Chapter 41
Iris
Sam: U hungry? Wanna grab dinner—my place?
Changed my mind.
I’ll come by because demons are hunting your ass down, and your apartment has stronger wards.
Do you want sushi? I’ve been stuffing my face with only pizza since we got back. If I see another pepperoni slice, I swear I’m going to puke. ??
Sam: Can’t come over after all. I’m buried in flower arrangements.
I had to give Trish some time off since she managed the events and flower shop all by herself for a freakin’ month.
Ugh. I’m gonna be stuck here all night. ?? Peel me off the shop’s floor tomorrow morning? We can get donuts—my treat. ??
Sam: Did your phone fall into the toilet or smth? Why aren’t you picking up? ??
Sam: Dude, I’ve called like ten times.
Hello???
Sam: You better answer me, ho-bag. ??
Sam: We need to come up with a plan to stop that prophecy.
Sam: Are you fucking kidding me, Iris? It’s been three days. ??????
Sam: You do know I can see you’re at home, right? ?? You’re still sharing your location with me.
Sam: You’re lucky I’m so busy with the flower arrangements for this event, but Hecate help you when I have a little free time because I’m gonna hex your flat ass.
Sam: Can you at least give me a sign, a smoke signal…something to let me know you’re alive???
Me: I’m alive. Just busy.
The text feels just as guilty as it sounds. I’ve been ignoring her for the past five days since we’ve been back. But just the thought of being alone with her spikes my anxiety through the roof. What if I somehow hurt her? Snatch her soul.
Sam: Doing what exactly?
Hiding?
Planning something?
You know you’re not getting rid of me, right? I’m worse than scabies, bitch.
Heaving out a weighted sigh, I slide the phone into my back pocket without replying, yet again. I’ll turn off the location sharing when I leave tomorrow. She’s going to hate me when she realizes I left without a word. But it’s better this way. Safer.
I massage my temples. Since coming back from Faerie, the migraines have increased in intensity by a hundredfold. There’s a constant fiery throb in the back of my head.
On my bed lies a pile of clothes and the two remaining sets of hellseeker gear I had left in my closet.
All I need is my weapons, toiletries, and I’m all set.
I don’t have a plan yet, but I need to get out of Ashville.
Then I’ll figure everything out. I don’t know how long those bandages Malik slapped on the cracks in my mind barrier are going to hold, but I can’t risk staying here any longer.
Maybe in the absence of the crushing feeling that I’m a ticking time bomb, I will gain some clarity.
Sadly, my mother’s journal is still at the compound.
I left it there when I got Emily out. It cuts me deep that I can’t take with me the only thing that belonged to her, but I can’t show my face at the compound.
I also can’t ask my aunt to get it from my locker.
I haven’t yet read through the hundreds of messages from Noah and Aunt Josephine.
Or called Grayson back. As far as they know, I suddenly disappeared for a month.
I wonder if they think it’s linked to the umbra demons or if I had something to do with Cain’s or Erik’s disappearance and fled like the little lightborn murderer I am.
It’s better they all think I vanished. If the Aureal Knights are looking for me to make an arrest, it gives me a head start.
However, I do have to sneak into my aunt’s house before leaving.
Those books in my grandmother’s office, filled with medical jargon about fae, were a study into their anatomy.
I ignored them at the time because I was looking for an oracle, but I have to go through them again and search for some clues about my mother and what they did to her.
Maybe I can make sense of what I truly am and the full extent of my powers, especially how to control them.
Unfortunately, when my grandparents died in that lab explosion, so did their research.
But there’s a safe in that room, hidden beneath a painting—my mother mentioned it in her journal.
Maybe my grandmother kept some research documents inside.
It’s worth a shot, even though I have no idea what the combination is.
I kneel and bend forward, resting my weight on my elbows to pull out the suitcase from under the bed. Damn it. Why the fuck did I push it so far back? Huffing in frustration, I crawl until I reach the side handle, ass in the air. Something pulls taut beneath my solar plexus.
“Need a hand?” Hearing Kaiden’s gravelly voice in my mind startles me, and I hit the top of my head on the bed frame.
Ow! Motherfucking fuck. I swallow the rest of the profanities as I scoot backward.
“Don’t stop on my account. The view is fantastic,” he drawls as I look at him over my shoulder. He’s leaning on the doorframe, tattooed arms folded over his chest. Of course, that infuriating, sexy smirk is pulling at his full lips.
Why must I always make a fool of myself in Kaiden’s presence? “What do you want?”
He arches an eyebrow after taking in the spread on my bed. “Going somewhere?”
“That’s none of your concern,” I snap.
As soon as I finish saying that, the sound of the front door slamming shut reverberates through the apartment, followed by Sam’s angry voice. “I swear to Hecate, Iris Harper, I’m going to shove that fucking phone up your ass.”
