’ Ilyana said. She made an obviously massive effort to control her grief and anguish and nodded. ‘Can you help us escape?’ She turned to Galina. ‘What about the other wives?’
‘For now, just you, me, and the children,’ Galina said to Ilyana. ‘I don’t trust any of the other wives—they might tell our husbands. We will contact them once we’re free and safe with Sid and Katie, to arrange something for them.’
‘All right,’ Ilyana said with determination. ‘Can we pack some things?’
‘Where are the children?’ Sid asked.
‘At school,’ Ilyana said. ‘It will be a few more hours before their bodyguards and nannies bring them home. They were hysterical about losing their sister, and my husband ...’ She took a deep breath. ‘He beat them. He never laid a hand on them before, but this time? He enjoyed it. And then he sent them, wailing, with the bodyguards and nannies—he hit one of the nannies as well, when she tried to stop him—’
‘You need to go right now,’ Sid said. ‘I’ll call in a couple of other Witches—that’s my unit—and we’ll transport you to the school. You pull the kids out of school, and we’ll take them to a safe house.’
‘But their clothes and things!’
‘Leave them,’ Sid said. ‘They can track you with anything you own. Let’s go.’
Ilyana and Galina shared a look, squeezed their hands where they held them, and nodded to each other. They turned back to Sid. ‘Thank you.’
‘Katie, send two more Witches, we have a group of people to transport,’ Sid said. Her hands appeared in the cam’s view. ‘Take my hands, hold your breaths, and close your eyes.’
‘You can’t teleport humans!’ Simone said, turning back to see the Tiger and Xuan Wu.
‘If they’re in danger from demons, damn straight she can,’ the Tiger said, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘What we can’t do, though, is take down those demon replacements on their home turf before they kill the rest of the family’s children “by mistake”. The demons are too big for even the Witches to handle, and they haven’t attacked us, so we have no authorisation to go in.’
‘Collect the rest of the family and put them somewhere safe,’ Emma said.
The Tiger shook his head. ‘The other wives are brainwashed into believing that all they need to do is love their husbands harder and they’ll stop hurting them. The dynasty has a total of fourteen children in the second generation, and Sid only managed to get three to safety.’
‘We will not ask you to risk your mortal life, and we will find another way, Simone,’ Emma said, crossing her arms in front of her chest to mirror the Tiger’s posture. ‘Go to bed. You have a prospectus in four days.’
Simone pushed away from the desk. ‘Are these the demons the Jade Emperor has been harassing me to deal with? It’s becoming ridiculous—the red box never moves from my desk, and he’s started sending me emails about it. He’s ordering officials—and even my friends—to send me emails about it as well.’
The Celestials shared a look and a shrug—they didn’t know, the JE wasn’t telling them anything.
‘If the Jade Emperor is encouraging me to go, it won’t kill me.’ Simone sighed with defeat. ‘If it shuts the JE up and protects little kids, I guess I’ll do it and get it over with before my prospectus presentation. Can Katie show me where to go?’
‘You really don’t have to do it, girl,’ the Tiger said. ‘We can find another—’
Simone cut him off. ‘Call me “girl” again and I will force you to use full Imperial protocol every time you address me.’
Xuan Wu made a soft sound of amusement.
The Tiger fell to one knee. ‘I beseech you, Imperial Highness, to help these children by destroying the demons that have taken the place of their fathers and grandfather,’ he said. ‘You are the only one who is not constrained by Celestial protocol that prohibits any sworn Celestial from acting when our dominions have not been attacked.’
‘And Michael can’t do it because Clarissa’s about to pop,’ Simone said, understanding.
‘Michael would probably be as unable as any of us because he is still sworn to serve the Jade Emperor,’ Emma said. ‘No sworn resident of the Celestial can attack a demon unless the demon attacks them first.’
‘It must be you, Princess,’ the Tiger said, rising gracefully to his feet despite his muscular bulk. ‘Your unique demon-filled nature means that you are neither a Celestial nor a demon and can act as an independent agent.’
