Infernal Games by Jenna Wolfhart
6
When I stepped one leather black boot inside Infernal, I expected something terrible to happen. Like, for the heavens to open up and smite me right then and there. My soul was bound to this place. I’d made a deal with a demon to stay the hell out. But when I walked through that black door, nothing happened.
Interesting. Did I even have a soul? If I really was a fallen angel—and I still wasn’t one hundred percent convinced that I was—did that mean a demon contract even meant anything?
Maybe I was immune, like I was to the werewolf venom.
“Ah. Here we are.” Lucifer smiled and led me down the hallway toward the dancers’ dressing room. My heart pounded as we drew closer. The girls would have no idea what had happened in the past few hours. When they saw me, would they greet me the way they always had? I cast an uneasy glance up at Az, who silently strode on my other side, but he avoided my gaze. Shouldn’t he do something? This could all come tumbling down on us in less than a second.
Lucifer pushed open the door and dragged me inside. The chattering suddenly hushed, and half a dozen eyes peered at us from beneath thick lashes and carefully curled hair. He pressed a hand to my back, and I fought the urge to wince away from him.
“This is Sansa,” he announced to the room. “Your new dancer.”
Priyanka slowly stood from her stool beside the bank of mirrors, wrapping a colorful silk gown around her hourglass frame. Her face was entirely unreadable. “Hi, Sansa. Welcome to the crazy house. Come on in. We’ll help you get ready.”
Her voice was even and unbothered. Good. I doubted if I spoke, I’d sound that relaxed. Lucifer frowned but drifted out the door with Az, leaving me alone with the dancers. A heavy breath whooshed out of me, though my nerves felt like they’d been shot with a bolt of high-voltage electricity.
Priyanka gripped my elbow and dragged me over to the mirrors. She sat me down and then pulled her stool over close. Her raven hair curtained her face as she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Why are you here? What the hell is going on? And why, dare I ask, do you smell like a werewolf? Don’t tell me you’ve been turned.”
I arched a brow. “You can tell?”
“Honey, we can all tell.”
“You all have enhanced smell?”
“Of course we do.” She glanced behind her at the girls gathering around us. “We’re supernaturals.”
Strange, since apparently I was supposed to be one, too. I couldn’t smell a damn thing other than their perfume and hairspray.
Quickly, I filled them in with what little I knew. They shifted uneasily on their feet as I told my story. There were a few shocked gasps. Hands lifted to lips. And Priyanka’s grip on my knee tightened so much I could feel her sharp nails through my jeans.
“Holy shit, Mia.” Priyanka’s eyes flicked across my body. “A fallen angel? Really? What does Az thing about this?”
“He seems confused.” I pressed my lips together. “We haven’t had a chance to discuss it beyond that. Lucifer swooped in and dragged me back here right after we left the fae.”
She leaned forward and sniffed. “Well, River did a hell of a good job, and it’s a good thing Az took you to her instead of me. He’s been lurking around here all day. He would have caught us. Even if he suspects anything, he won’t be able to prove it. Nothing about you says fallen angel to me.”
“Right. Because I should have powers. And I don’t.”
Her brows furrowed. “It is strange. You’ve never had enhanced hearing? Or extremely good eyesight?”
I shook my head, my heart tumbling through my chest. This was why I couldn’t get past this bizarre development. In the movies, the secret supernatural always has some kind of power, hints that there’s more to them than meets the eye. But I literally had nothing. I was just a girl lusting after a demon and trying desperately to stay alive.
“Well, we’ll have to figure it out later.” Priyanka let out a sigh, shook her head, and stood. “I’m sorry. I know you want answers, but we can’t get them right now. We have to dance. Lucifer has been...difficult to deal with since he arrived in Manhattan. If we don’t do what he expects, he makes life very difficult for us.”
I blew out a breath and took her offered hand. “I don’t like this. The whole thing is strange. Why would he have asked a random werewolf he met on the streets to come dance here?”
She arched her brows with a meaningful look in her eyes. “I think you know.”
My heart pounded. “Even with the scent glamor, he suspects I’m me.”
With a pat on my shoulder, she nodded. “Probably.”
My mind spun with possibilities. This was really bad. I needed to get out of here. If I went out there now, I might never get to leave.
“So what if this whole thing is a trap to get me in that cage? What if all he’s doing is setting me up? He could lock me in there and never let me out. Not until he takes me to Hell.”
“We’ve got your back,” she said firmly, glancing behind her at the girls, who nodded in agreement.
“Against the King of Hell?” I asked in a small voice.
As much as I wanted to believe them, surely they couldn’t go against him without risking everything. Infernal was a front. The Legion was only pretending to be loyal to Hell. In secret, the demons and everyone else who worked for Az tried to save human souls. Lucifer could never find out. If he did, he’d drag Az and his Legion back to the underworld.
“We’ve got your back, Mia,” Priyanka repeated in a determined voice. “You’re one of us. You have been since that first night you walked through the door. And we will always protect our own, no matter what.”
Tears blurred my vision, and her words filled me with twisted hope. These people felt more like a family to me than my own ever had. It didn’t matter that I’d been gone for several weeks. They’d welcomed me back in with open arms. Zero questions asked.
Okay, so there’d been a few questions. But only to make sure I was okay.
