Page 19

N INETEEN X ANDER

I’m back in Seattle less than a day and Harper is blowing up my phone with angry texts about leaving Camille alone. I admire the fierceness in which she wants to protect her best friend, and I can’t help but consider how useful that could be on my council. For many reasons once I take the throne, but also for Camille should she decide to continue living in my world.

While I may be able to convince Harper to join me, other demons won’t look too kindly upon a hunter being part of the king’s council. We’d have to keep it secret—same with our shared bloodline. I’m not even sure the rest of my council would get on board without some guarantees being made, namely that Harper won’t attempt to dagger them. While keeping it from them might be easier, I don’t want to. These people are my support system. If they don’t agree with my decisions, they are welcome to accept dismissal from my council.

There will have to be some level of mutual trust for an arrangement with Harper joining us to work, and that’ll likely be as difficult as passing the ascension trials.

Instead of brainstorming the arrangement further by myself, I type a to-the-point message to Harper and hit send.

Where are you? I want to meet.

Her reply is immediate.

And I want an all-inclusive trip to somewhere sunny. We don’t always get what we want.

I can’t help the grin curling my lips.

I do.

So fucking arrogant. What could you possibly want to meet about?

Come find out.

If I say no?

Do you really want to play this game with me?

I don’t want anything to do with you. I thought we established that already.

One step forward, three steps back.

The reason for this meeting is mutually beneficial. You have my word, Harper.

Your word means nothing.

I ignore the slice of pain that brings to my chest. It’s a flare of heartburn that tells me that I care more about what Harper thinks of me than I realized.

Give me a chance to make it mean something.

Her response comes after several minutes of me staring at my phone, and I have a feeling she made me wait intentionally to make a point. To keep me on the hook until she was ready.

Meet me at my apartment in an hour.

Not happening.

What, you don’t trust me?

As much as you trust me.

Touché.

You suggest a place, then.

I send her the address to Blake’s bar and wait for her to refuse me. So, imagine my surprise when her reply pops up a few seconds later.

Fine.

See you in an hour.

I don’t expect another response and I don’t get one.

Blake shuts the bar down so Harper and I can meet without prying eyes or risk being overheard, and busies himself in the back office.

I’m sitting in one of the round booths when she walks inside, her combat boots echoing on the old wood floor. I get up to greet her, quickly locking the door.

She eyes me warily, her heart rate increasing as she shrugs off her rain spattered jacket and tucks it over her arm. “Starting off by locking me in? You’re not earning any points here.”

I offer a wry smile. “You’re free to leave anytime. The locked door is to keep anyone else out.”

Nodding slowly, she shifts back and forth, glancing around the relatively small space. It’s mostly open floor for dancing, with a few high-top tables near the bar and booths around the room. The lights are on but dim, giving the room a warmer feel.

“Would you like something to drink?”

Her eyes flit to mine. “Are you drinking?”

“Probably not, but I’m buying, so feel free.”

She shakes her head. “No one likes to drink alone.”

I chuckle. “Fair enough. Do you want to sit?”

“I guess. Is this going to take long? I have about a million chapters to read for normal human classes. Cami deferred her semester, but I didn’t.”

“Only a million?” I try for a joke, but she doesn’t look enthused, so I move on and gesture to the booth I’d been sitting in before she arrived.

Once we sit down, she clasps her hands in front of her on the table. “You called this meeting.”

“I did.”

“It’s not every day you’re summoned by the king of hell.” She leans back against the cushions, keeping her sharply focused gaze locked on me.

“Not king yet, but I appreciate your confidence in me.”

She scoffs. “Whatever. Get to the point, or I’ll get gone.”

I hold up my hands in mock surrender. “Easy. I want to offer you a deal. I had planned to the night we met in the park, but after you told me about Camille—”

“You went all creepy ex-boyfriend and stalked her across the country,” Harper cuts in snidely.

I ignore that and continue, “You have the skills and potential to be a strong asset.”

Her brows lift. “An asset to what, exactly?”

“Me.”

She barks out a laugh. “You have got to be kidding me.” When I don’t join in, her expression hardens. “Holy shit, you’re serious.”

“Quite.”

Harper stares at me, processing what I’ve said. “I’m going to need more to go on here.”