‘All right then, show me where to go,’ Simone said.
‘I’m going too,’ Xuan Wu said. ‘To watch Simone’s back. As Emma said, we’re not sure that Simone is still Immortal, and I won’t see her life at risk.’
‘You can’t go,’ the Tiger said. ‘You can’t act in that arena unless your heritage is part-European. Believe me, I already tried. Only my half-European kids can do anything there. We’re limited by our regional affiliation.’
‘Daddy’s so powerful it doesn’t matter,’ Simone said. ‘He’s been to Europe—he’s lived in Europe—for years and had no trouble destroying their demons.’
The Tiger studied Simone’s father, and then nodded. ‘You’re our biggest tactical asset, so I guess you’re the best choice to watch her back.’
‘He’s more of a doomsday device.’ Emma uncrossed her arms and gestured towards the living room. ‘Suit up and let Ah Bai show you the way. I’ll stay here and mind the family.’
They went into the living room. The ceiling was too low to change, so Simone and her father jumped through the glass of the living room windows to float outside them before changing into their Celestial forms.
The living room windows were tinted. The interior was visible, but Simone saw her reflection clearly in the glass and turned away. Her father was his usual majestic self; nearly four metres tall, in black and silver robes with his black enamel armour over the top and his massive broadsword, Seven Stars, strapped to his back. His long black hair writhed with a life of its own and he had a thin black beard on his square, ugly face.
Since destroying the previous Demon King and absorbing his essence, Simone’s Celestial form had become a more demonic version of herself. She was nearly the same height as her father, and her robes looked like holes in reality; dark blue with glowing, tiny golden stars within them. Her skin was no longer a more radiant version of her ordinary human form. She was covered in black, glittering scales and her black hair was in thick twining strands that looked almost like tentacles. Her face was reptilian, with two slits for a nose and an almost non-existent chin. She’d tried to control the form, even the bare minimum of making her hair look a little more normal ... but she couldn’t. This was who she was now—more demon than Celestial. She saw her own huge completely black eyes widen when Er Hao escorted Lord Venus, the Jade Emperor’s personal emissary, into the living room.
Venus glowed gently as he floated above the floor. He was in the form of a slim, elegant man in his mid-thirties, wearing traditional Tang-style robes of many layers of shimmering violet silk, with the front of his long hair held in a small gold crown on top of his head. He saluted Emma and Xuan Wu with a small bow, and they nodded back.
Simone’s heart fell when Graham rushed into the living room behind Venus. ‘The door was open, and I got your email and—’
Venus interrupted him. ‘I have an Edict from the Celestial Himself for the Dark Emperor of the Northern Heavens and his daughter, the Princess Simone.’
Graham fell to one knee and bowed his head, then said, ‘Ten thousand times ten thousand years.’ He glanced around, his eyes wide and his mouth open. He tried to speak, but nothing came out.
Emma, the Tiger and Simone’s father knelt, her father still floating outside the window. In unison they said, ‘Ten thousand years,’ then rose again.
As someone who wasn’t sworn to obey the Celestial, Simone didn’t have the same forced response. ‘Venus that’s my boyfriend and he’s human— ’
Venus turned and smiled down at Graham. ‘Completely human? How is he coping?’
Graham looked about to have another panic attack. He was gasping.
‘Not well at all!’ Simone said, ducking back through the window and retaking human form to wrap one arm around Graham’s shoulder. ‘Graham, it’s okay. Nobody will hurt you.’
‘Simone?’ Graham pulled himself clumsily to his feet, still gasping. He stared at Simone’s father floating on the other side of the window, then back to Simone. ‘That was you, wasn’t it?’
‘That’s my working form,’ she said.
‘It had scales ,’ he said with distress. ‘And swords . You were—’
Venus cut him off. ‘I bear an Edict from the Jade Emperor himself, may he reign for ten thousand times ten thousand years.’ He glared at Graham. ‘And it is highly unusual for the Emperor’s subjects to so flagrantly ignore his Edicts . ’
Graham fell to one knee like a puppet and bowed his head. ‘Ten thousand years.’
