Revealing the Monster (Playing with Monsters #4) by Amelia Hutchins

Pausing at the doors, I wondered exactly how I should announce my presence. Did one have to be invited into a palace, or were you supposed to go inside and then reveal yourself? In the movies, footmen or something similar would open the doors, right? A moment before I would have knocked, covering my bases, the doors opened.

“Because that’s not freaking creepy, right?” I muttered, stepping inside.

My eyes grew rounded as my jaw dropped at the breathtaking beauty inside. Obsidian flowed from the stairs, covering the floors. Massive glittering chandeliers hung from cathedral ceilings created of stained glass, allowing even more light from the moon to enter the palace.

“Hello?” I called out, listening as my voice echoed throughout. Paintings of landscapes, battles, and mythical creatures covered the high walls. Yet, nothing visible gave a clue as to where I was or who owned this magical land. “Is anyone here?”

I felt like Alice after she’d fallen down the gaping hole in the ground. Only I was missing a cool cat and rabbit to show me around. Frowning at the thought, I crept further into the interior toward a grand staircase, pausing as my foot touched the step and my surroundings changed to reveal images of me?

Everywhere.

“Now I know it’s you, asshole,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at a picture of me naked, lounging on an enormous bed. My hand rested beneath my head, and my eyes were closed. I looked—sexy. Not that I would admit it, since the creep had taken the photo in the lower level of Lucian’s club. A sheet covered my bottom half, leaving my breasts exposed. Someone had gone wild with Photoshop because they had never looked that good. “Creep, did you enjoy watching me sleep?” I screamed up the staircase, expecting to hear Lucifer’s laughter.

The images on the wall changed, revealing me in other locales, causing my brow to furrow. Where the hell had he been when he’d taken these photos? And why were they at angles that looked as if he’d been standing right beside me?

A soft cry started from up the stairs, and everything within me went still. Tears burned my eyes, and my feet began moving toward the faint cries of an infant. My heart thundered painfully against my ribcage, but when I reached the landing of the staircase, the world began to spin around me.

“No! No, please,” I whispered as weightlessness overtook me. The palace spun around me, and I turned my head, trying to focus on a large door at the end of the long hallway. “Harbinger,” I sobbed, but my voice didn’t come out loud enough to be heard.

Hands touched me, and I peered up into Lucian’s worried stare.

“Lucifer?” he questioned softly. Worry deepened his midnight eyes, darkening in question.

“I don’t know,” I replied, sitting up from the bathroom floor. Lucian pulled me to my feet, staring down at me before he grabbed my fingers, holding them up to inspect them.

“Where were you, Lena?”

“I don’t know, but it was amazing,” I stated, frowning as I leaned against Lucian, inhaling his soothing scent. “I heard him, Lucian. I heard our son crying. I couldn’t get to him, though. The world started spinning, and I lost the door. I’m crazy, right? I thought it was Lucifer, but it felt—safe. I felt safe there.”

“Did you touch anything?” he asked, still staring at my fingertips.

“A pool, one that had souls swimming in it,” I admitted, watching his eyes narrow on me. “Something bumped me, but I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for them.”

“Indeed, who wouldn’t want to stick their hand into a pool filled with damned souls?” he muttered, pulling me with him.





Chapter Twenty-Nine




Into the fray we go, unknowing that life will never be the same. ~Lena



Ryder and Synthia were finally able to leave Faery to help us get into the guild. We drove to Spokane to meet them in silence. Neither of us spoke about the bodies littering the highway. There wasn’t much you could say about the surreal, macabre scene. We exited the Cusick cutoff road and had to wait for Lucian’s men to remove several abandoned cars that sat on the road.

Once we started forward again, I swallowed the bile that burned the back of my throat as we passed the rock faces lining the four-lane roadway. Someone had hung humans over their edges, dangling corpses on ropes. From their looks, they’d luckily been deceased before being strung up for shock value.

Demons loved instilling fear in the living, and humans were afraid of death. It made them brash in their need to escape the boltholes in which they’d hidden. Those who lingered had survived the first onslaught of Hell being unleashed into the world. It forced the demons to hunt harder, to look deeper.

The bodies displayed on the rocks lining the side of the highway told others that the guild had gone silent. Previously, Alden had led others to clean up the deceased, giving them a proper burial. Now that enforcers weren’t leaving the guild or scurrying through the shadows, fear fueled the community like a wildfire. I could smell it and sense it around me.

If I looked hard enough, I could see into the shadows to catch sight of the demons waiting for prey to fall into their grasp. I couldn’t, however, see humans. That was good and bad. It meant the humans were hiding, but that they also weren’t foraging.

“These people are going to need food and supplies,” I stated offhandedly, turning to look at Lucian’s side profile. His jaw ticked, but his soft exhale and nod confirmed he’d do it nonetheless. “Medical supplies are a necessity. I could put together a guide for natural remedies and make some tonics to include in the packages.”