Page 26 of Nope, No Regrets
Rei
The king of Hell was lounging on an antique gilded chaise, with a beautiful red-headed demon wrapped around him. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was expecting—I hadn’t met many demons so far—but none of them were remotely unattractive. That had to be Bael and Solron. They were both gorgeous, and looked deeply in love.
“So, Kudan made a mess at the gates and let the Aether Circle into Hell,” Bael said.
I thought he was going to be furious and blame me. At first, I thought he looked utterly bored, but then I saw him. There was this look of utter cunning that flickered in his eyes. He had a plan. He wasn’t a king of Hell for nothing.
“We’ll catch him this time,” Sota said. “I’m almost certain he’s at Scorchwood again. I rooted out everyone else that sheltered him, and made an example of them. Most demons loathe him. Even the ones that supported him at first have left him. Every attempt he’s made has failed, and he only has seven tails. Every demon in Hell loathes the Aether Circle. I’m shocked the Yokai are still loyal to him and haven’t abandoned him for that alliance. Then again, they probably know they are dead either way.”
Solron yawned and snuggled into Bael.
“You were ready to take on the entire Aether Circle for coming at your bride. Every shadow and flame demon in Hell has lost someone to that coven, myself included. Seeking retribution on Earth would have been stupid. We would mess up alliances by breaking things. They were stupid to come here when we all hate them… mmm… I’m going to get creative when I torture them.”
I raised my hand like I was still in school. I didn’t want to piss off Bael, or his girlfriend, but I had questions.
“Don’t we need to catch them first? If that were easy, they wouldn’t have infiltrated every area of power on Earth. That grimoire I stole had some awful shit in it.”
Faust stepped up and wrapped his arm around me.
“What if I told you we might be able to use that grimoire against them?”
“How many times do I have to tell people I don’t know who paid me to steal it? That was the entire point of my business! We exchanged messages, and I knew they wanted to get it away from the Aether Circle and didn’t intend to misuse it, but I doubt my website is still up, and even if it is… I doubt they’d answer if I messaged them.”
Faust just smirked.
“Your website is still up, and I’ve gotten into it. I haven’t pinpointed those messages to an exact covenyet,but according to everything we’ve heard about Solron; she likes torture, and she’s the best hacker in Hell. I’m sure between the two of us, we could find out who bought it.
“Demons aren’t the other beings that hate the Aether Circle. They’ve pissed off everyone. You don’t hunt down a master thief to steal their grimoire lightly. I’m guessing they had plans to use it against them, once they had allies, but finding them was probably difficult.”
“Ha!” Solron yelled. “I love it. What’s the website?”
Bael looked totally smitten as she grabbed her laptop off the side table and opened it. I gave her the URL, but I didn’t have high hopes, it would take a fucking miracle. I got that Faust and Solron had skills, but so did the person I’d paid to build my website as securely as possibly. Plus, Ialwaysdeletedanythingincriminating once the job was done.
“What’s your name, wolf?” Bael asked.
“Faust. I was a guard, at Silverhold, but I have a side job taking out bad people for money. The Aether Circle contacted me about killing Rei. Now, at the time, I knew she wasn’t a fox shifter, but I also knew she didn’t deserve to die for stealing from them. Then, I realized she was my mate.”
Bael took all that in and didn’t even fucking blink that Faust murdered people for the right pay. Yeah, we were all going to fit in justfinehere.
“You must meet Skoll and Serafina!” Bael said. “Serafina used to like taking out the bad people, at least before she was framed and sent to Scorchwood. She met Skoll there, her cellmate and also her wolf mate. They exposed everything that was wrong with Scorchwood, stopped an uprising here, and saved the Fae with the help of a vampire, a Fae guardian, and one of our Dukes of Hell. They are now retired, and have a lovely little Hell harem, but we love to let them unleash their criminal sides when people are acting up.”
Solron looked up from her laptop.
“I sent Charley and Finn a message to come. We need more witches. Something tells me I’m going to get along with the little witch Rei brought, and she and Charley are going to be great friends.”
I watched Wren light up. I knew she wanted out of Silverhold, and she wanted to be with me, but I also knew how much it hurt her that every witch in Silverhold turned on Astrid and betrayed her. Covens were supposed to be sacred. The bonds formed within them were thicker than blood. If there were whispers about betraying the coven, everyone was supposed to come together and banish that person… that didn’t happen in Silverhold. Wren had me, but I knew she still needed a coven.
“There areotherwitches here?”
“Girl, we have entire covens! We’ll find you the right one. You’ll like Charley and Finn. Charley was an inmate at Scorchwood, until Amduscias and his team took her with them when they broke out because she helped them. I adore her to death. Finn was an assassin, and they hired him to kill Bael during that unfortunate takeover nonsense.
“He was lied to, and that was the only reason he took the job. His team of assassins was told to go through a forest full of particularly nasty tree demons who don’t like trespassers and caught them. Tree demons areincrediblyintuitive and vicious. They knew Finn was different. They told him to speak his truth before they ripped him apart.
“He did that, and they spared him. He joined our side and ended up helping to end the conflict. Anyway, Charley and Finn are engaged now, and they aresodamn cute together, I want to barf. Make no mistake though, they are also deadly, and exactly who you want on your side when the Aether Circle decides to gatecrash,” Solron said.
We were in the middle of such a shit storm, but I was so happy for Wren. I could be there for her and support her as much as I was physically able, but I’d never be a witch. Despite our best efforts, all of us that left Silverhold wouldn’t be the same as a coven for her. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“We know, Charley,” Rajack said. “She liked the prison hooch, but she was amazing. She didn’t deserve to rot in Scorchwood like that, all because of a mistake made in the throes of grief. People just disappeared all the time in that prison… Charley was one of them. We thought she was dead.”
