The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,10

I could only huff out a heavy sigh. "Ok, fair enough. Demons are evil, so by that standard, she is evil."

Bel looked at me. "What did you think it meant?"

"That she'd destroy worlds with her power."

"Angels are doing that now. How could she be worse?" And he grabbed a box from the shelf, carefully reading the information on the back.

What bothered me was that Bel was right. I'd always had this idea in my head of what it meant to be evil. Back when I'd first heard the theories of the Ayala, I'd assumed it was a horror story, spread around for a little excitement. Sure, the scientific theory had merit, but not enough to worry about. After all, the chances of a person being born from enemies? We all watched our immediate children too closely for that to happen.

But evil. There was that word again. It bothered Sia. It meant something completely different to me than it did to Bel. I had a feeling all of the guys would have a slightly different take on it. When broken down to its purest form, most people conceptualized it as nothing more than something bad. The problem was that good and bad depended on who defined the terms.

Sia loved multiple men. Her foster parents would've considered that "bad." She lived with demons - also bad. She was kind, considerate, charming, and beautiful. All of those were words used to describe me, often as a warning that I was temptation, and temptation was bad. Although, when people wanted the temptation, it was always labeled as good. Thus, it truly depended upon the perspective of the person judging.

And I'd judged the concept of Ayala as an angel, not a demon. The creature from all planes was predicted to secure the worlds, limiting the use of aether to all but itself, and destroying the creations of the multiverse for its own reasons. The mix of planar variances in its body would make it a weapon. Sentience would give it grudges. The forces battling inside its body would make it temperamental and unpredictable.

Damned if that didn't describe Sia. She felt things stronger than most. It showed in her art. She'd learned how to act like she was calm enough, but the emotions crawling in her paintings proved it. She had brilliant and unprecedented ideas, thought on her feet - like when she was face to face with the dragon that first time - and she'd already locked two worlds away.

But if all of this was true, then we'd been teaching her wrong. Our goal had been to protect and care for her, yet Sia was the closest thing to a god that could be born. She was the culmination of an idea, destined to manage more power than any of us could imagine. And while that sounded good, I couldn't help but worry about what it would mean for her. My beautiful, innocent little human girl. The one who'd broken all the rules we thought we knew, and who really did feel so good in my arms.

I couldn't imagine an existence without her anymore. Screw Firiel and her memory. She'd made me feel like I was such a great man. She'd fed my ego and loved my body. She'd also been a means to an end, and if I was honest, I mourned her mostly because she'd given me a purpose. One Michael had stolen away. I never wanted that to happen to Sia. Because, as powerful as she was, that woman was still very mortal. She might not age, but she could definitely die.

"Luke?" Bel asked, sounding concerned.

Wondering if he was thinking the same way I was, I looked over at him. "Yeah?"

But he held up a box of feminine products. "They have sizes. What size is our Muse?"

"I don't think those are sizes," I said, reaching up to take the box from his hands.

And yet, sure enough, there was definitely a big S marked in the bottom corner. So, like Bel had just done, I tried reading the back. Sadly, it didn't really help much. So I put the box back and grabbed another. Then another. Each one was different, and I had no idea what options she'd want.

"Plastic applicators, cardboard, or none," Bel said. "Different sizes, although I do not think that is for the opening, but the amount to suck up."

"Disgusting," I mumbled.

He chuckled. "I do not know the word, but you understood. Cosmo said that using the right product makes