“Is this the new level?” Stephen asked.
I could feel Sephie shaking her head no. “Nope. You are especially going to love the new level, Yoden. But don’t be jealous. I’m still impressed you gave us the clue first. That’s normally my job,” she said.
Stephen’s mind was racing, trying to piece together what she’d just told him. His eyes went wide once he landed on the answer. “Seriously?” he asked,
H completely astonished.
“Well, no. Not exactly like you said. No crushing is involved,” I said, trying to see if everyone else could figure it out as well. “Disappointing.” Stephen said.
“Okay, you’re going to have to enlighten the rest of us because we have no clue what you’re talking about,” Misha said.
“I can remove souls and demons and condemn them to H ell,” I said, matter-of-factly.
“No longer disappointing.” Stephen said quietly, a look of awe on his face.
TADT TH
King of the UnderworldAdrik
“You can do what now?” Ivan asked, completely dumbfounded.
“There will be times when even Stephen will be ineffectual. Like with Ricardo and Martin. The two of them made deals that are eternal, meaning even if Stephen breaks them in this lifetime, their souls will still belong to the demons in the next lifetime. I’m what will break that cycle,” I said. Sephie tightened her hold on me.
“Everybody gather round for what I’m about to say, because apparently my eyes are choosing a new color but it’s fleeting right now,” she said. They all looked at her like she was playing a joke on them.
“No, she’s really serious. It’s happened twice, but they don’t stay like that for very long.” I said.
They all moved closer so they could see her eyes clearly as she said, “he really is the King of the Underworld now,”
I watched as everyone’s eyes went wide and their mouths fell open. They stood in stunned silence for a few moments, before Stephen finally composed himself enough to say, “you know, I never considered that this might create new issues with Vlad. He might think Seph is a kindred spirit now that she can do this. This might cause jealousy issues.”
Finally, everyone relaxed and laughed. Andrei looked again at Sephie, then looked at me. “I think they’ve decided on the color though, Boss.” He pointed to her. “They’re still red.”
I quickly turned to look at her, surprised they hadn’t changed again already, “I wonder why it was so quick to change earlier but now they’re staying red.” “Because it’s not me doing it this time. I didn’t realize it before, but I do now,” Sephie said.
“Really? What about the black though?” I asked. If it was Sephie’s demon switching her eyes to red, then did that take the place of the black now? 1 watched as her eyes slowly changed from re to black. Okay, new favorite transition. “Huh. What’s the difference if it’s your demon doing both then?”
She was quiet for a moment, then she looked at me and said, “the black is a warning to everyone else of who I am. The red is homage to you.”
“Shut up.”
“No, it’s true,” she said. “Wait, I can prove it. Bubba, come here.” She stood up from her spot on the counter and made Andrei stand next to me so we could both see her. “Full disclosure, I’m using Andrei because he’s so darn good at looking in my head,” she said as she positioned us the way she wanted us. “Okay, you watch,” she said to me. Then she looked at Andrei and said, “you watch too, but I want you to look in my head while I’m doing this so you know what I’m thinking about for each one.” She was looking only at Andrei as she switched her eyes to each color that we knew of. She’d even mastered switching them to white without losing control, but we still all felt her panic when she did switch them to whit e. She went from normal, to blue, to green, to amber, to both versions of white, to black, to purple all while looking at Andrei.
Then she looked only at me while she told Andrei, “keep looking in my head while I do this so you can verify that I’m thinking the same thoughts.” She ran through every color once again, but this time, her eyes turned red at the last. She smiled at me, then looked at Andrei. “I was thinking the exact same thoughts each time, wasn’t 17”
“Yeah,” he looked at me. “She thought the same sentence that she said earlier, about you really being the King of the Underworld when she was looking at me, but they never switched to red when she was only looking at me.”
“See? Special for you,” she said, her wide smile stretching across her face.
“Okay, I vote for special colors for all of us then, Green is mine. I think we can all agree I enjoy spicy Sephie the most. You guys can fight over the other colors,” Misha said, trying to stir up shit. “Misha, you’re my favorite.” Sephie said, laughing.
Ivan had been quietly contemplating the news. He asked, “so this isn’t something you’re going to be using often, is it?”
I chuckled. “I said the same thing. No, it’s not. It’s basically the fail-safe, if you will. Those that Viktor can’t fix, Stephen will take care of. There will be a very select few that Stephen won’t be able to take care of. That’s when I’ll use it.”
“What happens to the souls that you condemn to H ell?” Misha asked.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.