ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

"What's happening?" Kami asks from her cell. "What's happening? Why did everyone stop? I can't see from here! Somebody tell me what's going on!"

Lucifer awkwardly clears his throat and looks at Leviathan.

"So..." Leviathan says with a soft voice, "it appears we may have gotten off on the wrong foot."

He walks toward Kieran's cell and pulls a key from his pocket. He unlocks and opens the door, letting Kieran free.

"No shit," Kieran grumbles.

"You're a sensible, attractive man," Lucifer says, "can't you let bygones be bygones?"

"That depends," Kieran says.

"On?"

"What are bygones?"

Lucifer raises a brow and smirks. With a cue from Leviathan, the Shayatin quietly file out of the room.

"He's calling for a truce, I think," I say.

"What the heck is going on out there?" Kami says.

"It would appear there is a new Demon King of Lust," Morgan says, scratching his head and looking toward Kieran.

"What? Who?"

"Only the sexiest Demon King ever!" Kieran says.

"Oh lord... seriously?" she rests her face in her palm.

"You know it, babe!"

"What does this mean?" I ask.

"Well..." Leviathan says, "The Demon Kings have existed for eons. None of us have ever been killed before. We suspected his powers may have transferred somewhere but... this was unexpected."

"We really do try to get along, us Kings," Lucifer says, taking a couple of defensive steps back with his hands in the air. "So you can see how this is all just a mistake."

"Get along?" Morgan asks. "You all created armies of demons to fight each other."

"Technically Abaddon created his demons for war, the rest of us were just trying to build our defenses."

"We're all pretty evenly matched," Leviathan says. "That's why we try to keep peace among ourselves. Nobody wins when the Kings go to war."

Leviathan walks over to me and unlocks my cuffs with another key from his pocket.

"And why shouldn't we just kill you now instead?" I ask.

"Well, you tell me. How did killing a King go for you last time?"

He's got a point. Not sure I want to draw that kind of attention again.

I walk over to Ava, still in the throes of a Shaytan nightmare, and lift her in my arms. She shivers and whines softly.

"So we have this truce, then what happens?" Kieran asks. "My friends are off-limits and we all just go about our business?"

Leviathan nods. Kieran looks at each of us and sighs.

"Okay then. Release everyone from your cells and we have ourselves a truce."

Ava comes to as I scoop her into my arms and lift her off the ground.

"Wh- what... where am I? What happened?"

"You're alright, love," I say, my voice slightly hoarse. I pull her tight into my chest as I follow the others out of the catacombs. "We were fighting the Demon Kings. It's okay, it's all over now."

I'm a bit unsteady on my feet with the Tamarix still coursing through my system, but I manage to weave through the tight corridors without hitting the walls.

"Did we win?"

"Hell yeah we did," Kieran chimes in as we step out into the daylight. "Thanks to the world's most handsome demon. You missed it, Aves, I was a total badass."

Ava taps my shoulder to let me know she wants to walk on her own, so I set her on her feet. She has a few scuffs and scratches on her arms and the side of her face is covered in dirt, but I'm grateful that she's relatively unharmed. That's more than I can say for the rest of us.

Kami's hair is frizzy and matted with dried blood. Valentina is disheveled and bruised, supporting a bandaged and bleeding Blake limping beside her. Kieran is coated in dirt and sweat. I haven't had a chance to see my reflection, but I imagine I look like hell.

The only one of us that doesn't look like they've just lost a fight with a blender is Morgan, who appears more or less unscathed, minus a few smudges of dirt. But he doesn't seem like someone who just won a battle. He trudges yards ahead of the group with a stern expression and his eyes trained ahead.

"I don't understand," Ava says, huffing as she walks through the brush. "What happened?"

"I'm the new freaking Demon King!" Kieran exclaims, doing a bit of a celebratory dance as he walks. "Some crazy sumbitch was trying to stab Zane and I fuckin' brain-controlled the fucker!"

She looks at me wide-eyed, as if she's ready for me to refute his claims. I shrug and she looks toward Kami, who sighs.

"Unfortunately, it's true," she says, scrunching her face.

"Damn right!" he says. "I guess when you stabbed me into Asmodeus, his powers transferred into me. When I was able to control the Succubus, everyone realized I had absorbed his powers. Good ol' Levi and Lucy were all 'oh shit we didn't wanna fuck with the new Demon King' and they let us go."

