Chapter 23
“What an interesting assemblage.”
Lucifer, no longer disguised as Mrs. Clootie, stepped farther into the bar, his dark eyes scanning the room as he removed his cuff links and began to roll up his shirtsleeves.
“All my truest friends, my greatest allies, my right-hand men.” He looked at Effie with a sneer that twisted his beautiful face into something ugly, a better representation of the monster he was inside. “And you.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I must say, I feel rather put out at not having received an invitation to this little fete. Then again, I suppose that was by design, wasn’t it?” Lucifer stopped in front of Abaddon and slowly shook his head. “I may have expected this betrayal from Beelzebub, but from you, Abaddon? Truly?”
“You betray yourself, my friend.” Abaddon held his chin high. “A civil war is imminent because of your tyranny. At every turn, I have advised you to take a less bellicose approach to how we—”
“This is not a democracy, Abaddon!” Lucifer thrust a finger in Abaddon’s unflinching face. “You serve at my pleasure.”
“Perhaps that should change,” Asmodeus murmured.
Lucifer looked around the room and barked out a stunned laugh. “A coup d’état! All right. Go ahead.” He held his arms out at his sides. “Try me.”
The Seven Princes exchanged a wary glance, a look that was not lost on Lucifer.
“Cowards and fools, every one of you,” he decried, dropping his arms. “Bold enough to stab me in the back, but neither brave nor clever enough to do it to my face.” He spun abruptly on his heel and glared at Effie. “I imagine you’re behind this gathering, Eithrig? Poisoning my men against me?”
“I didn’t poison anyone against you. I didn’t have to.” She crossed her arms, trying to put on a brave front. “Turns out, threatening a baby was a bridge too far for everyone.”
“What can I say?” Lucifer’s lips curled away from his teeth. “I guess they don’t make loyalty like they used to.”
“You don’t ask for loyalty. You ask for blind obedience.”
“And you bite the hand that feeds you, you stupid, insolent, ungrateful little girl.” Her heart leapt into her throat as Lucifer advanced on her, eyes black and teeth bared menacingly.
“Back the fuck up,” Finn said, stepping in front of her, arm outstretched as if to keep her behind him.
Oh, shit. She tugged hard on his belt loop, trying to drag him back, to keep him from making a mistake he couldn’t walk back. He didn’t budge. “Finn—”
“Fionnlagh MacDonald.” Lucifer smiled. “So nice to finally meet.”
“Go to Hell,” Finn spat, his careless disregard for his own safety making Effie shake. He knew what Lucifer was capable of, he’d seen the damage he could do, the suffering he could inflict. Finn was playing with fire, and she didn’t know how she’d live with herself if he got burned.
Lucifer tsked. “Here I was led to believe you Scots had more colorful curses up your sleeves. I mean, putting aside the fact that I’m the devil and telling me to go to Hell is like telling me to go home, as far as ill-wishes go, it’s uninspired. It just…lacks panache.”
“You really love to hear yourself speak, don’t you?”
Leviathan snickered over by the bar, and Effie swallowed a groan as she slipped around Finn’s arm. If she couldn’t stop him from running his mouth, she could at least put herself between him and Lucifer.
“I mean, every minute I speak is another minute I let you live.” Lucifer tucked his hands inside his front pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Now, if you have a death wish I don’t know about—”
“Enough, Lucifer,” Abaddon snapped, color rising in his cheeks, turning his skin a deep reddish mahogany.
“We deal in souls,” Belphegor said. “Human lives are not our domain.”
“I say when enough is enough, not you or you or anyone else.” Lucifer pointed around the room. “Me. I make the rules. I’m the one—”
“I have a question about that, actually.”
Effie whipped her head around and glared. “For the love of god, be quiet,” she hissed.
“You all deal in souls,” Finn said, addressing the room at large before looking at Lucifer.
“And the reason you’ve got your panties in a bunch is because Effie and I are married.
Because we exchanged vows that bound our souls together, I’ve been reincarnating over and over and over again, proof enough that what we did worked.
Our bond is definitely intact. Which is interesting, because Effie is a demon. ”
Lucifer stared coolly at him. “And your question is what, exactly?”
