Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,65

as much as anyone.”

“Not as much as anyone,” Azagoth snapped.

Lyre cursed as Hawk snared her arm and gently reeled her in. “Cipher killed Bael with an aural from Bael’s own armory.”

Azagoth’s sharp eyes bored into Cipher. “You killed Bael? It wasn’t my souls?”

Cipher would have been content to let Azagoth believe that his souls had taken down Bael, but Lyre would have none of it, and she shrugged out of Hawkyn’s grip.

“He could have waited for one of your souls to do it,” she said boldly. “But he didn’t. He wanted Bael to pay for what he’d done.”

Cipher swore storm clouds were brewing over Azagoth’s head. “Who are you?”

“My lord,” Cipher said, moving to intercept, “this is Lyre. She helped me escape, and if not for her, Bael wouldn’t be dead.” He turned to her, awed by her bravery. She might claim to have weak powers, but she was a warrior from the tips of her wings to the depths of her heart. “And if she’ll have me, I would have her as my mate.”

Lyre’s eyes flared, her mouth fell open, and he nearly groaned. Was it too soon? What if she rejected him in front of all his friends? What if she rejected him anywhere? He was alive because of her. He wasn’t drenched in evil because of her. He was home because of her.

He owed her everything, and he’d already given her the one thing he never thought he’d surrender.

His heart.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I would love to be your mate.”

Relief and elation left him momentarily frozen, but once his feet could move again he gathered her in his arms. He wanted to celebrate properly, but it could wait.

Azagoth wouldn’t.

Cipher kissed her, a peck with a promise of more later, and turned back to Azagoth. “Lyre didn’t have to help me, but she did. When she learned all that Bael and Moloc planned to do, including murdering your children, she turned against them.”

Azagoth’s gemstone eyes once again flashed with intensity, but when he spoke, the razor edge in his voice had dulled. “The daughter on the list, my daughter who died...she was part of a plan. I can accept that. I don’t like it, but it’s beyond my ability to change. Prove to me Amelia didn’t die in vain.”

“I will,” Cipher vowed. “I swear.”

Silence stretched, a make-’em-sweat tactic Azagoth had trademarked. “Hawkyn insists you’ll be an asset to Sheoul-gra,” he finally said. “Time will tell. But if you do anything, and I mean anything, to make me regret this...” Azagoth paused, his lips peeled back from deadly fangs. “I don’t need to go on, do I?”

“No, sir, I’d rather you didn’t.”

With a hint of a smile and a nod so shallow Cipher questioned whether it happened at all, Azagoth flashed away, leaving him with all he’d ever wanted.

His home, his friends, and now, Lyre.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Life inside Sheoul-gra turned out to not be horrible.

Cipher was right: his friends were decent people, and while many of the Memitim were a little chilly toward her, she couldn’t blame them. She and Cipher were fallen angels with a history of working for one of the worst overlords Sheoul had to offer, and given the recent murder within Sheoul-gra’s borders, trust didn’t come easily.

But she was willing to do what it took to gain that trust. Azagoth was going to be a hard sell, and frankly, she chose to just avoid him when possible. Bael had been terrifying, but the Grim Reaper made him look like a kitten in comparison.

Cipher had gone straight to work for Azagoth, hacking into enemy computers. Once his wings grew in and his powers were restored, Azagoth said he’d make use of his spell-coding skills, as well. At least his ability to flash had come back, so things were moving along.

Lyre...she wasn’t sure where she’d fit in yet. Her powers were so weak she feared she’d never get a job, but just this morning, one week after escaping Bael’s clutches, Azagoth came to her with a proposal. She’d listened in silent terror as he explained that her lack of strong abilities had the potential to make her all but invisible to power-sensing demons in the Inner Sanctum, and in addition to using her for intel into Bael and Moloc’s methods, he had some spy work for her. Her gift of turning into a wisp of vapor would give her even more ways to ensure she went undetected.

She could do that. It sounded fun, actually.

And as she was sitting in