Reign of Night (Thorne Hill #7) - Emily Goodwin Page 0,25
with dark magic? If she practiced Satanism, did she ever make contact with Lucifer? And if she did…would he even know she was my mother?
He told me that he liked people worshiping and praying to him. It made him feel less lonely, being cast down to the deepest pits of Hell, alone for all eternity. I don’t know if I necessarily believe him when he said he never forced anyone to trade their soul for power. Even if he didn’t force it, misleading and tricking someone into giving it up is just as bad, right?
“Are you ready to go home?” Kristy asks. I haven’t contributed much to the conversation, and I think it’s starting to become obvious my mind is elsewhere, though I don’t care.
“Yeah. A nap sounds nice, but if you guys want to stay longer I can so we can walk back together.”
“I have a holiday home-makeover show saved that I’m kind of dying to watch. So let’s go.”
“How was lunch?” Lucas looks up from his book as soon as I walk into the house. He’s sitting at the kitchen island, which isn’t a usual place for him to hang out. I’m sure he was waiting by the door on purpose, anxious for me to get back.
I stomp the snow off my boots and take them off, leaving them by the back door. Our laundry room is in the basement since we didn’t want to take any space away from the first level, but we did carve out a little mudroom so I have a place to unload groceries, leave my shoes, and keep the giant bags of dog food I’ve been ordering online for Scarlet.
“Good,” I say with a forced smile Lucas can see right through.
“Where are your friends?” He dog-ears the page in his book, and I give him a death stare. What kind of monster dog-ears pages in books?
“They walked around so they wouldn’t have to come in and take their shoes off. It’s getting slushy out there.”
“The snow will be gone tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain.”
“Lovely.” I unzip my coat and shiver. As soon as I get my coat hung up on the hall tree by the backdoor, my phone rings. I get it out of my coat pocket and see Abby’s name.
“Hello?” I answer but get nothing. “Hello? Abby?” It sounds like the phone clatters to the ground, and then I hear Penny babbling. “Did you call me, Penny?” I laugh. “Get Mommy. Give Mommy the phone.” Another few seconds pass and some sort of electronic toy asks me to find the circle. I’m just about to hang up when Abby says something to Penny.
“…it’s almost time for a—who did you call?” Rustling comes through the phone line. “Cal? You there?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m so sorry. I gave her my phone because I desperately needed to clean the kitchen.”
“You don’t have cleaning ladies for that?”
“Hah. I actually do have cleaning ladies, but they come once a week and don’t wash dishes. Are you busy? Do you need me to let you go?”
“No, I’m not. I just got home from lunch at the Covenstead.”
“Covenstead,” she echoes. “That’s the hidden place, right? Where your school was?”
“Yes. I’m freezing now. It’s a longer walk from the door to this new house.”
“Someday you’re going to have to explain this to me when I’m sitting down so I can take notes.”
I laugh, not telling Abby I wouldn’t be allowed to do that, since nonmagical people aren’t supposed to know the location to our door. Only members of the coven or witches or warlocks coming to visit are allowed to be made privy, and Lucas finding out there the entrance to our Covenstead was one just one of the charges Ruth brought against me.
“How was your weekend?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” I start as I walk into the living room. “Killed a high-ranking demon, went to Australia, and accidentally named myself the Queen of Hell.”
“Normally, I’d wonder if you’re joking, but I know you enough to take this seriously,” Abby says, voice unwavering. “I bought a vacuum for half off and thought I had a pretty exciting weekend.”
“That is exciting.”
“Thanks, it’s cordless.”
“Oh, I kind of want one of those.”
“Queen of Hell,” Abby repeats. “What does that even mean?”
“It means I kind of accidentally threw my hat in the ring to be the next ruler of Hell since Lucifer…” I blink and get a flash of him standing over Abby. The smell of her blood permeated the air so strongly I still