Page 25 of Lust

Felix stands up and storms away. I can understand why he received no points. From what I can tell, he didn’t even try to help Rowena at all. Still, it’s a crying shame Rowena had to get zero points, too. It’s not her fault that Felix is an asshole.

“I don’t understand why we lost a point,” Peace shouts out. “We were very enthusiastic.”

“Ah, oui, you were indeed remarkable. Maggie, and I applaud your efforts, zough I do believe zat as a married couple, you could ‘ave tried something a leetle bit different. Alas, a point was deducted for your rather conventional approach, or should I say, lack of créativité.”

“The points are given out for arbitrary reasons, then?” Jake reclines in his chair, crossing his arms with an expression of irritation. One that I’m pretty sure we all share.

“No.” Noémi’s mouth slightly downturns as though she wasn’t expecting someone criticizing her trial. Even with a sad expression, she’s still the sexiest person in the room. “Not arbitrary, but I guess you could say I applaud creativity and enthusiasm over anything else.” Her smile returns to her face. “I make ze games in ‘ere and I’m ze one to judge them.”

“Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you were watching us the whole time?” Anthura spits out. She looks over at Moloch, who looks miserable beside her. They both got five points - more than Dade and I. My heart goes out to Moloch. He might be a demon, but having to go through this with Anthura is, quite frankly, a fate worse than death. I’m surprised she didn’t eat him for breakfast.

“Naturellement! Of course I watched zem,” Noémi says, as though watching people orgasm is the most normal thing in the world. I hadn't thought my embarrassment could plummet any further, yet Noémi appears to have a unique talent for drawing out that sensation within me.

“I’m going to throw up,” Rowena mutters. “Kill me now.”

“You’re already dead,” I whisper back. I notice Juliette doesn’t share the same sentiment. She’s still smiling. The only one of the contestants, that is.

Misery courses through me. The first trial was mortifying. I don’t want to go through something like that again, and yet if I ever want to see Jenny again, I’ll have to.

Noémi doesn’t seem to notice the turmoil her words cause, because she keeps speaking. “You weel be paired up with ze same partner for ze second part of ze first trial, so I suggest you put your efforts into trying to get to know zem a leetle. I want to be entertained. See you all tomorrow.” With that, she sweeps away toward the restaurant flanked by her two massive demons.

“I have to do another trial with Felix.” Rowena’s skin is gray and her eyes are wide and unblinking, as though she’s in shock. I can’t even muster up the enthusiasm to placate her because I know exactly how she feels.

I squeeze her hand. “Sorry. Maybe you should just throw yourself at him next time and get it over and done with?”

She responds with a wry smile, her voice tinged with sad humor. “I’d rather throw myself under a bus.”

Juliette draws in a breath. “We’ll do something. This is bullshit. Where’s Hades in all this?” She swivels her head as though he’s going to suddenly appear out of nowhere. “We know he’s here. He must be able to do something. Let’s go find him.”

She stands, but is accosted almost immediately by a young guy wielding a note book and a pen which he thrusts at her. “Please, can I have your autograph? I’m your biggest fan.”

Juliette’s expression changes in that instant. Her mouth turns up at the edges and her eyes crinkle. She turns back to us. “Did you hear that? I have a biggest fan.”

“Great!” Rowena huffs sarcastically, picking up her bag.

There’s a whole row of people lining up to talk to Juliette and it’s clear that in the moment, all thoughts of finding Hades have flown out of her head. Not that she would, anyway. He’ll be down in the lowest level with all the other demons and without a marble key, we can’t get down there. We’ll have to wait for Twila to come up to plead our case, although I suspect she’ll say the same things about being unable to help as she did the last time. “Wanna get out of here?” I say to Rowena. “We could go down to Infernos and drink ourselves into oblivion?”

Rowena shakes her head. “I think I’m going to go back up to my room and hang myself, but thanks for the offer. Have a dragon fire whiskey for me.”

“Ro…”

“I’m joking,” she placates me. “I’ll be fine. I just want to be on my own for a while. I promise I’ll not do anything stupid, although I’m sure, being dead already, hanging myself would only end up with me dangling like a moron for hours, suspended by my finest ribbons. And, well, I can't let my prized ribbons go to waste. I had plans to craft a new dress with them.”

I draw her into a hug and I can feel the weight of her despair. I know she’s trying to use humor to mask her pain, but she’s never been that good at masking her emotions. When Rowena is sad, I feel it and I don’t think I’ve ever felt her as down as she is now.

“You sure?”

She nods her head. “You might want to make a quick get-away too before these sycophants decide they want your autograph too.” She nods toward the line of people waiting for Juliette, which has now turned into a bustling mess.

“Yeah. I got four points. I don’t think they’ll bother with me. I’m more worried about being accosted by Dade’s rabid fan base.”

I watch Rowena walk through the atrium and through the doors to the platform. My eyes fall upon Orlin, who is as equally swamped with admirers as Rowena, but unlike her, he seems completely overwhelmed by the attention.

I pull out my Hell Cell and shoot Twila a quick message. She ran off in a hurry when we questioned her the other day, but I felt sure she’d turn up to cheer us on.

The message shows as unread. I wait for the small check mark to change color to show she’s received it, but it remains steadfastly gray.

14

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