Page 46 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“With all due respect,” I said, hands on my hips, “what was I supposed to do? Samael was picking a fight, and I simply gave it to him. I’m not going to let him shove me around.”

“As well you shouldn’t,” Lucifer muttered, and I might have died of surprise that he was backing me here. “But you need to learn control and precision. With the amount of power you carry, if you keep flailing around like a clumsy toddler, you’ll end up hurting yourself more than your opponents.”

“Excuse me!” I gasped.Clumsy toddler?

“Exploding like that is a disgrace to your potential,” he said with a curl to his lip. “You want to cut your enemy down with the precision of a scythe, not come in like a wrecking ball.”

Dammit, now that Miley Cyrus song was stuck in my head.

“Report back to me tomorrow.” He waved his hand. “You’re in dire need of training.”

I stared at him for a few ticking seconds, my brain not quite computing. “Are you saying that you’lltrainme? You yourself?”

He gave me a flat look. “Seeing as I’m one of the few whom your power won’t be able to accidentally obliterate, yes, it will be me who trains you.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, I really didn’t want to spend more time in Lucifer’s presence than strictly necessary. On the other, though, being trained by the most powerful being in Hell would beveryadvantageous. And I had to admit that I did indeed need instruction on how to use my new strength with more control. When I’d been an angel, I’d never wielded my innate power all that much because it had been negligibly small. Combat training had needed to focus more on my physical skills.

But that had changed now, and much like Naamah, I could probably rely more on using my magic to fight.

So I bowed and simply said, “Yes, Your Grace.”

“Take your hound with you.” He nodded at Vengeance, who was sitting next to me. “She’s yours again for the week.”

“Thank you for taking care of her,” I said and inclined my head.

“She’s…peculiar.” His brows were drawn together, his face thoughtful as he looked at her.

Two of Vengeance’s heads were currently fighting over who got to chew on her own tail. The third nibbled on her right front paw.

I bit my lip. “She’s special, yes.”

“I’ve never seen a hound this clumsy, yet capable of shredding a dragon carcass within a few minutes.”

My eyes widened.

“She’s very competent.” He waved me off. “Now go.”

With another deep bow, I left, Vengeance trotting at my heels.

First order of business back in my suite was to find a way to send Azazel a message. I summoned a pen and paper and wrote a short note, basically just “I’m back, come see me, xoxo Zoe,” then I stuck it in an envelope and sealed it with wax I found in an old desk that had miraculously survived the waves of destruction brought upon by Lucifer’s wrath years ago.

Now I just had to flag down a demon to play courier.

Which might prove a bit difficult, seeing as I had no idea whom to trust in this palace. Not that this message was top secret or gave away some sort of damning information, but still. I very much wanted to be sure that my note would actually be delivered.

Tapping the letter against my lips, I eyed Vengeance. Could I send her? Would she understand what I wanted from her? She was smart, but by that much?

If only Mephisto were here, I could totally rope him into playing messenger for me again.

I peered up at the gloom-shrouded ceiling. “Mephisto?” I asked hopefully.

A soft rustle came from above, like wings unfolding and refolding, followed by the sound of claws on stone.

My heart sped up, and I made a small hop in excitement. He was actually here!

The next moment, a sleek black creature flew down from the ceiling in a quick flap of wings, landing right in front of me.

Vengeance whined, the hellcat hissed, and my hound of several hundred pounds and the size of a small rhinoceros tucked her tail and backed away, her heads bowed.

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