Nefta scoffs. “Oh, please. Your Pride army is small. You’re too damn picky and arrogant to build it up properly. Only the ‘best of the best’ for Tazreel, right? But sometimes, numbers are numbers regardless of the level of experience.”
Taz stiffens, the muscles of his shoulders tense. “My army is the best out of all the Seven Sins. As you put it yourself, they’re the best of the best. One of my soldiers is worth ten—no, twenty—of your Legion pip-squeaks.”
Her purple eyes flash. “The Legion is the best army in all the realms,” Nefta fires back.
“Oh, I don’t fucking—”
“Pardon me.”
At the abrupt interruption, everyone’s heads snap over to Strut where he’s standin’ in the doorway, hands clasped behind his back. Pleased at havin’ gained the room’s attention and forced Nefta and Taz to shut it, he turns to look at Rafferty. “You have armored visitors on the lawn, sir.”
The blue horned demon blinks at him with confusion. “Armored visitors?”
Strut inclines his pasty head. “On the lawn,” he repeats. “And they seem to be on the verge of a fight.”
Nefta and Taz glare at each other. Delta groans. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, did you guys invite your damn armies to our house?”
They don’t reply, which I guess is answer enough, because Delta and all of her mates jump from their seats and start hurryin’ out of the room, followed closely by Nefta and Taz, who start bickerin’ again. They even both try to shove through the doorway at the same time, not wantin’ the other one to go through first. They end up crackin’ the doorframe as their wedged shoulders and wings shove through the damn thing.
I blink at the space, hearin’ the stampede of their steps as they rush outside. I shake my head. “Those two have their noses so high in the air they could drown in a rainstorm.”
Flint and Alder chuckle and get to their feet, and I stand up too, reachin’ forward to pluck a peach slice from the fruit platter. I bite into it, givin’ Flint a wink as I slurp up the juices.
“Alright, we better go on out there,” I say as I snag both Flint’s and Alder’s arms. “And then after, I need to call my parents. My mama is gonna lose her mind when she hears we had demon and angel armies in the front yard.”
“She’d probably insist on cooking for them all,” Flint teases as the three of us walk out.
“You’re not wrong, Countertop,” I tell him solemnly. “You’re not wrong at all.”
29
Alder, Flint and I walk out of the mansion, headin’ to the front door where the others filed out. I’m expectin’ some kind of brawl to be goin’ down on the manicured lawn of the Perdition Estate, but when we make it out the front door, I stop on the steps, my mouth hangin’ open at the sight.
Just like Strut said, there are indeed armored visitors all over the damn lawn on the other side of the gravel driveway. I make a low whistle under my breath as I take in the sight of the glares and sneers bein’ lobbed back and forth between the dozen or so soldiers that Tazreel apparently summoned, and the same number of Legion that Nefta called.
I can immediately tell which side is which, because the armies match either the armor that Nefta or Taz is wearin’. Gleamin’ silver armor for the Legion, and black armor for the demons, their swords like obsidian stone.
“Pretty impressive,” I mutter under my breath.
Nefta’s Legion soldiers remind me of the angels I saw in the club the first time I had a run-in with Morax. They’re all beautiful, polished, and winged, and there’s a distinct glow that just sort of sits under their skin.
Tazreel’s army is just as good lookin’, armored and pristine, but instead of a glow, they almost seem to suck the light from around them. They’re somewhat shrouded in a dark veil, and I wonder if I look the same way? Delta said we were half demon, half angel, so does our glowy half cancel out the light suckin’ half?
I look over at her and where she stands in the middle of her mates. She looks pretty normal to me, minus the bright purple wings and hair.
“You don’t even know who you’re looking for,” Nefta argues against somethin’ Tazreel said.
“And whose fault is that?” he counters. “If I had known about any of my progeny when I should have been informed, we wouldn’t even be in this mess,” Tazreel accuses.
“You’re right,” Nefta agrees. “If you had been in charge of them, Morax would have taken all three by now, and he’d probably be the God of this world because of it,” she snarks, and I frown, still tryin’ to understand why the hell he wants us so badly.
Tazreel takes a menacin’ step toward Nefta, and all the Legion soldiers tense, which then makes the Hell soldiers tense too. I can feel that we’re on the cusp of chaos, but I have no idea what to do about it. I rush down the steps to catch up anyway, my demons quick to follow after me.
“You know,” I call as I hurry over. “Right or wrong, I want you to know that you both make a very crappy first impression,” I tell them.
Nefta and Tazreel both turn to look to me, which I have to admit is a little intimidatin’. But dammit, Delta shouldn’t be the only one responsible for tryin’ to rein in their ridiculous behavior.
“I have yet to learn why you separated me from my sisters and left me to be raised as a human in the first place. And yeah, maybe you checked in on me from time to time, but it couldn’t have been that often since you lost one of us when we were three,” I point out to Nefta.
Tazreel shoots her a smug look, but I turn to him next. “I get that you
