Page 56 of Eternal Sacrifice
The carpet faded into smooth, worn wood flooring like the one in the hunting cabin. The piano my grandmother gave me sat inside a nook dedicated as space for the instrument. It left the main floor wide open. The far wall was made entirely out of bookshelves, and I walked over to look at the spines, but I already knew what I would find. All my favorite books sat on the shelves, includingDark Prophecy. The last book in the Prophecy series by N.A. Jameson.
I snatched it off the shelf, eager to find out how in the hell Alana planned to beat Summer after dying four times. At least she had a demon in her harem as well. If I wasn’t happily mated, Cyrus would have caught my eye too.
My eyes scanned through the rest of the titles, noticing several new ones. At least Hell gave me a happy place to retreat whenever I needed space and comfort.
“Oh! This is my gallery,” I said to Hell. “Thank you.”
I saw a woven basket overflowing with blankets and pillows. My fingers flicked them into the center of the room, twirling them into a nest Justice would have approved of before I settled in, book in hand.
Time slipped away from me as I devoured page after page. I loved to lose myself in a story, and I was able to do just that. Despite being gone long enough to finish the entire book, none of the guys had called for me.
A groan tore through me as I stretched inside the bundle of blankets and pillows. I felt like the tin man stuck in the rain too long, and I pulled my arm across my chest for a deep stretch but wound up pulling my shoulder out of its socket instead.
I sighed, the popping sensation helping to relieve the tension. My limp arm hung at my sides while my body hurried to fit everything back in place. I got to my feet, deciding to head back toward the others.
The hallway outside my gallery was just as empty as when I arrived. My mind was still whirling from the book, and I made blind turns through the hallways until I nearly bumped into another demon.
A slow smile crept across Beelzebub’s face. His gaze slid to either side of me as if double-checking that I was, in fact, alone.
“Morrigan, my dear. I missed your presence at the meeting earlier. Then again, I would imagine things like that would be boring to someone as young as you.”
“Lucifer was far from young and just as bored. Perhaps it is the company and not the content of the discussions,” I countered.
Beelzebub chuckled, his hand stroking his salt and peppered beard. “The more time I spend with you, the more I like you.”
“That’s funny. I seem to have the opposite reaction.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
His smile faded, but didn’t completely vanish.
“As always, it was a pleasure.” He tipped his head toward me before returning to the way he came.
I let him disappear down an adjoining hallway before I resumed my trek. I made it to the bedroom to find it empty.
“Guys?”
“There she is!”Justice’s voice washed over my mind, excited and nearly vibrating.
“I found my gallery and the last book in my favorite series. Time got away from me, it seems.”
“That sounds a lot better than the meetings we sat through today. We are sitting at the bar in DÆD if you want to join us,”Jax said.
I wanted to tell him I ran into his father, but decided to wait. That and give them the same gift they had given me today.
“You guys have fun. I think I’m staying in the bedroom for the rest of the evening.”I felt my connections to each of them through the bonds inside me. They hummed in contentment. “Make good choices.”
I flopped down, face-first, onto my oversized bed. The blanket suffocated me with comfort while I tried to decide what to do with the rest of my evening.
As if answering me, I heard faint whispers in the air.
My eyes slid toward the war room. The Book of Knowledge was calling to me from Lucifer’s hidden compartment. I shoved my face deeper into the blanket, hoping to shut the sound out. Despite my attempts, the whispers still reached me, coming not through my ears but directly into my head.
I growled into the mattress before getting up, heading into the war room, and sitting at Lucifer’s desk. The touch of my finger opened the drawer, and I reached in. My hand wrapped around worn leather, and I pulled Lucifer’s diary from the depths before closing the drawer. Hopefully, the whispers would get the point and decide to shut the fuck up.
I placed the diary on the smooth wooden top of the desk, imagining Lucifer in my place as he sat down in the evenings. The journal looked modest, but the pages felt never ending as I swiped through the eons.
Lucifer had ended each day with a journal entry.
I intentionally flipped to the last page of the journal, finding it blank. I flipped a page back and was greeted by Lucifer’s swirling, flowing lines.
