Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Roxy
Lothar stood by a tree, one hand gripped Beelzebub’s shirt while he ran the other over the rough bark, his eyes closed, reaching inward, searching. A shiver shimmied up my spine as I watched him from a distance.
I’d woken when his bedroom door had opened and closed early this morning, and I’d quickly dressed and followed.
If Loth picked up Beelzebub’s trail, I didn’t want to miss any details.
And if he sensed he was being watched, or followed, he hadn’t let on.
But then, I’d purposely stayed back so as not to get in his way while he worked.
My gaze trailed down his large, muscled and tattooed body and I bit my lip.
He was in only a pair of running shorts, the rest of him bare, even his feet.
His long hair was roughly braided, and as he tilted his head back, drawing in a deep breath that expanded his ribs and tightened his abs, I had to bite back a whimper.
It was no use, the memory slammed into me and was so visceral, my fingers curled into a tight fist.
“Your hair’s softer than mine,” I said as I sectioned his hair off. “It’s really not fair.”
“Kitten, your hair is the softest silk. I think about burying my face in it at least ten times a day,” he rumbled.
“You do?” He turned to me as I tied off his braid, then slid my hand over his beard. It needed a trim but was soft as well. I loved stroking it.
“You doubt me?” His voice was so low and gritty, tingles slid over my skin.
“Never,” I said.
I leaned in, kissing him, then he hooked his arm around my waist with a growl, tossing me back on the bed.
I opened my arms for him as he came down on top of me….
No. I viciously shoved the memory down right as Lothar lowered his chin and opened his eyes.
They were glowing red, all hound, and, gods, they drilled into me.
It was as if he could see into my mind, to all the secrets I was keeping.
If I could, I would tear them from my mind, I would shred them so I never had to relive this pain ever again.
His nostrils flared as if he were scenting me, and as soon as he did, he kind of flinched and the red bled away, leaving only deep gold.
I forced myself to move. “Anything?” I said, striding over to him, acting as if I wasn’t as close to spiraling and crashing as I had been in a very long time.
He nodded slowly, his big shoulders kind of heaving with each breath.
The look in his eyes was disconcerting, and it took everything in me not to squirm.
Thankfully, I was a good actress. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to pretend I hadn’t heard him getting off in the shower last night…
vigorously. I’d honestly never heard anything like it.
When I walked in and realized what I was hearing, I meant to leave.
I truly had. But I couldn’t make my feet carry me back out.
His hisses and gasps were a potent mix of pleasure and pain, and his deep groans had me transfixed.
Then everything had gone silent, except for his desperate panted breaths.
I’d ended up outside the bathroom door, with my hand pressed to it.
I’d never wanted to walk through a door more in my life.
Then I’d heard him coming, and there’d been no time to get out, so I’d dived across the room, landed on his bed, and yanked my phone out, pretending I was busy scrolling, just as he’d opened the door.
I had to be more careful. If I let myself fly too close to the sun with him, I’d end up with fourth-degree burns, suffering and scarred for eternity.
There was no cure for that kind of pain, and I knew deep in my heart there’d be no getting through that hell twice.
I’d be stripped back to muscle and bone, and he’d walk away unaware and unscathed.
Lothar still hadn’t said anything, and I resisted shuffling my damned feet under that unnerving stare. What was his problem? His jaw was tight and his eyes flashed red again, then back. “Are you okay?”
He dragged in a sharp breath, a growl rattling his chest on the exhale, then his eyes seemed to clear again, and his shoulders lost some of the tension. He jerked his chin up. “Yeah. Just took a lot to find him.”
He held a knife, one he never seemed to be without, and every time I saw it in his hand, my heart crashed against my ribs. He used it to slice a small piece of bark from the tree, slid it between his lips, chewed, then spat it out and nodded, as if confirming something to himself.
Lothar was the best tracker in his pack. The depth of his power, his connection to it, was extraordinary. I winked because all this felt way too intense. “This is why Luci pays you the big bucks,” I said, hoping to ease the tension flowing from him.
