“I’d show them how badass I am now…but I don’t want Jahl getting too many reports on what I can and can’t do,” I say by way of adding to the conversation and bragging on my badassness in one swoop.

They all give me those even brighter, creepier stares.

“We’re still going to have a discussion about your latest level-up,” Gage informs me.

“I’d get excited about punishment, if you guys weren’t so sadistically cruel,” I quip, flipping the page on the book I can’t understand.

“What happened to these pages?” Gage asks, flipping the pages back before I can hide the spot where some have been ripped out.

I shouldn’t have called attention to them. Do I have to suck this hard at deception?

Lamar quickly steps in to handle the lying. “They were just some private notes, most likely. I’m not sure. They were missing before—”

“He was asking Paca,” Ezekiel says, interrupting my bestie before he can help me out.

All four horsemen continue staring directly at me.

“They hold secrets Lucifer can’t know. And I’ll tell you, so long as you promise to play by my rules with this information…and also promise not to hurt Lamar. It’s not his fault that he’s the only one I trust to translate these things, since no one else in our group is smart enough to read dead languages,” I tell them.

“Why do I feel like you’re trying to get us to enter into some sort of deal right now?” Jude asks me, suspicion in his tone. “I even have a chill up my spine.”

He shudders and his eyes narrow to slits.

“You’re sensing her true power for the first time,” Lamar tells us as though he’s pleased with this new upgrade.

When I look over, he’s the picture of composure, eyes on me as he absently raps his fingers on the edges of the chair’s arms.

“Making a deal with her is less tricky than making a deal with the Devil, but no less powerful. She’ll only get better at it the more deals she makes, and it could help feed her power,” he adds. “Especially with the four of you struggling as a unified unit.”

I turn my attention to their creepy eyes once more and begin rapping my fingers as I smirk. “Ready to make a deal with the Devil’s daughter, boys?”

Jude leans forward, always ready to argue. “You want to control this situation, but you c—”

“The old me put a lot of things into play, and Lamar knows her better than any of us. You know what she did for you. You know what she saved you from. And you know what she went through to keep you safe,” I tell them as my nose drips with a drop of blood that sizzles when it lands on the table.

They all glance to the sizzling blood and back up to my eyes.

“Make a deal with me, and I’ll be honest. Don’t make the deal, and I’ll keep this secret for myself,” I warn them. “You don’t have to trust me, but by this point, you certainly shouldn’t doubt her.”

Jude bristles, and Gage releases the first breath of reluctant defeat. Then they do that infuriating silent eye-conversation thingy.

“Fine,” they all grind out in eerily timed unison.

I glance over to Lamar. “Is this where I finally get a chalice and virgin’s blood? You know, to seal the deal?” I ask with an alarming amount of hopeful anticipation.

Lamar stares at me with a blank expression. “A handshake works just fine,” he tells me, bursting that bubble.

I stick out my hand, and I smile as Gage takes it first. Then Ezekiel. Kai goes next, rolling his eyes as he does so. Jude is the last one to reluctantly shake my hand, and he makes it known he hates this just by giving me that one scalding look.

I grin, flicking my gaze between them.

“Congratulations. You just made your first binding deal with the Devil’s daughter.”

Chapter 17

KAI

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all,” Jude says, absently twirling his scythe as he stares at the floor under him.

“None of us do,” Ezekiel chimes in, gaze flicking to Paca, who is worn out, now that three out of four of us took a turn with her before she passed out with that orgasm coma thing.

A smile is still on her face as she unconsciously snuggles closer to Ezekiel’s side.

I’m barely keeping my shit together.

“She’s bruised all over, has no idea if she’s powerful enough to take on Jahl, is entirely too trusting of Manella’s shady boy toy, and we still don’t even know if she’s truly maxed out her power levels,” Jude goes on, stopping his scythe from spinning as he looks around at the three of us.

“I thought we agreed you’d do the love thing,” I interject, glaring at him.

His eyes narrow. “If it was as simple as saying the words—which actually is impossible, as it turns out—”

“We already told you that,” Ezekiel interrupts on a very frustrated huff.

Jude slants his eyes at him. “If it was as simple as saying the damn words, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I fucked her. I kissed her. I gave her every ounce of my attention and cleared my head, just as you all said to do—”

“If he doesn’t truly feel it, then it won’t work.” Gage is the one to quietly interrupt this time, slipping onto the bed to take up the other side next to Paca.

She turns in her sleep, curling up next to him, and he kisses the top of her head.

“These rules don’t make any sense,” Jude bites out. “We have a battle to wage, and the Four Horsemen are sitting around discussing love while The Apocalypse sleeps off her orgasmic bliss.”

I really want to punch him right now.

“She did all this to save us, and grows more powerful and commanding every time one of us gives in. It’s easy to theorize that’s why her latest level-ups have been so much more advanced than all her previous ones combined,” I point out, staring at him as he glares back at me. “So it’s pertinent to our battle plan, soldier.”

“Now’s not the time to push me,” he cautions.

I stand, smirking over at him. “You really in the mood to cast threats?”

“Are you really picking a fight with Death?” he volleys.

“I put money on Kai. He’s actually got something worth fighting for,” Ezekiel drawls.

“Clearly tensions are high, and we can’t deal with our unit having fractures at this point in the game,” Gage says as he siphons to stand between us, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It’s not like they haven’t fought before,” Ezekiel says around a yawn, as Paca snuggles back up to him, sighing contently as he wraps his arms around her.

“He can’t even stay focused for two seconds without staring at her like a lovesick pup. None of you can. How are we supposed to be the ultimate evil weapon, if this life is all some sappy romance The Apocalypse wrote five hundred years ago? We know nothing about that version of her, or how convoluted her mind—”

“We made a deal, but I can’t imagine any consequences befalling us if we break that deal,” Ezekiel cuts in as though the solution to all our problems is obvious.

Jude’s willing to die for her, but can’t admit he loves the damn girl. Unbelievable.

I drop to the chair, rolling my eyes, as I take a long sip of the liquor next to me.

A noise draws my attention to the door where an envelope slides in, and Gage goes to collect it. I return my attention to Jude as he shrugs out of his shirt and climbs into bed next to Paca.

She doesn’t turn away from Ezekiel this time. Jude has to tear her out of Ezekiel’s grip, earning a glare.

It’s a lot harder to share her when we have to consider this could all end in another month—

“Our deadline just got shorter,” Gage says on a long exhale, tossing the latest mail onto my lap.

I glance down at the gold writing, and the muscles of my stomach contract so painfully that it almost makes it hard to breathe.

The Apocalypse and The Four Horsemen:

The window of opportunity will be closing in one week instead of the previous estimation. If you’re going to strike, you have seven days left to prepare. Jahl’s power has grown, and the Pure Branch is weakening at a much more rapid pace. The world’s sin is bleeding in at an even higher rate, and the scales are on the verge of tipping.

That’s all there is. No one even bothered signing the letter, likely because they didn’t want to endure her wrath for stealing what’s possibly the last bit of our lives.

I toss the letter to Jude, and he catches it, eyes quickly skimming the contents as his jaw tics.

“Death has seven days to fall in love so fiercely The Apocalypse can’t deny it, or watch her go into battle weaker than she intended when she sacrificed everything she had to come back and keep us all safe,” I tell him coldly.

He crumples the paper in his fist, staring at the floor. “I don’t know what I did wrong,” he says as he tosses the paper to the floor and drags her even closer. “I did everything you stupid fucks said.”

It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him unsure of himself during the many long decades we’ve spent together. He pulls his arm over his eyes, keeping her pressed to him.