In a blink, he disappears, leaving me reeling. I slump against the wall, my heart racing about a million miles per minute. I barely have time to take in a single shaky breath before another demon is popping into my room.
“Let me guess, Lousen?” I ask the she-demon. She has polka-dotted skin, making it look like someone took an entire box of Crayola markers to her. The large circles are all different colors, while her hair is tar-black, reaching all the way down to her knees.
She looks around, confused for a moment, and I notice in her left hand is a small hanger with what looks like a jeweled diaper on it. Her yellow eyes focus back on me.
“Deltagates?” she asks, like my first and last name are just one word.
“That’s me,” I confirm, and she takes me in from head to toe.
“Oh. Well, it seems we won’t be needing this,” Lousen comments, nodding to the diaper on the hanger. In a flash, it disappears.
“They didn’t tell me we had such a...developed situation on our hands,” she observes, her yellow gaze settling on my perky chest. I cross my arms, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
“The masses are never going to believe that Tazreel stepped out of line so exponentially,” she squeaks with a smile, like the thought makes her incredibly excited.
“Is it really that big of a deal?” I look around the weird room I’ve been stationed in and try to wrap my mind around all the weird rules this place seems to have.
I feel like I’m hanging with the Mad Hatter at some fucked up tea party. I want to be home alone with my grief so I can mourn in peace and try to figure out what to do next. But instead, I’m here, being forced to go to some ridiculous party, while demons salivate about spilling the tea and bringing my prick of a demon sperm donor down a peg. Not that I can fault them for that. He is shallow, arrogant, and insufferable, and I’ve only known him for a couple of hours.
“He won’t be purged for it, but it will be the talk of the Rings for a bit before someone else does something else shocking. I’ve never heard of a Nihil child not being molded to become the next generation of Hell’s Generals right from birth. That’s usually what these gatherings are for, the little one’s life needs to be carefully mapped out from the start.”
I let her words settle in my mind and try not to sigh. Great. Just what the hell are they going to do with me, then? I don’t want anyone fucking molding me. It was hard enough coming to terms with becoming a Hellgate Guardian. A Hell General sounds a thousand times worse. How am I going to get home now?
Lousen claps her hands together excitedly, pulling me from my racing and worried thoughts. “Enough of that. We need to get started! We have an Abdicated party to get you ready for,” she announces, as if I could possibly forget that fact. “I’ll have you looking positively edible in no time,” she assures me cheerfully, revealing a smile of multicolored teeth as a vanity table and two bushels full of fabric appear behind her.
The second she says edible, my thoughts immediately go to the Savor and his proclivity for eating demon parts, making me cringe.
“You can just call me Delta, and I’d settle for looking not embarrassing instead of edible. Don’t want to give anyone any ideas,” I tell her on a chuckle that sounds nervous even to my own ears.
She gives me a knowing smile and a wink, and I decide to interpret that as capitulation. “So, on a scale from zero to I’m fucked, exactly how bad are these Abdicated assholes?” I ask her.
She looks at me warily, the smile slipping from her face. “Let’s just...get you dressed,” she replies carefully, which answers that question without her even having to say anything more.
Trepidation sinks into my toes, making it hard to move. I have a really bad feeling about this.
5
“That should do it!” Lousen declares in an elated tone. She steps back, her yellow eyes taking me in and filling with warm pride. “You’ll be the envy of every menagerie,” she states, like that’s a good thing.
“Just to be clear, a menagerie isn’t a zoo filled with demonic animals, is it?”
She chortles, her colorful teeth glistening. “Of course not. The menageries are the Abdicated’s harems.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that,” I grumble under my breath.
I look down at the gown that Lousen practically Bibbity Bobbity Booed out of nowhere and run my hands over the soft thin material now covering my body. I’ve been squeezed into a corset bodysuit that’s the color of my pale skin and will be impossible to get out of on my own. Over that, she’s draped a muted periwinkle fabric that’s softer than chiffon and looks just as delicate.
The gown is strapless, although two very romantic, but otherwise useless, sleeves are dangling down my upper arms. The soft pastel fabric hugs my curves and swaddles the perky twins, flaring out at my waist. The entire dress is covered in what I thought were various sizes of periwinkle pearls, but according to Lousen, they’re actually a rare color of moonstone.
The she-demon has straightened my hair, parted it down the middle, and pulled it back into a sleek and shiny ponytail that rests at the base of my skull. I can feel the strands of my electric violet hair tickle my back, and my wings are on full display.
I’ve never looked more beautiful, or