Lothar didn’t crack a smile. “B was definitely here. He passed through Limbo.”
“Best we go talk to Death, then. See what he’s willing to tell us.”
When we walked into the castle, laughter came from an adjoining room, and we headed toward the happy sounds in the dining room.
Death sat at the head of a long table, Zinnia at his side, and Marigold, Zinny and Death’s daughter, was next to her. Egon’s son, Ryker, sat next to Marigold, and Death’s brother, Somnus, sat on the opposite side, with his mate, Pascal, next to him, both smiling in welcome when they saw us.
“Come, have some breakfast. You must be hungry,” Zinnia said, her smile just as welcoming.
“Thanks,” I said and took a seat next to Ryker.
Lothar rounded the table, sitting beside Pascal. His gaze slid to Death. “Beelzebub passed through Limbo—”
“Not here,” Death said, his voice resonating through the room and lifting goose bumps all over my skin. “After breakfast.” He took Zinnia’s hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it, a not so subtle way of letting us know he was only indulging us because his wife had asked him to.
The muscle in Lothar’s clenched jaw jumped, but he said nothing, just inclined his head and got busy loading his plate with food.
“Do you like my new doll?” Marigold asked me, holding it up. “Aunty Jazzy gave it to me.”
“She’s beautiful,” I said, smiling at Zinnia’s little one. “Do you have many dolls?”
She nodded. “I love them. Me and Ryk made a town for them in the music room. We’re playing in there after breakfast if you want to join us?”
“Thank you for the lovely invitation,” I said. “As long as Ryker doesn’t mind me playing as well?”
Ryker looked at Lothar, and his cheeks turned pink.
He was Egon’s son, but his mother must be more humanoid in looks.
He had his father’s horns but not his skin color or red eyes, or at least not all the time.
“I don’t care. I hate playing dolls. They’re dumb.
I’ll be a warrior when I’m older. Warriors don’t play dolls,” he said, still watching Lothar.
Mari’s eyes widened with outrage and hurt. “You do not hate playing dolls.”
He looked down. “Yeah, I do,” he muttered.
Mari turned her back on him, and Ryker huffed, but his gaze was locked on his best friend, and I could see he regretted his words. He looked back at Lothar and realized the big hound wasn’t paying him any attention, focused on eating his breakfast, and didn’t care one way or the other.
“I’m sorry, Mari,” Ryker said, swallowing thickly. “I didn’t mean it.”
“You shouldn’t say things if you don’t mean them.” She huffed. “I’m going to play…by myself.” Then she stormed off.
Ryker jumped off his chair and, calling her name, ran after her.
Zinnia sighed.
I stared after them. “Friendships can be complicated.”
“You’re not wrong. Especially BFFs,” she said and chuckled.
I glanced across the table, and Lothar’s stare locked on mine. He was getting impatient but said nothing as Death took the last bite of his breakfast, then drained his mug of coffee.
Finally, he stood, and his dark stare slid to Lothar, then to me. “We can talk in the library,” he said in that soul-shaking voice. When he spoke it felt as if he reached inside your body and sent ice through your bones.
Zinnia stood, and he took her hand in his.
Loth and I stood as well, I said my goodbyes to Somnus and Pascal, then we headed upstairs to the library.
The library was all dark leather and deep mahogany furniture.
A fire blazed in the ornate fireplace and the walls were lined with ancient leather-bound books.
Death stood to one side of the room, in front of a wide window that looked down to the grounds and the forest beyond.
Everything we could see, and so much we couldn’t, had been created by Death thousands of years ago, including the sky and the stars, that he’d mirrored, mostly, after the ones we saw on Earth.
“You are here in my realm because Zinnia asked it of me. I have no time for Lucifer or his games. If one of his lords has trespassed, and if he still hides here, he will receive no mercy from me. If I find him first, I will slice him in two and send Lucifer the pieces. I don’t give a single fuck what the king of Hell wants or thinks about that.
