Page 83 of House of Demons and Bones

Sy nodded in agreement.My sugar doesn’t have a single scar. He’s perfection.

Please.The cat rolled his eyes.

“Since now,” I said. The hellcat purred, gazing at me in adoration before turning to hiss at Rowan. “Put away the sword,sugar. Even if you attack him, you won’t win. The hellcat is actually very friendly. He just doesn’t like strangers, which is totally understandable. Aren’t we all like that?”

No sleeping over for him!The hellcat gave Rowan one last indignant glare before trotting into the house, tail held high.

Of course. He must follow your rules.I followed the cat inside. Rowan muttered something under his breath as he fell into step behind me. A couple of demons tried to dash in after us, but the hellcat swished his tail, slamming the door shut. He even tossed out the demon who lingered in the doorway.

The interior of the demon house stretched up to impossible heights, its walls a fusion of blackened steel and volcanic glass. Ivory pillars rose from the floor around a vast inverted pentagram on black marble, its lines precise and cruel.

The demonic power made Rowan whisper under his breath, and the hellcat turned to hiss at him.

The demon house was just as sentient as the other five houses in Shades Academy. After meeting the hellcat, I reveled in how magic had borders and wrote its own rules.

As we ventured on, orbs of malevolent hellfire drifted through the air. Even with streams of hellfire coursing through the house’s framework like blood through veins, an unnatural chill crept through the space.

With limited time, I skipped the exploring and headed straight for the ivory-and-ebony stairs reserved for the queen.

Though Killian had refused to step into the Underworld, he’d visited the House of Demons when Lilith set up the sixth house here. I’d memorized the floor plan drawn by him, so I knew exactly where we were going, and somehow, I didn’t think the hellcat would stop me. He seemed more interested in playing conspirator, curious to see what I’d do next.

The hellcat was a naughty boy.

Our steps echoed in the empty space. The hall barely had any furniture. There was no bar and no lounge area, unlike the other houses, as if the entire demon house was ready to pack up and leave at any moment.

During our clash with the Shriekers, we’d uncovered an ugly truth: demons could open portals outside the Veil. And whenthe Shriekers crumbled to dust, tens of thousands of demons had melted back into Hell—vanishing like a dark dream. It was unnerving. Shriekers were horror incarnate, but a demon army running wild in the realm?

I pushed back the dark, chilling thought and climbed the stairs quietly, and soon we reached the top floor. The fae, the hellcat, and I strolled down a long corridor lined with paintings of Hell’s landscapes until we reached an ivory door that shimmered with dark spells.

“It’s warded by blood,” I told Rowan as he paused beside me.

“You deflected my blood ward last time,” he said. “What’s stopping you now?”

I gestured for the hellcat to help me out, but he just sat on his haunches and licked his paw.

“This is a blood ward set by the Queen of the Underworld,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t know if I can break it.” I admitted that I was intimidated.

“You won’t know if you don’t try,” Rowan said.

“Easy for you to say,” I retorted. “I have to givemyblood.”

Shedding blood in a demon house was never smart.

“I don’t mind giving my blood, but I doubt it’ll suffice,” he said.

I sighed again and let my fangs sprout out.

Rowan blinked. “You got fangs too?”

“Surprise,” I said, piercing my palm with a fang before pressing my bloody hand against the ward.

The shimmer dimmed and the lock clicked. Rowan gave me an appraising look before he turned the handle. When it didn’t resist, he let out a breath of relief and quickly pushed the door open. Then he strode in first to make sure the coast was clear. Ever since learning that Sy and I cohabitated, he’d gotten protective of us both. If I got damaged, so would Sy. He’d beenvery tense even before we reached the demon house, ready to pounce at the smallest threat.

The door clicked shut behind us. The hellcat hadn’t followed.

Rowan and I traded stunned looks at the queen’s outer study. The space barely met noble standards, let alone royal ones. Just an ordinary wooden table flanked by two folding chairs—minimalism taken to extremes.

The only marker of status was the floor-to-ceiling window that commanded a view of the shimmering Veil beyond.

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