Page 118 of Hell Bound

“What happened?”

“Princess Sameera decided that she wasn’t going to sit around and wait for me to take the throne from her one day. We both have equal claim to it—our mothers are identical twins and no one knows who came first. My mother didn’t have the stomach to be queen, so she conceded the throne to her sister.”

“Doesn’t that mean Sameera is the heir, then?”

“If I don’t challenge her. But there are those who hate Queen Akeldama, and they hate Sameera even more. Many have vowed to back my claim if I ever make it, and she couldn’t risk that we’d be stronger than her and her cohorts.

“That year, she invited me to accompany her to the Infernal Court Ball, and I naively thought it would be fun to get away from all the court intrigue back home. The moment we arrived, she had her servants chain me and present me to Asmodeus as a token of her thanks for his hospitality.”

“Oh my god, Pyp, that’s terrible. Was there no chance for you to escape?”

“I tried that night and the next. On the third, the Crone gave me the spelled wine that traps every wolf.”

“Why does she help him? The Crone is more powerful than Asmodeus, is she just loyal to him?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always assumed he has something over her like he does all of us, some way of entrapping her and forcing her to do his bidding.”

I considered Pypentha’s situation. A princess, sold out by her cousin because she was scared of a little competition.

She didn’t deserve this. None of them did.

I added another name to my list of those I had to help escape this place.

“I’m so sorry, Pyp. I hope Sameera gets what’s coming to her.”

“Oh, she will. One day I’ll deliver it to her personally, or I’ll die trying. For now though, I’m just biding my time. There are some upsides to being here. Mainly this place.” She waved an arm to encompass the Clubhouse. “All the amazing things I’d never have experienced if not for being stuck here with Deasley the Idiot.”

“That’s true! He managed to get all the best stuff back here with him.”

“I convinced Deasley to let me borrow one of his old iPods to show my brother, Phynaeus, when he comes for the ball.”

“Your brother will be here? Why doesn’t he take you back with him?” I could never leave a family member in a place like this, especially not with a curse upon them.

“He can’t risk starting a war over me, as much as he would love to. With Akeldama still in charge, she’d side with Asmodeus and leave me to rot, killing Phynaeus in the process.”

“Can’t he challenge for the throne?”

Pyp let out a soft snort and shook her head. “He made a blood vow that he wouldn’t so that he could work closely with Akeldama and find a way to free me. Another idiot.” But there was clear love and longing for her brother and her home.

“I’m glad you get to see him. It’s not much, but it’s something.”

“Exactly. And after living this life for as long as I have, I’ve learned that something always beats nothing.”

She reached for the remote and restarted the movie, settling back against the armrest and tucking her feet under the blanket across my lap. They nudged Killian, and he peeked up with a growl before lowering his head back to the armrest and closing his eyes.

Something had been eating at me since the first night when I’d tried to escape and all of Lucifer’s wolves had come after me.

“Pyp, why doesn’t Killian speak? Was he injured or something?” Her eyes shot to me so fast, I leaned a bit deeper into the couch. From the dark expression on her face, I was in for a verbal beatdown.

“No, he wasn’t. Not in the way you’re thinking.” Her anger was still there, but I could tell now that it wasn’t directed at me. “There’s a failsafe built into the curse, and Killian either didn’t know about it, or thought he could get around it after Asmodeus took control of the Infernal Court.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Anything related to the curse meant it affected all of them, Lucifer included.

“How did it happen?”

“I only know from bits and pieces, since this was long before the rest of us were here.” She shot a pitying glance at Killian before continuing. “Kill was the right hand of King Beleqor, while Asmodeus was the general of his army. When Asmodeus decided to overthrow Beleqor, he asked Killian to join him, but he refused.”

“Of course he did. Who would side with Asmodeus? Unless… was Beleqor worse?”

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