Page 31 of Cry for Help

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Stolas jabbed a finger in my direction. “You could have been picked up byanyone on the streets. Don’t you know what they do to humans out there?”

Why do you care?I crossed my arms over my chest and scoffed, looking away, feeling every inch the petulant teen I had been when I’d been locked away over a decade ago.

Stolas growled through gritted teeth. “That damned silence.” He threw his hands up in frustration, turning to Caim. “How much for the knowledge you hold, Caim?”

“You want to bargain, Prince of the Pit,” Caim’s lips ticked, his smile surprisingly subdued. “I’m almost insulted, Stolas. Are we not friends?”

“If we were friends, you would have offered me that language the moment you realized you could speak to her.” Stolas looked down his nose at Caim. “You’re having too much fun with this.”

Caim put his hand on his chest, offended. “Moi?” The horned demon shrugged. “I am Caim. I give voices to the unspoken so that they might understand the animals they hold beneath them. so they might listen to the screams of those they use or the flesh they eat.” Caim puffed his chest out. “I am of the oldest of Hell, just like you. Ars Goetia. We were bound together.”

“I can’t tell if you’re offended by his request or trying to rinse him for everything he’s worth.” Murmur pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

Caim looked right at me. “I’m only doing this because you kicked me in the balls.” He squinted, stepping forward before Stolas had a moment to react. With a simple flick, he left a mark on the center of Stolas's forehead—a burning sigil the size of a nickel. It shone red for a single moment and then dissolved. Caim shook his hand as if he’d singed his fingers before he sucked them into his mouth.

Caim grinned, but his skin had a shiny pallor that hadn’tbeen there a moment before.

My drunk mind struggled to parse together what had happened. Something magical, for sure; I’d recognize the burnt scent of ozone anywhere.

“So, I’m an animal.” I signed, giving Caim a dry look. “Is that how you can understand me, Caim? You’re Doctor Dolittle.” I had to finger-spell Dolittle, and my fingers were sloppy, slipping over one another as I tried to sign. I looked like a toddler playing with a cat’s cradle string.

Stola's eyes narrowed as he looked between Caim and me.

“Who is Doctor Dolittle?” Caim’s grin wobbled, and it was clear he needed rest. Whatever he’d done to Stolas had taken something from him.

Murmur shrugged, shaking his head. “Hell, if I know.”

Stolas turned to me. “Why did you leave?”

I shrugged.

Stolas stepped closer to the couch, his large, spindly body folding over mine like a spider’s web, as he pinned me to my seat. His nose was an inch from mine. “Tell me. Now.”

I exhaled a snort from my nostrils like an enraged bull. Fine. If he wanted me to tell him, I would. Not that he could understand me anyway. “You know what I am. You heard the Tailor.”

Stolas jerked back like he’d been struck. “What youare?”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re investigating those girls. The ones that were taken away at the border. The traffickers.You don’t want a maid. You want my magic. I’m telling you now, you don’t.”

Stolas’s mouth opened and closed. “I can understand you.”

I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms over my chest, and turned away.

“You thought it was a parlor trick?” Caim laughedsardonically. “Why do you think humans call me ‘The Giver of Knowledge’? I am Ars Goetia. You seem to have forgotten that.”

The raven cawed.

“Too right, Malphas.” Caim snapped his fingers, agreeing with whatever the bird had said. “Stolas thinks he’s the only one in the flock with a lick of magicandskill.”

I pressed my hand to my head, feeling my gorge rise as the whiskey in my system planned to purge itself. I stood up, racing for the bathroom before it even occurred to me that Caim had called the ravenMalphas.

Chapter Seven

Malphas POV

Malphas, once second in command to the Devil himself, sat on his perch and cleaned his feathers with his beak as the others argued about Maddie—the human being that had fallen in their laps like a boon and a burden at once.

They’d spoken of it for months. Of finding a companion.

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