Page 139 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“How do we find her?”
Ramiel grits his teeth. “If I know my brother, which I do, he will try and keep her hidden so we cannot find her.”
“How. Do. We. Find. Her?” Kane steps towards Ramiel, a menace in his step.
Their earlier animosity bleeds through the cracks of our fragile situation. And I need to maintain the peace. I step between them, uncaring if Kane decides to swipe a talon in my direction and gut me.
It’d be the least I deserved for letting Lourdes get away.
“But if there’s one thing he might not be aware of, it’s our connection to her.” Ramiel’s own voice has already gone ragged with anger, desperation. Quiet with the sharp promise of retribution. “I can try and contact her, find out where she is…”
“Do it,” Kane snarls. “Fucking do it.”
“We will find her, brother,” Ramiel says. “I swear it.”
Kane doesn’t reply to him. I don’t even know if he’s quite forgiven him for their earlier spat; for not trusting us enough to protect him, to share information he knew about for what I suspect was a while.
And now look at what happened.
I can understand Kane’s anger. I feel it prominently myself, but I know that if we fight among ourselves, there is absolutely no way we will come out of this victorious.
We need to keep a level head.
We need to think.
“My kings…”
The voice that slithers across the walls catches us all off guard. Our gazes snap up to the ceiling where Ralgoron crawls, her nails digging into the walls. She hops from the ceiling, landing in the space between the three of us. Her wings span out, twitching slightly as she straightens. Her yellow gaze is piercing. Of all the demons in the Underworld, she is one of the most mischievous ones. She is also very loyal to us, despite how many times Kane has chained her into The Pit and whipped her for her insolence.
Which has been several times now.
Yet she still comes back to us.
Sometimes I think she’s a loyal pet, other times I think she just enjoys the pain. A true masochist who lives to provoke the Lords of the Underworld because she likes the punishment.
“Now is not the time,” Ramiel reprimands her instantly. His magic lashes, wrapping around her body and squeezing. Her wings press together from the force of his magic, a crunching filling the air like he means to snap every bone in her body.
“Not even time for the Queen of the Underworld?”
Her words give us all pause. Ramiel immediately drops his magic. “Speak,” he orders.
She smiles. “Your queen went through the portal in your room.” She nods in Ramiel’s general direction. “Gone, gone, gone through the mirror.”
“And youlether?!” His magic flares up again, choking her.
Somehow it seems kinder than what Kane would do to her. Than what he’s plotting in his mind at this very instant, from the look on his face.
“Far be it within my power to tell the Queen of the Underworld what she can and cannot do.”
Kane growls and steps forwards, raising a taloned hand. The black tips gleam and he sends it slashing down across her face. The skin splits, and she lets out an ear-shrieking wail that can likely be heard throughout every valley and cranny within the Underworld.
Blood sprays against Kane’s face, staining his suit and hands.
A long, jagged line of split flesh slashes across her face, separating one side from the other. She wails, crying out as blood taints her lips and she starts to choke on it.
“My king, mercy!”
Kane lifts his hand again, and I know he means for this to be a killing blow.
