Page 65 of Hell Fae King

“Most of my deals are crafted to benefit the Hell Fae Realm,” he informed me, his voice seeming to soften with each word. “There’s power in agreements, specifically the successful ones. You’ve experienced the darker side of my world, the offers devised for personal gain. Offers like your father’s and offers like the one I gave to Ajax. But most agreements are benign and consensual.”

He squeezed my nape once before releasing me and rotating toward the endless wall of shelves.

“These are my active offers,” he went on. “Every scroll is an ongoing deal, each agreement taking up residence in my mind, as I personally monitor every outcome. There are some I pay more attention to than others. Some that I’m anticipating will fail.”

He waved his hand, causing several papers to appear out of thin air and float down to the desk.

“I make deals with dark souls for a single purpose—to have a hold over them. On very rare occasions, a dark soul can choosea path of redemption. Typically, however, the dark soul seeks to trick me into a bargain. Then he or she quickly learns that deception is a game I mastered long ago.”

The documents on the wood magically organized themselves into a pile of ten or so pages.

Lucifer rested his palm on them, his eyes capturing mine once more. “These are the live contracts I hold with those I expect to fail. All the others in this room will succeed in some way or another, and the majority of those successes will be in favor of the offeror, not me.”

He picked one up off the desk, his gaze skimming the words. Then he proceeded to read it aloud, the deal one between him and a female Lunar Fae.

It only took me a few seconds of hearing the words to realize why he’d chosen this one specifically—the woman had offered him her three sons in exchange for helping her find safe passage through the Human Realm.

“She’s in Los Angeles,” he added. “And she has no interest in actually leaving. She seeks fame and fortune, and she’s willing to destroy everything and everyone in her path.” He pulled up a mirror to reveal a familiar woman on the other side.

My eyebrows rose. “Isn’t that…?” I trailed off, my mind failing to conjure the name I was looking for. I’d seen it in the media outlets dozens of times, but I rarely paid attention to famous humans.

Except she wasn’t actually mortal, apparently. But a Lunar Fae.

“She’s a singer,” I went on. “But her name is escaping me.”

Lucifer said it for me, then followed it with a scoff. “You have no idea how many mortals she’s hurt in her pursuit. They’re not usually my concern, but I find that how you treat a lesser being speaks volumes about your own sense of character.”

I couldn’t disagree with him there, so I simply nodded. “And her sons?”

“Are currently in my kingdom. They’re half-breeds, their respective fathers having been various other types of fae.” He set the paper down, the ink seeming to writhe across the page in response to his touch. “The real reason she bargained them away was to hide her previous affairs because she’s a Lunar Fae Royal. If the pack discovered the truth of her illicit liaisons, she would be killed by her mate—the Alpha King.”

“Oh.” I blinked. “And you helped her escape…?”

“So she thinks,” Lucifer replied, his lips curling slightly. “Her sons are abominations by Lunar Fae standards. They would have been killed had they been discovered. I accepted them as payment to save them, and I’ve been waiting for her to fail our terms so I can imprison her for her cruelty.”

“But she gave you her sons. That’s what she promised, right?”

“In exchange for passing through the Human Realm. However, she hasn’t passed through. She’s remained there. That nullifies our terms.” He tapped the parchment, drawing me forward to read the text for myself.

“Does she realize that she’s in breach of your agreement?” I wondered out loud as my eyes scanned the words written in his elegant penmanship.

“Of course not. She thinks she’s won, and she’s too caught up in her perceived success to consider an alternative.” Lucifer removed his hand, causing the script to writhe once more. But the words didn’t change. They simply wavered.

“When will you inform her?”

“When her sons are ready.” He flicked a finger at the mirror, making it disappear. “They’re currently devising her nightmare, something to do with a hole in the ground where she’s fed nothing but scraps.”

My eyebrows rose. “That’s oddly specific.”

“That’s how they grew up—hidden away from the pack, treated as pet rats in a hole where she hid her sins.” Something flickered in his gaze. An emotion underlined in darkness and fury. “They were feral pups when she dropped them at my door. One of my Hellhounds took them in. It’s taken years to rehabilitate them, all while she’s gallivanted around the Human Realm creating more havoc and pain.”

I glanced from him to the paper and back to him. “So this agreement benefited your realm because you acquired more fae.” I spoke the words slowly, trying to understand. “But really, you’re helping them survive. And you’ll be punishing a dark soul to appease them.”

“I’ll be punishing a dark soul because it gives me a reason to repurpose their vitality,” he replied. “The fact that it’ll avenge some of her wrongdoing is merely a benefit. The primary reward—the reason these agreements are so beneficial tome—is it gives me an excuse to exercise my abilities. I essentially siphon the energy from the dark soul and feed it into my Source, which in turn protects my realm.”

“Siphon,” I repeated, the term obviously striking a chord.

“Yes. I used to be a siphon like you. Only, I turned off that ability a long time ago.” He frowned. “Well,turned offmight not be the right term. After realizing there was power in deals, I restructured and redeveloped my skill to use my talent for protection rather than destruction.”