Ava's brows are raised to their limit as her eyes dart between us. She obviously thinks this is some kind of wild tale—but for once, Kieran isn't exaggerating.

"So you're the new Asmodeus?" she asks him. "What does that even mean?"

"Hell if I know. I didn't even know I had the powers in the first place." He chuckles as we reach Morgan leaning against a car parked at the side of the road. "Hey, why didn't you know I had new powers?"

Morgan shrugs and lets out a huff.

"I'm not a bloody power-detector," he says. "Half the time I don't even know what power I'm calling on when I go to use it, it just happens. It's all instinct. You're the one who didn't notice you were a Demon King, genius."

He holds a middle finger out to Morgan, who just shakes his head.

"So what other powers do you have?" Ava asks.

"I have no idea," he says with a tilt of his head. "Lemme try."

He stares at a nearby bush for a moment, squinting and tightening his muscles. After a minute, he throws his hands forward, first one at a time, then both at once. He spins around and points his palms outward, but still nothing happens.

"Fucktarts!" he shouts. "How do I make them work?"

Out of nowhere, a wad of paper whirs past me toward Kieran's face and he lifts up his hands to shield himself. As he does, the wad bursts into flame and falls straight down.

I turn to see a smirking Morgan.

"That's how," he says with a slight chuckle.

"Oh shit!" Kieran says. "I mean I knew I was hot, but damn!"

"Oh lord, here we go," Kami says.

"I guess you could say I'm smokin'!"

Everyone groans as he smirks to himself.

*****

We follow Morgan into the hotel suite. Ava walks into a room and lays down on the bed. She hasn't said much since the car ride back.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

"No," she says, sitting up. "You told Morgan to take me away. I should kick your ass for that."

"You could try," I say with a smirk.

"Smirk at me again and see how that goes."

Her face is serious enough that it wipes the smile off my face.

"I'm sorry, love. I wanted to be sure you were safe. Things were getting bad. We were losing. I thought it was the only way you'd be okay. What would you do if you were me?"

She ponders for a moment before nodding, then she jumps up and wraps me in a hug.

"Your eyes have dimmed a lot," she says. "Has the Tamarix worked its way out of your system?"

"I think so. The adrenaline probably helped, but more than anything it was just having you there."

"What do you mean?"

"If there's one thing that can always guide me through the fog, it's you."

She tightens her arms around me and rests her head on my chest.

Kami appears in the doorway with an exasperated expression.

"Can I room with you guys?" she asks. "Kieran has been singing 'Who run the world—Demon King' since we got in. I'm going to pull my hair out."

"Nope," I say. "He's your problem now."

"You suck," she says, stomping away.

Ava laughs and pats my chest as she steps away.

"I'm going to take a shower," she says. I raise a brow and she smiles back. "—alone. Sorry."

She heads into the bathroom and I begrudgingly join Kami and Kieran in their shared room. Kieran is doing a choreographed dance to his new song and Kami is burying her head under a pillow on the sofa.

I turn to see a closed door that I assume leads to Morgan's room. He's been awfully silent since the catacombs, but I owe him more than I care to admit. Morgan saved everyone in there, and when it came down to it, he was willing to take care of Ava even if she fought him.

I walk over and knock at the door. Morgan opens it then leans in the doorway, crossing his arms.

"Hey," he says with a brow furrowed, almost asking it as a question.

"Hey mate," I say, resting my hands in the pockets of my trousers. "Could we talk?"

He nods and waves me in. I step inside and lean against the dresser.

"What's on your mind?"

"I want... to thank you."

His eyes meet mine for a moment and his head tilts slightly.

"For saving your arse? You're welcome, but if it were up to me, I would never have gone. So you should really thank your girl and your mate." He forces an awkward smile and shrugs.

I want to hate him. Until now, all I saw in Morgan was someone who wanted my girl. But now, I see someone who protected her when I couldn't. As someone who saved me and my friends. As someone who was willing to take care of Ava if I couldn't.

"But you did it. And you kept her safe."

He shrugs.

His eyes never quite reach mine and his shoulders are slumped. It's a look of defeat that I recognize well.

He loves her.

Deep down, I should've known. She's always been easy to fall for.

I can't help but feel bad for him.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Nothing to apologize for." He smirks and I give him a knowing look.

"Sure."

"Just make her happy or I'll kick your arse with your own powers."