“How can our souls be bound if Effie doesn’t have one?”
She frowned. That was a really good question.
“See, I get what happens when a human sells their soul. Eventually, they die and they face eternal torment. Effie’s filled me in on that part. But what about demons? Where did your souls all go?”
No one spoke. Instead, everyone looked at one another’s puzzled faces. As if they, like her, didn’t actually know the answer. Where did their souls go?
“Uh, hi.” Satan raised his hand. “So, they don’t go anywhere. We’re still in possession of them. We just don’t own them. Think of it like getting an auto loan. You have the car, but the lender technically owns it. Our souls have a lien on them, and Lucifer is the lien holder.”
Hold the fucking phone. “I’m sorry. What?”
Satan frowned. “Did no one tell you this?”
Uh, no. That was definitely a conversation she would have remembered.
“Oh, I thought this was common knowledge.” Satan chuckled. “What, did you all think there was some secret back room hidden in the OIIA where souls are housed in crystal balls? Little miniature versions of Pandora’s box?”
“Honestly?” Leviathan waffled his head from side to side. “Kind of, yeah. That was pretty much exactly what I was picturing.”
Asmodeus and Mammon nodded.
Beelzebub looked lost, shaken. “But our consciences, our sense of right and wrong—”
“Are no more linked to your soul than any other part of you. Think about it. We make deals with truly awful people all the time. Humans love to claim that serial killers are soulless, but we know that isn’t true.
You’re just a terrible person, Beelzebub.
” Satan shrugged. “It doesn’t have anything to do with your soul. ”
“Enough,” Lucifer snapped. “We’re not here to talk about how souls work, Stan.”
Satan scowled at the floor.
“You’re telling me Effie has a soul, which my soul is bound to, she just…doesn’t own it?”
“That does pose an interesting question,” Satan mused.
“It really doesn’t.” Lucifer rolled his eyes.
Satan ignored him. “If Effie promised her soul to Finn—”
“Which I did,” she said.
“—then technically it was no longer hers to give. By binding their souls, they became jointly owned, if you want to get technical.”
“We don’t.” Lucifer glowered at him.
“Nemo dat quod non habet. It’s known as the nemo dat rule in property law,” Satan explained.
“No one can give what they do not have. It prevents the sale of an invalid title and protects true ownership by ensuring that if someone sells something they don’t actually legally own, the buyer cannot gain ownership.
” He gave Lucifer a sidelong glance. “Even if they paid for it.”
Effie’s heart raced. “What are you saying?”
Satan gave her a patient smile. “You’re not the sole owner of your soul, Eithrig. Finn had a stake in it. You didn’t have the right to transfer the title. The sale is invalid.”
Effie stumbled back, bumping into Finn. He steadied her, both hands on her waist.
Invalid.
The sale was invalid.
Meaning it didn’t count. Meaning her soul—
“You knew, didn’t you?” She stared slack-jawed at Lucifer. “This whole time. You knew, and you let me think…but you knew.”
“Ugh.” His head fell back with a groan. “Fine. Yes, all right? I knew. It’s why I approached you with my offer in the first place.
I knew you’d bound your soul to Fionnlagh’s.
I thought I was getting a sweet deal. Two souls for the price of one.
Finders fucking keepers. What demon in their right mind would say no to that?
” He scoffed. “Instead, I got zilch. So when I say you’ve been nothing but a thorn in my side since day one, I mean it. ”
Belphegor sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re saying—”
“I have a soul,” she said, voice faint. “It’s mine. You don’t own it.”
“No,” Lucifer said sourly. “I don’t.”
“I’ll be damned,” Asmodeus breathed, staring at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “A demon with a soul.”
“Oh, this is fucking epic.” Leviathan giggled, shoveling popcorn into his mouth from a bucket that hadn’t existed two minutes ago.
“I said enough!” Lucifer stamped his foot, cracking the floorboard. “What is done is done. Let’s talk about something that actually matters.” He looked over her shoulder. “Mr. MacDonald, have you made your decision?”
“What? No.” She pressed her back more firmly against Finn’s chest, her hands finding his. “We have until tomorrow night.”
