Page 39 of Anarchy
“It’s okay, May. You didn’t deserve anything Akul did to you. It’s not painful. He can make you better.”
It was so fucked up. There were two gods in this room, and all the Hellhounds were looking to me for answers. May gasped as Reyson healed her injuries. Lilith snapped into action.
“Use Dorian to unlock the cage. He might as well be good for something. If anyone else is hurt, I’d be happy to heal you. Akul has been arrested, and this place is no longer hospitable. You’re welcome to stay with me while we sort out this mess. You can come and go as you please, and I don’t expect you to do any work.”
May seemed to be the spokesperson for the Hellhounds. She bowed her head.
“Please, it’s not that easy. Akul’s wife is worse than he is. She’s having her daily visit with her friends, but she’ll be back.”
There was a crash downstairs and a lot of shouting. Akul’s wife was here right this minute, and it sounded like she brought all the housewives from the evil part of the demon suburbs.
We were fucked.
29
Ripley
No one told me Akul had a wife. Someone married that thing? With all the rights women had now, there was absolutely no excuse to settle for a shit man in this day and age. Was Hell ass-backward, and she needed him to have a bank account and a house? I had questions.
I was also stuck in this cage unless Dorian bled on this lock before all those people downstairs made it up here and started attacking. I had big opinions about being in a giant cage in the first place, but I had bigger ones about being stuck there when a massive fight was going on. Something told me these bitches weren’t even going to back down when they realized Lilith was the reason Akul got yeeted out of the house by a dragon and carried off by a fallen angel.
“Kill anything that doesn’t belong here!” someone yelled. “Tell your Hellhounds to do the same.”
“Not to be a pest, but can someone get Dorian’s blood over here before they get up the stairs?” I said.
Ravyn snapped her fingers, and Dorian unstuck from the wall. He floated in the air over to my cage.
“Get over here and bleed, you little bitch,” Ravyn said.
“You can’t make me,” Dorian pouted.
“Read the room, asshole. You aren’t even getting a participation trophy for this. You kidnapped my twin, and I’ll take as much blood as I want. Youshouldbe worried about what the men fucking her are going to do to you.”
Oh, man. Ravyn justwas notfucking around. She magically slit Dorian’s throat all over the lock. The lock popped open, and my cage door opened. Dorian fell to the floor, choking on his blood. I stepped over him but gave him a kick to the gut on the way out.
“Quit whining. We don’t have your painting. It’s not like that was fatal, and you had it coming.”
“When that heals, I’m dying to know where it is because I decoded all your magical decoys.”
“It’s around his neck,” Talvath said. “It’s always been a portrait locket. Can someone get him out of here? May is right. Akul’s wife, Vegran, is terrible, and all her awful friends are on their way upstairs. Vegran was probably not only fully aware of this plan but supported it. She’ll pick up right where Akul left it to bargain for his freedom.”
That bitch was brunching while I was in a cage in her house.
Lilith waved her hand, and a magical door appeared. That was a neat trick. It sure would have been nice if she had given it to witches. I would have poofed myself straight out of the fucking cage. Bram picked Dorian up and threw him through the door. Talvath followed, and the door closed behind him. Everyone was yeeting villains today.
I waved my hand and conjured May some clothes. Real clothes, not those shapeless sacks Akul and his wife gave her. I was sure she would shred them when she shifted if she wanted to get a little revenge on the wife, but I gave zero shits.
It was pretty amazing. Every Hellhound in the room except Oscar looked to Bram for instruction, even with Lilith and Reyson here. Reyson still had Oscar plastered against the wall, but he had shifted back. I had a feeling Reyson intended on killing Oscar very slowly, but now his damned mouth was free, and I hated everything that came out of it.
“Vegran is going to slaughter all of you. She’s a proper demon wife. An asset to her husband in every way. She supports him ineverything.She’ll free him.”
“Can someone shut him up?” Lilith. “Literally none of that was my intention when I create female demons. She’s not a proper demon wife. She’s just an asshole who invited her neighbors to her execution.”
“I wanted to play with this one. He thought he had the right to touch my witch without her permission.”
Lilith rolled her eyes.
“We don’t have time for that, Reyson. I created the female Hellhounds to be bigger and stronger than the males. May already kicked his ass and was probably stopped from killing him by Akul. What do you think bored, rich housewives do in Hell when they tend to be evil bitches? They pool their evil bitch collective and write all kinds of dangerous new sigils. Why do you think they haven’t come up the stairs yet? Demon magic is all in the sigils. They aren’t searching just yet. They are painting them all over the walls. They can’t hurt us, but they can hurt everyone in here, including your witch.”
