Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

“You’re worried the chaos demon was sent by War?” Eliza whirls around.

“No, I mean, I was, but the timeline doesn’t match. They said Noah got possessed the night before the Horsemen escaped, but it did give me flashbacks to when I was dying of the demon disease.”

“The Horsemen were still in Hell then.”

Something clicks in my head. “I think this was the plan all along. Maybe the demons knew they’d never actually be able to overthrow Lucifer.”

“So they wanted to turn earth into Hell 2.0.”

“Exactly.”

“How are you doing?” Eliza asks softly. “Really doing?”

“Honestly,” I start and look up at her, wanting to confess how good it felt to sit on the throne of Hell, to have all those demons under my command, and how there’s a small part of me that is starting to think claiming ownership—for good—could solve all our problems. I stop when I see the worry in her pretty blue eyes. “I never expected things to go like this. Marrying a vampire was enough of a stretch. Add in finding out my father is the warrior of all warriors and my uncle Lucifer is the most reliable family member, and yeah…never imagined this would be my life.”

“Tell me about it. It doesn’t seem that long ago when my biggest fear was getting caught in a flash mob.” She shudders. “All that cheer and coordination. Gross.”

I laugh. “That’s a legit fear that I’ve never thought about before.”

“At least I can make a quick exit.”

“Lucky.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “But I can’t make the lights flicker.”

Rubbing my thumb over my fingers, I conjure a string of rainbow-colored magic. “That part is fun. In my younger days, ya know, before I got so mature and wise and not petty at all, I used to make people think certain places were haunted. Once, I spent six hours outside this guy’s house moving things around telekinetically and turning his electronics on and off. I only left when he called 911.”

“Do I want to ask why?”

“He cheated on Kristy. I saw him making out with another girl after he told her he was too sick to take her to dinner.”

Eliza smiles. “There’s nothing like a bit of revenge.”

“It seems insignificant now.” I shake each foot, testing them before I stand. “Though at the same time it doesn’t. Little insignificant things are what make life so good or so bad. They’re the difference between living and merely surviving.”

“After living as long as I have, I can attest to that.” Eliza gets a distant look in her eyes. My phone buzzes with a text. No one inside the Covenstead has service to text me, so that leaves someone from the bookstore, my sister, Melinda, or Easton to be the one texting. I was right, and I open Melinda’s text.

Melinda: Hey. Everything good?

Me: We’re still working on it.

Melinda: Let me know if you need anything else from us.

Me: I will, thanks.

I scroll up in the text, seeing that she sent photos of that alchemy book. Lucas must have forwarded the images to Tabatha while I was sleeping last night. I put the phone back on the nightstand and walk around the bed.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” I tell Eliza. “And I’m not going to make a jail break. Wait a minute. Tabatha wouldn’t lock me in the house with no means of escape. What if it caught on fire or something?”

“I might have made that up. I didn’t know a barrier spell was a real thing.”

“It’s like a containment spell but prevents doors or windows from being opened,” I explain. “They typically don’t last too long and can be easily undone.”

“Good to know, I think.” Eliza shrugs and looks at her nails. She has long acrylics on, painted in various shades of pink with lots of glitter. Her girly appearance can definitely be misleading and is a good reminder of why you shouldn’t judge anyone by their appearance.

I use the bathroom and then take a few minutes to load up my laundry basket to take downstairs. I have time to catch up on laundry, at least.

“What are you doing?” I ask Eliza, seeing her standing in the hallway.

“Trying to decide what room to take.” Eliza points to the door next to the room that will be the nursery. “This will be closest to the baby, but I really don’t want to hear you and Lucas fucking every night. I do like the view from that room.” She turns and points to a room at the end of the hall. “Though it is smaller, so I’d have to keep the pigs in another spare room.”

“Whoa, the pigs? Why are you bringing your guinea pigs here?”

Eliza looks at me dubiously. “You really think you can handle a newborn without me? You couldn’t even get through one little party.”

“There were extenuating circumstances yesterday.” I prop the laundry basket on my hip.