Page 42 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

Connor rolled his eyes at me while shaking his head in what I thought looked a lot like humorous exasperation. But I’d like to note that although he found me exasperating, he slowed down, too. We moved down a hallway that I’d never been in before, obviously, since I’d only ever been down the hallway that led to Luc’s office.

The farther away from Luc’s office we walked, the grumpier the faces of the people or demons around us grew. It both said good things about Luc and bad things about the others who ran Hades.

Eventually, we hit a set of stairs that appeared to head down into a basement. “Do I want to know what’s in the basement of hell?” I asked.

“In this case, you do.” He tugged me to get moving along with him down the steps. The stone walls on either side gave off a rotten egg smell. I fanned my hand in front of my nose. “Ugh… no more chicken for you. Bad dog.”

He glared. I snickered. Quietly, of course.

“Connor, where are you taking me?”

He didn’t answer until we reached the bottom step, which opened into a kind of narrow hallway made of stone that seeped water from the water table and left puddles on the ground. “Catacombs.”

I stared at him, approvingly. “Are you breaking the rules?” I asked giddy that he not only totally got me in Luc’s office, but he went off script for me. “I mean, didn’t Luc say you couldn’t use these until the end of your shift?” So I really didn’t think my look back in Luc’s office would work on Connor as much as annoy him. Score one for Simone.

“Luc doesn’t have a mate who was attacked tonight.”

“Aw, Connor Baghest, does this mean you like me?”

“Not by choice,” he deadpanned and I threw my head back laughing but quickly covered my mouth to keep others from hearing us. He pulled me in for a quick kiss before leading us into the hallway.

“Wow, you really do like my booty, to go all rogue guardian.” I bumped his hip with mine.

“I’ve had worse.”

“And by worse, you mean everyone who wasn’t me?”

“If you absolutely need that confirmation to massage your ego.”

“Massage me harder, baby.”

“Not joking, babe. Stay close to me and stay alert. We’re heading into Sat’s quadrant. He’s a nasty piece of work.”

“Sat?” I asked. Connor stared at me, lips pursed, waiting for it to click. Then it clicked. “Sat? Do you mean Satan?”

“There you go.”

“Give me a break. We aren’t all on a nickname basis with underlords.”

“Man acts like a tyrannical Goodfella.”

“Um… yikes!”

“Ever wonder why that part of the world has historically seen so many wars?”

I wrinkled my nose.

“Exactly.”

“I thought Satan and Lucifer were one and the same,” I said while it hit me that we were actually heading intoSatan’squadrant.

He shook his head. “Nope. That’s something the mortals got wrong. Although, some theologians got it right. There’re a few lists floating around.” Then he put a finger to his lips.

I nodded and kept in step right beside him as he led me through the maze of dank tunnels. Finally, we hit a stairwell.

“I need you to make it so they can’t see us,” Connor said, stopping me before ascending the steps. “Probably better if they can’t sense us, either. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll do my best.” Then I began to think the words:“Don’t let them see us. Don’t let them sense us.”I chanted those over and over in my head.

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