Page 16 of Nope, No Regrets
Rei
Demons took this whole gates of Hell thing seriously. I felt a chill run through me as I walked through the outhouse door. It was pitch black. The next thing I knew, I was in an office building, surrounded by demons. I knew they were guards, but they were just so different from everyone responsible for keeping us in our place back at Silverhold. No one had any weapons, and they were way less grumpy about their positions.
They seemed suspicious of everyone who walked through, but it was almost like they recognized me. I saw my brother—we looked exactly alike—I knew he was some sort of traitor, and the entire reason I was sent away. I expected nothing from anyone anymore. My parents and I argued all the time, but they had still made it a point to teach me several life lessons.
Respect had to be earned was one of those lessons. People that tried to force that were generally psychopaths, or it was fake. I was told I was important in Hell, and that was the only reason these demons were bowing and looking at me in awe.
This was going to be so irritating if I had demons kissing my ass because of my parents. Barbatos and Sota came to stand next to me and glared at the guards.
“A lot of demons are currently being tortured for not taking their duties at this gate as seriously as they should,” Sota growled. “Kudan has allied with the Aether Circle. Remember them? They summoned and killed countless demons while trying to find a way into Hell. I doubt this whole alliance with Kudan is just to get back a missing grimoire and exact their revenge on Rei.
“Bael and Solron will torture you, and they’ll do it personally, if you let Kudan back in here. Solron will get creative if the Aether Circle comes with him. She does so have a temper when it comes to crimes against demons.”
I didn’t know who either of those demons were, but every single person guarding the gate went white at the prospect of being left alone with Solron. I should probably be afraid of her, but that whole earning respect thing took on a whole new meaning when I met Hauser.
“Bael let Solron play in the Underworld and Olympus, with my daughter and me. We took on an army of Artemis’s handmaidens while rescuing Persephone from her mother, and then we killed some Olympians who pretended to be Gods. She got to kill manypeople, but she gets bored easily. I’m sure we would all prefer she get her hands on Kudan and the Aether Circle instead of someone dumb enough to take a bribe,” Barbatos said.
I already had a million questions about Hell, but excuse me for one fucking second… I learned about Greek mythology from my, very human, fourth-grade teacher. It was supposed to be a dead religion from ages ago, not actual places and beings from a different realm. How many fucking realms were there out there?!
Faust wasn’t a demon, and had no authority here. He was also stark naked. He tried to stare down every single demon here.
“Rei is my mate, and if you do anything stupid that puts her in danger, I’ll rip you all apart.”
Wren joined him.
“If you do, and even if you don’t get caught, I’ll find my proof, and I’ll make it look like an accident.”
Sota and Barbatos looked satisfied, and everyone guarding the gate looked ready to shit their pants. Solron was apparently frightening, and they weren’t stupid enough to threaten a wolf’s mate. Wren’s threat couldn’t be discounted either. Witches got creative when they killed.
I still regretted that fox hair I left when I was stealing from the Aether Circle. I wasn’t the slightest bit sorry to have liberated that grimoire, but I knew they were killers when I broke in. Why did they have to have that many fucking cats?!
Another swirling red cloud opened, but Sota wasn’t done with the guards yet.
“Pass on what we told you to the next shift, and tell them to pass it on until every gate guard here knows what’s in store for them if Kudan ends up back in Hell with friends. He can’t protect you. The Aether Circle hasn’t been killing demons for a way into Hell because they want vacation homes here. They won’t protect you either. Make sure every single demon who guards this gate understands that some extra money isn’t worth it.”
Well, fuck. Kudan bribed his way out of here once. I hardly knew anything about Hell, but I was pretty sure greed was a universal constant in any realm. These people might bow and show me respect because of my demon parents, but none of them knew me.
They had no reason to protect me. Hopefully, this Solron and her penchant for torture were enough to scare them into letting people who wanted me dead into Hell. It was more than just witches now, my brother was in on it.
Sota held out his arm and smiled at me like he hadn’t just spent fifteen minutes threatening these employees with torture.
“Care to see where you were born?”
Yeah, I actually did. After everything that’d happened since I set foot out of Silverhold, I wanted this. I took his arm and stepped through with him.