“Can I ask you something?” I said when Priyanka turned me toward the mirror and plucked a mascara wand from the table. The other girls gave me encouraging pats on the shoulder and drifted back toward their own mirrors. We had no more time to waste on chitchat. The club doors had opened, and the patrons would expect us to take to the stage within the half hour. Lucifer would expect us to dance. And I had a feeling that whatever Lucifer expected, Lucifer got.
She leaned in, angling the wand toward my eyes. “You can always ask me anything.”
“What brought you to Infernal? Did you know what the Legion were doing before you agreed to work here?”
I’d only arrived via a flyer taped to a random light pole in Brooklyn. Was that how Az typically recruited new members of his inner circle? Or was there more to it than that? He was so guarded, so untrusting. I couldn't imagine him hiring someone straight off the street.
Of course, that was exactly what he’d done with me.
A soft smile flickered across Priyanka’s face. “I imagine it was pretty similar to how you got hired. I saw an ad for a dance opening and dropped in for an audition. He turned me away at first, but then came knocking on my door a few days later. That’s when he told me what he was and gave me the whole spiel about saving souls. From that moment on, I was in.”
I transformed into a marble statue as she flicked my lashes with the wand. “So, he turned you down at first, just like me.”
“Yep,” she said. “Talking to the other girls, he did the same with them. We think he likes to look into people before bringing them into the circle. He needs to see what kind of person they are. Decide if they can be trusted. What he’s doing here, Mia, it’s important. He’s not only saving souls, but his work could mean the difference in the world ending or not.”
A shudder went through me. This whole thing went far deeper than what was happening to me. This was a game for the future of this world. A deadly game. One that could end in eternal flames.
All those weeks ago, Az had placed his trust in me, hoping my presence by his side would help him stop the King of Hell from winning. And here we were again after my curiosity had come so close to ripping everything apart. I had to do my best now to convince Lucifer I was exactly who I said I was, and nothing more.
Because if he found out that Az really was hiding Mia McNally, he’d have the confirmation he needed. He’d know Az had turned against him. I couldn’t let that happen.
After Priyanka finished my makeup, I changed into a sexy slip dress hanging from the clothes rack in the back corner. The girls kept the changing room stocked with new outfits designed to catch eyes. The shimmering silver reflected the overhead lights, the material hitting my mid-thigh. The plunging neckline clung to my breasts, making it look like I actually had some cleavage.
We walked out from backstage and climbed into the cages to the roar of the crowd. The patrons of Infernal loved the dancers and treated us like stars of a Broadway show. The gilded cage shuddered beneath my feet as it lurched up toward the ceiling on a heavy metal chain.
My belly did a little flip. I’d done this over a dozen times now, and I still got as nervous as I had on day one. There was something about being locked in a cage far above ground that made my nerves skitter like spilled candy on a marble floor.
Not shocking, really. I was trapped in an elevated birdcage. If I didn’t get nervous, I’d be a little concerned about my mental state.
The music pumped through the club. Pulling a deep breath into my lungs, I danced. It was easy to let go of my anxiety when the notes swirled through my head. I closed my eyes and focused on the beat, letting my body take over and giving my mind a rest.
But then I felt him. His gaze on me. As I swayed inside the cage, I popped my eyes open to find Lucifer lounging against the wall in the back corner of the club. His arms were folded over his chest, and he stared straight up at where I danced.
Terror squeezed my heart.
I swallowed hard and tried to glance away, but I felt locked in place. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t look anywhere but at his face. A shudder went down my spine. There was a darkness in his eyes I could see from even here. And anger.
There was no doubt in my mind that he knew exactly who I was.
I tried not to panic. Priyanka had promised they wouldn’t let anything happen to me. But honestly, how could she stop him? Lucifer was the strongest, most powerful supernatural in this room. He could burn us all to ash if he wanted.
I would not put the odds in our favor.
My eyes slid across to room to find Asmodeus. He stood in the opposite corner. Unlike Lucifer, not a single inch of him was relaxed. His entire body practically hummed with pent-up power. Hands fisted by his sides, he glared across the club at Lucifer, who hadn’t seemed to notice his First Prince looked like he wanted to rip off his head.
As if he sensed me, Az glanced up. Our gazes locked, and that old familiar zing went through me again. That weird thing was happening more often these days. In any other situation, I might spend some time wondering why, but I was too distracted by the tense stand-off between two of the most powerful demons in the world.
Because of me.
Suddenly, I could read his thoughts as if they were my own. The reason Az looked like he wanted to rip Lucifer’s head off was because…he was actually considering doing it. My blood curdled in my veins.
He wouldn’t. Would he? And what would happen if he did?
Lucifer would destroy him.
Suddenly, I felt Lucifer’s attention shift. With a sharp gasp, I turned back toward him, my body still moving to the beat. To anyone else watching, they’d have no idea a storm was brewing in this club. I’d gotten good at putting on a show during my weeks spent as Az’s fake girlfriend. I knew how to pretend.
Lucifer’s eyes tightened on Az. The two demons stared at each across the crowded club, and my heart rocketed up into my throat. Shadows rippled across Az’s face, darkening his expression.
Distracted, I tripped on my own feet. I stumbled to the side and hurtled toward the cage bars. My head slammed into the steel. Blood pounded between my eyes from the blinding pain. I let out a cry and fell to my knees, holding my hands to my head. When I pulled my fingers away, they were covered in blood.
The music cut off. The crowd hushed. Az ripped open the cage door, gathered me into his arms, and then flew—on his beautiful, massive black wings—out of the club.
