Page 42 of Witch Queen

The sorcerer looked like he was trying hard not to curl a lip at the display of affection taking place before them.

Alicia approached.

“Hey, is that really Ilmon’s kid?!” a demon commander asked the Reaper queen in a stage whisper.

“Yeah.” Alicia swung her scythe onto her shoulder and cut her eyes to Astarte. “You should stop him. You know what happens when he gets emotional.”

“Why? What happens?” Cortes asked warily.

“He once flooded a city with his tears when he broke up with a girlfriend,” Astarte said absentmindedly.

Everyone except the Goddess stared at the tears rolling down Ilmon’s cheeks and the puddle forming by his feet. Cortes inched away from the Incubus king.

Mae chewed her lip. Vlad’s darkening expression indicated he was giving serious thought to dinging his father’s ear.

A demon commander started making gagging noises. The guy next to him looked pleadingly at the sulfurous clouds high above the valley and muttered, “Just kill me,” under his breath.

“Stop him before he turns this place into a lake!” another demon snapped at Astarte.

“Come now.” Astarte sighed heavily before going over to gently pat the Incubus king’s shoulder. “You’re embarrassing yourself in front of your son.”

“I don’t care,” Ilmon blubbered. “My little rabbit is finally home!”

He squeezed Vlad so hard the incubus choked.

“Christ,” Nikolai muttered with a disgusted expression.

Several demons sucked in air and eyed the sorcerer disapprovingly. A few made the sign of an inverted cross, like he’d said something blasphemous.

Alicia pinched the bridge of her skull when Ilmon’s sniveling intensified.

Astarte scowled. “For Hell’s sake, comport yourself like the king that you are!”

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

The wind whippedat Mae’s hair and chilled her face where she clung to Vannog’s back. Vozgan’s father was flying across an immense valley shrouded with mist, his giant wings eating the miles in seconds. The yellow haze swirling above the top of the dark forest they passed churned violently in his wake.

Mae shivered and hugged Brimstone to her chest, Nikolai a comforting, warm presence at her back.

It felt strange being cold in the Underworld. Then again, the place was nothing like any of them had imagined when they’d made the fateful decision to come here.

Instead of a realm of fire and ash filled with the screams of damned souls, Hell looked like a world from the Jurassic era stuck inside the bowels of the planet. It was a veritable maze of cavernous spaces big enough to house mountains and the largest human cities. As for its valleys, forests, deserts, oceans, lakes, and rivers, they dwarfed anything that could be found on Earth.

Artemus was right.Mae’s stomach roiled as she looked over Vannog’s flank toward a distant river of lava.This dimension is too vast and overwhelming for a mere human to comprehend.

You soon get used to it,Na Ri reassured her.

Nikolai tightened his hold around her waist when another shudder racked her body, his body heat seeping into her flesh.

They had spent a few hours resting in Arakiel’s palace after the battle outside his city had ended. The Second Leader of the Grigori turned out to be the cantankerous demon commander who’d looked like he wanted to barf at Ilmon’s show of affection toward his son.

As for the Incubus king, he had left shortly after meeting Vlad, but not before promising that they would soon reunite.

Mae had wondered if Barquiel was behind the army Astarte and her allies had fought, but the Goddess had told her otherwise. And her explanation had been nothing if not sobering.

“Satanael is consolidating his troops by forcibly absorbing demonic settlements,” the Goddess had explained with a troubled expression. “Most of these places are remote and well beyond his usual scope of operation. He’s left them alone for many a millennia.” She drummed her fingers on the armrest of her chair. “It seems his council has advised him that now is the time to start growing his forces again.”

“I bet you it was that son of a dung beetle, Oriens,” Arakiel sneered.

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