The Call of Monsters (My Beautiful Monsters #3) - J.B. Trepagnier Page 0,87

kept this up, I wouldn’t set his trousers on fire ever again.

We didn’t even have time to pack clothes. A swirling red portal opened, and my father stepped through. He was early, and I was a mess. I wanted to be ready for this, and I wanted to impress people in Hell. I enjoyed every single outfit Pavlina made me because I felt like a badass in those. I rarely worried about trying to impress people. I did my own thing, and if people didn’t like it, they could kiss my lily-white ass, but that was before I found out my father was a duke and Hell tortured people for being offensive.

“We haven’t packed yet!”

Barbatos just shrugged.

“You don’t have to. My tailor made clothes for all of you. I told him a little about Pavlina’s skills, and he wants to swap tips. It’s all taken care of. All you have to do is step through the portal.”

This was it. I grew up thinking Earth was the only place with intelligent life. But I’d visited the Underworld, Olympus, and I was about to get my first look at Hell. I was ass crazy excited. I grabbed the nearest hands, and we jumped through.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but we landed in a plush bedroom suite. It was easily the size of my entire house back on Earth. This was way more my style than the palaces in Olympus or even Hades and Persephone’s decorating style. They’d covered the walls in black silk, and the curtains were a deep red velvet. If my stepfather would have let me decorate my bedroom like this as a teenager and we had been unbelievably rich, I totally would have done this to my bedroom.

I threw my arms around Barbatos’s neck.

“This is perfect. I love it.”

“Excellent. There are outfits laid out for all of you. Change clothes and come downstairs. I have a surprise waiting. There’s also a shower big enough for all of you if you need to bathe first.”

He said this instead of ordering Hephaestus straight to the showers to clean all the soot off, and I adored him for that. Just judging by this bedroom, Barbatos lived the high life, but he wasn’t worried about Hephaestus getting his shit dirty. Barbatos turned and left the room.

I hadn’t realized Pavlina wasn’t with us until she came streaking into the bedroom.

“You are not going to believe the bathroom in there. We need to get Hades in contact with Hell plumbers because I want one.”

“I think Barbatos has something nice planned, so whatever ideas you have for water sports will have to wait. I definitely need a shower,” Hephaestus said.

“I just want to play in the water. I’m the fucking Kraken.”

“We all need to shower,” Kimon said. “We’re perfectly capable of doing that without getting kinky.”

I definitely needed to take a shower, and my mouth dropped when I saw the bathroom. The bathtub wasn’t as splendid as Tryphon’s pool, but it was still better than any bathtub I’d ever seen on Earth. There was a wall shower that took up the better part of an entire wall. It would easily fit all of us. The person who laid the tile was a fantastic artisan, and there were showerheads positioned on all the walls.

We got clean without getting nasty, but Tryphon was right. I wanted to play in the water. We got clean without taking too long. I saw the garment bags laid out with our names embroidered in them. I usually would have pitched a fit at the idea of someone dressing me or telling me what to wear, but I was mellowing out. I loved the outfits Pavlina made me, and I was glad my father picked my outfit tonight. I didn’t want to offend anyone in Hell when I just got here.

I was a little surprised at the burgundy gown I pulled out of the bag. It was beautiful and totally backless. I’d never worn something like this in my entire life. I couldn’t even claim I had a lovely prom dress because no one asked me, and I didn’t go.

I slipped the gown over my head and zipped up the side. This had to be some material you could only get in Hell because I’d felt nothing like this before. It was soft and comfortable. I whirled around and took in my people. I realized Barbatos had been watching and getting to know them this entire time, right down to their