Page 65 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“I’m not a bad teacher,” he hissed. “You’re just an incompetent student!”

“Ugh!” Frustration and anger boiled over inside me, and without stopping to think, I lashed out.

My power erupted out of me like a lightning bolt, aimed straight for Lucifer.

With a negligent wave of his hand, he deflected the blow, not even deigning to go for an evasive maneuver.

Breath going fast, I stared in dawning horror. I’d just attacked Lucifer.

But instead of ripping off my head—metaphorically, since he needed me alive—he said, “That’s a start. You focused your power on me alone and didn’t let it explode like a supernova. You’ll still need to work on your precision, though. Your aim was off. Not to mention you signaled your move so clearly that you might as well have shouted at me”—the next part came out in a perfect rendition of my own voice—“?‘Excuse me, good sir, if it might not inconvenience you too much, I’ll be attacking you shortly, all right?’?”

I gaped at him in outrage. “Now, hold up, I don’t sound like that!”

“Yes, you do, and it’s annoying.” He curled his lip.

“I can’t even,” I muttered and turned away with my hands on my hips.

“Now try to heal your hound again, or do you enjoy having her sit here in pain?”

I pivoted back with my hands raised and imagining I was throttling the fuck out of him. “That’s so not fair,” I ground out.

“I will not coddle you,” he snapped in response. “With your amount of power, you need proper training, and that means not cutting you any slack. You’re a walking, ticking bomb of epic proportions, and if you don’t learn to control your magic, you’ll end up hurting those you care about.”

My heart pinched as I looked at Venny, who was watching me and Lucifer with two of her heads. The third was eating dirt.

He was right, dammit. I knew that, and I knew this was not the time to be contrary.

“Okay,” I said softly and laid my hand on Vengeance’s flank again.

Her tail wagged happily, and one of her heads licked over my arm.

I could do this. I could concentrate my thoughts long enough to?—

“Just focus,” Lucifer said with a touch of impatience.

My fingers dug into Venny’s shaggy fur, and I sent him a dark look. “You don’t know what it’s like in my head.”

“Oh, I’m getting a good idea.”

I bared my teeth. “I want to choke you.”

“Save that for yourprivatetime with Azazel,” Lucifer said with irritating nonchalance. “I’m not interested in you that way.”

“Oh, my God.” Gritting my teeth, I laid my head on Venny’s back and closed my eyes. On an impulse, I said, “Samael thought you were.”

At the following silence, I peered at him. He was giving me a quizzical look.

“He assumed you and I were…” I waved my hand vaguely and grimaced. “Lovers,” I choked out, disgust crawling over my skin.

Lucifer gagged, the reaction so genuine that I almost laughed.

“I’d be offended,” I drawled, “if the feeling weren’t mutual.”

“Why would he think that?” he asked with a sneer.

“I don’t know, maybe because you’ve been giving me preferential treatment? Apparently, the only reason that would make sense to him is that I’m your new squeeze.” An involuntary shudder wrecked me at those last words.

Lucifer studied me with a pensive expression. “You haven’t told him about your mission?”

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