“Again, that wasn’t an issue at the time. Now, however…” He paused. “I am god-touched, as you know.” Something he didn’t often speak of because it would make him a target for other magical people who wanted the same gifts. It was the same sort of magic Penny had stolen from a horrible little goblin we were sent to get rid of, and then shared with Emery through their bond. “My power can have a nulling effect on Lucifer’s, just like Penny’s spells null your magic.”
“And that’s why you can withstand my fire to some degree, and push away my walls.”
“Unless you correctly apply your power, yes. The fog and air weren’t a problem at that time, and now I can successfully walk through his fog and breathe in the inner court of the Dark Kingdom, even though his spells mask the air. He cannot use magic to deny me access—”
“Wait, wait…” My hand was back against his arm. “They mask the air? There is actually air in the center of the kingdom?”
“He does not live in a vacuum-sealed bubble. Of course there is air.”
“I hear you—I realize that you are calling me dense—but seriously, how was I supposed to know that? Physics in homeschool didn’t cover the Underworld.” I blew out a breath. “Wow. That’s a shocker. So wait…Penny and Emery can get into the Underworld since they have the god-touched magic?”
“Yes, though they shouldn’t, unless you or Lucifer strip away the magical pitfalls designed to impede their kind. There are magical traps for those who don’t belong that being god-touched won’t totally nullify.”
“Huh.”
“Getting back to the point…” he said, and I curled my lips inward. “The Underworld changed the heir significantly, and not just because the magic corroded his human side. Power corrupted his mind.
“When I think back on it, I must admit that the heir started out wanting. If he were in your position now, the only thing he’d want was more. More riches, more luxury, more power. He’d lord his good fortune over others. In your position, he’d force your friends, the natural dual-mages, further into the vampire’s employ so as to control them. Or, at least, that’s the kind of person he became.”
“And you were the friend he tried to force?”
“More of an acquaintance, but yes. He asked me to be his guard, and I refused. He tried to lure me with riches and power. Another refusal. The next lure was women—their version of women, at any rate. Then he tried to beguile me into a contract, which was the most laughable attempt of all. It showed his ignorance of how my kind work. And finally, he tried to force me.”
“He tortured an elephant?”
Again came the look.
“It’s not that I’m impatient,” I replied, “it’s that you take forever to get to the point.”
“It is not your impatience that is the problem at the moment—it is your thinking capacity. There are no elephants in the Underworld.”
“You’ve learned Darius’s trick of how to pleasantly call me an idiot.”
“Yes.” He waited for me to frown at him before going on. “Julius trapped me for a full year, beating me every day, trying to break me and turn me to his cause.”
“Wow. There goes your friendship. But, obviously, he wasn’t strong enough to break you.”
“No one has been strong enough to break me, though many have tried.”
I widened my eyes at that. It occurred to me that I knew very little about the deadly man standing beside me, and suddenly I wanted to amend that fact, if only because it sounded more interesting than living in the lap of luxury.
“Your father, who had allowed his heir free rein in what he called ‘side pursuits,’ finally stepped in and commanded I be released. He did not like what his heir had turned into, I could tell, both because Julius was slightly…unhinged—”
“Just slightly?”
“—and because he was ineffective.”
“You mean he didn’t have the power to break you.”
“Correct. He was an embarrassment on two levels.”
“My dear old dad isn’t such a good guy, I take it.”
“He exists in balance. He can love and hate, lust and kill. Like you. Like me. He looked at his child the way humans look at theirs. His son was…getting soupy…”
“Nope. Missed the mark that time.”
“Lucifer tried to get help for his son. He thought the Underworld was responsible for breaking Julius down. That the human side of him was too weak for the Underworld. And in some ways he was right, but as I said, I suspect power also corrupted him. Regardless, that is why Lucifer sought refuge for his son in the Realm, as any parent would.”
“He also let his son torture an innocent acquaintance for a year…”
“We’re not all perfect.”
“Wow. I think you are out of balance, because your level of forgiveness is on par with an angel.”