Page 31 of Beauty At Stake
Laleking the Demon to Hell hadn't been part of the plan. But to be fair, the plan had been decided on too rapidly to get to the part where we took the Demon into custody. And he was a Demon. Hell was where he belonged.
I took him to the royal castle, laleking directly into the courtyard. We were instantly surrounded by the castle guards, but they lowered their spears when they recognized me.
“Light-Bringer!” The soldiers bowed.
“Your king will arrive shortly.”
Even as I spoke, Star, my husbands, and his King's Guard laleked in around us. The castle guards bowed again and saluted Astaroth.
“At ease,” Star said. He was back to looking like himself, as was everyone else, myself included. “This way.” Star waved us forward.
As we walked, my husbands came up to form an honor guard behind me. I looked at Killian to ask, “Did you notify the Extinguisher team?”
“You mean after you went rogue and laleked to Hell?” Kill's tone told me he was teasing.
Still, I stuck my tongue out at him.
“I think it was a wise choice,” Raza said. “Now we can hand him over to his king and be done with it.”
“I'll have to help with the interrogation, Raza,” I said.
“Very well. Then we'll be done.”
“I can't say that for sure.”
Raza glared at me.
“Are we going to start this again? You're basically visiting my workplace and causing a scene. Again.”
Raza's face twitched. “Fine.”
“Yo, Beast Bro, I got it from here. You can take off,” Killian said.
I smirked at Raza.
He growled at Killian.
“Or not,” Kill muttered. “Sheesh, rein it in.”
We entered the keep, and I wasn't surprised when Star led us deep inside, to a very familiar hallway of mirrors. Our prisoner's wide gaze reflected back at us from the assortment of looking glasses hung over every inch of the walls.
“I've got good news and bad news for you.” Kill slapped the Demon's shoulder. “Good news is—you're about to be one of the select few to see the King of Hell's private study. Bad news is—he keeps the torture chambers behind his desk.”
The Demon flinched, his footsteps slowing.
“Great Kill,” I huffed. “We were almost there.”
“Sorry. I couldn't resist. This fucker has been killing Witches.”
“Speaking of Witches.” I glanced back, finally remembering the vexes.
“The extinguishers notified the vexes, Seren,” Kill said. “The plan was that they'd clear the bar, then go back to the vex house to wait for us.”
“For some unfathomable reason, they didn't want to come to Hell,” Sallales said, her tone dramatically innocent.
The rest of the guards snickered.
“It's really quite lovely here.” I gave the Demon a push, getting him past the study doorway. “You know, if you ignore all the torture fields.”
