Page 12 of All's Hell That Ends Well

I quickly made my way inside, hurrying past the enclosures with the other dogs, who were in a state of agitation, though none made as much noise as the hound at the very end of the spacious hall. A demon stood before Vengeance’s cage, and I greeted my kennel master with a nod.

“What is going on?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the heart-stopping howl of Vengeance.

Hael turned to me with a stricken expression, his dark hair pulled back into a tight knot. “Your Highness,” he said and went down on one knee, only to rise again right away. “I do not know. She’s been like this for minutes now.”

He gestured at the huge enclosure, which was furnished with all the trappings a hound could possibly want, and at the dog in question, who was currently trying her best to dig her way out through the stone floor while baying and howling at the top of her lungs. Her claws had already raked deep grooves in the ground.

We’d had to put her here after Zoe had died. I would have kept her close and given her whatever comfort I could offer in the absence of her beloved mistress, but Vengeance had been inconsolable, unmanageable, and bent on destroying everything in her path in her distress. After she’d trashed my personal quarters twice, I’d made the hard decision to send her back to Hael and the kennels.

I visited her regularly, had tried to take her out for walks and play, but for the most part, she’d ignored me.

She’d never beenmyhound, and I wasn’t the one she needed or wanted.

“In all these years,” Hael continued, “she’s never been this excited and active. Not since…” He trailed off and lowered his gaze.

Not since Zoe had been gone.

Vengeance now attempted to jump over the high fence of her enclosure, her baying more desperate by the minute.

“She broke out once, didn’t she?” I asked, my gaze on the hound.

“Yes, Your Highness. That was when the lady returned from Lucifer’s palace after she’d been gone for a few days.”

My eyes flicked to Hael, my chest drawing tight with dread.

Vengeance howled so loud it rattled the massive bars of her kennel, and my gaze shot back to her.It can’t be…

“If you had to label the nature of her baying,” I said to Hael, crossing my arms, “would you say it is mournful?” I raised my brows. “Or happy?”

Hael cleared his throat. “She is currently crying out in cheerful greeting, Your Highness.”

My stomach sank to the floor.

No, this couldn’t be true. She couldn’t be here—my mother would have sent word. I hadn’t received a message, and it had only been a few days since I’d left Heaven and returned to Hell.

Vengeance did her best to climb out of her enclosure, her claws scoring the stone walls.

Pivoting, I signaled one of the other demons working the kennels. “Get me the cat.”

“Your Highness?”

“Mephistopheles,” I specified. “Find him and tell him to come here.”

“Right away, Your Highness.” The demon bowed her head and dashed off.

“What do you intend to do?” Hael asked.

I watched Vengeance’s three heads trying to chew through the bars of her cage, each of which was as wide as a mature tree trunk and made of Hell’s hardest steel. “We’re going to let her loose.”

Hael drew back as if shocked with electricity. “Pardon?”

“There is a reason she wants to run,” I muttered, my heart thrumming madly. “And the cat will follow so we know where she goes.”

After a moment of hesitation, my kennel master shifted his weight and asked, “You don’t think…?”

“Yes,” I said, swallowing past a dry throat and a massive lump of anxiety lodged in my chest, “I do.” My eyes on the hound howling to return to her mistress, I voiced what should be an impossibility, what threatened to destroy the future I’d worked so hard to achieve. “Zoe is back here in Hell. Claimed by someone else.”

CHAPTER 5

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