Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
My smile wiped away in a blink. “People won’t try to kill me for this room, will they?!”
She tasted the air. “You tell me, girl. Demons are naught but humans cursed in their afterlife. In your realm, do your people kill each other over finery and gold?”
I sucked in a shaky breath. The answer to that is yes and yes. “I’ll block the door just in case.”
In the corner by the fireplace was an ornate desk and chair. I grabbed the latter and propped it under the door handle. “Okay, first, you get comfortable.”
I unwound her from my body and placed her on the armchair in the opposite corner. It rested beside an empty bookshelf that was waiting for me to turn it into a cozy book nook.
“That door must lead to the bathroom. I’m going to shower, change, and then we start looking for Dora.”
Her response was to curl up and lay her head on her tail. Leaving her be, I ducked through the door on the left side of the bookshelf and found I was right—it was a bathroom. The most incredible bathroom I’d ever been in. My feet sang to touch cool marble after running all over the burning stove they called the ground in this world.
Making straight for the tub, I walked past the mirror, glanced at it—
—and screamed.
“Ahhhhh!” I shrieked like a madwoman... and the monster in the mirror did too.
Sabrina said when I looked down at myself, I would see past the glamour to my true appearance. She forgot to mention that didn’t apply to mirrors.
The beast in front of me could’ve been a man certainly, but it was hard to make out any defining masculine features beneath the warts. Ranging from the size of a marble to the size of a baseball, my face was covered in angry, bumpy, hairy warts that dwarfed my beady red eyes; swollen, cartoon ballon lips; and lumpy open-car-door ears. Rotting in my open mouth were horrible, eye-wateringly repulsive teeth—three of them.
That’s right. I only had three teeth, and that was one more than the hairs on my head. I was bald as an egg because clearly all my hair decided to grow out of my warts, instead of my scalp. And if that wasn’t enough, my skin wasn’t white, black, or any of the skin tones in between. In the time it took to infuse me with glamour magic, I went from looking how people actually look, to adopting the muddy, puke-green skin color of a monster from the In Between.
“You made a fool of my lord with that contract,” rang through my head as I screamed longer and louder the more I took it in. “You should expect him to return the favor as often as he can.”
“You complete and utter bastard!” I railed at the ceiling. “No wonder Daddy dropkicked your ass into hell. Never has there ever been a more fitting parental punishment in the history of time!”
I knew it was impossible, but for a second, I could’ve sworn I heard that devil laugh.
I WAS STILL IN SHOCK when I stumbled out of the bathroom half an hour later. I knew that looks didn’t matter. I really did. But, and I wasn’t exaggerating, Lucifer had turned me into the ugliest creature in existence. To even look at me for too long would make you nauseous.
And I knew this because I did look too long, and then had to run to the toilet.
To be so petty, vindictive, and cruel that he’d turn me into a hideous green monster is just so—so—
“Devilish,” I muttered, wrapping the towel tighter around myself. “I was stupid to think he’d let me have the last laugh, but Hera willing, let that be the last of his spiteful tricks—”
“Krooh.”
I choked on a cry, freezing in my tracks. Flicking to Sabrina, I saw she was right where I left her—snoozing on the armchair and very much not snoring.
But if that wasn’t her, that means... Slowly, stiffly, I turned toward the bed.
Amidst the luxurious satin sheets, fluffy duvet, and pillow mound... was a lump that wasn’t there when I went into the bathroom.
But how! The desk chair was still right where I left it, with no sign of it being disturbed. And even if the stranger used magic to get in, he would’ve seen my luggage on the carpet and knew it was occupied.
Anger bloomed in my chest. “I bet this fucking jerk just walked in, saw how nice the room was, and decided if he climbed in my bed, there was nothing I could do about it, but hell no.” I marched up to the balustrade, and threw it open. “I’m not going to be ugly and roomless in the same night. My hand is not going near that pissy key basket a second time, so this is my room”—I seized the sheets and threw them off of him—“and if you’ve got a problem with that, you stick it up your...”