Page 32 of Nope, No Regrets
“I never said Kudan shouldn’t be underestimated. He’s weak, as far as Kitsunes go, but he’s extremely cunning and knows how to use what he was given. He’s not stupid, and he’s aware of his limits. Demons don’t run from fights. It’s considered an honor to die fighting for a cause. Kudan has never been like that, he always runs.”
I wanted to personally cut off her brother’s seven tails and wear them as a belt, but that might piss off some other Kitsunes here, even if he was a douche. They seemed to make an enormous deal about their tails. I didn’t enjoy backing down from a fight either, but I wasn’t about to die to make a point.
“We’ve got a power outage, locked doors, and a potion that allows us to see in the dark,” Sota said. “That handles the witches. Kudan can jump through a portal anywhere as soon as he senses we are there.”
“Isn’t that what they want?” Rei asked. “Kudan could have gone anywhere, but he picked the one place the Aether Circle was going to complain about. He’s not going to attack me, at least not out in the open, where other demons could join in. You’ve caught him there several times. I think hewantsus to fight this out in small spaces. That was the only reason he beat Fergus before.”
“I’m aware, Rei,” Sota said. “Kudan wants this to go down on his terms. He knows he has no other options… no one will forgive him for bringing the Aether Circle here. If he tries to flee to Earth, and leaves them behind, the remaining coven members will hunt him down.”
Fergus just shrugged.
“I can get to Kudan before Rei cuts the power. I can do away with Serafina’s favorite. No one will get the pleasure of torturing him, and it will make a gigantic mess, but he’ll be dead.”
Amduscias groaned.
“I’m on board with you doing that, as long as it’s far away from me. Every time you fly up someone’s nose and explode them from the inside, it takes ages to wash the little chunks out of my hair.”
That sounded utterly revolting… and totally awesome. I got the whole torture thing was big here, but maybe if he was this slippery of a mother fucker, we should just let the fairy explode him and be done with it.
“Warden Skinner didn’t clean out that lab when you did that to the doctor that experimented on Serafina,” Solron said. “It was fuckinggross,Fergus. It doesn’t even get that graphic in the dungeon when Bael and I play with someone who needs to learn a lesson. We had to put entirely new drywall in there.”
“Do it,” Sota said. “Sorry, Solron, but it’s better if he’s dead. I’ll compensate you for anything that needs to be replaced in the room he’s killed in. The Aether Circle can’t portal away like he can. You can play with them.”
I couldn’t believe we were having a debate over taking Kudan out for good, and some fucking drywall in a prison several people thought should be destroyed for good was seriously a consideration. Solron wasn’t wholly unreasonable.
“Oh, fine. Wren, what do you need for that potion? Seeing in the dark will be cool as shit, and I’m ready to go kill some witches squatting in my prison.”
I rubbed my palms together like a madwoman. It felt like I had an old friend back as soon as those handcuffs came off and I felt my magic coursing through me again. Now, I could resort to some old tricks to kill a coven I hated.
I was digging Hell so far.
