“Thanks, Maria,” I said, playfully rolling my eyes at her and opening the door again. She wished me good luck, knowing just how much I was fearing this whole night. I pulled her into a hug. If the plan failed, I didn’t know when I would see her next. And—even though she was annoying sometimes—I was terrified that I’d never see her again.
Since yesterday morning, I’d felt that something wasn’t right, that I shouldn’t go tonight. But I was going because Eros was counting on me and Eros deserved to be king.
Lucifer was still waiting by Eros’s door when I finally left the apartment. His white hair rested messily by the sides of his face, and his eyes were icier than last time. “Stunning.”
“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said.
Eros opened the door. A red tie was hanging loosely around his neck, and his soft hair was parted to one side. So many succubi and incubi would be all over him tonight, trying to pry him away from me.
He pulled me inside and pressed his lips to my ear. “If we didn’t have to deal with my family tonight, I’d already have that dress ripped off of you.” His fingers trailed over my cleavage. “Everyone is going to be all over you tonight.”
I pulled him closer, ignoring Lucifer’s playful groan at our affection, and fixed his tie. When I was finished, he grasped my hand and held it to his chest. “I can’t wait to show everyone how amazing you are,” he said.
I hoped that’s how the night would go—making a damn good impression in the kingdom he was banished from—but nothing ever went to plan. Eros pulled away to fix his hair in the mirror one last time, and I grasped my necklace, suddenly filled with so much doubt.
Something was bound to go wrong. I could feel it.
“Are you ready?” Lucifer asked, standing in front of a portal.
I clenched the pendant in my fist, accidentally ripping it off of the chain. My eyes widened at the v-shaped piece of metal in my palm. “Oh, my God.” I broke it. The one thing that I needed to survive tonight broke. What was I going to do? I needed Mom with me. I couldn’t sit at dinner with a table full of demons without her to keep me calm. I—
“Dani,” Eros said. He placed his hands on my shoulders and gazed down at the pendant. “Calm down. It’s fine. You’re fine.”
“But—but my necklace.” I held my hand toward him.
“We can fix it,” he said.
“No.” I shook my head. “Last time it broke, it took weeks for Trevon to fix it. We can’t fix it now.” I ran my hands through my curls. “What am I going to do?”
Lucifer stepped forward. “There is a jeweler in Pride who can fix it for you while we’re at dinner. He’s exceptionally good at all things jewelry, even handcrafted that ring Eros has on his finger.”
“But I—what about Mom?”
Eros squeezed my shoulder. “You’ll be fine without her, Dani. It’ll take less than a couple hours for him to fix it.”
I gazed between the two men and reluctantly handed the pendant to Lucifer, hoping that I’d see it again. It was one of the few things left of Mom.
“I’ll meet you there,” he said. He stepped into the portal and disappeared.
Eros took my hand. “Close your eyes,” he said. I squeezed my eyes shut. I would not make the same mistake as last time. I didn’t have Mom to protect me.
When Eros told me to open my eyes, we were standing in a portal room in an unfamiliar kingdom. The room was fairly large with soft egg-white walls and two red velvet couches on either side of the portal. The lights were dim, and there were two guards dressed in suits with black horns and reflective eyes. Lucifer stepped out of the portal behind me, nearly bumping into me. He rested a hand on my lower back.
“Lord Eros. Commander Lucifer,” one guard said.
The other eyed me but returned his gaze to Eros after a moment. “You’re the last to arrive. Everyone is waiting for you in the castle.”
The Kingdom of Lust was much different from Pride. The sky was a light pink with white feathery clouds. Beds of roses lined the white stone walkways which lead to a towering castle.
Lucifer placed his hand on Eros’s shoulder. “This is all about to be yours.”
Eros gazed around us, taking in the sight of his kingdom, and nodded. He looked so stoic and strong, and I was glad one of us was.
While we walked to the castle, Eros repeated that I must stay with Lucifer at all times—even when he went to do whatever it was that he was going to do. He didn’t tell me the specifics, and I didn’t want to know. Times like this, when your lover was going to kill his parents and seize the Kingdom of Lust’s throne—in Hell—it was best to remain ignorant.
What I did know was that the three of us were going to pretend that Eros had finally accepted life as a true incubus through a partnership with Lucifer and me, which meant that I had to flirt with both of them all night long. And that wouldn’t be a problem.
I linked arms with Eros and walked up the staircase to the front doors of the palace. Demons were already drunk off of Passion Delights on the front steps—flirting, kissing, touching. They were doing it all, and I only wished that I had Mom’s necklace—my security net.
A few succubi batted their lashes at Eros, but he brushed by them. He didn’t even look at them when they called his name.
When we reached the top, another two guards nodded at Eros. “Lord, Commander.” They looked at me, then at each other. “Who is this?”
“She’s my date,” Eros said.
“Our date,” Lucifer corrected, grabbing my hand. If this was going to work, we couldn’t make any mistakes.
“You share the human girl?” The guards looked at each other and laughed. “The Great Lord Eros who was shamed for only wanting one lover, now is sharing a woman with a comman—”
Eros grabbed his throat, pressing him up against the stone door. “If you have a problem with it, tell me.”
The guard shook his head. “No, no, Lord. I was just in disbelief.”
When Eros released his grip, I squeezed his bicep tighter. Tonight was only going to get worse. He stepped over the man and opened the door himself.
Lucifer placed his hand on my lower back. “Stay by my side,” he said.
I took a deep breath and stepped into the room. We would walk out of here with the Kingdom of Lust or we wouldn’t walk out of this castle ever again. I could feel it.
The lights were dim inside. Demons were dancing, grinding, and flirting with each other. Some were nearly naked, others were clothed. The palace kind of reminded me of The Lounge, if it had hundreds more people and they were all demons.
Horns of ice. Dresses of gold. Red curled tails. Green scarred skin. There were demons from all the kingdoms here. But, despite their differences, one thing was the same amongst all of them: when Eros walked in, everyone stopped.
They shuffled to the side, creating a path for us to walk through. The succubi stared at me and whispered, eyeing my hand on Eros. I rubbed my sweaty palm on my dress, hoping that they didn’t notice how nervous I was.
I had never been surrounded by hundreds of people who were more beautiful than I would ever be. And—by the way they held themselves with so much confidence—there was no doubt in my mind that they could please Eros more than I could ever.
“Dani!” someone said. Kasey pushed through the crowd—red lipped and dressed in black stilettos—and jogged over to us. Her eyes were dark, her horns sharp, she was breathtaking. She pulled me into a hug. “I’m so glad that you made it!”
“Not even going to say hello to your brother?” Eros said from beside me.