Page 67 of Dating the Dealing Demon

She shakes her head. “I don’t know who is more stubborn. You. Or him.”

I refuse to acknowledge that little dig.

“I need to figure out which of your family members did this. Then we’ll have a better idea who took Gilly, andwherethey took her.” I swallow the rest of what my impulsive brain almost blurted out. The fever-soaked feeling I had that Theo’s family will come for him in some horribly tragic way? It probably stemmed from the poison, but I can’t shake it. Me, who can only focus on one thing at a time unless I want my attention pinballing at warp speed,I’mfixated on the awful premonition even when I’m locked down in lab-work mode.

“If Theo would act like the crown prince of the hell dimensions instead of a whiny, emo version of a walking guilty conscience, he’d admit where they took her. Only one place has snakes that size, and it’s buried in the deepest pits of the After Worlds where they’re imprisoned alongside the gods-awful shadow monsters who used to rule this realm.” She shudders, and yeah, I have to agree.

My single run-in with the shadow demon at the Infernal Palace who wasn’t even a full shadow monster still gives me nightmares. I can hear Reginald’s awful voice echoing in my head when I sleep…at least while Theo’s been away. But I stop letting my mind wander down that dark and repulsive path toseize on the rest of what Nic said. The important part. “You know where Gilly is?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then what are we doing here? Grab Theo, I’ll get Monty to dragon out, and we’ll go bring her back.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It sounds pretty damn simple.” I snatch off my safety goggles and check the settings on the machine.

Nic holds up a hand. “Let me explain the After Worlds. There’s a reason the gargoyles guard the Bridge of Souls that separate our worlds from the After Worlds. They’re a giant collection of realms. The very worst dimensions—far worse than any we have in the hell kingdom—house the monsters that the gods and elders put there for us to forget. You would basically need a god’s permission to find Gilly.”

“Then let’s go grab a god.”

She grins, a sad and brittle smile. “The only ones I know of are sleeping in the Valley of the Gods.”

“There’s no way to portal in? I mean, that’s how those snake monsters stole her.”

Nic goes quiet. “Even if we knew exactly where she was in those specific pits—which we don’t—you’d need a supercharged portal. We’re talking one that requires the King of Hell’s blood or a direct descendant.”

“Awesome. You’re a direct descendant. Get to summoning a portal.”

She shakes her head. “Use your big scientist brain and think through what that means. Very few people could have been behind my sister’s disappearance. My father says he didn’t authorize the portal at Gilly’s manor. I didn’t. Theo didn’t so?—”

Horror crawls across my senses, and sour bile floods my mouth. “You mean Gilly called up that portal and got herself taken?”

Nic blinks wide eyes at me. “No. Theo said she was as shocked as he was. Even more so. We considered my dad could have some bastard kids running around, siblings we don’t know about. But he and my mom are fated mates. They can’t cheat on each other.”

Wait. Back the fuck up. Being a fated mate comes with a biological fidelity clause? Nope. Don’t have time for that right now. “So what did you and Theo—” my apparently faithful mate who doesn’t talk to me—“decide?”

“Our dad hasn’t been well lately. Gilly tracked his behavior. He tends to lose touch with reality around the same times as the dimensional doors open. We hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility, but now that a portal that should’ve been impossible to unlock has sprung wide open, we have to. Theo and I believe our dad’s somehow subconsciously authorizing gateways to come online.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t expected the conversation to veer into some kind of portal psychosis. “If your dad loses control, that’d be a bad thing, right?”

“Averybad thing. Especially now that he disowned Theo as his heir. The kingdom would descend into pandemonium, anarchy would reign supreme, and the hell dimensions would become complete chaos. Other worlds would follow since the unrest in one realm tends to bleed into the others.”

My throat goes tight, and I can’t swallow the sudden lump stuck there. “Well, shit.”

“Yep.”

Yeah, I can’t focus on that. “Sooowhy can’t we launch a search and rescue for Gilly if we know what dimension she’s in? You could portal us in and?—”

“Dimensions are big places. Think about the size of the human realm where you came from.”

“As in the Earth?”

“As in galaxies but full of monsters so evil that they were locked away by gods who basically fucked with demons, humans, and any other species they could torment before most of them—thankfully—went to their rest in realms like the Valley of the Gods. Thosegodscouldn’t control these monsters.”

“Damn.” So much for going special-forces extreme with a grab and go rescue mission for Gilly. “I don’t have any news to report on the science front.”

“Not surprising when you’re trying to apply science to magic. You already cracked a botanical type of alchemy in the short time you’ve been bonded with my brother. Talk about centuries worth of progress in weeks. Maybe cut yourself some slack.”

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