13. Madelyne

thirteen

Madelyne

I can’t believe I’ve been in Hell for weeks and this is the first time I’m having breakfast at my mates’ house.

“In our defense, you have been busy since you got here,” Zeph says as he fiddles with the coffee maker. His back is to me, so he misses the death glare I shoot at him.

“Stay out of my head, Zephyr. It’s a scary place, you don’t want to know what goes on up there,” I warn.

Belz laughs as he walks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

I don’t know, love. I think your brain is a fascinating place. He thinks as he kisses my neck.

You won’t think that for long. I think back.

“Won’t think what for long?” Oz asks as he flips a pancake.

“You didn’t hear Belz? Can you only hear my thoughts?”

They didn’t hear me because I shared that thought with you, not them. “But thanks for letting them know I can do that.”

“Yes. Thank you for that. How can you do that? Is that why I haven’t heard any thoughts from you all morning but I’ve heard everything Oz has been thinking?” Zar raises a brow at Belz.

“Could be.” He shrugs with a laugh.

The fucker already figured out how to turn it off.

Yeah. And he’s not sharing . Zeph pouts in response to my unspoken gripe.

“What do you mean you’ve heard all my thoughts this morning?” Oz gapes at Zar.

I snort. “He means we heard you staring at Belz ass and imagining it was a peach you'd like to take a bite out of and we heard your little ditty about ‘Maddy’s Tiddys’”

Belz chuckles behind me. Guess he hadn’t figure out how to shut us all out before that particular gem.

“Okay. We have to figure out how to turn that off. I agree with Mads, I don’t want you assholes hearing my every thought,” Oz grumbles. “Fuck. You made me burn a fucking pancake. That one’s yours, Zar.”

Everyone laughs, well, except for Zar who now has to eat the burnt pancake. That’s the worst. No amount of syrup can hide the taste of a charred pancake.

As we sit down for breakfast, my head throbs from all the thoughts that don’t belong to me. It’s so freaking loud in my head I can’t stand it. I knew this whole reading each other's thoughts thing was going to be bad.

I wish it would fucking quiet down. I don’t want to hear all of their fucking thoughts.

And just like that, it’s silent. I only hear my own voice in my head and it’s so shocked by the sudden absence of my mates’ thoughts, it’s silent too.

Oh thank fucking God!

I take in a deep breath, soaking up the peace that settles over me without all the extra voices in my head. Smiling, I take a sip of my orange juice.

“What’s that smile for, Amica Mea ?” Belz murmurs in my ear.

I simply smile bigger in response and cut my pancake.

He drops his fork and gapes at me. “You figured out how to block us,” he accuses.

Heads snap up as the others tune into our conversation.

“What’s going on? And why can’t I hear her thoughts anymore?” Zeph asks with a furrowed brow.

“She’s completely blocked us out. We can’t hear her and she can’t hear us,” Belz says, as if he wasn’t the first to block everyone out.

Absolutely unrepentant, I shrug with a smug smirk as I continue to eat. “It’s blissfully quiet now. Are you jealous?”

“Yes! I knew my brother was incapable of shutting up, but I never realized the amount of nonsense he keeps to himself is ten times what actually comes out of his mouth,” Zar says.

“He’s not the only one with outrageous thoughts,” I chuckle as I eye Oz.

“Really, Princess? It’s like that?” He arches a brow. “That’s five on the spank count now,” he holds up his hand wiggling his fingers to make his point clear.

Oooh. I didn’t realize he was keeping track. That’ll be fun once we actually have time for fun.

“Promises. Promises,” I pout.

“Trust me, Princess, as soon as we fix Luc, your ass is mine.”

“I get to watch, right?” Zeph perks up at the idea.

“If you’re good,” Oz purrs.

“Well, shit, Angel, let’s go! Now we have to fix Luc,” Zeph exclaims, rising from his seat.

“Oh? Because there wasn’t any motivation before?”

“No motivation could match getting to watch our mate turn your ass red, doll.”

“You know… I am feeling extra determined now, so you may be right.” I chuckle. Here I thought saving my grandfather and Hell would be enough incentive but really all we needed was the promise of kinky sex with Oz.

“Sit down. Finish your damn breakfast,” Belz huffs. “When everyone is done, we’ll take the portal to the office.”

“Portal? What portal?”

“We’re not exactly close to the palace. And the rest of us can’t just pop in like you, so Luc installed a portal that takes us to our office there. Makes traveling to and from work a lot easier.”

“Oh! That’s so cool! So I get to see your house and your office?”

“There’s not much to see, but sure you can check out the office if you want, Princess,” Oz chuckles and I stick my tongue out at him.

