Page 109 of Chaos
“The next Prince was released,” Malice answered for me.
“That’s four. Fucking hell.”
“Oh shit, you know it’s bad when Grim sounds frustrated.” I could feel the heat coming off the trail of fire. It reminded me a bit of that one time I tried tanning. Warm, but not unbearable. Still doing plenty of damage.
“We made it one full cycle without them finding us. That’s got to count for something,” Malice said.
“Only if it continues to be the case,” Chaos replied.
“You think their odds are better now that there are more of them?” Grim asked.
“More Princes means more Knights means a fuck ton more creatures looking for us. That’s a lot of ground they can cover.”
“The wards are strong,” Christian offered. “I set them myself.”
“How strong?” Grim wasted no time with platitudes. It was one of the things I liked about him.
“Strong enough they keep strangers from finding this place. No one stumbles upon the château.”
A stream of water had begun slipping past us and toward the nearby pond, the seemingly meaningless detail calling my attention to the melting snow. “Hey, would you look at that. I guess no one can deny global warming anymore.” I nudged Malice with my elbow.
He glared at me. “Not the time to get political, Sinclair.”
“If not now, when?” I shot back.
Shaking his head, Mal returned his attention to Christian. “What do you need in order to strengthen the protection we have? Not allowing us to be accidentally found is well and good, but we need this to be a fortress. The Knights are powerful. The Princes more so. They’ve no doubt been combing the world looking for us, and it’s only a matter of time before they find Merri.”
“They aren’t the ones I’m worried about,” Grim admitted.
Malice shot him a questioning look.
“Lucifer,” he answered. “He’s been too quiet. He’s up to something. Scheming and plotting. There’s no way he’s leaving the fate of this apocalypse in any hands but his own.”
“I will do what I can to shore up the wards, messieurs. You have my word. But... if it is Lucifer himself we are hiding from, I can only do so much. He is very powerful.” Christian’s face had gone deathly pale as he spoke.
Clearly he didn’t love the idea of the Prince of Darkness showing up on his doorstep.
Same, buddy.
“Notify me as soon as it is done,” Malice ordered before Christian nodded curtly and left us.
“You’re bossy,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Great. Glad we established that. So what the hell are we going to do about this situation? Merri isn’t going to like it, and she’s not exactly safe here until we know those wards are at full strength.”
“So?” Chaos asked, startling me.
“What the fuck do you mean, so?”
“That’s been the case since the day we brought her to Grim’s penthouse, and it's not going to change no matter what the fuck we do. Lucifer and his pets are hunting her. Period. We can add as many wards as we want, but one day, probably sooner than later, he’s going to find her. She’s too important to his end goal.”
“That’s why we have to get her pregnant,” Grim said, little tendrils of darkness pooling around his feet and hands, betraying how upset he was. “She’s useless to him as soon as that comes to pass.”
“I’m just gonna say the thing we’ve been ignoring, even though you guys aren’t going to like it,” I blurted.
Malice’s gaze swung to me. “What thing?”
