“Ahh,” I moaned as my head angled back against the wall. “Rourke, honestly, you have to stop. There will be time for this when we get home. If the Prince comes back here before—”
There was a polite knock on the door and I straightened up.
Tyler cleared his voice politely. “Um, I think we found something that may help us. Lili said it’s important. Also, is that the bathroom? I could use a rinse-off.”
“Yep, it’s the bathroom,” I called. “We’ll be right”—Rourke tweaked me deliciously hard—“ out!”
“Gotcha,” Tyler said, amusement in his voice.
“You win this time,” Rourke whispered in my ear as he tugged me off the ledge, “but all bets are off the next opportunity we get to ourselves. Being connected to you is the most important thing and I don’t give a shit about anything else.” He held me tightly against his length. “I’m taking you.” He leaned over. “Make no mistake about it.”
I slid my hand all the way down to and cupped him, giving him a gentle squeeze. A low growl issued out of the back of his throat.
“I’m all in.” I rose up on tiptoe to his ear. “But only if the timing’s right. I want to enjoy you.”
“Oh, there will be much enjoyment to be had.” He grabbed my hand and led me to what had to be a wall of dryers, even though they looked more like trumpets erupting from the wall. “Now we dry off. After all, we can’t go save the world sopping wet.” He grinned as he punched another button on the wall and the dryers sprang to life. “And I just may have to take that jumpsuit off you to make sure there’s not a drop of water left clinging to it.”
I laughed as he slid me backward, pressing me firmly up against the tiles.
A girl had to get dry somehow.
“What’s in your hand?” I asked my brother as I walked up behind him. The dryers had been ridiculously effective and we’d been dry within a minute, much to Rourke’s chagrin. I’d had to drag him from the bathrooms, promising to do delicious, naughty things to him later.
“It’s an official written warrant for your arrest in the Underworld,” Tyler answered, waving the parchment in the air.
I snatched it from him and scanned it quickly. “It says I’ve committed ‘small, answerable crimes’ to be judged if ‘the defendant arrived to the Underworld of her own volition.’ ” I walked around and sat on one of the black couches, which didn’t give an inch. Ignoring the rigidity, I asked, “Who issued this? I doubt it was the Prince of Hell.”
“No,” Lili answered. “The Prince did not have a hand in that. That was issued by the magistrate, but in order for you to be charged with a crime here someone had to file the appropriate paperwork citing your crimes in detail. No demon here would know about the two imps on your plane or the Camazotz you killed, because to us they simply disappeared. If any demon was upset by the loss, one could rationalize that the Lunar Goddess had purchased them, so therefore they were her responsibility. But in reality, no one would’ve gone looking for them.”
“So what does that mean?” I asked. “The Prince filed a complaint with the magistrate because he had his own agenda?” That wasn’t exactly surprising. “According to this, he went against his own law to lure me here.”
“Not exactly,” Lili replied. “Demons are wordsmiths of the highest degree. That piece of paper does indeed accuse you of crimes. It makes me wonder, however, why he would go to such great lengths to get you to come here. But either way, the Prince has fulfilled the prophecy by luring you here. If you had not arrived, there would be no uprising.”
“That’s what I’ve tried to tell the Prince all along, but he’s too pigheaded to understand. If he would’ve left me alone, none of this would’ve happened. Now I want to know what the new Scriptures say,” I said pointedly, arching an eye at Lili. “That’s information we desperately need.”
“I told you already,” she answered, appearing uncomfortable once again. “I cannot tell you the exact wording, it is forbidden.”
“Forbidden why? And what do you care?” I said. “You’re only half demon and you want to leave this plane behind and never look back. Why would you worry about protocol now?”
“It’s not protocol, it’s superstition,” she replied. “Demons are highly superstitious about only a few things, and repeating the Scriptures to a non-demon is one of them. If I tell you, I potentially place a hex on the Underworld. I won’t do it, so don’t ask me.”
I begrudgingly understood superstition. Wolves are highly superstitious about many things, including myths and legends, which had made my life much harder than it needed to be for a very, very long time.
“Fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “Don’t tell us in exact words, just give us an idea. Paint a picture.”
Her face was grim. “Fine, you win.” She strode over to a far wall in the room and turned. “It says that your being here will ignite a civil war, and once that war is over, there will be a new rule and that’s it in a nutshell.”
“You’ve already said as much,” I retorted, unimpressed. “And the Prince happened to find out about these new Scriptures after you showed them to the Princess? Not before? Correct?”
“That’s correct,” Lili said. “I didn’t tell him. He was not supposed to have this knowledge, but it was somehow leaked. The other demons who discovered this secret were very nervous and afraid of his wrath.”
“But if my presence here was supposed to ignite a war, why would the Prince think parading me around in front of the court was a good idea? Why not keep me locked up where no demon could see me? Keep it all under wraps and keep an eye on me?”
“He is prideful.” She shrugged. “And I may have told him… a few lies once he had me arrested.” She smirked. “He could not find the new Scriptures, because I had hidden them well, so he interrogated me as to what was in them—and I told him… some truths and some falsehoods.”
“So you basically made up enough stuff to make sure a war would indeed start,” I said. “And you took me through the Sholls, and everything else, to make sure we ended up where we needed to be? That seems risky on your part.”
“I took you through the Sholls because your only objective was to get to your brother. There was no other way. And if you remember, we did find him. I didn’t have an ultimate plan at the time, but I knew if we didn’t leave this plane immediately you would be apprehended sooner.” She shrugged again. “It didn’t really matter to me, because I believe wholeheartedly in the Scriptures. Whatever is meant to happen, will. It’s that simple.”