The pages slowly fall open, and the smell of old paper and ink fill my nose. The handwriting on this page is small and messy, written by someone left-handed, smearing the ink as they moved their hand across the page.
But there’s no mistaking it. This is the demon I saw in the woods.Chapter 24“That’s him.” I blink and gently run my finger over the page. “Bael,” I whisper the demon’s name. “He’s the demon from the woods.”
Lucas’s brows furrow, and he leans over the book. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. The crown is the same, and he even looked like this.” The text is written in Latin, which is no issue for Lucas. “Does it say how to kill him?”
“No, but Ruby was right about him being a high-level demon. This describes him as a subordinate to one of the Kings of Hell. He has the power of transformation and can appear in the form of man or beast.” Lucas pauses as he reads more of the page. “Here.” He taps the book and reads. “In 1351, after Bael and several other powerful demons destroyed villages across all of Europe, covens across the continent banded together to try and rid the world of the dark beings. Unable to vanquish the demons, the covens created a vessel in which they trapped the demons. The vessel was sealed and locked away in a supernatural prison, where, to this day, the demon Bael remains.”
Lucas moves his gaze from the book to me. I bring my hand to my face and rub my eyes. “Well, shit.”
“Could Ruth have summoned this demon?”
“Oh, totally, but from the sounds of it, she’d need a lot of power. Like a hell of a lot. Summoning demons and breaking them out of a magically sealed vessel are two vastly different things.”
“Who are the Kings of Hell?”
“Um…I’m not sure.” But I know someone who does. “There are three. I remember going over it briefly in a demonology class I took during my university studies.”
“Your friends, Nicole and Naomi, have connections to a demonologist, don’t they?”
“Their gran, yes. I could call and ask them for a crash course, but I can’t risk raising suspicions. The last I heard, their gran was hanging out with Albert, a Grand Master on the Grand Coven.” I bite my lip, thinking. Lucifer would be the perfect person to ask. He’s the literal ruler of Hell. He appointed those who govern the dark realms along with him.
And if one of the Dukes of Hell are watching me…Stop. I can’t go to Lucifer for help. I shouldn’t have before.
“Something doesn’t make sense,” I say, sliding the book over and looking over the words as if I can read them. “Ruth is using necromancy to go after us. We know that for sure, and it makes sense, considering her desperation for dark power. But a high-ranking demon like this…he wouldn’t answer to a simple necromancer. She’s too…too…trivial for him. I don’t know why he’d work with her.”
“Perhaps Ruth made a deal.”
“Maybe. I’m so tired of having one question being answered only to have it lead to even more questions.” I let out a sigh and close the book. “It would be really nice to have some help right now,” I say, tipping my head up. “Dad…Julian…I’m still here in case you forgot.” Lucas rests his hand on my back, and I lean against him, closing my eyes and finding solace in his cool skin. “Whatever. I’ll do what I’ve always done and figure things out on my own. Though maybe I really will go play in oncoming traffic. See if Dear old Dad cares enough to stop me from becoming nothing more than a smear on the pavement.”
“He cares,” Lucas says to try and make me feel better. “He risked a lot so you could live.”
“Yeah…I know. But still, it would be nice to ask someone about matters of Heaven and Hell from someone, you know, who’s been there.” I swallow and look up into Lucas’s blue eyes. “Though I think my uncle would answer me.” My heart beats a little faster, and I know Lucas can hear it. He doesn’t know I drank a sleeping potion so I could talk to Lucifer.
Only Eliza knows.
“Do you think you trust him?” Lucas asks.
“I do,” I admit. “Maybe I shouldn’t, but for some reason, I do. He is family, after all. And he’s all alone down there.” I shake my head, still having a hard time grasping that concept.
“Am I sensing sympathy for the devil?” Lucas’s lip curve into a smirk, but there is concern in his eyes.
“Maybe a little. But I know what he is. Who he is. He wouldn’t have been cast out of Heaven if there wasn’t a good reason, right?”
“Good and bad aren’t as black and white as some may think,” Lucas muses. “Terrible things have been done in the name of something good.”