“You need experience and demon hunts under your belt to graduate training, and I’d rather delegate the task of killing my own kind.”

She purses her lips, her forehead creasing in thought. “Just so I’m clear what’s happening here. Are you suggesting…we work together?”

I nod. “Would you consider it?”

“Making a deal with the devil?” she mutters as if to herself before speaking louder. “What do you get out of this?”

Closing the distance between us, I lower my voice. “I get out of killing. You may not believe this, but I don’t particularly enjoy it.” Soul or no, the act of taking a life doesn’t bring me anything.

She eyes me suspiciously. “Right. Isn’t that what your lackey is for? What’s his name? Brent? Brody?”

I chuckle. “Blake is occupied with other responsibilities. Besides, many demons take issue with killing their own. Which is where you come in.”

“What, you want me to be the devil’s executioner? Your personal hunter?” She frowns at the words that spill from her lips a second later.

“If you want a title, sure. I’m offering you a position on my council.”

Her heart beats faster, and she swallows hard. “If anybody found out, it wouldn’t be good for either of us.”

I press my lips together in consideration. “So no one finds out. We keep it to ourselves—and Blake, because I tell him everything.”

“Is this the part where you ask me to keep it from Cami?”

I scratch the stubble along my jaw. “No, I won’t ask you to do that.”

“Good, because I won’t. I’ve always talked to her about training, even when she wasn’t part of the organization.”

I acknowledge that with a subtle nod. “You’ve spoken to her about training since she started again?” The question is out there before I can stop myself, ignoring the dull sense of discomfort in my gut.

She hesitates and then shrugs. “A little. She’s been taking classes at Ballard along with extra private sessions with Noah and—Get that look off your face. You’re not allowed to get angry that he’s involved. That he’s helping her. He stuck his neck out for your asinine plan that went sideways, and quite frankly, we’re lucky he was there. If he hadn’t been, I can’t say that we would have made it out alive.”

I grit my teeth at the pressure in my chest, the possessive urge to snap back at Harper, despite knowing full well she’s right.

I have no right to be angry over another man being close to Camille and helping her with something I can’t. But that doesn’t change the rage simmering in me, because even if Camille doesn’t know it, some greater power—the stars or universe or whatever—decided she was mine, same as I was hers.

Of course, killing Lucia stole what was left of my soul, destroying the otherworldly bond between Camille and me. It didn’t, however, take away the all-too human feelings I developed for her.

I don’t need a soul to love Camille Morgan.

I’m suddenly torn between relief that I can still feel the most important part of the humanity I thought I lost completely, and dread, because on some level my life as the king of hell would be easier without the attachment of emotions.

Perhaps also easier if I was no longer capable of love.

I push the thoughts away and focus on Harper again. “I need an answer. Do we have a deal?”

Her pulse jumps, and she swallows. “I need time to consider it.”

“I’ll give you three days.”

“You’ll give me whatever I need,” she snaps back. “Including a plan so we can make sure no one finds out if I decide to join your council. Also, contingencies in the event someone does.” She shakes her head, as if she can’t believe she’s saying the words, much less considering it.

“Of course. Should you come under suspicion with the hunters, I won’t hesitate to take the heat. You can blame me, the evil demon half-brother, who preyed upon and manipulated you to act against your will to do my bidding.”

Her eyes narrow. “I’ll try not to take offense to you thinking I’m so weak you could manipulate me.”

“I don’t think that,” I say without missing a beat. “But your organization has no idea what I’m capable of, and we can use that to our advantage if needed.”

“Right,” she says hesitantly. “If I agree to this—and that’s a huge if —we need to prevent that from happening at all costs.”

I nod in agreement. “And it’s probably best you don’t attend council meetings unless absolutely necessary.”

She arches her brow at me. “I don’t see why you’d need a hunter at your meetings, so let’s just go ahead and put that under the ‘not going to happen’ column.” With that, she slides out of the booth.

My lips twitch as I follow her. “Very well.” I won’t call on Harper to fulfill her side of our arrangement until I take the throne, so we have time to hammer out the rest of the details she doesn’t appear to be in the mood to discuss right now. “I’ll see you soon.”

Harper rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath about the insanity of our conversation as she leaves.