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)
“Collecting a feather from the Air Hallow is your task, and I want a concrete plan on how you’re going to make it happen, or Dora’s going to have a very bad time of it over the next five weeks.”
I gritted my teeth. The bastard was going up. “Are you going to return us to earth so that we can—?”
“Nope.”
You monstrous beast. Out loud, I took a deep breath, untangled from Ronin, and then said, “Fine. If you can’t bring me an angel, I’ll just bring an angel to me.”
“Bring an angel... to you?” Was it my imagination, or did the king of lies, tricks, and being-a-piece-of-shit sound stumped? “What in the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” I replied, injecting my voice with confidence I didn’t feel. “I’ll lure an angel to hell and get them to give me their feather.”
He laughed out loud. “Lure an angel to hell? Has the heat gone to your head, darling? That’s impossible.”
“A couple of weeks ago, you thought the power of the All Hallows was impossible.” That stopped his laughter cold. “When are you going to learn to stop underestimating an Avos witch?”
He paused a beat. “How?” Lucifer demanded. “Tell me exactly how.”
“Give. Me. My. Sister. Back.”
Lucifer snarled. “You’re not the one in a position to make the demands.”
“Aren’t I? If I’m not, then you can be the one to do the legwork,” I rasped. “Because if you ever pull this shit again— If you ever kidnap and threaten my sister again, I’ll kill myself.”
“What!”
“What?!” Ronin belted, grabbing my shoulders. “What are you saying!”
“Save your idle threats for someone who believes them,” Lucifer said, recovering fast.
“It’s not an idle threat. Now that I know heaven and hell are real, and that I can reincarnate myself into a new, cushy life on earth—death isn’t half as scary as it was before,” I crowed. “Right now, I’ve got everything to gain from my death, and you’ve got everything to lose. You need a living Avos witch to get your hands on the All Hallows, and that’s the one thing you won’t have.”
“You won’t do it!” Angry Lucifer was coming back fast. “You’d never leave your sister in danger.”
“Doing it would free my sister from danger. If I die”—I threw Ronin off, glaring into his eyes—“all you bastards will stop using her as a pawn to control me.”
Neither Lucifer nor Ronin had a thing to say to me.
I heard a noise on the other end of the call. Dora whooshed back into the bathroom.
“Cleo!”
“Dora!”
I shoved Ronin aside, rushing to hug her.
She squeezed the stuffing out of me. My sister may not have her memories, but she knew who was there for her—and she knew it was me.
“Your play worked this time.” Lucifer’s frosty hiss stole the smile off my face. “But never make the mistake of thinking I’m easy to manipulate. The next time I call, I want the identities of the other three hallows.”
“When are you going to—”
“And one more thing,” he sliced in. “Your little vampire boyfriend can give all the warnings he wants—”
My jaw, my legs, my soul fell out from under me.
“—but don’t you dare think of double-crossing me, Charlotte Hunter. The power of the All Hallows is mine. You can either give it to me willingly, or I can rip it out along with your beating heart.”
“H-how—? How—?”
“You have a nice chat with those dryads, darling. Talk soon.”
Click.
I NEVER MADE IT TO class that day.
I was too busy stuffing blankets in the vents and rigging boobie traps for the doors. Dora read in Ronin’s room while Ronin stared at me in mine.
“Why so tight-lipped?” Ronin asked. He reclined on my bed, uncaring of his dirty boots on my sheets. “What did Lucifer say to you? Why’d you threaten to kill yourself?”
“You know what he said.” I focused on my task of filling small, individual vials with the bath oils. From then on, I’d dump the oil by the doorway so anyone speeding in my room at night would have a nice trip. “I’ve told you all of this already. He wants progress on my search for the hallows. He wants names, identities, and items in hand. And he’s threatening Dora to get it.”
“So you threatened him right back.”
“It’s not a threat.” My voice was calm—steady. “It’s a promise. I’m not letting this go on anymore. Lucifer is done hurting Dora to get to me. My sister is innocent in all this, but she’s been suffering worst of all. Her childhood was a lie, her mother killed her, her bio father gutted her mind and personality, and now, she’s being tortured in her sister’s name.
“No more.” Setting down the vials, I faced him. “And that goes for you too.”
If I expected a big reaction, I didn’t get it.
Ronin merely raised a brow. “Why are you mad at me? In that list of suffering, I don’t even make the top ten.”