I scramble to gather all the clothes and shove everything in the closet before flinging shut the door. Kaiden’s eyebrows draw, but thankfully, he says nothing as my best friend comes into view.
Wrath-filled emeralds land on Kaiden and she quips, “What the fuck are you doing here?” before shoving past him to stomp into my bedroom.
“Hello to you, too,” Kaiden says, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “I popped in to let Iris know she’s my date to a charity gala tomorrow.”
I snort a surprised, unladylike laugh. “Yeah, sure. Dream on, buddy.”
“Call me buddy one more time, angel. I dare you. But if you think I care that we have an audience, you’re sorely mistaken. I’ll bend you over my knee and have my belt bite into that perky ass faster than you can blink,” he tells me through our mental bond.
Heat crawls on the back of my neck, blazing in my cheeks, which earns me a side-eye from Sam.
“There are rumors that Lucifer is back, and he’s allowed passage topside to Belial—one of the nine kings of Hell,” Kaiden says, out loud this time. “He’s going to make his first appearance at the gala.”
I scoff. “Why would a demon attend a charity event?”
“How come Lucifer is back? Wasn’t he in hiding because of the uprisings? Did anything change?” Sam juts in.
“Because the most influential people in Ashville will be present,” he answers me.
“Belial is the king of fraud, opportunity, and lies. Think of him as the slimy politician, whose honeyed tongue traps flies before they can realize it was venomous all along. Lesser demons will consume your soul by possession, but Elite demons or kings of Hell don’t dirty their hands.
They will persuade you to sell it for a price.
Besides, secrets are the highest form of currency in our world.
You wouldn’t believe what information people would sell their souls for.
” Kaiden turns his head toward Sam. “And I don’t know what changed or why Lucifer is back. ”
“How did you get that information?” I ask.
“A demon working at Lucifer’s palace sold it to me. He’s been working for me for a few years now. He was also the one who let me know Adramelech would be at the succubus party.”
Sam purses her lips. “What if it’s a trap, and Belial asked to come topside just so he could get his hands on Iris?”
Kaiden hikes a shoulder. “If that’s the case, then we kill him. However, I doubt Belial is the one behind the uprisings, since he has always been the most loyal to Lucifer. But you never know with demons. They all crave power above all else. It could have been a long ploy to overturn Lucifer.”
“So what, we’re going to off a king of Hell in the middle of dessert?” I chuckle out.
“We’re not killing him unless we have to.
But it’s an opportunity to ask some questions.
In Hell, you have to wait months to be granted the audience of a king.
And even then, you can’t expect demons, especially kings, to be straightforward with their answers.
They’re experts at manipulation and deceit.
So, we’ll trap him in the Seal of Solomon while we interrogate him, then Malik will erase his memory. ”
“Is this the same gala taking place at the mayor’s house? The one raising money for human trafficking victims?” Sam chimes in.
Kaiden nods. “Yeah, that’s right. How did you know?”
“They hired me to do their flower arrangements. I decided not to charge them when I heard about the cause, so they invited me. I can sneak into one of the rooms on the second floor tomorrow morning when my team is arranging everything in the ballroom and draw the seal. Then you could lure him there, and Malik could perform the spell to trap him.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Kaiden says, then gives me a roguish grin that steals my breath. “I’m picking you up at seven.” He pops off before I get the chance to protest.
Sam sucks on her teeth as she turns toward me. “I don’t know what the fuck has gotten into you since we came back from Faerie, but I’m not letting you pull a Noah on me. You’re not allowed to ghost me.”
God, I’m going to miss you so fucking much.
The hurt shining in her eyes blisters my insides. But I have to protect her.
Shit. I sound exactly like Kaiden. Is this how he feels whenever he can’t share anything about my past? Maybe I’ve been too harsh because it’s a horrible position to be put in. I feel like I’m being ripped in two.
“Uh-oh. What’s that look?”
“What look?”
“You’re looking at me funny.”
I swallow through the lump in my throat. “I just love you.”
“I love you too, ho-bag,” Sam says before rummaging for something in her designer tote. She extends a book toward me. “Here, I came by to give you this. It’s about fated mates. Grammie said you might find it useful.”
“Thanks.” I offer a tight-lipped smile and wrap my fingers around the spine.
“Of course. I gotta go. The traffic is brutal, and I have to prepare everything for tomorrow. I won’t have time to doll you up, though, before the event.
That mansion is ginormous. It’s going to take us the whole day to put up the flower arrangements.
I even think I will have to bring my dress and change there. ”
The relief her words bring me almost makes my knees buckle. “’Kay. No worries.”
I step back when she approaches to pull me in a hug. Her eyebrows scrunch, then she huffs a “whatever” under her breath before storming off.
I spend the next two hours packing while cinder blocks pile on top of my chest because even though I know it’s the right thing to do, leaving everything behind is proving far more difficult than I thought.
I just have to delay my departure for one day. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring some answers.