Page 129 of Bones

“More likewhoin the hell,” Levi corrected, standing in the corner of the room.

“What happened to the little jingle?” Juno asked.

“You mentioned entry music. I decided to lean into it.”

“I approve. Can you hook me up with some?”

“Maybe. We’ll brainstorm later.” Unbuttoning his jacket, he put his hands in his pockets and crossed one of his ankles over the other. “Right now, I’m here to meet my daughter, who isn’t actually mine. I’m sure of it now. I’ll still answer to Father—though that’s usually reserved for heavenly roleplaying. Dad. Papa. Papi? Daddy?—”

“How many deals do you think you can make if I cut that tongue out?” I gritted through clenched teeth. Because devil or not, if he kept flirting with my mate, I’d make Hell look like a playground compared to what I’d do to him.

He held his hands up in surrender. “I just wanted to meet the last mate.” He scanned Aurora, but it was clinical. “You’re old.”

“I get you’re the ruler of Hell…” Aurora muttered, scowling at him.

“Not like that. At the risk of your mate taking an axe to my legs—or the slightly shorter third one hanging between them—you’re as beautiful as the others. But your soul is old. Much older than your body.” His head tilted.

And then he was gone.

“Where the hell did he go?” I asked.

Aurora crossed her arms. “Now you see how it feels.”

“Sorry, my love.”

My words were barely free of my mouth when they swirled. Twisted. Spiraling around the room and through my head like something physical. Sentient.

When they faded to an echo, Aurora and I were no longer at Denny’s. We were in an unfamiliar house. Floor-to-ceiling windows showed we were up on a cliff with crystal-blue waters crashing below us. As far as I could feel, no one was around for miles.

No one except Levi.

“Know you’re here,” I called.

He entered the room. “You called her your love. She’s enjoying that—along with a slight freak-out. I wasn’t sure if it would turn into a fight or a fuck, so I was giving you privacy.” He gestured to a table on the other side of the room. “If you opt for the second one, that table is reinforced and unbreakable.”

Continuing to be a sick fuck, I was tempted.

Un-fucking-fortunately, Aurora didn’t seem to be. She scanned out the window. “Where are we?”

“One of my homes,” Levi said.

She inched closer to me. “Why?”

“A private matter that I didn’t know if you’d want to discuss around the others.” He raised a brow at me. “But I knew better than to take you without your mate.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“If it were possible, would you want answers about your family and your accident?”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“If a devilishly handsome man. A smart man. A man with raw sex appeal and a giant?—

“We get it,” I cut in.

“Heart,” he continued, “had information, would you want to know it?”

She nodded so quickly, I worried she’d give herself a headache. “Yes. Of course. Tell me.”

---