Page 53 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

M A R G O T

I slapped my hand down on the table, stealing the cards out from under Belphegor as soon as he placed a fourth card down. The demon laughed in delight when his hand came down on top of mine a second too late and I hoarded the stack of four to myself.

He and Beelzebub had played a round of Siege while I watched, observing the way the game worked. The trick to learning was that they swore up and down they couldn’t tell me the rules and that I had to learn by observation.

The point of the game was to collect all the cards in the deck by creating sequences of numbers and passing cards back and forth on each turn.

There were four piles of ascending cards being worked on at any given moment, and in order to claim the stack after the last card was added, I needed to be the first to slap my hand down on top of it.

I started a new pile on the next turn, watching in fascination when Belphegor drew from the deck. He pursed his lips in thought as he studied the piles, eventually sliding a card to my hand when he couldn’t make a play.

I added it to the pile in my hand, not the pile of sequences I’d gathered separately. Those cards were out of play once they’d been used, a fact I was very grateful for since I did not have to wield them all at once.

“She’s kicking your ass.” Beelzebub laughed, standing behind me. His hands came down on my shoulders in a soft and soothing massage, leaving me to study the cards before me carefully.

I played a four on top of the sequence of two and three, readying myself for the moment Belphegor might put down a five.

In order to play the final card, he would have to draw his hand back to his cards before slapping the sequence, the same as I would have needed to.

Otherwise it would have been impossible for me to get to the sequence before him.

“Beginner’s luck,” he grunted, drawing from the deck and studying his cards.

The game continued on as he went through his hand, searching for a card he could play and eventually discarding one to me instead.

“You haven’t told me about Crystal Hollow.

Was it everything you were expecting it to be?

” he asked, but the question was posed for Beelzebub and not me, so I kept my focus on the game before me.

“What’s it matter to you, worm?” Beelzebub asked with a laugh. “You’ve never had any interest in the surface. You’ve been adamant that it wasn’t for you.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t wonder what it was like,” Belphegor said as I played my hand, studying the cards before him for the briefest of moments before he made his play.

“I’m fond of Heresy and content to remain in the only home that was ever meant for me, but I know you’ve always had greater aspirations. ”

“It was far from what I expected actually,” Beelzebub answered, lowering himself into the chair at my side finally.

He placed his elbow on the table between us, leaning into it with his chin on his hand and stifling a yawn.

“The Coven is corrupt, but there are some attempting to bring it back to the natural order that the Source had always intended.”

“The Source,” Belphegor scoffed, the bitterness in it shocking me. I’d never heard the demon sound anything but pleasant and jovial, so his disdain for the very magic that had created him came as a shock.

“Enough,” Beelzebub warned, scolding the other demon like the slightly older brother he was. Belphegor rolled his eyes but completed a sequence, growling when I slapped my hand down on it before he could.

“ How are you so fast, witch?” he asked, his tone lighter than it had been only a moment before.

“Probably a question for the Source,” I asked, my body nearly vibrating with the energy flowing through me.

It was a new feeling, bolstering me in a way that I’d never experienced.

I understood why Willow was so in tune with her magic now, how the feeling of the give-and-take with the world around her made her feel energized and braver.

What could hurt you when you had the very magic of the world at your fingertips?

“We do not have the privilege of speaking to her, so I guess that will remain unanswered,” Belphegor said, handing me the final card in his hand. “But you should thank her for your victory. I cannot remember the last time I lost a game of Siege.”

“Don’t be such a poor loser.” Beelzebub laughed, standing from the table at the same moment Belphegor did.

He clapped his brother on the shoulder, the movement jarring the younger demon slightly.

I stood as well, my body feeling fluid like water as I stepped away from my chair and looked to the pillars and cathedral-style ceiling that surrounded us.

I’d expected a more intimate setting with a fire when the two suggested a card game after Beelzebub and I had eaten more food than I cared to admit.

But it quickly became clear that there was nothing small or intimate about Belphegor’s home.

“Not a poor loser at all, it just means that we’ll need a rematch tomorrow night,” Belphegor said, a bright smile lighting his face. My heart fell at the joy in it, Beelzebub’s sad expression coming to me for a moment.

“We’ll have to save the rematch for another time,” Beelzebub said as I made my way to his side. “We need to leave at first light. We’re on our way to the Ninth Circle so that I can get Margot home.”