‘Better,’ Venus said. He opened the scroll. ‘I bear an Edict from the Celestial Himself. He directs that in the mission to destroy the demons that have taken control of the country in Europe, the Xuan Wu is not to proceed in support of Princess Simone. The Empress of the North, the Dark Lady Emma Donahoe, is to travel in support of Princess Simone and the Dark Emperor Xuan Wu is to remain in the East.’ He rolled up the scroll. ‘Ten thousand years.’
‘Ten thousand years,’ everybody said.
Graham was still on his knees, gasping, and clumsily attempted to rise. Simone put one hand under his arm and helped him stand. He looked around at everyone, his eyes wide, then focussed on Simone. ‘You said you didn’t do the superhero thing any more—that you wanted to lead an ordinary life. Did you lie to me? You ...’ He pointed one quivering finger at the windows. ‘You were out there, with scales and flying! ’
‘This was just a one-off,’ she said, guiding him the couches. ‘After this, no more.’
‘I’ve heard that before,’ Graham said, sitting on the couch and putting his head in his hands. ‘From my dad, about the drinking. “After this, no more”.’
‘I mean it,’ she said, and turned to the rest of the group. ‘This is the last time, everyone, okay?’
‘We support you,’ Simone’s father said, shrinking to human form and floating back through the windows to land softly on the carpet. ‘Did he say why Emma and not me?’ he asked Venus.
‘The Dark Lady has a pure European heritage. The Jade Emperor believes that her abilities will be more effective on demons outside our Centre.’
‘Valid, I guess,’ Emma said. ‘My energy capabilities are certainly more powerful against European demons.’ She held her hand out to the side, and her sword, Scales of Wisdom, appeared in it. The black lacquer scabbard glittered in a scales pattern that shifted under the living room lights. ‘I’ll watch your back, Simone, and this is definitely the last time, Graham. Xuan Wu will explain why this is so important.’ She nodded to Simone. ‘Did your uncle tell you where to go?’
‘Uncle Bai?’ Simone asked.
‘Here,’ the Tiger said, and pushed the location straight into Simone’s head.
‘I am no longer needed here, I’ll leave you to it,’ Venus said. ‘Lunch soon, Emma. We haven’t had cheesecake in ages .’
‘My people will contact your people,’ Emma said to Venus. They shared a quick hug, Venus nodded around to everyone, and disappeared.
‘This is too weird,’ Graham said.
‘You get used to it,’ Emma said. ‘I was an ordinary human when I joined the household twenty years ago.’
‘Never,’ Xuan Wu said.
Frankie ran in from the bedrooms. ‘Did I miss anything?’
‘You missed Venus,’ Emma said.
Frankie scowled. ‘I like Venus.’
‘Is he like ... the actual planet Venus?’ Graham asked.
There was a roar as loud as a jet engine, and Katie flew up to hover outside the living room windows on a cloud. She was half-Chinese, half-British, with short-cropped blonde hair, and was nearly as tall as Xuan Wu’s human form. She was wearing the white-and-gold enamel armour of the Tiger’s army, the White Horsemen. She had the striking good looks and bone structure of her British actress mother, and the heavy muscular build of her father, the White Tiger.
‘I gave up waiting for you. Come on—we need to save these kids!’ she shouted from her cloud.
‘I have to go,’ Simone said. She gave Graham a quick kiss where he sat, still gasping and wide-eyed. ‘I’ll text you when I get back, we have a lot to talk about. Thanks for coming over, I hope we can sort it all out. This is definitely the last time, I promise.’
‘Wait, are you going to be in danger doing this?’ Graham asked, staring at Emma’s sword.
‘I’ll protect her,’ Emma said.
Simone and Emma jumped through the glass of the window and took Celestial Form. Simone’s scales glittered in the reflected living room lights. Emma’s Celestial form looked like a large version of her human form; taller and more muscular with long black hair and wearing black and silver armour that was similar to Xuan Wu’s.
Graham yelled, jumped up from the couch, and backed up to hit Xuan Wu, then jerked away from him.