Ten minutes later, everyone’s plates are clean and the dishwasher is loaded. I still can’t believe how modern Hell is. They have dishwashers . Man, my books were way off the mark. But it has reduced the culture shock with so many similarities to home.

I follow Belz to a door and find Fireball patiently waiting for us.

“We’ve gotta go to work, Bud,” Belz pets the hound as he whines.

“Awww. Let him come. You wanna come with us, boy? You wanna go see the palace?” I ask Fireball who gets excited by my baby talk and jumps on me, wagging his tail and yipping his affirmative.

“Of course, he wants to come. He hasn’t been to the palace since we found him as a pup and took him to meet Luc. Has he even met Snowball?” Zeph asks.

“I don’t think so.” Oz shrugs. “Luc didn’t get Snow until after Fireball. He was crushed when Icicle died protecting Sera and couldn’t even look at a hound until Fireball forced him to acknowledge him.”

“It’s settled then. Fireball comes. Hell, maybe he can help with Luc. He pulled him out of his depression once.” I scratch behind his ears and he licks my face, clearly thrilled to be going back to the palace.

“Fine. He can come. Are we ready now?”

“Don’t be grumpy, Belz. That’s Oz’s job, remember?” I chuckle as he opens the door and I walk through with Fireball hot on my tail.

I shouldn’t be surprised by their office, yet somehow I was expecting something… else. It looks just like what I would expect a security room on Earth to look like, dark sound dampening walls with monitors covering most of one wall and extending a bit onto a second, cables ran around the room in tidy organized bundles and a few desks lined the walls all cluttered in paperwork and typical desk tchotchkes.

“You have cameras everywhere?” I stare at the wall of monitors. There’s demons crying in the streets on one screen, there’s a chef crying as he mixes a bowl on another, and demons stamping Soul Stories while tears fall down their faces on another. The ward is failing. Luc’s powers are spreading, touching demons all over Hell.

“We have to stop this. It’s getting worse.”

“We will. Everything gets worse before it gets better, Princess. We’ll heal Luc and everything will go back to normal.”

“I hope so,” I murmur, not sure I believe it.

“Come on, Sweetheart. Let’s check on Luc,” Zar encourages, rubbing small circles on my back, calming me with his touch.

Nodding, I allow him to lead me out of the security room, trying not to let the dismal thoughts overcome me. I have to stay strong.

We don’t get ten feet down the hall before Georgym appears out of breath like he’s been running all over the palace.

“Oh, thank the devil you’re back! I’ve been looking all over for you! I don’t know what’s happening, but servants all over the palace have been falling into weird crying spells. It’s freaking me the fuck out. I haven’t seen Lucifer in days. I don’t know what to do, and Zofina is…” he rambles.

“Georgym. Take a breath,” I order, pausing until he inhales and slowly lets it out. “Good. We know what’s happening, and we’re working on it. I understand it’s distressing, but we have everything under control and things should return to normal soon. Now tell me what’s going on with Zofina?”

Moments ago, I was freaking out just like him, but seeing his anxiety forced me to pull up my big girl panties and step into the role of leader. Saying those words not only soothes his worries, but my own as well. My resolve strengthens with each reassuring word I speak.

“She's in some sort of strange trance, I went to drop off her morning meal as I always do and she didn’t come to the door, so I entered her room and she was just there in her chair with a haunted expression and unseeing eyes flooded with tears, I couldn't wake her, I tried.” Georgym's anxiety is rising again, making his words speed up as he speaks.

“Okay, Georgym, we’ll handle Zo and Luc, I need you to get to the kitchens and see if you can assist with anything considering the chef looks like he’s about to drop.”

“Thank you, Your Highness, right away, Your Highness.” He bows his head before scurrying off down the hall in the opposite direction we’re going.

“That was very Ruler of Hell , Princess,” Oz smirks.

“Shut up,” I grumble as my mates laugh. “Looks like we need to go check on Mom after we deal with Luc.”

Not wanting to waste time walking, I send us to Luc’s closet. Fireball whines and whimpers, clearly not a fan of my preferred method of transportation. I drop to my knees and give him some loving.

“I’m sorry, buddy.” Behind Fireball, Snowball perks up at our arrival. “Come on, sweet boy, I have a friend I want you to meet.” I kiss Fireball’s head before standing to make my introductions.

He turns around and sees Snow standing by Luc. She’s his complete opposite in every way. One black as a shadow, the other white as fresh snow. But they both size each other up with perked-up ears and tongues lolling from their mouths.

“Snow, this is Fireball. Fireball, this is Snowball.”

Fireball rushes to Snow’s side and I swear, I’ve never seen a cuter couple. At least something good has come of this day. Sadly, Luc appears the same and I really just don’t know what to do.

“Yes, you idiot. Why didn’t you think of that before?” Zar snaps at Zeph.