” His gaze slid from me to Lothar. “Just to be clear.”
“Totally understandable,” I said. “Beelzebub is no longer in Lucifer’s favor.
He has committed treason and is possibly still attempting to take Lucifer’s throne, so the lord of Hell is no longer any friend of ours…
but we need to take him back alive. There are more pieces to this treasonous puzzle, and B can provide us with those missing pieces. ”
“I can’t promise you anything,” Death said, his voice void of emotion. “And I have no intention of doing so. If I see him first, he’s dead.”
Lothar made a rough sound. “What do you know about wraiths?”
“They are creatures without souls, they have no mercy, no conscience. They live for the hunt, to inflict pain.” He looked at Zinnia. “Did you see them?”
She shook her head. “No, but I trust Roxy. If she says that’s what they were, then I believe her.”
Death cursed.
“What is it?” Lothar said.
Death crossed his tattooed arms over his wide chest. “They have been locked away for a very long time. It took some doing. I was part of the alliance, as was Lucifer and several other powerful beings. We fought them, contained them, then locked them away. Whoever freed them has to be of the same ilk, or have some very powerful friends.”
“Beelzebub is powerful, but not like that,” Lothar said. “And they had weapons, the kinds that can kill immortals.”
I bit my lip, because the more Death and Lothar talked, the more the unsettled feeling grew inside me. I’d tried to tell myself I was wrong after seeing that weapon, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Death’s gaze came to me then, slicing into the deepest part of me. “Do you have any idea who it could be, Roxana?”
He knew. He knew everything I was hiding.
I could say the name swimming around in my head, lacerating my mind with memories I wished I could forget, and maybe he would take pity on us and be more inclined to help, or maybe he wouldn’t.
I should say something, but I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t bring myself to speak that name.
My heart thudded with force against my ribs. “No. No idea.” I was also terrified that if I said it out loud in front of Lothar, his own memories would be shaken loose, along with a whole lot of awful things that were better left locked away.
Lothar turned to me and frowned. “What’s going on?”
He could sense my distress, of course he could. “Nothing. I’m just frustrated, you know? I want this over with like you do.”
He nodded, but his gaze remained on me for several long seconds, as if he didn’t believe a word I’d said. He always did have good instincts. “Do we have your permission to pass through your realm to Ferine, then return?”
Death inclined his head. “You may pass through, but we won’t be making a habit of this, understand?”
“Completely,” I said, then turned to Lothar. “Let’s get our stuff. Time’s a-wasting.” I wanted him away from Death pronto. We were here because of Zinnia, but Death didn’t owe me shit. He definitely didn’t have to keep my secrets for me.
As soon as I shut myself in my room a few minutes later, I pulled the axe from my pack and inspected it.
My blood turned to ice when I caught the worn insignia carved into the side, that I’d missed in the darkness of the forest. I slid my thumb over it, and a shiver rolled through me.
No. It couldn’t be. My side burned, a deep ache throbbing beneath my scar.
Quickly taking my phone from my pocket, I snapped a pic of the insignia and sent it to Lucifer, then shoved my phone back in my pocket. There could be several reasons for this weapon being in the wraiths’ possession. There was no need to panic. Not yet.
I packed my things, forcing myself to breathe evenly and not jump to conclusions.
When I walked out a few minutes later, I heard low voices coming from the library. Lothar and Death. I heard my name and walked up as silently as I could.
“What’s Roxy hiding?” Lothar said, his hound in his voice making it nothing but a growl. “She knows something, something she’s not telling me.”
Death was silent several beats. “Whatever Roxana knows or doesn’t know is not for me to say. Only she or Lucifer can give you the answers you want.”
Fuck.
Lothar’s boots pounded on the carpet, and I rushed back to my room, walking out as if I hadn’t been eavesdropping. “Ready?” I said, trying to slow my racing pulse.
Lothar held my gaze for several painfully tense seconds, then dipped his chin and carried on walking. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”