Xuan Wu put his hand on Graham’s shoulder. ‘Nobody will hurt you. Come and have tea with me and we’ll talk about everything.’ He nodded to the Tiger, who nodded back and disappeared.
Graham made a high-pitched noise at the back of his throat.
‘Come on , the President is planning something. We need to stop these demons!’ Katie shouted.
‘Go back to bed, Frankie,’ Emma said through the window. ‘I’ll come and tell you all about it when I’m home.’
‘Okay, Mum,’ Frankie said, but didn’t move.
Katie turned, and she and Emma roared away. Simone glanced back at Graham, cowering in the living room, then regretfully turned and followed Emma and Katie towards the West. She had a sudden bolt of premonition.
She would be returning alone and full of rage and grief, having lost someone vitally important to her.
She caught up with Katie and Emma and studied them. She had no idea about the timeline for this loss, only that it would be someone close to her. She opened her mouth to ask Emma if she felt something similar, but changed her mind. Sharing a vision of the future could make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. If she told Emma, it could ensure the loss of her stepmother.
She would just have to be careful. And Emma was an Immortal, so if she did lose her, it would not be permanent, and Simone would tear Heaven and Earth apart to get her back.
Emma moved her cloud closer to Simone’s, and from her smile, she obviously didn’t have the same foreboding. ‘Don’t worry, Simone, your dad will talk to him.’
Simone swiped her hand over her scaled forehead. ‘That’s not very reassuring, Emma. Daddy’s one of the most terrifying things on the planet.’
‘Your father will explain about the kids, and why you’re doing this, and why it’s important. Graham will understand.’
Simone looked away and didn’t reply.
‘I’m still a baby Immortal, Empress or not,’ Emma said. ‘This will take a while. Would you like to practice your doctoral prospectus presentation on us while we travel?’
‘It’s pretty boring ...’ Simone said, well aware that it was an attempt to distract her from Graham’s distress.
‘I want to hear, Princess,’ Katie said. ‘Go for your life.’
‘Okay, just let me know if I’m too boring and we’ll talk about something more interesting, like different types of slope stabilisation to halt erosion.’
‘Fascinating,’ Emma said.
‘So, there are two populations of turtles in this part of the world ...’ Simone began, and Katie and Emma moved their clouds closer to listen.
*
T hey arrived four hours later, early in the evening local time. The Presidential palace stood in front of a massive, empty square nearly as big as Tiananmen, dusted with a recent fall of snow that hadn’t been cleared. The stars shone brilliantly in the frozen sky; many of the streetlights appeared to be non-functioning, and the houses were similarly dark. Plain-clothes police dotted the square and the front of the palace, standing together and failing to look casual.
The snow-covered palace was a mock-Renaissance construction with many cupolas and decorated stonework. It had a central courtyard and Emma made Simone invisible to teleport into the palace’s entrance hall.
‘Follow me,’ Katie said, and led them through doors that opened into a long hall that smelled musty and stale and had a faded linoleum floor. The walls were institution-olive in colour, and the paint on the ceiling was peeling from damp.
Simone followed Katie through an oversized pair of hardwood doors at the end of the corridor and the interior changed. The floor was now golden hardwood laid in an intricate herringbone parquetry pattern, the walls were decorated with plaster reliefs picked out in gold, and massive crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The furniture was ornate-gilt-rococo style with blue velvet covers, and the walls were covered in large landscape oil paintings.
Simone stopped to study an alabaster copy of an ancient Greek statue and shook her head. The luxury seemed immensely fake.
Katie gestured ahead and they followed her past a couple of alert guards in ornate Western-style uniforms and into what appeared to be the President’s apartment. It had a comfortable sitting room with an overstuffed leather sofa, a kitchenette and a dining table big enough for six.
The President lives in this little hole? Simone asked Katie.
No. He has a massive palace just outside town with its own golf course. This is for when he doesn’t feel like making the trip, Katie said. They’re in here—both him and his son.
