As soon as I hit the last syllable, it’s like an explosion bursts out of me, a blast of energy surging outward. I’m wrapped in darkness, wave after wave of magic pulled from me. And when it ends, I’m left gasping on the stone floor of the turret, and Hades is gone.
Epilogue
“Do you want a veggie burger?” Poppy asks me from the kitchen.
I’m sitting at a dining table purchased from IKEA with some of the money Waring gave us for destroying the codex. (Well, for getting it out of Hades’s hands.) It’s a drop-leaf, so we can make it long enough for everyone. At least, once I get enough chairs.
CJ is back in the rickety director’s chair. Ezra brought over a barstool. Tolliver is in Dante’s gaming chair. They’re all chowing down on the burgers we ordered.
Poppy’s head pops out of the kitchen. “Veggie burger?” she asks again.
I sigh, despondent. “I guess. Since the blood of the innocent is off the menu.”
She laughs like I haven’t made that same joke a hundred times already. I don’t tell her I’m only partly kidding.
“I think we’re looking at this layout all wrong,” Ezra says around a mouthful of hamburger, pointing at the schematics buried under hamburger wrappers and napkins.
“No shoptalk at the table!” Poppy says, setting a plate with my veggie burger before me.
“That has never been a rule,” I say.
“We can make it a rule,” she says, setting down her own plate and sitting on the one dining chair I have. “We can make the rules whatever we want.”
I pick up my burger to take a bite, and suddenly my fingers are claws and I’ve skewered my dinner into oblivion. My vision goes red.
“Goddamn it,” I mutter, throwing down the burger.
I close my eyes and count to ten, breathing heavily. When I open my eyes, my claws have receded.
Poppy looks at my poor excuse for a burger, now just lumps of fake meat and torn bread that Crowlene is surreptitiously hopping toward. “It’ll taste the same.”
I give her a tight smile. I’m determined to be positive about my recent changes. After all, it was my decision. I knew the risks. And at the end of the day, being a demon is really not that different from being a human—except for the horns and bloodlust. And the unrelenting urge to make misleading deals, but that’s always been there.
At least the horns are cute. I’ve got little ones that have a bit of a twist.
“I would like to again suggest—” Ezra starts.
Rage shoots through me, and I turn to him. “I WILL CONSUME YOUR SOUL!”
The words are pulled through me with the sound of a thousand strident voices. I am hunger, I am legion.I will destroy these pathetic excuses for…
The room is quiet. Everyone is staring, muscles tense.
I breathe deeply as the rage passes. I feel the claws and horns receding, the black veins and eyes fading.
When the demon in me is tucked neatly away, I give the others a weak smile.
“Sorry, something was stuck in my throat.”
The joke doesn’t land, but they laugh anyway.
Because they’re all afraid I’ll accidentally murder them if they don’t.
“A bit gauche!” Crowlene squawks, and the tension breaks. The others go back to eating.
“No,” I say carefully, levelly. “I don’t need his help.”
Ezra throws up his hands. “I’m just saying, it’s not like we don’t know a guy.”