Page 36 of Ruthless Demon

“I don’t want your apologies, you sycophant! I want my pups in fighting shape before the battle. You think you can manage that, or should I grind you up and let them eat you for dinner?”

“They will be ready,” he says, practically whimpering. “They will.”

“Good,” she huffs, the fire going out of her tone. She waves a hand dismissively and scans the garden, suddenly bored with him. “Get to it, then.Gula!Gula, sweetness. You would not believe what these idiots are doing to my poor doggies.”

A woman floats over to her and clasps her hands. “They haven’t let them catch cold, have they? My own kennels are overrun with some awful chill, and my servants have been utterly useless.”

“It’s so hard to find good help these days, isn’t it?” Diana links her arm through Gula’s and the two of them start shit talking their servants and bonding over their dogs. As I’m listening, I can hear the gentle pressure that Diana is putting on the conversation. I try to follow the long, winding road of her words to see where she’s taking it, but I can barely keep up let alone get ahead.

Somehow, by the end of their conversation, Diana has not only managed to get Gula to take responsibility for Diana’s dogs getting sick, she’s also extracted a vow that Gula will replace any of Diana’s dogs who don’t recover, or who are permanently weakened by the affliction. They part ways, still the best of friends; only now Gula is significantly poorer, and Diana has completely absolved herself of any possible wrongdoing.Astonishing.

“He just won’t listen!” Abaddon is walking past now, speaking to his mother. “He’s so stubborn and he’s going to get us all killed.”

“You’re absolutely right, darling,” Aurora says soothingly. “You can’t let him discourage you. Speak up! The others will hear your reasoning and stand with you. Your father will have to listen if you have the whole room on your side.”

“You’re right,” Abaddon sighs. “He gets so pissed off about being disrespected.”

“It’s a war room, not a ballroom,” she reminds him firmly. “Respect means keeping our people alive. If the King himself is making decisions which put our people at risk, it is your duty to speak out about it.”

Abaddon makes a disgruntled noise surprisingly similar to Cephalus’s and the two of them walk on, leaving me to stifle a laugh of disbelief. She’s literally creating the conflict she’s pretending to solve.

Note to self: advice from Aurora is worse than no advice at all.

I take a walk around the garden and wander through the halls, just watching. The demon who was watching Diana get tongue-fucked always seems to be lurking on this side of the palace, although I never see him speak to anyone. I notice that Diana has a way of socializing which is very similar to the way Lucifer runs his company. She gives people a taste of intimacy and attention, just enough to make them want more, getting them to do her bidding without much effort at all.

It bothers me that I interpreted that as an effective, if risky, management technique when it was Lucifer doing it, and that it strikes me as slimy manipulation now that I’m watching Diana do it. I’m not sure if that means the technique worked on me, or if it means I’m blinded by bias when it comes to Lucifer. Maybe it’s neither, and it’s just some subtle difference in the way she does it that sets my teeth on edge.

I spend a couple of days like this, quietly observing all the while vaguely aware that I’m being observed myself. I manage to stay out of the clutches of impossible conversations and sexual advances. I’m pretty sure the people who use those skills most effectively are too busy preparing for battle to screw with me. My mystery assassin, likewise, hasn’t made a move.

Even with the battle approaching, I expected a little more friction in my immediate sphere, and I’m beginning to think I have some sort of invisible shield around me or something. Or maybe I’m just invisible; not literally, but in a social sense. I don’t fit into the messy hierarchy or messier sociopolitical landscape—I’m a whole different species from a whole different plane, bonded to a member of the ruling class. Maybe nobody really knows how to deal with me, so they just don’t; unless, of course, Lucifer happens to be nearby. They really seem to love pissing him off. Guess risky behavior runs in the family.

That invisible feeling lasts until nightfall, when Lucifer brings me down to dinner. Once again, Diana is being orally serviced, and once again, the lurking demon is watching her. She meets my eyes and smirks at me. I stay close to Lucifer, feeling a little exposed—which only increases when we reach the table. Aurora looks up as we approach.

“Sophia, dear, come sit beside me.” She pats the seat next to her insistently. I give Lucifer a questioning look. He frowns, but doesn’t object. We take our seats and the feast gets underway, and I find myself watching Diana, still trying to identify what it is about the way she interacts with people that bothers me so much. As I eat, the lurker moves his gaze from Diana to me, and there’s a warning flash in his eyes. He turns back to her, focused on her every move, glaring at anyone who gets close to her. Nobody pays him any attention.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Aurora says quietly in my ear. “Diana, I mean.”

I give her a weak smile. “That demon certainly seems to think so. He can’t keep his eyes off her.”

“That’s Silas,” she explains in a bored tone, “He’s in love with her, poor thing. Oh, she’ll never love him back. She’s too aware of her position in the demon court, thinks he’s below her, if you know what I mean.”

My skin prickles at how the Queen is talking to me, gossiping about her own daughter like we’re best friends. She’s manipulating me somehow, I know she is, but I can’t figure out how. Thinking of the way she spoke to Cephalus and Abaddon, though, I realize I may never know what she’s up to.

“It’s really pitiful to watch, honestly,” Aurora continues in a near-whisper. “She treats him like dirt, but he just keeps crawling back for more, and more. Again, and again.”

Lucifer’s hand closes around mine and tugs me sharply away from Aurora’s silver tongue. “We’re finished here,” he says severely.

“Thank you,” I whisper as we rush away from the table. “She was getting way too friendly.”

“Her friendship is as authentic as silicone breasts, and just as nourishing,” he tells me.

I believe it, although as we pass by Silas and his haunted, obsessed gaze, I can’t help but wonder if what she told me about him is true. How awful it must feel to be in love with someone who can’t love you back, and who will never be able to love you back. To hold those words inside for so long, to know you’ll never hear them returned—

That thought nearly makes me stumble. Lucifer never said it back to me. He showed me, though. He made love to my body, but he never said the words. Is he capable of love? Or is he, like Diana, too far removed to ever fall in love?

Oh, shit. Am I Lucifer’s Silas?

No, of course not. Our situation is completely different. Diana wouldn’t share a room with Silas, for one. For another, Lucifer would never be so callous as to fuck other women while ignoring my existence.

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