The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,112

angels existed, it had been surprising. I thought I'd handled it pretty well, all things considered. The difference was that I'd been prepared. The first time I'd seen Nick was when I’d needed a miracle. Having Death appear in the middle of an armed robbery made some strange sort of sense to me. But that had been all it took to plant the seed in my mind.

If Death was real, then everything else had to be possible. Back then, it had made sense for the Grim Reaper to be an angel. After all, people called him the Angel of Death. So, learning that Nick was a demon wasn't that big of a stretch. Not even for an atheist. Never mind that I’d also been a little too desperate to believe that he could actually be real. Maybe I'd thought he was just a daydream, but it had been the thought that kept me going for so long.

But if demons were real, then angels had to be too. That was a small step for my mind. The fact that they were immortal threw me for a bit, but it made sense. The guys had explained all of this to me in a very scientific and plausible way. Cross-planar evolution. String theory. The fact that not only angels and demons existed but also fairies and satyrs was nothing more than science. There was nothing at all to be scared about.

And now there was God.

But I'd also met angels. I knew how easily they lied. Too many times, I'd seen how they could twist things to convince us to believe whatever they wanted. I was pretty sure, though, that my hangup came down to one very minor detail. God and angels were tied together. God reigned in Heaven, which was where the angels slept. That meant that God was supposed to be on their side - and their side wasn't mine.

But the Dragon said I was her creation. That in itself brought up a million questions. How exactly had she created me? I had a mother and a father, and I'd met them both. They hadn't exactly been forced together, and God hadn't even seemed to recognize me the first time we'd met. Had she?

So that sounded like she was stretching the truth, or that there were bigger forces at work in the world. I couldn't decide which idea was more terrifying. Either way, it made me feel small, weak, and helpless. Three things I wasn't exactly fond of. And from the looks on the guys' faces, I had a feeling they were thinking the same thing. God was real. All the signs pointed towards the fact that she wasn't making this up. She was also a motherfucking dragon.

That was why, as soon as we got into the college house, I pulled out my phone and went looking for a charger. I had a little Googling to do, and the name Tiamat was right at the top of the list. According to Wikipedia, she was one of the ancient Mesopotamian goddesses. A symbol of primordial chaos and creation, it said. Often pictured as a loving mother and a vengeful wife - sometimes she was even called evil. The most interesting thing, however, was her relationship to dragons. She was called the mother of them in Babylonian mythology, and often depicted as one.

Considering the ties between Babylon and the Bible, it kinda made sense. What if God wasn't all good? According to her, she was simply the creator, neither good nor evil, and certainly not infallible. She was the mother of demons and angels, and by extension, the reason we all existed. And I couldn't deny the fact that she didn't have to answer our questions, yet she still had.

But while I was reading through the website, the guys were doing their own thing. Luke disappeared somewhere upstairs. Sam had pulled out his laptop and was sitting at the kitchen table looking for something on it. Nick stood behind him, reading over his shoulder. I wasn't sure where Ron went, but Bel was making coffee.

He saw me looking around and tilted his head in a gesture to come closer. "I do not think Ron liked what the dragon said," he told me.

"Which part?" I asked.

"The part that made him feel like he is not good enough." And Bel pressed a cup of coffee into my hands. "You should take that to him and listen because you listen better than the rest of us."

"I think