“You’re going to use the lake to speak with Him,” Belphegor said, his eyes sliding sideways to me. “You’re planning to return to the surface?”

“Making Crystal Hollow my home has always been my plan. You know that,” Beelzebub said, his voice laced with notes of sadness.

I knew without a doubt that he’d likely tried to convince Belphegor to come with him, but it was clear from the way he clung to his home that he wouldn’t leave it so easily.

“I’d hoped something had changed after it didn’t live up to your expectations,” Belphegor said.

“The Coven may not be perfect, but Crystal Hollow is where Margot belongs. The living do not belong here with the damned.” He paused, reaching out to take my hand in his. He raised it to his mouth, pressing a lingering kiss to the back of it. “She’s my home now, so I belong wherever she is.”

I stilled, hating the way Belphegor’s eyes slid to mine in accusation.

“You could come with us,” I said, offering the only solution I could find.

I couldn’t remain here, especially not when Beelzebub didn’t even seem inclined to it.

It might have warranted a conversation if he hadn’t intended to live in Crystal Hollow before meeting me, but we were united in that goal.

But the notion that we were discussing where we would live together so casually was enough to make my head spin.

I was suddenly grateful that Willow had been the first one to establish a relationship with one of the demons, because hopefully it would be slightly less jarring if I returned with Beelzebub at my side.

Fuck my life.

“No, a town full of witches is not for me, I’m afraid,” he said, smiling through the words as if they weren’t laced with judgment.

“There was a time not long ago that I’d thought it wouldn’t be for you, either.

” He turned the force of his glare on Beelzebub, leaving me to wonder what that meant exactly.

Beelzebub had actively chosen to leave Hell in favor of Crystal Hollow, fully knowing that it was a town filled with witches. I knew he’d had his prejudice against us when he came, he’d made that much clear, but this felt like something more.

“Things change,” Beelzebub said, shrugging casually as he guided me toward the stairs that would lead to the bedroom he’d claimed as ours when we arrived.

“What was that about?” I whispered as we made our way into the room and Beelzebub closed the door behind him.

“It’s no secret that our kind have hated one another for centuries,” he said, taking a seat in the chair beside the bed. He stripped his boots and socks off, keeping his eyes on mine while he did.

“Then why did you all choose to come to Crystal Hollow in the first place? Why not stay here?” I asked, trying to make sense of that choice.

“That is a question that we should save for when we are both ready to share the skeletons in our closets. You said that Susannah allowed Itan to touch you when you saw her in the cemetery. What did you mean?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as I kicked off my own boots and debated taking a shower before crawling into bed.

I sighed, finally, wanting to hear his truth and knowing I would only get it by giving my own.

“Itan was the only one who could do a binding ritual to cut off the heirs to the Tribunal from the Source. I only found out about it just before Michael found me on the stairs. I was on my way to warn Willow about what it had done to us. I never got the chance,” I admitted, keeping out most of the details about what that had meant.

But Beelzebub saw right through the worst of the offenses, standing and making his way to me. “The Covenant knew what he would do to you and still allowed it?” he asked.

“The Covenant knew as well as our parents. They decided it was worth the cause of starving the Source and magic and in turn…”

“The Vessels,” Beelzebub said, filling the gaps. “And these are the people you are so desperate to return to?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head sharply. I didn’t care what happened to my mother or to ever see her again after what I’d learned, but that didn’t mean that everyone in Crystal Hollow was bad.

“I’m desperate to get back to Willow and those who would turn the Coven back to the ways of tradition.

I want to see it become a better place. I want to know what it looks like when magic flows freely and the witches are in harmony with their conduits.

I want to know what it was always meant to be. ”

“I do, too,” Beelzebub said finally, nodding his head in agreement. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip thoughtfully before he answered the question I had asked before he’d turned it on me, not expecting me to open up.

But keeping this a secret felt foolish with all that Beelzebub already knew.

“There was a time when some of us were resolved not to share Crystal Hollow with the witches who called it home. Their involvement mattered little to us, but that has clearly changed now that Lucifer is in love with Willow. He would never try to take her home from her,” he said, and I nodded.

It made sense, and I couldn’t even fault them for it really.

The witches would have done the same if given the first opportunity.

“I’m going to go shower before bed,” I said, needing some time and space to be alone with my thoughts and process all that had happened.