Chapter Nine #2
He shrugged. “There are, as you have observed, quite a lot of beings in my father’s entourage. He brought his entire staff—his accountant, whom you met; his two assistants; his secretary; Keres; her assistants; his punching bag; and Jirzinar, who’s the one in charge of dark punishments.”
Not heavy punishments, as I’d supposed.
“Jirzinar prefers to keep to himself, so you haven’t seen him yet. And then he also brought a few lesser demons because he loves a good sycophant, and they are excellent at sycophancy,” he said, his lip curling. “Cerberus the dog, and likely some others I’ve forgotten.”
“That seems daunting,” I said, sounding…
daunted. “We also can’t overlook the fact that someone might be tasked with observing your father’s movements.
The Queen might have ordered it, for example, or that duke.
I can see him wishing to be apprised of what the Devil is doing while here.
” I considered it. “I am the representative from the government, at least the official representative, but there could be other people involved. People I am not aware of.” An unsettling thought but one we had to consider.
“I have thought of that,” he said. “But as you pointed out, very few were aware of the change in plans, and while the Queen or someone else may have a spy keeping track of our movements, we can only investigate the beings we know about for now.” His expression was grim.
“I examined the knife—it was made of iron.”
“Oh,” I said, realizing what that meant. “How dangerous—?” I began.
“Iron can harm us,” he said. “It will kill a lesser demon. Steel is more commonly used for knives here—the person who threw that knife knew enough to choose a knife made of iron. That points to someone who knows more about us than the average individual.”
“Oh,” I said, prickles of alarm running through me. “That means it wasn’t just a random attack, then.”
“No.”
He produced a pad of paper and a pencil from God knew where—or rather, Devil knew where—and began to write the names in a column.
“It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out the mole, to be honest. The lesser demons aren’t all that intelligent, so if it’s one of them, they’ll slip up soon.
” He raised his head to look at me. “I doubt it is them. They seem to have only one purpose in life, and that is not to be put into Jirzinar’s hands. ”
I flinched, wondering if this Jirzinar was in charge of roasting unsatisfactory ombudsmen as well.
I’d been too preoccupied with other things to think about it recently, but it was still a very real threat.
I couldn’t see the marquis risking his relationship with his father and his standing in Hell to save me if I’d done something to incur roasting. My kisses weren’t that good.
“It’s not Cerberus, since he can’t communicate very well. Only my father understands him.” He scratched a line through the dog’s name. “So that leaves the assistants. I forget their names, as well as—Phenex, Keres, Jirzinar, and the punching bag.”
My eyes widened. “Um—I thought you meant an actual punching bag.”
“I was listing the beings who’d arrived with my father—why would I list that as well?” he asked, giving me a questioning look.
A look that made me feel as though I had the intelligence of an ant.
“Yes, well, I couldn’t imag—” But then I thought about it, and I could imagine it. “So—does this punching bag individual like their work?”
The marquis’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “Very much so. You understand, there are certain types who like—”
“Stop right there,” I said, holding up my hand. I had heard enough from Lily to know what he was talking about. “So the punching bag is not one of our likely suspects, which leaves the two nameless assistants, the other assistants, the secretary, the two people I met, and this Jirzinar person.”
“Not a person,” he clarified.
“Fine,” I said, waving a hand, feeling exhausted by the length of the list of our suspects. “So how do we ascertain who is more or less likely out of those?”
He thought for a moment, then gave me a look that unsettled me all the way down to my toes. “We’re going to have to host a party.”
“A party, hmm?” Lily’s speculative look made my unsettled feelings bloom all the way into full-blown terror.
It was the day after I’d spoken with the marquis.
He’d brought me home and left me at my door like a gentleman, despite my secret wish he’d try for another kiss.
I knew it wasn’t because he didn’t want to—the desire in his eyes was palpable—so there must have been something else going on, and that made me uneasy.
Or uneasier, since I was already fairly rattled by everything.
Let’s just say I couldn’t stop thinking what duties the Devil’s punching bag had to perform.
“Despite what you’ve said about him, I doubt the Devil will want something tame, like a tea party,” Lily continued. Her expression turned thoughtful. “Though there are innovative things to do with—”
“No,” I said firmly. “I do not want to hear what it is you are about to say. I told him yes, since we have to reveal the mole before the being does any real damage, but I don’t want to get even more petrified about what might happen.”
Hannah placed teacups in front of both of us, and I took a grateful sip. “Thank you.”
She nodded at me as she sat down in her special seat. “You need it.” It wasn’t a question. “And you’re still going to go to that anti-Devil meeting? The one from the flyer?”
I’d brought the flyer home and told my housemates what I planned on doing. Lily was very excited about rigging me up in disguise, while Hannah really wanted to attend as well, but her diminutive stature made it impossible for her to achieve any disguise other than “Fairy dressed as _____.”
“Yes, that’s in three days.”
I suppose it wasn’t technically what I should have been doing, sharing the details of my current…
detail with my housemates, but I knew neither one of them wanted to assassinate the Devil, nor did they want London to become the battleground for internecine warfare, so they were not in cahoots with anybody.
Besides, it wasn’t as though Lily couldn’t just go dig up any information she wanted on her own; she was a succubus, after all, and could obtain things no mere mortal (like me) or even mere supernatural (like Hannah) could.
There was something to be said for sexual power.
Which I absolutely should not be thinking about in connection to myself, but here I was. What if the marquis was stringing me along for some sort of nefarious purpose? Using his devil-given gifts and extensive charm?
But to what goal?
I supposed that was what I should be discovering, what with my covert double spying for Mr. Connors. If there was such a plot, I needed to know about it before it could be implemented.
“I wish things were simpler,” I groused, finishing my tea.
“I wish I just had to solve a conflict between a mountain-owning troll and a lair-needing dragon or something. At least there I’d know precisely what danger I’d be in.
Here I have no idea what is happening. Just that I’ll be attending a party given by the Devil, which is not something I ever imagined—or wished—to say. ”
If my friends were less like themselves and more sympathetic, they would have given me consoling looks and possibly another cup of tea.
As it was, they exchanged glances with each other and then burst out in laughter.
“Oh, it is terrible to be you,” Lily said, fluttering her lush eyelashes.
“To have to go to a party with a handsome Devil.” She spoke in mock horror, putting her hand up to her chest as though in sympathy. I knew better.
“You’ll need another gown,” Hannah observed. “You can’t go in the same one twice. And this time,” she said, nodding at Lily, “it should be one that is a bit more…abundant.”
I blanched. “What does that mean?”
Lily rose. “Don’t you worry about that. I know precisely what it means. And I know precisely the gown for you.” She walked toward her rooms.
“The party isn’t for at least a week, perhaps longer,” I called out in panic.
“Let her go,” Hannah said. “She is having a lot of fun with this, she is not very friendly with others of her kind, and so she doesn’t get to share her interests.”
“You mean to say that all of this”—I made an expansive gesture—“is like being a succubus?” I sounded horrified. I wasn’t a prude, but I was definitely more modest than Lily.
Hannah rolled her eyes. “Of course not, you idiot. But it is akin to it, what with being something you need to look good for, and there is the sexual element.”
I put my palm up to her. “Stop. No. I can’t be discussing all of this with you.”
Hannah’s beautiful eyes widened in feigned innocence. “No? Well, then, who else should you be discussing this with?”
Fine. She had a point. It wasn’t as though either one of my friends would think the worse of me. If they did, then they weren’t my friends.