“What? Think of what?” I spin to face them. Maybe I was a little hasty in turning off the mind-reading power.

Zar smirks at me. “Regretting shutting us out yet, Sweetheart?”

I roll my eyes and sigh. “Just tell me what you know and maybe I’ll tell you how to block his thoughts.”

“I read this book in the library,” Zeph cuts in before his twin can tell his story. Can’t blame him. I hate it when people beat me to telling my own fucking news. It’s rude as hell. “It was about mate bonds…” At Belz’s raised brow he huffs. “What? I wasn’t finding anything helpful, I figured it couldn’t hurt to learn more about our bond.

“You’re right. I would love to know more about our bond and stop having new shit pop up. What’d you find? And why does Zar think it could help Luc?”

“It said something about mate magic being able to stabilize an ill mate. If Luc had a mate maybe the mate magic could heal him.”

“He already had a mate. She’s dead, asshole. Mate magic won’t do us any good,” Oz grumbles.

“Well, yeah, but what if he has another mate out there? Serafina wasn’t his only mate. Maddy has four, who’s to say Luc shouldn’t have more too, he’s just never met them?”

“It does make sense when put that way,” Belz murmurs.

“So what am I supposed to do? How do I find his missing mates?”

“How do you do anything, Princess?” Oz arches a brow at me.

Damn him and his handsome, smug face.

Kneeling next to Luc, I lay a hand on his chest and will my magic to find his mates and do whatever it needs to to bring him back to us. My palm glows as my magic spreads across his chest and covers him, lighting him up from the inside. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Snowball glowing too as her head is on his lap. The light disappears almost as suddenly as it appeared and Luc gasps.

“What the hell was that?” he croaks, his voice deeper than usual from lack of use.

“ Avus ! Oh, thank god it worked!” I cry before throwing myself on him, squeezing the hell out of him as I hug him.

He pats my back as he chuckles. “Thank you Neptis . I knew you would figure it out… But how did you do it?”

Pulling back from my grandfather, I grimace, not sure how he’ll react to having a mate again.

“Well… you see… Zeph read in a book that mate magic can heal sooo… Um….”

“Yes, mate magic can heal. I suppose I should have taught you more about mates. I’m sorry. But what does that have to do with me? Both of my mates are dead.”

“I-sorta-used-my-magic-to-find-your-fated-mates-to-heal-you,” I rush out, my words running together.

“I have more fated mates?” Luc gasps. “But, how ? And even if I do, the mate magic wouldn’t be able to heal me unless we were mated…” His eyes widen and I realize what he’s saying at the same time he does.

I didn’t find his mate. I just found out he has more mates and sealed the mate bond without him even knowing who his mate is! Oh shit .

Looking down, Luc pulls his shirt away and stares at his chest.

“Is that… Is that a mate mark?” I stammer.

“Yes, Neptis , it is.” Centered on his chest is a design of lines and swirls that look super similar to a compass on an old map. The edges of each quadrant are slightly more defined than the other lines and where there would be letters denoting direction on a real compass his has strange symbols instead. “I have four more mates?”

“Congratulations?” I grimace. I don’t know if this is good news or not, but it is a hundred percent my fault. Luc just looks stunned though, not angry, so I guess it’s not bad .

“Looks like I’m not the only one to find a mate today,” he grins as he looks at Snow and Fireball.

Looking at the two hounds, I see they have matching marks on their foreheads that definitely weren’t there a minute ago.

“Snow was laying on you when I sent my magic into you to find your mates. It must have seeped into her too. That’s so sweet. They’re adorable together, aren’t they?”

“That they are, my dear.”

“So you're not mad?” I ask watching Luc study the strange symbols of his mark tracing them with his fingers.

“Mad? No. Confused and more than a little overwhelmed? Definitely.” He sighs before digging into his pocket and procuring a very human looking wallet and pulling out a business card holding it up next to his chest. “Do these two symbols look the same to you? I think they're the same.”

“Yeah, Avus I think they are, why?” My confusion doesn't stop his rambling.

“And this one it looks like… I mean the bond even feels like… But it can't be, can it?” By this point he’s up off the floor of his closet and rummaging around in a random drawer. “I need time Neptis , I know I've been unreachable but I'm back now, thanks to you, and I just need time to understand and process.”

I don't really want to leave him after just getting him back but new mates is a lot for anyone to process, let alone ones you've never met before.

Hell's sake I’ve made a mess .

“That's fine Avus , I have to check on the castle, and mom, you get some rest and tomorrow we can figure everything out.”

Gathering my men who still stand around mouths gaping and leaving Fireball behind to get to know his new mate, I pop us outside Mom's door, hopefully she’s fine now too.