Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“Unite?” Kama questioned. “What does that mean?”
“Unite?” Ronin repeated, holding his hand out to Kama. “I’ll tell you what unite means, my future queen. It means victory!”
“Yeah!” the crowd roared, making me jump out of my skin.
“It means domination!”
“Yeah!”
“It means taking back our world from the invading filth that dare to tell us what to do! Including the invading fallen angels!”
“Yeah!” “That’s right!” “Fuck Lucifer!”
“Under the empire of sin, Lucifer’s deals will be our deals! His unlimited food supply from the fae—ours! The first pick of the best weapons crafted by the master wolfsmiths—ours! Access to the hidden oasis—ours! The contracts for the best vampire spies and assassins—ours!”
Everyone was cheering, stomping, and carrying on so loud, I could barely hear Ronin.
But I heard enough.
“It’s time Lucifer started putting his wealth and resources toward the domination of the demons!” Ronin pounded his chest. “It’s time he and all of us send a clear message about who fucking runs things down here. It’s time we tell them who the fuck we are, and who are we!?”
“The empire of sin!” they roared back—Eris, Raven, Ursula, Kama, and Sauda loudest of all.
“Em-pire of sin! Em-pire of sin! Em-pire of sin!”
I could only gape dumbfounded as the chant kicked off, and then the dancing. I’d never seen demons this happy before. Why did it have to be because of a battle cry for world domination?
“Go forth!” Ronin bellowed. “Let every follower of Lucifer from the smallest snake to the highest-ranking pledge know that we will have all seven sins united under the empire of sin, or we’ll have war.”
“War! War! War!”
Ronin hopped off the platform and strolled over. “So, what do you think?” he breezed, tossing me a wink. “Did this go the way you planned?”
I choked, eyes bugging. All of this to shut down my idea and put the empire of sin to sleep—permanently. Of course Lucifer wasn’t going to hand over everything he’d built so that Ronin and the Sins Gang could play king and queens of hell! That was a nonstarter from the word go!
So effortlessly, so cleverly, so impressively, Ronin just shifted all the responsibility for the creation of the empire of sin on Lucifer. Now, it wouldn’t be because he refused to marry the other princesses. The problem will be Lucifer refusing to relinquish the one thing he never would: his pride.
Laughing his ass off, Ronin strolled out the door—leaving the chaos he created in his wake.
“Oh,” I muttered. “That bitter bitch is not going to like this.”
DORA AND I HAD JUST finished our breakfast when my phone went off. I answered on the third ring.
“—hell’s going on over there?!” He started shouting at me before I picked up the phone. “What the fuck is an empire of sin, and why does it have your name all over it!”
“My name?! Like you know enough about me to say what my name’s all over!”
Indignation was taking the sense out of my mouth.
“What I mean is,” I ground out, “why are you blaming this on me? I didn’t announce to a room full of demons that you’re the sole fallen angel standing in their way of total hell domination.”
Lucifer growled, his rage bleeding through the phone. “My phone’s been ringing me deaf! Nonstop demands that I dissolve House Lucifer and join the empire of sin, and even more demands that I don’t! If demons amass even more power, they’ll make life in hell more unbearable for the Others than they already do, and with all six lords of hell united against me, my subjects are no longer so certain I’ll be able to do anything about it—deals or no deals.
“So I’ll ask you again,” he hissed. “Is this because of you?”
I sniffed. “I may have mentioned something about it making the most sense for Ronin to marry all five princesses of sin—”
“Arrrrgggg!”
“—but I didn’t know they’d take my idea and run so fast with it!” I finished. “You’re the one who told me that there is no law or order in hell. There’s only a ruthless and endless battle for power. You left me and Aurora completely powerless and alone in this place,” I snapped. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that my super gaslighting ability and powered-up body went away.”
“We never had a deal in the first place,” he snapped right back. “Why should I have continued to provide you with anything after the ruse was up?”
I tsked, shaking my head. “You don’t have to provide me with anything, Lucifer. You’re not my daddy after all.”
I sensed his mood shift as if he was standing right in front of me. “Is that what this is about?” His tone was chilly. “You’ve dumped this shitty heap on my lap because Mommy’s pissed Daddy isn’t giving child support?”
Gagging, I heaved at the very mention of me being the mommy to his daddy. “No, Lucifer. Like I said, you don’t have to do anything for us, because you’re many things, but you’re not my sister’s father.