I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier Page 0,51

will turn them down and move her to solitary for her safety.”

“Kitsunes are not built for solitary. You know that, Bael.”

“I’m aware, Sota. They need people to cause trouble with. It’s where she needs to be since she pissed off the Aether Circle. We’ll throw her an enormous party when she gets back that she was able to steal from them until she got caught.”

“I want them dead. All of them. I know they can’t summon us anymore, but they deserve to die for hurting demons and coming after Rei.”

“We all want them dead, Sota. Believe me, we brainstormed several plans. Not even Solron could come up with something. She offered to hack them and steal all their money, but they’d just take it out on someone topside.”

“I’m going to do it. I’m going to figure out how to kill them all.”

“You’re a Tengu, Sota. I’m sure once you get your bride back, a Tengu and a Kitsune can come up with a plan. Hell won’t support you unless we know it will work.”

My ancestors caused so much trouble on Earth before Hell decided to keep to itself. So did Kitsunes. Her father picked me as her husband for a reason. A Tengu and a Kitsune ruling that region would be quite the power couple. If her older brother hadn’t been such a fucking problem, we’d be married already. Kudan was still an issue, but she could defend herself now, and we were getting close to pinpointing his location to take him out for good.

He was technically next in line, but he didn’t want to wait his turn. He tried to assassinate his father and failed. His mother had been pregnant with Rei at the time. He managed to escape and had been hiding somewhere in Hell. He had his minions hanging on his every word.

Everyone knew he would try again. Kudan knew damned well he wouldn’t be allowed to rule after that. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try. Everyone knew he would have had no problems killing a baby, so that there were no other options for an emperor if he managed to kill his father. So, Rei got sent away for her protection, and I never got the chance to get to know her.

I was an advisor on the team that was set to hunt down Kudan. I should have been focused on finding him and taking him out. Rei couldn’t come home until Kudan was dead. Except now she had to because some witches got butt hurt she took their Grimoire. The witches in Hell told me all about that book and said Rei did everyone a solid stealing it from them.

I felt totally helpless because I couldn’t get permission to get her out of prison, and I couldn’t concentrate on finding Kudan. We’d zeroed in on a general location, and in four days, several legions in Hell would be storming it to see if we could capture him.

I couldn’t help Rei until Barbatos was finished playing in other realms. I needed to focus on what I could do. I could get rid of Kudan and make Hell safe for her when I could get her out of prison.

Chapter 32

Rei

-+

his Brody I was supposed to steal keys from hadn’t made an appearance in the mess hall until after I left Faust’s office. He was glaring right at me too, like he blamed me for Venus ending up in medical. Okay, I was getting offended at all these witches, blaming me for shit and wanting to kill me. I owned stealing that Grimoire, and I’d do it again. Venus didn’t disable the cameras at the museum. I saw her face clear as day. She wasn’t wearing a mask. She’d be in here even if I didn’t bite her. And I didn’t lay a finger on her. She got her ass beat because she asked a fox to kill me. Why was I getting blamed for everything that went wrong with the witches?

It wasn’t like I had this comprehensive plan to stop offending witches either. I was sizing Brody up for weaknesses to steal his keys. We’d hopefully be long gone before he realized someone stole them instead of losing them. He’d know I stole his keys, but good luck coming for me. I didn’t know where we’d end up after we broke out. I didn’t just need to hide from the authorities. The Aether Circle wanted me dead, and they would get personally butt hurt I