“Yeah, because she’s kinda top heavy, but she also knows how to cut a bitch.”
Delta and I both snort. “You’re so country, Medley,” Delta teases.
“What did you name yours?” I ask Delta.
“I named mine the Queen of Hearts, or Red Queen for short, because she wants to take Morax’s fucking head off,” she replies cheerfully. I can’t help but grin. My sisters are my kind of crazy.
“What about you, Sable?” Medley calls.
“Umm…” The answer immediately pops into my head. “Monster.”
Delta hums while Medley looks over her shoulder at me with a knowing smile. Because I don’t hide from monsters anymore. With my scythe, I’m the monster. Morax’s demons should be hiding from me.
The three of us are huffing a little by the time we get to the top, but it’s clear that we’re finally getting somewhere. The white walls are now embellished with portraits and crown molding, but we don’t stop to wonder which hallway or door we should take. We just keep going, heading straight ahead and hoping for the best.
“Speakin’ of bein’ badass,” Medley begins. “You sure picked up the darkness thing quick, Del,” she says. “I was so worried when we came back to the dungeon that you wouldn’t have enough time to master it, but you did it!”
“Yeah,” I agree. “And you guys were good. Even I thought you were under compulsion.”
Delta beams and walks backward for a moment so she can look at me. “Right? I fucking was badass! Which I’m totally not humble about because nothing has come easy to me. Not like it has with Medley. But as soon as she explained about the darkness...I don’t know, it just made sense. I knew exactly how to block him.”
“We’re gonna hand the Ophidian his two-bit behind on a Hell platter,” Medley says as Delta whirls back around to bump her fist.
We blindly take the turn down another hallway, and things begin to look even more homey, with fancier lantern sconces and plush carpets. Although, I realize as we’re hurrying past that what I first assumed were family portraits or landscapes hanging up on the walls are actually paintings of food or drinks. For every single painting. Overflowing wine, decadent cakes, rich cheeses, hunks of steaming meat...I’ll say this for the decorative choice, it’s incredibly lifelike.
“Fucking Gluttony,” I hear Delta say with a shake of her head.
“It’s making me hungry,” I admit, making both my sisters snort.
At the end of the hallway, Medley nearly barrels straight into a short female who comes through a doorway carrying a bag of trash and wearing a plain gray outfit that looks like something a janitor would wear.
“Sorry!” Medley says, her sweet Southern twang coming out even inside the foreign body. “Didn’t see ya there!”
“Imp,” Delta mutters to me before she steps forward to address the creature that looks like a shorter version of the Wicked Witch of the West with her curved nose and green-apple skin. “I went down to the cellar to get more wine for our guests, but I heard voices and found these two in there,” she says, owning her maid costume before leaning into the imp conspiratorially. “We imbibed a little too much if you catch my drift,” she fake whispers with a grin. “Gluttony, am I right?”
The imp glares at her.
“Anyway, I got all turned around. Can you point us in the right direction of the party?” she asks sweetly, while Medley gives a very convincing drunken hiccup.
The imp rolls her eyes as if she has seen too much of this shit, but then she points a spindly finger at the doorway she just came from.
“Thanks!” Delta calls, and then the three of us waste no time rushing through.
“Fuck a duck, more stairs,” Delta curses as we find just that inside the room.
Luckily, once we reach the top of this staircase, we hear it. The hum of music. The raucous noise of a crowd. All we have to do now is follow the noise, just like Toreon said.
The three of us stop, doing a quick sweep of the room of marble, noting the pillars and bourbon-colored rug, and the life-sized portraits of more gluttonous spreads. Down a wide corridor, there’s a huge arched entryway where we can see the party is in full swing, all kinds of sounds and glittering light spilling out from it. Beside it, along the long