Page 14 of Fallen Demon

“Frustrated.” I hugged Lacey next. “How about you? Have you found anything?”

“We’ve been researching almost nonstop since you left,” Lacey said, “but when we think we find something, another book says something completely different.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Like, one book said the fiery pits aren’t literal; it can mean the underworld in general, while another said the fiery pits is one single place where evil souls go to burn. And a third book said the fiery pits are several places, one more horrible than the other.”

“There’s no consensus on any information we’ve found so far,” Abbie said.

“This sucks.” I let out a long breath. “King Tanner is coming tonight. I haven’t seen him in a while, but I’m sure he’ll talk to me about this if I ask. As king, he might know the underworld better than anyone.”

The girls nodded.

Tired of being stuck in this library, though it was a pretty impressive one, I took the girls on a quick tour through the castle.

Outside the library, we bumped into Erin and Rey, who the girls had already met. This time, Harvey, Ava, Claire, Harper, Doreen, and Andre, all demon hunters and close friends, accompanied them.

We stopped for a quick hi and introductions, but they continued toward their suites as the maid seemed eager to keep moving.

A few minutes later, while we were walking through winding corridors of the castle and admiring the beautiful artwork, we ran into Hazel, Sean, Evelyn, and Ash, and three others I didn’t know.

The girls had met Evelyn and Ash, but not the others. I introduced the girls, and jokingly told them Hazel was the one who messed up the summoning spell and bound me to Levi. She was mortified, but Lacey reassured her it was for the best. That I had been a blessing to Levi.

Even if he was now in the underworld because of me.

Then Hazel told us about the other three: Brita, Anna, and Shade. Brita and Anna were witches and sisters, who had been alive for over five hundred years, and had been best friends with Hazel in her first life. Shade was Hazel’s familiar, and he had been in her first life too.

Insane.

I asked them if they had heard from Kaz. I had given his number to Drake, and he said he tried calling, but Kaz wasn’t answering.

“He’s not coming,” Evelyn said. She was a rare light witch with dark magic who could sense and use dragon magic. She had tried gaining the dragon shifters’ trust, but that was a challenging thing to do. “I called him too, he didn’t answer, but he texted back saying he was busy.”

It was a shame the only dragon shifter we knew—those two old geezers that had been with Kaz last time I saw him didn’t count—couldn’t make the meeting. Kaz probably thought they were protected from any other evil in the world seeing as they lived on a hidden magical island. Hopefully, he was right.

We continued the tour for several more minutes and had made it to the maze, before bumping into Lord Drake, Queen Thea, and little Aurora.

“Lord Drake, Queen Thea, Princess Aurora, this is Abbigail, keeper of the Great Eternity Hall, her sister Magnolia, and Lacey, Levi’s sister.”

Drake shook Abigail’s hand. “I’ve been at the Great Eternity Hall before. Long ago. The keeper’s name was Alyssa.”

Abbie nodded. “My great-grandmother.”

I stared at the vampire. “You’ve been at the hall before?”

“A couple of times, actually,” he said.

“Sounds like an interesting place,” Thea said.

“Well, you’re invited to come for a visit,” Abbie told them.

“I would like that.” Thea glanced at Aurora. “Wouldn’t you?”

Aurora fixed her big green eyes on Abbie. “You’re different.”

Abbie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Your magic,” the girl said. “It’s ancient, carried from generation to generation. And powerful.” Aurora tugged at Thea’s skirts. “Mommy, she’s probably more powerful than you.”

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