“Oh, so you can have more time to conspire against me? I think the fuck not.” Lucifer laughed. “Really, did learning you have a soul make you lose all sense? What do you take me for, Eithrig? A fool?”
“I’m not renouncing my vows,” Finn said.
Lucifer grinned giddily, rubbing his hands together. “I was hoping you’d go with door number two!”
“No.” She turned, heart in her throat. “Finn, you can’t—”
“You can do whatever the hell you want to me,” Finn said to Lucifer, looking like a man on his way to the gallows, grimly accepting his fate. “But you’re not touching Bea.”
“He won’t,” Belphegor said, giving Finn a nod. “We won’t let him.”
“Nothing is happening to Finn,” she stressed, and with a quick jerk of her head silently told Belphegor to cut it out, to stop acting as if Finn’s fate were already sealed. “Nothing is happening to anybody.”
Aside from Lucifer, but that went without saying.
A contemplative frown appeared on Lucifer’s brow. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”
“Tell me what?” Finn stared at her, gaze intense and probing. “Effie? Tell me.”
She struggled to swallow. “It’s not on the table,” she told Lucifer. “Leave it.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Lucifer’s eyes gleamed wickedly.
“Aren’t you all always going on and on about free will and consent?
I think he has a right to know all his options.
Fionnlagh, what Eithrig failed to mention is that I gave you two choices.
The first being to renounce your vows, and the second, if you’re so desperate to stay together, to make a deal with me.
The terms, of course, being your soul and fealty in exchange for getting to stay married to Eithrig while doing my bidding as a demon. ”
The penny dropped and so did her stomach.
“This has been your plan ever since you stepped foot in Silver Springs, hasn’t it? If Finn sells you his soul, this time you really will get both his and mine, won’t you?”
Lucifer shrugged. “I already have your signature, so to speak. I just need his.”
“Finn, no.” She put her hands on his chest and stared deep into his eyes. “Listen to me, okay? You can’t do this. It’s not worth it. Think about Bea. Who’s going to take care of her?”
“I’ll make certain Beatrix is well provided for,” Lucifer said.
“Look, Fionnlagh, what it really comes down to is how badly you want to keep Effie. What was it your aunt said when her husband died? It really stuck with you, didn’t it?
What was it…no amount of time together would ever be enough?
If you renounce your vows, mark my words, you’ll never see Eithrig again.
You won’t even remember her. I will wipe every trace of her from your memory.
Infernal Statute of Secrecy, you understand.
It would be imprudent to have humans who are not bound by contracts running around knowing demons existed. ”
“That’s coercion.” Effie’s voice cracked. “You can’t fucking do that.”
Lucifer gave her a condescending look. “It’s adorable that you think I care about rules.”
“It’s a chance, mo ghaol,” Finn said. “You and me. Gu sìorraidh is gu bràth. Remember? Always and forever. We can figure the rest out later. Together.”
“No.” Her breath hitched. “No, Finn, I am not worth this.”
He gave her a tight smile and her shoulders fell.
She could see it in his face, in the set of his jaw, the way his pupils dilated. Even if she was completely obtuse, demons were hardwired to sense desperation. The smell of it hung in the air, so thick and cloying she thought she might choke.
Finn reached out, cupping her cheek in his hand, his thumb gently wiping away a tear she hadn’t realized had fallen. He took a deep breath and Effie swallowed a sob. “So how’s this work? I just have to say I wish and—”
“I, Eithrig MacLeod, renounce my vows.”
She stumbled, knees buckling, catching herself against the edge of the pool table as something inside her cracked, not like glass shattering or bone breaking, but like a rope stretched to its limits, snapping under the weight of the words she’d spoken.
She could feel it still, the thread connecting them, their bond, not snapped but fraying.
Finn’s eyes were wide, pained and confused, as he kneaded at his chest. “Effie?”
Her vision blurred and she blinked, more tears escaping. “I always told myself there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you. But I won’t do this. I can’t be greedy anymore, Finn. I love you too much to let you do this.”
She wasn’t sure if this would work, but she had to try.
“Baby, no—”
“I release you from your oath to me, Fionnlagh MacDonald.”