“Bro giving you fits?”
“When doesn’t he?”
Crush nodded in sympathy. He had five brothers and three sisters. He knew what a pain it was to have siblings. “Why are Havoc and Slaughter along for the ride?”
I tipped my head to the side, a ‘goyles substitute for a shrug in mid-flight. “I think they want to see the new queen as much as Mass does, though none of them would ever admit it.”
“I want to see her. I hear she’s got a harem of demons at her beck and call.”
“Yup. Big names, too. Malphas. Lux. Baphomet. Abaddon.”
“Holy shit.”
I grinned. It had given me cred, being able to say I’d met the new queen before she’d become a queen. Some of the demons were not happy about her new position, which made things even better.
“Pruflas is pissed.”
“Good. He’s a dick and he deserves to get his ass handed to him by a woman. A mortal woman.” I considered. “A killer.”
“Yeah?”
I shrugged again. “So I’ve heard. I haven’t seen her in action, unfortunately, but the buzz around Tzalba is that she’s stabbing her way through the magi, setting demons free.”
“Eh.”
We ‘goyles hadn’t always had the best relationship with the demons. They were power-hungry asses for the most part and they seemed to think they were better than gargoyles for some unknown reason. We, of course, were superior, but we didn’t have to flop our dicks out at the measuring contest because we already knew ours were bigger. The clans liked to live on their own terms away from the rigid governmental structures the demons put in place and we definitely kept away from the ones who styled themselves royalty, though as I’d told Muckrake, the demons surrounding the new queen were a better lot than most.
They’d invited us to fight with them, hadn’t they?
We landed in the capital a couple hours later, all of us shaking the dust off our wings before tucking them against our backs. My shoulders ached from the flight, but it was a good pain. “If you feel pain, you’re alive. If you’re alive, you can fight.” Some ancient ‘goyle warrior had said that way back in the mists of time, I couldn’t remember who. Mass would because Mass was a nerd. A scary nerd, but a nerd, nonetheless.
We made our way to the Star of Thirteen, the massive courtyard surrounding the raised dais where the thrones sat filled with demons. Demons stank when they started crowding up and these demons were no exception. Since I didn’t want to be rude and plug my nose, I forced myself to breathe through my mouth.
“Dear granite, what is that stench?”
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Havoc to cause a fight. “Shut up, Hav.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t smell it,” he said. He obviously didn’t care if he was rude or not. His hand was already pressed up under his nose, the expression on his face one of extreme disgust.
I stepped close and said, “Don’t fucking ruin this for us before it even begins.”
“Sure. Okay.” He gave me an exaggerated thumb’s up.
He was the fucking king of sarcasm and I made myself a mental note to kick Massacre’s ass later for bringing him.
“Mayhem!” It was a female voice and it carried out over the demons, who hushed as if they were waiting for her to spew some amazing speech or something, but all she did was bound down the stairs, her half-black, half-white hair bouncing in its ponytail. “I’m so glad you’re here.” She stopped in front of me and grinned, not cowed in the least by my towering presence.
I liked her. She was like a stabby little doll and I wanted to play with her.
Though one look over at her demons changed my mind about that. Maybe they shared amongst themselves, but it didn’t look like they were going to be any more generous than that.
“You called, I came.”
“And brought friends,” she said, eying my companions.
“Let me make intros,” I said, and I did.
“I appreciate you coming on such short notice, but I have a question for you and, depending on your answer, that question could lead to a quest. Kinda sorta.”
“A quest?”
She shrugged. “That makes it sound better than what it really is.”
“Which is?”
“Come with me. Let’s take a load off and talk. Abaddon? Can we chat at your place?”
I hated traveling the way the demons did—through time and space. It was unnatural. Fast, but dear granite it felt nasty. When we arrived, Slaughter looked a little green around the gills, though I supposed that could have just been moss I hadn’t noticed before. ‘Goyles tend to grow moss if we aren’t careful. It’s a nasty bit of work that can end up cracking your face if you let it spread.
The mad king’s home was impressive. Spiky, unforgiving walls, red stone that reminded me of my cousin Ruin, and minimal furniture. Apparently, Abaddon didn’t encourage visitors or want them to linger. We followed him to a smaller room that did have furniture and we all settled inside uncomfortably.
There were too many of us crammed in the room and when Abaddon realized, he shifted the stone to accommodate us all. Impressive.
“Why are we here?” Mass asked, his eyes on Korri.
“Well, I don’t know. I asked Mayhem. If you came with him, then answer your own question.”
His eyes narrowed. I wanted to laugh at him but managed to choke that down. “What do you need from me?” I asked and she beamed at me as if I were her kid who’d just brought home great grades.
“My friend Poppy has been arrested and thrown into prison. Her boyfriend was taken the same night she was. I need to know how he is and where he is. I also need someone who can stay behind and protect Poppy.”
“Poppy?” Havoc asked.
“My friend. It’s a long story, but she was the reason I started
