were currently sparring. My demon husband finally deigned to take over my combat training, to better correct my style, as he said. The fact I now had to go up against an unfairly hot demon whose naked chest slicked by sweat seemed to evaporate my brain cells only compounded my already weak “style.”
Which was why, when Azmodea blasted through the doors of the training hall, I was currently with my back on the ground, Azazel straddling me with a look somewhere between resignation and easily kindled lust.
“Why,” Azmodea called out, “by the nine circles of Hell, would you go back into that snake pit of a palace? And more importantly, why would you go without me?”
The look of resignation on Azazel’s face deepened, and with a sigh, he turned his head to his sister. “I take it Daevi told you?”
Hands on hips, Azmodea glared. “You know she did. She just didn’t know why.”
Taking a deep breath, Azazel came to his feet with a grace that should have been at odds with his size, yet seemed to make perfect sense, like the elegant fluidity of a panther. He offered me a hand and hauled me up in a show of easy strength when I accepted.
“Here,” he said and handed me a bottle of water he’d summoned, then turned to Azmodea with a calculating expression. “We’re going to steal a soul from Lucifer.”
Azmodea summoned an entire settee, plopped down on it with a flourish, put her chin in her hand and batted her lashes. “Do tell.”
And he did. While he laid out the situation and our plan, I limped over to the settee and gingerly sank down on it, chugging my water and contemplating the weird turns my life had taken to lead me to the point I was plotting a soul heist with two demons in Hell.
“You will need a distraction,” Azmodea eventually said after Azazel finished.
He cast her a look. “Obviously.”
“Once Lucifer gets his claws in you in front of the court, he won’t let you go without an intervention.”
Azazel said nothing, but a muscle feathered in his jaw.
“Don’t worry.” Azmodea leaned back with a smirk. “I have just the thing.”
“Not the bats.”
She waved that away. “Much better, darling.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Tell me.”
“Ah-ah. I won’t ruin the surprise. Trust me, it’ll cause the most delicious chaos.”
He raised a brow at that.
Turning to me as if only now remembering I was sitting right next to her, Azmodea asked, “Has he brought you up to speed on the court?”
“Uh…”
She shot Azazel an arch look. “Come on. She needs to know the basics of the who-is-who so she won’t accidentally insult anyone.” Facing me again, she patted my knee. “I’ll draw you a family tree and a diagram of the alliances. But the most important thing to remember is that besides Lucifer, the person with the most power at court is Lilith.”
I paused with the bottle raised to my lips. “Wait. The Lilith? As in the apocryphal first wife of Adam?”
“Very good,” Azmodea purred.
It was among the large collection of random facts I’d picked up over the years. The way my brain worked, I’d forget what I wanted to buy without making a list, but I could reference jump through ten articles on Wikipedia and remember weird details like this one subspecies of Canadian wolves who lived entirely off fish.
So, likewise, I had at some point learned that according to some non-canonical biblical texts, Adam had another wife before Eve, but she refused to obey him like a good little subjugated wifey, so she was cast out of Eden. Not a big stretch to see how her legend was a goldmine for feminist religious theory.
If you saw past the part where she was later demonized—literally—and became known as a baby-eating monster.
And now, apparently, I was going to meet the real-life version of her. Yay?
“Is she…a demon too? Some of the texts say she is.”
Azmodea shook her head. “No, sweetie. Humans don’t just become demons. Although she definitely is more than human now. Thousands of years down here have changed her…” She stared off with a pondering expression.
“She’s bonded to Lucifer,” Azazel said, his eyes on me. “Not unlike we are.”
My eyebrows shot up. “They’re married?”
“No,” Azmodea cut in. “Marriage was invented after their union.” She sucked her teeth, a small smile playing about her mouth. “She’s the reason Lucifer fell.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I’ll need to hear that story.”
“Ah,” Azmodea sighed, tilting her head and looking at the ceiling. “The great romance