Page 29 of True Sacrifice
“You seem to be less grumpy today. Is there a reason for it?” I mentally reminded myself of Jasper’s passive power, his side that brought about war.
“We don’t have to train today, which means I don’t have to worry about being distracted when you burn a hole in your pants.” He was referring to the other day when I literally fell backwards onto my fire ball, burning a giant hole in the back of my pants but thankfully not through my underwear. I was getting a little better at controlling it. But I had to train for the rest of my time with Jasper with my kitten riding a rainbow underwear proudly on display. Hell has the best patterns.
“So, you’re only nice to me outside of work, got it.” Justice had still been flirty and trained me.
“I don’t think you understand how much control it takes not to get up from this bed, throw you against the wall and tear that horribly innocent looking dress from your delectable little body,” he growled out. “I am the son of Lust.”
“So, is that the plan for the day? Get this dress off me? I can go change if that’s what you need,” I toyed with the response. The part of me that wanted him to follow through with his suggestion was going to need to sit back down for a while.
“Actually, I planned on taking you to the eighth ring of Hell. Let you meet some of the common demons, let you see how they live. Keep the dress on for now.” He gave me a mischievous look as he finally got off my bed.
Pandemonium was in the first ring of Hell. It was all arranged like an ice cream cone. The rings getting wider and wider as they went up. The very bottom was the first ring, and the very top, the largest ring, was the ninth ring. Demons lived in the ring that matched their power, but they were free to travel throughout Hell.
The portal stood before us, shimmering blue. It almost looked like it was made of fire from the way it danced and lapped at the edges, as if barely contained. Jasper offered his hand, and I took it without hesitation. He seemed awfully sure that I could get through the portal, but now that I was standing before it, I had to admit I was nervous.
“Trying to burn my clothes off me already? Maybe we should have saved the time and gotten it over with in my room.” I hope my voice didn’t betray my nerves.
“Hellfire doesn’t burn. It does kind of tickle though.”
I struggled to imagine Jasper as ticklish. I took a steadying breath and took a step forward into the blaze. I really should get over being nervous around all this Hell stuff. From what I’ve seen, I am well near indestructible. I appeared out the other side, with Jasper still holding my hand as he stepped through onto the cobbled streets. I checked for any ticklish squirms from Jasper, but his face was stoic, as always.
There was a bustling little village before me. It looked like a picture drawn in my history books from the time when they liked to burn witches. There were so many demons walking around, carrying things, talking to each other. I suddenly felt nervous all over again.
“I thought it was dangerous to be around other demons until I have a handle on my powers,” I whispered to Jasper. I tried to pull together a mental shield, imagining a wall being built around my mind. Every time I built up the wall, Jax would slash through it with barely any resistance, but it was the best I could do for now.
“These are all low powered demons; I could take them all out with barely a whiff of power. We mostly need to worry about the demons closer in power to us. Plus, it seems you are rather popular amongst the common demons. You made quite a name for yourself at the ball,” Jasper whispered back, putting me more at ease.
“I barely did anything.” I mean, at least I found my mates, and I didn’t die.
“They saw Jax touch you. It was quite a shocking moment.”
Jasper let me think that over as he switched gears and started showing me around the town. They had small market style stands out, with demons trading all sorts of handmade goods. There were paintings, jewelry, sculptures, all handmade.
“It gives them joy to create things, and the other demons like to have things that were made by other demons, rather than those provided by Hell,” Jasper explained.
I was happy that arts were not lost in a society that had everything they could ever need. Creativity had still thrived.
I approached a table that had a display of hand forged jewelry. Jasper stood behind me patiently, giving me all the time I wanted to look at the beautiful and intricately done metalwork. “It’s beautiful,” I told the shop owner.
“All natural resources collected from the mid-realm,” the owner gushed. “Is there anything that catches your eye, Princess Morrigan?”
I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me that he knew who I was. Jasper would have likely been a dead giveaway. “I’m sorry, I brought nothing to trade. What do you typically trade for? I can try to come back next week?”
“Here,” Jasper said, holding out a tiny carving of a gargoyle made from what looked like wood. The shop owner took it with a look of surprise and pure joy, cradling the tiny figurine against their chest.
“You can have anything you would like,” the shop owner said excitedly, examining the token further.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, turning to Jasper. “I could have come back next week with something.”
“But look at how happy it made him,” Jasper said with a smile. The shop owner looked thrilled. “Plus, I want you focusing on training on the other days. I have plenty of carvings to trade if you see anything you like. For now, pick a piece so Stanley can stop worrying that he has to give the carving back.”
Stanley brought the token to his chest possessively. “Anything you want at all Princess; you can have it all, even.”
“Actually Jasper, I want you to pick out a piece for me.” There was no way I would take that token back from the demon. He really looked happy with it. I wasn’t sure which piece of jewelry to take, it all just looked so beautiful.
Jasper looked around, finding a necklace made of a glimmering silver type metal. It almost looked like an unfinished circle of thorns coiled and wrapped together. Jasper put it around my neck from behind. It wrapped around from the back, the open points sitting each on my collarbones. The metal was lightweight, and there were no sharp pokes from the parts that looked like thorns. I loved it.
“Now you get to pick a piece for me, and we can move on to the next shop,” Jasper said with a smile.
