Page 142 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“What the—” I flailed. “I swear, if one more person—angel—demon—pulls a surprise box on me?—”

Belial clicked on the unlocking button, and the box sprang open. A flash of white light, then…

“Ughhhh,no onetold me how fucking weird it is to be stuffed in there!” The ghostly form of Taylor shook herself as if to get rid of an icky feeling, her strawberry-blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, with lovely bangs framing her face. “It’s stifling! Totally disorienting. Honestly, you should warn a girl, okay?”

“Tay?” I asked in a squeaky voice, frozen in place.

She turned to me, and her face lit up like a kid seeing a Christmas tree. “Z! Omigod, come here!”

The next instant, I found myself dragged into a crushing hug. I uttered a choked sound, partly because Tay was fucking strong and actually managed to squeeze me within an inch of my life—metaphorically, of course, since I was now pretty hardy as a demon—and partly because emotion strangled me.

“Aaaaah, it’s so good to see you, girl!” Tay jerk-rocked me from side to side, not unlike a dog would with its favorite toy. “And even better to hug you! I can touch you now!”

“Please don’t do so in inappropriate places,” Mammon interjected from the side. “Her mate is very territorial. Much to my chagrin.”

“Mammon,” I groaned.

Releasing me, Tay gave me a brilliant smile. “I can’t believe this is actually happening.”

I shook my head to clear it. “I can’t believe you’re here. As a ghost. Wait—have you died?” I rounded on Mammon, my wings flaring behind me. “You promised she was safe and sound!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mammon held up his hands.

Tay clapped a hand over her mouth. “Zoe, your wings are amazeballs!”

“Before you hurt Mammon,” Belial spoke up, “let me explain. Taylor is not dead. What you see is not her afterlife spirit, but the astral form of her soul. It’s the same thing you did when you were a human and traveled from Hell to Earth. Her body is safely asleep at home.”

My mouth agape, I pivoted to stare at Tay. “You managed astral projection?”

“What, like it’s hard?” Tay put one hand on her hip and gave me her best Elle Woods impression.

I stuttered out a laugh. “My God, I’ve missed you so much.”

“Tell me about it.” She pulled me into another quick hug. “Eight fucking years without you, Z. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

“I’ll do my very best not to,” I whispered.

“So,” she said as she let me go. “What’s that I hear about you being Queen of Hell? I barely got used to the news of you having turned into a demon, and the next thing I know, you run the place! Not that I doubt whether you’re qualified for it—if anyonecan whip that joint into shape, it’s you. But how did all that happen?”

I glanced at Belial, then grabbed her by the elbow and led her away a few paces. In a hushed voice, I said, “First, you need to tell me what’s going on with you and Mr. Messenger over there. Last time we spoke, you promised you wouldn’t summon him anymore, and now he carried you here in a box. Did you command him to do that? Are you still summoning him? If he gives you any trouble, just tell me, and I’ll take care of it. I’m his queen now. I can have him hanging upside down in our dungeon while hellrats munch on his guts. Just say the word, Tay. I can rip off his wings, too. I still need to grow my collection.”

Taylor leaned away from me and looked me up and down. “First of all, I’m loving this fierce side of you.” She gestured from my head to my toes. “Super badass. Bloodthirsty. Vengeful. Me likey. Secondly, I never promised I’d stop summoning him. I said the exactopposite. But—” She forestalled my impending protest with a raised finger. “Never to worry, because that boo is hooked on me. Won’t harm a hair on my head. He’s really not into that domestic violence shit.”

I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Even if nothing has gone wrong in eight years of summoning him, that doesn’t mean—wait, what?”

Tay’s grin was slow and wicked. “Uh-huh. You heard that right.”

“You—” I gasped for air, then turned in the direction of Belial and flailed at him. “He—” Wheeling back to Taylor, I wildly gestured between both. “You two?—”

“We’re an item,” she said and winked.

I let my arms fall at my sides. “You’re in love?”

Beaming at me, she nodded. “He worships the ground I walk on, Z. I never knew what this was like, until him. It was a rocky road in the beginning, but this”—she gestured between herand him—“has been going for seven years now. It’s been truly amazing. He’s everything I ever hoped and wished for.”

“That’s…I don’t know what to say, except”—I filled my lungs and then shouted—“Taylor Marie Parker!You’re having sex with a demon?”

Tay broke into giggles at my quote of the exact way she’d once reacted to the news of Azazel and me being married when I’d first visited her from Hell.

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