The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,105

sins again? Homosexuality? Cosmetics? Birth control? Divorce? Mixing your fabrics or gazing at stars?"

"It's not the same," she insisted.

"It's exactly the same," I assured her. "Luke buys souls with his promises. He extracts the impossible from them in return for what people truly want. He sets the price high enough that they won't ask for trivial things, and then he delivers. He's made a name for it. Beelzebub tore apart the mobs of people ganging up to kill others. He encouraged the weak to stand up for themselves. Sam taught humans that pleasure is not a thing limited to men, and that it does not always have to result in children. And Nick? He fought so that all people could make their own choices without shame. For civilizations to progress instead of only the most powerful few." And I lifted her hand to my lips. "Tell me, Sia, what will the devil do?"

"I don't want to be the devil," she breathed.

"But you already are," I said gently. "You have been. You, with your hair of flame and your uncontrollable temper. With your destructive power that you only turn on those who deserve to be punished. What is the bad part of that?"

She ducked her head. "I like it better when you say it."

"Be a demon with me," I whispered. "Be proud of being the Devil of the First Legion of Hell."

"Be bad," Nick told her. "It's so much more fun than being good."

The others all nodded and murmured their agreement, then God added, Your darkness does not have to be turned on those who do not deserve it. My first child is correct. Being evil does not mean that you must be cruel. It means that you will understand pain and suffering in a way that those who are purely good never will. You will know best how to stop the worst things. You will be a savior, but in your own way. One who fights for those who need it.

Sia was nodding at her words. "Ok. I can do that."

"But we are still going to need your help," Nick insisted, since the dragon had yet to respond to him. "If you really want to make things up to us, then help us stop the angels!"

"Yeah," Bel agreed.

I nodded quickly. "With what's coming, Sia won't be able to do it on her own. Even if it's just like that battle that happened here, where you healed me and gave her aether."

No, I gave her divinity. It is not the same.

"Raw aether," Nick groaned. "That's why it felt different."

"Is that why she didn't die?" I asked.

I gave her a gift, the dragon told me. She wanted to be a demon. She fights with you, and she will fight for me. That means she will suffer, and she would not be as strong if she could not awaken again, so I made her like the first children. I made her able to not only live for eternity, but also to find the life she needs. I made her unstoppable.

"I can't do that," I told Tiamat.

You can. You may not know how, but if your life is ever so low that your body sleeps, it will pull life into it. You will wake before the second children. I simply made Sia faster, since she needs to be stronger.

"Interesting," Luke said under his breath.

I gave him a warning look, then decided to change the subject because we were getting distracted. "What are we supposed to do with all of the slaves?"

I do not understand.

"Angels have been taking sentient creatures from the midworlds back to Angelis so they will breed and produce aether. That allows Angelis to bloom with life, and the angels use it to fuel their technology. We do as well, but not to the same extent. The problem is that those slaves? They can't stay there. We have to save them, and that means moving them off that plane."

Then send them home.

"It's not that easy," I told her. "They have seen things that others won't believe. They'll suffer for it, and that's not fair. You turned a blind eye, distracted with dragons or other worlds. You allowed your children to suffer because you were too busy elsewhere. Now, your Ayala is going to help them, but it's not going to be easy. If we take them to one world, they will blend together, not caring about their races. The children will all eventually have the same short lives, and that's not fair."

I