Queen of Night (Thorne Hill 6)

“I will.” Yawning, I lie down, waiting for Lucas to come into bed with me. My eyes fall shut, and I want nothing more than to go to sleep, but I know I won’t get any rest any time soon. Only an hour or so ago, I overheard Julian talking to Lucas.

And now I know that Bael wants to bring Hell to earth.

They have no idea I know, and I’m not about to bring it up. Not now. Not when my mind is still whirling, trying to make sense of everything—spoiler alert, I haven’t made any sense at all. I don’t know how I’m supposed to stop Bael; he’s too strong.

He’s found a loophole in the whole getting me to willingly agree to walk through the gates of Hell for him, and will be able to slip on inside me once he performs the ritual to bind my angel powers.

And that’s after he has another innocent woman murdered.

The most recent victim wasn’t from Thorne Hill and didn’t even live in Indiana. If Easton and Melinda hadn’t found out about the marks, they wouldn’t have made the connection between the cases, since the latest was from out of state.

“Dinner was nice,” Lucas says softly, wrapping his arms around me. Like me, he’s naked, and the feel of his cool skin against my body is comforting. With the fireplace going, we won’t need the electric blanket. I’ll wake up hot in an hour or so, kick off the covers, and then be shivering by the time the sun comes up and the fire dies down.

The master bedroom is large, and the fireplace is right across from the bed. I prefer to sleep with the room being pitch black, and I never really realized just how bright a fire is until we started lighting one in our room at night. It sounds stupid, I know. I had a fireplace in the living room of my previous house, yet whenever we’d be down there, another light or the TV was typically on as well.

Nothing can beat the comforting smell of the logs burning, though, or the crackling of the logs in the hearth. I feel like an old-fashioned fancy lady falling asleep by the fire, and Lucas has already suggested I order some old-timey lingerie so we can act out the part of me being lady of the house whose husband is away in the war and has to sleep with the hired hand in order to get by. If it involves Lucas, this bed, and his penis, I’m in.

“It was,” I agree, eyes falling shut. I’m physically exhausted, and ate more today than I have in a long while, and it’s making it look like I’m showing more than I really am. Lucas pulls the blankets over us and nuzzles his face against my neck, hand going to my stomach.

“I love you,” he groans, kissing the nape of my neck.

“I love you, too,” I whisper back, not in the mood for sex. I’ll blame it on being overly full and tired, but it’s because I can’t get Julian’s words out of my head.

He wants the world to burn.

I won’t let that happen…but how can I stop him? I haven’t yet decided if I’m mad at Julian and Lucas for keeping that from me, though I really can’t blame them for wanting me to have one nice day. It’s the first dinner party I’ve thrown that wasn’t crashed by demons, only talk of demons. No one rushed out because their lives were in danger, and I didn’t have to smear my blood on a blade and have Lucas go medieval on monsters summoned from tree-roots.

I roll over and resituate, resting my head on Lucas’s chest. My eyes are heavy, and I feel the physical exhaustion start to pull me under. I run my nails up and down Lucas’s arm, and start to feel the tug of sleep sooner than I thought.

I’m thinking about Bael the whole time, trying desperately to come up with some sort of plan on how to kill him. He’s more or less untouchable in that other dimension, and I’m not sure at all how that even works. Though if Julian was able to go…would he be able to take me?

Bael is on my mind as I drift to sleep. The heat from the fire surrounds me, and not long after I fell asleep do I wake up, hot and uncomfortable. As soon as I sit up, I know I’m dreaming.

I think.

The room is bathed in a pale gray light, and the flames in the hearth are frozen in place.

“Lucifer?” I ask, holding the blankets over myself as I sit up. Lucas is still next to me, and I can see Scarlet’s big feet sticking out from the other side of the bed. Binx is at the foot of the bed, stretched out and looking comfy.