Page 4 of Knotted
“Phinarax! I’m going to string you up by your balls and play pinata on your ass!” I yelled when I walked into Jasmine’s house. Jasmine and the girls were at a birthday party, but Phin was home and he was the one most likely to actually answer my questions. Candy may be a slave for Clover, but she was hardly warm and cuddly with the rest of us. Jax wasn’t capable of taking much of anything seriously. Phin was the most together of the demons and the one most likely to know about my new demon foe.
“Violet,” the tall demon came down the stairs with a wry smile. “I see you’re as sweet as usual. For what do I earn such threats of violence?”
“Asmodeus.” The bright red demon, who usually moved with easy grace, stumbled. He recovered quickly but I’d seen it and it tightened the ball of tension in my gut.
“So it’s true.” He stopped next to me and gestured toward the kitchen. I followed him in silence, questions swirling around my mind. “We’d wondered, of course. Buthe so rarely comes topside. I wasn’t sure anything would drive him out of his corner of Hell anymore.”
I lifted myself onto the barstool and accepted the cup of coffee Phin offered. It was black, which was barely tolerable, but I wanted the caffeine. Phin set a plate of muffins on the island before drawing up a stool next to me.
Phin was so comically domestic. From the moment he arrived, he’d been taking care of the house and he never stopped. He was the one who cooked and cleaned and handled laundry. Jasmine told me he even planned to take over child chauffeur duties when school started again in the fall. He was everything my friend needed and everything I wanted and hoped for. And while I was so happy Jasmine had him, it made the beast in my house a cruel blow.
He tried to feed you. That tiny, annoying voice in my brain said.
It was probably poison.I shot back. Not wanting to talk myself out of being angry.
“He’s why you’re here.” I said. It wasn’t a question. It was something I’d put together on my drive over and I knew in my bones I was right. Asmodeus had sent the other demons here. He’d made sure to manipulate them and my friends.
“He is my demon lord.” Phin hedged. “He was why I was sent, but Jasmine is what keeps me here.”
“Explain.” I needed to know. I needed to understand. Nothing about this demon deal/curse/spell made any kind of sense. There was nothing I could find to explain why it had happened the way it had happened. There was nothing in the spell book that should have tied us to a demon deal. I’d read it cover to cover and done so much research and nothing made sense.
“It’s complicated.”
“Lots of things are. Talk to me like I’m five and asking how babies are made.” Phin shuddered, and I bared my teeth in a feral grin. I knew Jasmine’s youngest had posed that question recently, and Phin was traumatized by the conversation.
Phin spun his coffee cup between his hands, claws scraping annoyingly against the ceramic. After what felt like an eternity, he took a deep breath and nodded.
“There are two kinds of demons. There are born demons and made demons. The born demons are very rare and very old. No new demons have been born in a millennia. Those demons are part of a caste system. Those of us turned into demons serve a born demon. Asmodeus is a demon lord, he answers to Lucifer directly.”
“What causes a demon to be made?” I asked before I could think of it. “Nevermind. That’s none of my business.”
Whatever had led to Phin being turned into a demon, he was a good man, a good partner, and a good father figure. It was all I needed to know about him.
“Thank you.” Phin took a large drink of coffee and went on. “There are few things that can unmake or release a demon. Demon lords can unmake a demon, which destroys their soul entirely. Poof, out of existence. They can also release a demon from their service. It doesn’t happen often, but it leaves the demon free from overlord control.”
“Were you released?” I needed to know. I needed to know that the demon my friend loved wasn’t going to disappear on her one day and leave her heartbroken.
“Of a sort.” He was back to spinning his mug between his hands. “Technically, I am still in the service of Asmodeus. But the oversight is kind of like being on parole.So long as I keep out of trouble, he doesn’t care much what I’m doing.”
I picked up a muffin for something to do with my hands as I thought about that. It didn’t mean Phin, or the others were free, but hopefully it meant my friends were safe for now. My shoulders sagged in relief as I thought about them living their happy ever afters. It also meant I was probably right in assuming this was how the devil would claim us. I thought about asking Phin his opinion, but there was something else I needed to know more.
“What did you mean when you said it’s true? What’s true?” I picked the blueberries out of the top of the muffin and dropped them on a napkin I snagged from the center of the island. I liked blueberries, but my stomach was too upset to eat and I needed to keep my hands busy or I was going to lose my mind.
“There’s been chatter about your demon deal. Thousands of offers come through every day and the demon lords ignore them. They really don’t care about the daily happenings on Earth. They’re too busy dealing with politics in Hell and keeping their legions in line. So answering your plea is already highly irregular. Then he started sending us up.”
Phin paused and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. It was an endearing gesture and almost had me telling him to forget it, but I couldn’t. I needed to know.
“The three of us aren’t what you would call top-tier demons. We’re kind of misfits, for a variety of reasons. So being hand-picked by the demon lord was unexpected. After Jax and I got here, we realized there was no one assigned to you. At first we assumed it was because he wanted your soul since you were the one who cast the spelland Asmodeus has a thing about witches, but we’ve kind of come to the conclusion he might just want you.”
“Why the hell would he want me?” I honestly couldn’t imagine what a demon lord would want with an aging white woman from the suburbs. Sure, I was pretty enough, but not exactly beautiful. I was smart, but not a genius. I was perfectly average, to be honest.
“I don’t know, Vi.” Phin offered me a soft smile. It was still slightly menacing with his sharp teeth. “All I know is I’ve been a demon for a few hundred years and I’ve never seen him behave this way. There’s a reason he’s here, and it looks like the reason is you.”
We sat in silence as I thought about that. About the implications of Phin’s words. I shredded my muffin into crumbs as I tried to figure out what about me would draw a high ranking demon to Earth. I was no saint, but I never thought I would be going to Hell based on my actions. Until that silly, drunken night nearly a year ago, I’d never so much as considered magic or demons as real. There was nothing about me interesting enough to catch the attention of a demon lord.
“I don’t know, Vi. Be careful. Asmodeus isn’t the worst demon in Hell, but he’s still a very powerful demon lord. I wouldn’t want to cross him.” Phin rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. The gesture was friendly, but there was a warning there too. He was worried. I could feel the knot in my stomach tightening.
This was bad.
