Page 33 of Falling for the Devil

Fear had no place in her heart.

Wasn’t that what she’d been taught from the time she could hold a bow, probably even before then? Her brothers had spent hours each day taunting her, conjuring ever more inventive ways to startle her. By the time Diana had been as tall as her father’s thigh, she’d mastered the art. She just had to recall her training now in the face of something much more terrifying than Ares covered in boar’s blood and wielding a machete at her head.

Ah, the good days!

The humming grew in intensity.

Diana reached out with all her senses, still unable to track anything moving around them. She hoped the light show wasn’t just an illusion to keep her attention away from the true threat.

The symbols—detached from the tree—swam just a few yards from where she stood. Their movements slowed, then stopped suddenly, aligned in a new pattern unlike when they had been mere carvings in the tree bark. There was nothing familiar about the images. If it was a language, it was one she did not know. She had received centuries of instruction on every known language of the universe, but this was new... or ancient.

That was what she felt from the symbols—something akin to the embers of a fire that had long ago died out. Something old, older than time itself. A deep knowing that went beyond knowledge.

She stepped up to the glowing characters despite Puck’s hiss of warning. Diana raised her hand to touch the largest pictogram at the bottom and to the right—what looked to be a trumpet turned backward upon itself and a smaller instrument sliced through its middle. The moment her fingers touched it, the images flickered out, revealing a dark, oval hole. Peering inside, she realized what lay beyond was not of this world, nor any world she’d ever known.

But it was what peeked back at her that stopped her heart.

Chapter 16

I Spy with My Little Eye

A dozen or more pairs of flaming white eyes stared back at Diana in stark contrast to the pitch-blackness around them. Her hand darted to the dagger she kept secured to her thigh, but it was no longer there. Probably lost in her tumble through space, or when she’d become too amorous with Lucifer and ditched all her clothes only to be interrupted before she discovered the true joy of lovemaking for the first time. She padded down the rest of her body, begging for some weapon to materialize out of the thin air.

“Here.” Something solid and weighty was placed in the palm behind her back. Puck to the rescue!

Her fingers gripped the smooth leather hilt. She knew this weapon. Diana had given it to her friend for Thargelia—a festival celebrating her twin, Apollo, and the new harvest. She also knew its blade was dull. A spoon or ladle could inflict greater damage than this worthless piece of iron.

She sighed out her frustration.

“Sorry, best I could do on such short notice.” Puck nudged her in the small of the back.

It would have to do.

Through their telepathic connection, she whispered, “Can’t you turn into something fierce? A dragon? The Kraken?”

What good was it to have a shapeshifting monster in your entourage if he didn’t come out and play when necessary?

“Not unless you want to reveal your best kept secret to the angels, because that”—he tilted his head toward the black hole of freakish eyes—“is a horde of angels.”

Surprise rocked through Diana’s body. Angels? Not possible! What lay beyond them appeared more demonic in nature.

“Not saying they’re nice little cherubs with halos and harps. But they are angels.” His gruff whisper held a tinge of out-of-place humor, mixed with fear.

And there they stood, facing off with a squadron of maybe-nice-most-likely-not angels. Meanwhile, their resident angels—Lucifer and Olivier—were both missing in action. Diana didn’t move. Neither did the angels. After so long that the gray around them had also deepened to full-on night, her frustration got the better of her.

“You do realize that some species consider staring to be impolite?” She kept the dagger clenched in her hand but fisted the other hand on her hip.

The countless white orbs began moving, looking around at each other, and then at her. A low murmuring erupted. The sound of metal scraping against metal startled Puck, who seized the back of her garment and yanked her backward.

What surprised Diana the most was the change in the atmosphere. The energy had quieted. No longer did she feel danger. Instead, confusion. And that vibration was not coming from her or Puck. It came from the dancing eyes in the space that wasn’t of this planet.

Emboldened, she stepped forward, lowering the hand gripping the dagger that would fail to slice through softened butter. “Show yourself.” A simple command. One she expected to be heeded. She was a goddess, after all. Diana had grown up with her every demand instantly met. All she had to do was exert that same confidence here.

At least, that was what she was gambling on.

Two by two, giant warriors with gleaming armor crossed the threshold into this world. Each with helmets drawn over their faces. Each with one hand on the pommel of their still-sheathed swords. They were equal in height and stature to the missing Olivier, just a smidgen taller than Lucifer.

Once they stepped into the natural darkness of night on Methuselah, their eyes changed from solid white orbs to normal eyes with black pupils, a variety of color irises, and just a sliver of white. They silently marched into a circle surrounding her and Puck, causing him to cling tighter to Diana’s dress. Reaching behind, she swatted his hand away.

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