She teleported into the bedroom, and they followed her. The two demons—father and son lookalikes—were obviously in the middle of having sex. The corpse of a little boy lay dead, drained of blood, on the floor at the foot of the bed. The demons leapt out of bed, one of them grabbed a gun from under a pillow, spun and sent a flurry of shots in their direction. The noise and flash were blinding and deafening.
There was a blur in front of Simone as Emma jumped in front of her to block the bullets with her body. Simone was blinded by a spray of blood, which she wiped from her face as Emma toppled to fall in front of her.
One of the bullets had gone through Emma and hit Simone in the shoulder. She put her hand over the wound, pulled the bullet from her shoulder, healed it, then stormed up to the demon who was still attempting to fire with the empty weapon. She grabbed him by the throat, lifted him, crushed his windpipe and dropped him again. She turned in time to see Katie take the other demon’s head off.
Emma was lying deathly still on the ground next to the child’s corpse. The bullet had torn out the side of her throat and she lay in a pool of blood. Simone ran to Emma and took her hand, then put her other hand over Emma’s throat to heal it.
She felt rather than saw Katie kneel next to her. ‘She’s losing a lot of blood, Simone ...’
Simone grunted with concentration. ‘Not on my watch. I am not losing her.’
Emma tried to speak, but no words came out. She desperately mouthed the words, her eyes wide and intense, but could only make gasping wheezes.
‘Shut up, I am healing you and we are going home,’ Simone said.
I love you , Emma said telepathically. She let out a huge breath and her shen energy, her spirit force, left her.
‘She’s an Immortal, Simone, this isn’t the end, you know that,’ Katie said.
‘We’re in a different region,’ Simone said, wiping the blood from her hands and face and rising. She focussed on Katie. ‘I had a premonition. On the way here. That I would lose someone ...’ She bent and gasped, then pulled herself together. ‘Important.’
‘You can’t lose her, she’s an Immortal—’ Katie began, but was interrupted by the door flying open to reveal a massive demon in the form of Ineke Prochazka, the previous European Demon King’s crime-lord persona.
His smile disappeared and his face filled with shock. ‘No. Emma!’
He raced towards them, and Simone stopped him with one hand on his chest. ‘Don’t come any closer.’
‘Simone.’ The demon pulled her hand off its body with alarming ease but didn’t attack. ‘I’m obviously too late. Thanks for taking them out, you saved me the trouble. I gave them this country on the strict understanding that they’d behave like humans and do as they’re told.’ He gestured towards Emma. ‘She’s not dead, is she? Tell me she’s not dead.’
‘She’s dead,’ Katie said.
‘No. After all this time, I finally have a chance to meet her, and she’s dead?’ The demon bent and clenched his fists with frustration, then straightened. ‘Things work differently here in Europe. Hell is controlled by ... a god. Shen? Whatever. A Celestial! The last one remaining. He has a cohort of demons that serve him, and I have no authority over them. If Emma’s in Hell, I can’t get her out.’
‘I knew it!’ Simone shouted with horror. ‘How do I get her out? Which god?’ She strode to the demon and grabbed his designer suit lapels to lift him up to her height. Her tentacle hair writhed at the edges of her vision. ‘Tell me!’
‘Hell’s controlled by a Celestial?’ Katie asked. ‘There’s still one around? Hades?’
The demon pointed at Katie, seemingly unfazed by Simone’s grasp. ‘That’s the one. He has no idea who you are. He has no idea who Emma is. You need to get down there and stop him from giving her the waters of the River Lethe and sending her back up here as a mortal with her memory erased and no way to identify her.’
‘I can’t go ...’ Katie began.
‘I can, my dad’s been there and showed me the way,’ Simone said.
‘You changed since he did that!’ Katie said. ‘You’re mostly demon now, and you could be stuck there!’
‘Why are you so concerned about Emma?’ Simone asked the demon.
‘Because she’s my fucking mother , stupid!’ the demon shouted, and disappeared.
Simone knew better than to believe anything a demon said. ‘Go home,’ she said to Katie, and concentrated on the location of European Hell.