Page 47 of All's Hell That Ends Well

Exhibit A of cat power.

Venny had long ago learned what it felt like to get a paw to the face, claws extended.

I blinked at the hellcat in front of me. Something was off. My first clue that this was not, in fact, Mephisto was the size. This feline here was a bit smaller. The second one was the face shape. More delicate, even more elegant than Mephisto’s, there was something almost soft about the features.

“Who are you?” I blurted out.

The cat sniffed.You don’t recognize me?

That voice was decidedlyfemale. I squinted at the feline. Had I ever seen her before? I rifled through my memories, trying to recall whether I’d ever interacted with a female hellcat to any degree.

Then my eyes widened as it hit me.

“It can’t be,” I whispered.

Her eyes half closed to slits, she looked at me with the feline equivalent of a smile.You gave me a name once. Before I was permitted to have one.

I sucked in a breath. “Purrsephone.”

One of Mephisto’s kittens!

Her feline smile deepened.You used to throw me into the air and catch me again when I flew back to you.

A laugh escaped me, the memory of those moments coming back to me. “I did, yes. It was so much fun.” I laid my hands on my cheeks, grinning like an idiot. “Oh, my God, you were so small and cute, and now you’re all grown up and such a beautiful cat!”

She slow-blinked at me.How beautiful?

My grin widened. “The prettiest cat I ever did see. A queen among peasants. So sleek and graceful!”

She made a show of stretching, her back arching and her wings extending to their full width, and the light of the chandelier played over her silky-looking black fur. Then she padded closer, bumped her head into my hip, and rubbed against my legs.

The maneuver almost made me lose my balance. She was a good bit bigger than a regular house cat.

You may pet, she purred, leaning into me with an expectant expression.

Well, no one ever had to tell me twice to touch a cat. In fact, when I’d been human, I’d totally foreseen myself one day petting one of the big cats you really should not caress, because—why not friend if friend-shaped?

So I lowered my hand to touch her sleek fur, stroking a line from her head over her back, my fingers gliding through the narrow spot between her wings. Her purr rose in the air, the vibration traveling through my hand, up my arm, and into every cell of my body.

Remembering how she liked it when I scratched the area between her wings—that spot was apparently like the one right in front of the tail, sending cats into nirvana—I gave her a good massage there. Immediately, her eyes almost closed, and after a few seconds, she did a flop, throwing herself onto the floor in front of me.

I went with her, stroking through her silken fur, so lost in the enjoyment of petting her that I noticed too late that she’d rolled and presented her belly to me—and my hands wereright there, all pushed up against her soft underside.

I froze and stared.

She froze and stared.

Our gazes met, and in that instant, we both knew—by cat law, she should be clawing the shit out of me right now.

Her eyes narrowed.I am going to allow it. This one time.

“Okay.” I nodded with wide eyes.

She looked daggers at me.No one can know.

“No, of course not.” I vigorously shook my head.

Not a word to my father.Her paws, which had just made air biscuits, showed gleaming black claws.And do not tell that demon of yours.

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