Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66383 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66383 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
The figure looks up, and I see Veronica staring back at me. She is dressed in ratty clothes, and her face is filthy. She recognizes me immediately and snarls.
“Now, now, sweet thing, you want to go back to the cage?” Lucifer taunts, and Veronica instantly stops and bows her head. Glancing back at Lucifer, I see him smiling. “Slit her throat. Quite poetic, wouldn’t you say?”
“She deserves it after what she did,” I bite back.
“Yes, to the wolf.” I look back to Veronica, who is keeping her head low. “It’s okay. She is paying for her sins. And the colorful language she spouts at me is quite hilarious.”
“Asshole,” she mutters, and he ignores her. But she does look up and stare at me. “I knew you were the devil. I would have been a better queen than you. I was a better queen.”
“But she isn’t queen,” Lucifer says. “Yet.”
“What a waste,” Veronica mutters before he waves his hand, and then she is gone.
“She is a waste of space, only a lick of power, and held so much. You, my dear, are different.”
“I don’t want to be queen,” I tell him.
“But you will be.”
“Who says?”
“Well, the prophecy, of course, and that never lies.” He shakes his head. “But back to your mother. Did she ever tell you?”
“No.”
He seems to think about that for a few moments.
“It was forbidden for me to take someone on earth, but sometimes I would pop up and wander around. I like the smell, you see. I had been doing it for centuries, and no other human had ever caught my attention until her. It was the eyes… those green eyes, that held me so. She was by herself near a river. I watched her for days as she would come and try to move the water. You see, your mother was an earth witch, but she loved the water just the same.” He watches me the whole time he speaks.
“I know what type of witch she was.”
“Do you have earth powers?”
“I have all,” I whisper.
He claps his hands.
“Splendid. She would greatly approve,” he says, then he continues his story. “One day, I decided it would be fun to play a trick on her. What I didn’t count on was how clever she was. And at the time, she already had two children, and I don’t think she wanted a third. And I certainly didn’t want another child.
"Anyway, I played with her. I lifted the water at her spell, and at first, shock registered on her face as though she thought it was she who had conjured the movement. But witches only have an affinity for one element unless, of course, they are you.” He bows his head.
“But she was clever, and she realized it wasn’t her doing it. I left before she could see me, but I came back, day after day, and repeated the conjuring. She looked for me every time. Sometimes she would bring her two kids. Others, it was just her alone.” He takes another long drink, and I watch as the glass refills itself. “We did this song and dance for almost a year until one day, she started yelling, and I knew it was directed at me.
“You see, we don’t have the same desires as you. Yes, we are demons, and we love lust… fucking, as you like to put it. But nothing more. Ever.”
I go to speak, but he continues. “Until her.”
“She was beautiful,” I say.
“She was more than beautiful, child. She was magnificent,” he says a little wistfully. “I had played with her for so long that I decided it was time to finally meet her. And on that day, she didn’t have her children with her—it was just her by herself, screaming at the top of her lungs. I don’t think she was expecting me, of all people, to appear. Actually, I’m not even sure she knew who I was at first, but she knew I was powerful all the same.
“Your mother had a rare gift. She could smell power a mile away. She could tell you what someone’s gift was and describe it to you in detail. When she started describing mine, I sat there watching her in complete fascination that she knew the tricks up my sleeve that no one else could possibly realize.”
He takes another drink and leans forward. “I tried to kiss her that first day, and she slapped my face and told me she was already spoken for.” He smiles at the memory. “But I continued to show up every day after, and so did she. I don’t think she understood what game she was playing with me and what a dangerous game it was.
"I kissed your mother for the first time a year after meeting her. It wasn’t long after that I had her, and not once did she mention a partner again when she came to visit me, nor did she speak of where her girls were.”