“Tell Gray to come back to us if you see him. Tell him he’s welcome here,” Trent said. “Always.”
Tix’s expression turned distinctly…disappointed. I don’t know that was the right word. He looked almost lonely. “And you are welcome in House Sloane, Trent. You were always welcome.”
He stood there like he wanted to come with us.
Which he probably did. He probably had some awful plan, and those big old anime sad eyes of his didn’t move me a single bit. He wasn’t Eddie. He didn’t have a sad-sack story that would touch my heart. He ran one of the thirteen houses of Hell. He wasn’t an outcast.
“Thanks.” Trent seemed the slightest bit awkward. “Well, we should continue on our way.”
“I could help you,” Tix offered. “It sounds like you’re worried this Relda person won’t cooperate. I’m excellent at gaining cooperation from those who would rather not.”
Somehow I thought the primals would disapprove of me setting a demon on Relda. A demon who shouldn’t be here.
Yes. There it was. That thing I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. “How are you here?”
Trent sighed as though things hadn’t gone the way he’d wanted.
I turned to him. “What do I not know?”
“Likely any number of things,” Tix began. “But I am a repository of knowledge. Ask me anything. I am bound to answer.”
It looked like he would be the better bet. I got the feeling Trent was covering something, likely something that would make his partner look bad.
“Kelsey, maybe we should talk about this in private. We can go back to our apartment and let the kids grab Relda’s paintings.” Trent started to reach for my hand.
That wasn’t happening. “Tix, I was under the assumption that you could follow Gray wherever he goes.”
A brilliant smile lit Tix’s face. A weirdly menacing smile. “Yes. You have properly deduced that fact, mistress.”
“Gray’s not here, Tix.”
That smile widened, like he was proud of a particularly smart toddler. “No, he is not. Again, you are correct.”
“So the wards should have kept you out.”
“Well, they would have if you weren’t here,” he replied.
Yep. That’s what I’d been afraid of. “You made no blood oath to me, demon. I wasn’t married on the Hell plane. What did Gray do?”
“He didn’t do anything, baby,” Trent said quickly, as though trying to head this thing off at the pass.
“You don’t have to have been married on the Hell plane. The truth is the Hell plane doesn’t actually have marriage ceremonies you would recognize. Mostly it’s the higher demon deciding to take what he or she wants,” Tix explained. “And then everyone either falls in line or they get their souls consumed by the most powerful among them.”
“It’s like the bloodiest oligarchy ever,” Evan added. “And it’s mostly men. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. Sure there are a couple of powerful demonesses, but they are still a strong patriarchy.”
“That’s right, babe. Don’t let them spread that propaganda.” Fen winked her way.
“Change is slow on the Hell plane,” Tix acknowledged. “But you should understand that I consider myself a feminist. I think females can eviscerate as well as any male, and they should have the same opportunities to torture souls as their masculine counterparts. Girls get it done, I say.”
I did not need an update on how progressive Hell could be. “You have no way to follow me, Tix. I’m not a tourist when it comes to this. There’s no mystical connection between me and Gray that you can pick up on. So you would have to have secured some of my DNA. I would like to know who gave it to you.”
“Oh, I can’t follow your DNA at all, mistress. And you are correct that I never took a blood oath to you, but I did to the Sloane line. I can follow all who are of the blood, and I am bound to obey. As to a connection between you and Lord Sloane, of course there is. I can feel him even now.”
My son. Fuck. He was talking about the fact that I was pregnant, and he could follow my son, who was of the Sloane bloodline. The horror of it dawned on me. He hadn’t needed me to agree. He’d secured Gray’s permission when Gray had taken over the House Sloane, and now my son was connected to it for all of time.
“Mom, are you okay?” Fenrir was suddenly at my side.
“You went pale.” Trent was there, too.