Chapter Four #2
Gold-inlay marble spread out from beneath my bare feet, glittering under the roaring firelight.
Not just from the crystal and gold chandelier and candelabra, but also from the gold-kissed fireplace.
The surround boasted roaring hellhound heads on either side, and a grinning demon face beneath the mantel—all carved out of gold.
I moved further inside, my breath stealing away.
Even Sabrina was silent beholding the carved balustrade that separated the living area from the resting space.
On the other side of us, a massive canopy bed draped in purple and gold-embroidered curtains welcomed me into a soft, satin paradise.
Above it all, the fresco painted on the ceiling bore down on me.
I tipped my head back, spinning as I took in the bloody, horrific battle scene.
Everywhere above me, demons were eaten, gored, decapitated, or killing on a battlefield, and as much as it should’ve unsettled me to have that hanging over my head, all I could see was the exquisite attention to detail from the rage in their burning eyes, to the detail on the weapons.
I didn’t know if you could say that love went into a depiction so grisly, but artistry most certainly did.
Something moved out of the corner of my eye.
Spinning around, I cried out as a pile of luggage popped out of thin air and landed on the plush hearth rug beside the fireplace.
“What’s this?”
“Your things,” Sabrina replied. “Clothes, books, shoes, money. You demanded Lord Lucifer provide you with everything you’d need to survive within these walls. He has done so.”
“I’d say so.” I goggled at the massive pile on the rug.
Looked like I wouldn’t want for anything—which was lucky because for a terrible minute there, I thought I’d have to survive in this place with nothing but my panties and a bra covered in demon pee.
“Wow, it’s amazing in here. Are all the dorms like this? ”
“This is my first time in the academy, sssame as you, human. But I doubt it very much,” she confessed. “Most likely, only a few rooms are a similar shrine to overindulgence. That would be by design. It gives you all something else to fight and kill each other over.”
My smile wiped away in a blink. “People won’t try to kill me for this room, will they?!”
She tasted the air. “You tell me, girl. Demons are naught but humans cursed in their afterlife. In your realm, do your people kill each other over finery and gold?”
I sucked in a shaky breath. The answer to that is yes and yes. “I’ll block the door just in case.”
In the corner by the fireplace was an ornate desk and chair. I grabbed the latter and propped it under the door handle. “Okay, first, you get comfortable.”
I unwound her from my body and placed her on the armchair in the opposite corner. It rested beside an empty bookshelf that was waiting for me to turn it into a cozy book nook.
“That door must lead to the bathroom. I’m going to shower, change, and then we start looking for Dora.”
Her response was to curl up and lay her head on her tail.
Leaving her be, I ducked through the door on the left side of the bookshelf and found I was right—it was a bathroom.
The most incredible bathroom I’d ever been in.
My feet sang to touch cool marble after running all over the burning stove they called the ground in this world.
Making straight for the tub, I walked past the mirror, glanced at it—
—and screamed.
“Ahhhhh!” I shrieked like a madwoman... and the monster in the mirror did too.
Sabrina said when I looked down at myself, I would see past the glamour to my true appearance. She forgot to mention that didn’t apply to mirrors.
The beast in front of me could’ve been a man certainly, but it was hard to make out any defining masculine features beneath the warts.
Ranging from the size of a marble to the size of a baseball, my face was covered in angry, bumpy, hairy warts that dwarfed my beady red eyes; swollen, cartoon ballon lips; and lumpy open-car-door ears.
Rotting in my open mouth were horrible, eye-wateringly repulsive teeth—three of them.
That’s right. I only had three teeth, and that was one more than the hairs on my head.
I was bald as an egg because clearly all my hair decided to grow out of my warts, instead of my scalp.
And if that wasn’t enough, my skin wasn’t white, black, or any of the skin tones in between.
In the time it took to infuse me with glamour magic, I went from looking how people actually look, to adopting the muddy, puke-green skin color of a monster from the In Between.
“You made a fool of my lord with that contract,” rang through my head as I screamed longer and louder the more I took it in. “You should expect him to return the favor as often as he can.”
“You complete and utter bastard!” I railed at the ceiling. “No wonder Daddy dropkicked your ass into hell. Never has there ever been a more fitting parental punishment in the history of time!”
I knew it was impossible, but for a second, I could’ve sworn I heard that devil laugh.
I WAS STILL IN SHOCK when I stumbled out of the bathroom half an hour later. I knew that looks didn’t matter. I really did. But, and I wasn’t exaggerating, Lucifer had turned me into the ugliest creature in existence. To even look at me for too long would make you nauseous.
And I knew this because I did look too long, and then had to run to the toilet.
To be so petty, vindictive, and cruel that he’d turn me into a hideous green monster is just so—so—
“Devilish,” I muttered, wrapping the towel tighter around myself. “I was stupid to think he’d let me have the last laugh, but Hera willing, let that be the last of his spiteful tricks—”
“Krooh.”
I choked on a cry, freezing in my tracks. Flicking to Sabrina, I saw she was right where I left her—snoozing on the armchair and very much not snoring.
But if that wasn’t her, that means... Slowly, stiffly, I turned toward the bed.
Amidst the luxurious satin sheets, fluffy duvet, and pillow mound... was a lump that wasn’t there when I went into the bathroom.
But how! The desk chair was still right where I left it, with no sign of it being disturbed. And even if the stranger used magic to get in, he would’ve seen my luggage on the carpet and knew it was occupied.
Anger bloomed in my chest. “I bet this fucking jerk just walked in, saw how nice the room was, and decided if he climbed in my bed, there was nothing I could do about it, but hell no.” I marched up to the balustrade, and threw it open.
“I’m not going to be ugly and roomless in the same night.
My hand is not going near that pissy key basket a second time, so this is my room”—I seized the sheets and threw them off of him—“and if you’ve got a problem with that, you stick it up your... ”
I trailed off, eyes narrowing. “You.”
There was no question about it. Lying in my bed, bold as he pleased, was the psycho jerk who stole my patch and almost got me killed.
Was it some kind of cruel coincidence that he came in here to steal by bed too, or was this guy just singularly focused on making my life difficult in the one day since we met.
“No. No!” I blared. Grabbing his shoulders, I shook him like a martini. “Get up, you asshole! You’ve got some kind of nerve walking in here and hopping in my bed after almost getting me pecked to death! Get up! Get—”
A hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. The room spun in a riot of purple and gold as I flew over the mattress and settled on the satin cloud, with one sleeping psycho jerk on top of me. Landing in a pile on the floor, was my towel.
My jaw worked—horror stealing my breath, my words, and my very soul as a perfect stranger snuggled between my breasts, and drifted back asleep.
I flipped out. Kicking, thrashing, and pounding on every part of him I could reach, I broke rule one for the thousandth time—screeching for him to wake up and get out.
Nothing roused him from his sleep as he snored away, holding his very real and very naked new body pillow closer.