Beion decided to stay with the others until he’d figured out what he was going to tell his father. He’d sent Deilon’s body to his own room, which he insisted none of his family could enter as there was no doors into it.

  “Why don’t you invite your sister to our cosy home?” Snow said. “Didn’t speak to her much, she seemed nicer than the one that tried to kill my husband.”

  “I could,” Beion sighed. “Deilon was the nicer of the two, she may shed some tears, then it will sizzle against her cheek.”

  He opened a portal in the corner, after a moment, Aleirica came through with a surprised yelp as she saw Death and the others.

  “Oh my,” she whimpered. “You could’ve given me a warning that you had guests.”

  “Deilon is dead,” Beion said flatly. “He burned the Lakevalor keep with his literal dying breath, when the snow settles, they will blame the cambions.”

  She conjured up a chair and fell into it, her knees week. She let out a tear, not for her brother, but at the fact that the cambion image would further be tarnished by such a rash action.

  “Perfect,” Vera hissed. “Now we have a leaky cambion and a tired cambion, can’t get much worse than this!”

  Beion rolled his head across the couch pillow with a groan. “Oh, my, would you look at that.”

  “Stop staring at me!” She stood over him and went to slap him, he caught her strike and tripped her with his foot, catching her on his lap. “You are prettier with some real light on your face… what is your name, little vixen?”

  “Uh—I—you know my name!”

  “Your full name, I’d like to know it.”

  “Our brothers have just died,” Rica said. “Is it the time to flirt with one Deilon’s killers?”

  “He did ask us to,” Snow said. “You can’t ask us to kill then be annoyed at us for it.”

  “I’m not annoyed…” she squeaked. “It’s just… now I have no one to protect me if I come out from Hell.”

  “Little Aleirica, I can protect you,” Beion said. “I may not have the big muscles of those two dead ones, but I can pinch you out of a bad situation with my portals.”

  “That’s not the same.”

  “We will sort that another time, sweet sister. Now, Vera, are you going to be brave and tell me your last name? You seem comfy on my lap, not even showing your claws.”

  “Redmon,” she answered.

  “Vera Redmon,” he whispered, stroking her ear. “What a pretty name for a pretty girl.”

  She released a purr and then turned her happy eyes to Death, who had Snow stretched across his knee and resting on his chest. “I was pretty useful for that fight, wouldn’t’cha agree, mister Death?”

  “Stop calling me mister, it does not suit me.”

  “So sorry, mister Death. As I was saying, I did pretty good when I went up against that brute, not useless anymore… c’mon, give me a little praise while I’m at my highest, you know you want to sayyy iiiit.”

  Death gave her a cold stare. “One time is just lucky.”

  Aleirica was jealous looking at how Death and Snow were. She fiddled her fingers, feeling out of place.

  She keeps letting her eyes wander to me then staring at the floor, I pity the poor cambion, I’ve been killing her family and now she must be more alone than ever. “You are welcome to travel with me and my companions as much as you like, that offer extends to the both of you.”

  “We’ll always know where you are,” Rica smirked, pulling her family heirloom from her cleavage. “You and Snow both held this, we can sniff you out and Beion can teleport to you anytime you want us… my brother has great hearing, if you say the phrase ‘fuck the devils’ we shall come to your aid.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Don’t wanna stay with me?” Vera whispered.

  Beion patted her head. “Aw, have I changed your mind on my kind so soon? I knew you weren’t a spicy fox when I heard that voice of yours, just a little off the path… my own fox would love.”

  “Does it have a cool name, Ripper, Shredder, Bloodrage!”

  “Steven.”

  Vera pouted at the pathetic name. “You should both stay.”

  “Don’t get attached to me, lovely fox, I’m a demon at my core. My heart is dark and I fear I would crack yours if you trusted me to keep watch over it. Another time. Another place. When I can wander the nations without worry of execution, you name the place and I shall take you away to there.”

  “Uh… there’s something you need to know about me… I can’t do it with men; I have a gift that makes it pain not pleasure.”

  “Oh, wonderful!” Beion said. “I am certain I can put a little spell on you to negate that for a few hours.”

  Disgusting, Death thought. How they can talk about such a thing so openly when they’ve barely met, the degeneracy of these nations must be fixed when I rule.

  Vera blushed and hopped off his lap. She stopped her face from going redder by sitting near a window, cracking it open.

  “Sword, to me!” Snow yelled. “Sword, head my command!”

  “What’s she doing?” Rica asked.

  “Our new friend stole the sword from that devil’s contract and gave it to his companion—looks like she’s a virgin summoner, as are we, summoning is different from conjurations.”

  “It’s with the mind,” Vera said. “Think of it like you’re kissing the sword with your hand, pretend it’s already there—call on it like a lover without using your words.”

  Snow closed her eyes and focused, the sword manifested in her hand with a red flash. “Woah!” she exclaimed. “That’s so cool! I want to name it Firedick!”

  Beion politely clapped at the name. “Excellent name… you can use that to slay more dragons once this snow has gone. It shall go soon, likely with a lot of flooding when the sun shines bright. You should take your gold and leave as soon as this happens, Lakevalor is notoriously crimeless and when they see their city turned to ruins they’re gonna start looking for heads.”

  “I wish it could’ve been different,” Rica said wistfully. “You should have brought me with you; I could have entered his mind and calmed him down.”

  “You should’ve seen our brother, there was no calming that man down from that.”

  “I do not think father will take this news well.”

  “I am now his only male child; he shall take the news well and without complaint—he won’t hurt you any longer.”

  She moved from her chair of solitude and sat with Death and Snow, clearing her throat and politely asking if she could sleep on the same bed as them as she always struggles to sleep while alone.

  “Sure, but I’m sleeping in the middle, don’t touch my husband,” she joked. “Who do you normally sleep with in Hell?”

  “I often slept in Beion’s bed. His is large, larger than this whole room, no doors in his chamber so my father can’t disturb me.”

  The silence became stale. Death felt eyes turn to him.

  Am I expected to say something? I truly wasn’t listening to the conversation.

  Snow touched the blade with her free hand, the sharpness cut her palm without her having to slide, a blade so thin it cut to the bone just from a tap. She gasped from the blood that quickly came, screaming that she was going to bleed out and die.

  She dropped the sword and it unsummoned itself.

  Beion pointed and laughed.

  “It’s not funny!” she yelled. “It’s not stopping! Vera! Rip off a black ribbon and come and help me!”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Snow took her hand and closed it, giving her a small amount of his power to heal the cut. “The power I got from Aleion has made small things like this inconsequential; I can give you tiny amounts to heal you when you do clumsy stuff like you just did.”

  “I don’t like it when he’s nice,” Vera whispered. “Go back to being cold and unfeeling, mister Death, you were cooler when you were mysteriously hateful towards us.”

  Snow hugged him and gave him a quick kiss. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

  Death was unsure why she was looking at him so lovingly, then realised he had willingly given up his power without being given the command to.

  That didn’t feel like something I would do, he thought. This cosy setup has me vulnerable to… being nice… how disgusting.

  “Whether as my lover or my executioner, Death shall be the death of me,” she said in a poetic tone. “I love you.”

  The silence lingered again.

  “He doesn’t say it back,” she told Rica and Beion. “But one day he will! I hope! And on that day, I will be the luckiest woman in the whole world!”

  “Finnso lived alone so he would only have one large bed,” Death said, ignoring Snow as usual. “I shall take that.”

  “We’ll take the couches!” Vera exclaimed while blushing. “Go! Get out of here and to sleep! Snow, I’ll train you with that sword the second we get out of this city! Shoo, all of you!”