Page 63 of Hell Fae King

Because I already knew the answers.

I… I was just struggling to process them.

“Wouldn’t that mean your deal with him was already null and void?” I went on. “Or… or would that not matter? Would you punish him anyway?”Are there other innocents in his dungeon? Souls that were otherwise good?

No, I thought in the next breath. I’d felt all the creatures imprisoned in those cells. They weren’t good souls.

“But why deal with them?” I muttered out loud, more to myself than to Lucifer. Except, I actually did want that answer. “If you knew they were bad, or if you knew they were manipulated by a Virtuous Fae, why…?” I trailed off, puzzling through all of the information I’d learned today.

I wasn’t making sense. I knew that. But I… I was struggling to compare my father’s situation to the dark souls in the dungeons.

“Why didn’t I notice them before?” I wondered aloud. “I was in that dungeon a few months ago. I didn’t feel them then.”

Maybe because I hadn’t been paying attention. I’d been a little caught up in my own captivity.

Because my father signed my life away to the Hell Fae Bride Trials.

“Wouldn’t you have noticed my father’s soul?” I asked, finally looking at Lucifer.

He stared back at me with a mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite read. Amusement twinged with confusion, perhaps? I hadn’t exactly been all that eloquent.

Lucifer didn’t immediately reply, likely because he wanted to see if I had any other rambling questions to throw at him.

“I can see intentions—good and bad—in everyone around me,” he finally said, his words measured. He probably expected me to cut him off. Or maybe he was attempting to ensure a fluent response.

Regardless, it didn’t give me much.

So I held his gaze and waited for more.

“No one has a purely light soul,” he went on. “They’re mostly shades of gray. Some are just brighter than others.”

“And my father’s?” I prompted.

“Wasn’t dark,” he replied. “I wouldn’t have allowed anyone with a dark soul to engage in a deal regarding the Hell Fae Bride Trials. Only those with good intentions were allowed to offer themselves or their daughters.”

“Yet you designed your trials in a way to test the intentions of those brides,” I said, recalling what Melek had said and what I’d mostly ascertained for myself.

“Yes. Because intentions can shift at any moment, and I did what I needed to do to protect the Hell Fae Realm.” He canted his head to the side. “One thing you need to understand, Miss De la Croix, is that no deal is equal to another. Offers vary. Goals differ. And who I negotiate with changes daily.”

I folded my arms. “But they always end the same, right? With the other person being in your debt in some way?”

“The deal itself is typically the debt,” he returned flatly. “Someone comes to me with an offer, and I tell them the price. It’s as simple as that.”

“And if they renege on that price, they’re turned into a Nightmare Fae and imprisoned as punishment.”

His eyes narrowed. “No. Only dark souls earn that fate, something you already know because you felt their intentions in that dungeon.”

My lips pursed. Because he was right—I had sensed the evil in that place. But what about the candidates like me? The ones who didn’t want to participate in the trials? “Some of your deals involve innocents,” I hedged. “Innocents like me.”

His gaze ran over me in a hot wave of interest. “Innocentis not a term I would use to describe you, Camillia.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted… or turned on. Because that glimmer in his smoldering gaze suggested he was considering a list of sensual terms, one I might like to hear. Preferably in a breath against my ear. While he…

I cleared my throat, not wanting to indulge that train of thought.

He’s the devil. He hates me. And he has a prison full of literal nightmares.

“Many types of fae come to me with offers, but there are three who are more common than most,” he told me softly, his gaze meeting mine once more. “There are those who are desperate and willing to do or give anything in exchange for something they need. Then there are those who partake in a deal for thrill-seeking purposes. And last but not least are those who engage me for their own selfish gain. In my experience, it’s that last group who tends to fail the terms of our agreement.”