Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7)

by Emily Goodwin

  “Must be somewhere fancy.”

  “It is. He made a reservation somewhere in Chicago but won’t tell me where. It’s a surprise.”

  “Are you celebrating something?” Danielle asks. She’s sifting through a pile of books, sorting them by genre.

  “Making it through another month alive,” I say without thinking.

  Danielle laughs and then looks at me seriously. “You’re not joking, are you?”

  I shrug. “Not really, but we should all celebrate the fact that we’ve lived to see another day.”

  “I like that outlook.” Betty puts the paper hearts down and gets more of our Valentine’s Day decorations out. Both Betty and Danielle know I’m a witch, and they’re both cool with it—now. After saving Danielle from a demon harvesting organs, she had a lot of questions that I avoided answering due to lack of time, which led her to have her suspicions. “And I need a boyfriend to go out to dinner with. I want to wear fancy dresses and go to fancy restaurants.”

  “You don’t need a boyfriend to do any of that,” I tell her.

  “True, but having someone pay for said fancy dinner would be nice,” she adds with a laugh. “Ugh, why are boys so much better in books?”

  “Date a vampire,” I say with a wink. “The sex is at least as good as book-sex.”

  “I went down a rabbit hole on Reddit the other night,” Betty starts. “It was a whole thread about people’s experiences in the bedroom with vampires. I’m not sure I can handle that level of aggression.”

  “Aggression?”

  “Like…borderline BDSM.”

  “Oh.” I make a face. “Are you sure you weren’t on a thread about fetching?”

  Betty laughs. “I might have been. It was interesting, to say the least.” Her cheeks flush a bit, and it reminds me how much Betty has come out of her shell in the recent months. “I think this is all the Valentine’s Day stuff.” She motions to two boxes on the ground. “This was with our summer stuff, for some reason.” She puts the strings of paper hearts on top of one of the boxes. “I think we have enough for our display.”

  “I ordered more of those puffy paper things.” I hold my hands up like I’m holding a ball. “I don’t know what they’re called.”

  “I think I know what you mean.” Betty stacks the boxes and tries to pick them both up.

  “I got it,” I say and grab one. We take them up front so we can lay out what we need for the window. “The house is still good?” I ask, setting the box down.

  “Yeah. It’s so nice having a place of my own again!”

  I put my hands on my hips and step back, looking at the window to try and get an idea of exactly how to set things up. Betty eyes my stomach again, which is more prominent the way I’m standing. I’m not keeping my pregnancy a secret, and I know I’ll quickly come to a point where it’ll be obvious by looking at me. I still haven’t figured out what to tell people, since I’m married to a vampire.

  We decided to go to a sperm bank, and Lucas used a turkey baster to inseminate me?

  “What have you been up to?” Betty asks, dropping to her knees to start taking things out of the boxes. “I don’t mean to creep, but I do see you drive up and down the road occasionally.”

  “We’re pretty much the only people who regularly use that road. And nothing much.” Other than obsessing over the fact that I’m Hell’s royalty and basically a ticking time bomb that will go off and alert my aunts and uncles. “It’s cold, and I don’t want to go outside, so we’ve been home a lot. We’re a boring married couple already.”

  “You haven’t killed any…any…” She looks around, making sure we’re out of earshot of anyone. “Demons?”

  “Oh, yeah, I have. Not a lot, and it’s been pretty quiet since I took care of those pesky ones around the Winter Solstice.”

  Her eyes widen. “Are they always like…like walking around the town?”

  “No, not always. And when there are, I handle it.”

  “The woods behind the house kind of creeps me out,” she admits. “But I feel really safe once I’m inside.”

  “I left the warding up around the house. They never failed me.”

  Betty smiles. “That’s so cool. Do they, uh, fade away?”

  “Yes, and if you want, I can come over and recast the circle. You probably have another month or so left before they weaken.”

  “Can I…can I watch you cast it?”

  “Sure. It’s not as cool as you’d think, though. There’s no wind blowing back my hair or mysterious glowing lights like there are in movies. I say an incantation and wave my hands around a bit.”

  “That’s so cool.”

  “Yeah,” I say with a smile. “It is. So, what else should we use?” I ask, shifting the attention back to the window display.

  “I’m going to do a balloon arch, and if I can find a few different shades of pink and red balloons, I thought maybe a pink rainbow would be cool. Kristy said she’ll bring a white fuzzy blanket from home tomorrow, so we can put the books on it and try to make them look cuddly, which I know doesn’t make sense, but I swear it will.”

  “I know what you mean. And I see a snuggly blanket and immediately want a book.”

  “Same! Every year for my birthday, my mom gets me books and a blanket.”

  “You can’t go wrong there. Now I want a fuzzy blanket to snuggle up in. It’s so cold today I almost told Lucas to cancel dinner plans so we wouldn’t have to walk outside at all.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you. It’s a takeout by the fire night for me.”

  “That sounds wonderful. I love the natural heat of a fire, and that living room heats up fast when you have a good fire going.”

  “It does and I love it! I might have slept on the couch all week.”

  “I used to do that, too,” I say and then yawn.

  “There’s coffee in the back.” Betty pulls out another package of balloons. “I just made it maybe five minutes before you came in. I got the grounds from Curlew Café.”

  “They have the best coffee.”

  “They do! And you convinced me to start taking my coffee black. I’ve been weaning myself off creamer for the last month. It was one of my New Year’s resolutions, which is ridiculous, I know.”

  “It’s a good resolution. If the coffee is good, you won’t need creamer. Want me to get you a cup? I’m gonna need a refill myself soon. I got an early copy of TL Smith’s latest romance and was up all night reading it. It was so good, but my heart still hurts!”

  “Lucky! And no thanks.”

  “You sure? It’s no problem at all,” she says, no doubt remembering how I used to survive on only coffee. A warm cup of black coffee from Curlew sounds good right now, but I’m already at my caffeine limit for the day.

  “No, it’s fine.”

  “Okay.” She smiles, and we go back to taking things out of the box, sorting out what we want to use and putting back what we’re not. Kristy helps us in between customers, and we have a pretty good layout going, minus just a few things we need to bring and order.

  I’ve been on my feet for a while, and wearing my favorite heeled boots was probably a mistake. My back is starting to hurt from standing in heels, and I lean back to try and relieve the pressure. I feel a slight fluttering in my stomach, which I felt for the first time yesterday, and freeze, hand going to my belly. Is that gas? Or am I actually able to feel the baby moving?

  Betty emerges from a row of shelves, holding her second cup of coffee, and stops short, looking at me with my hand on my stomach. Oops. Though, really…why keep this from her any longer, or from anyone for that matter? I gotta explain how I ended up with a child somehow.

  “Yes,” I tell her.

  “Yes what?”

  “To what you’re wondering. I’m pregnant.” Coming out and saying things bluntly has been a game changer for me. Just say what you’ve got to say, ripping it off like a Band-Aid. Let those words out and be done with it instead of dancing around the truth.

&
nbsp; “What?” She almost chokes on her coffee.

  “This isn’t a food baby.” I pat my stomach. “It’s a baby-baby.”

  “I wondered but didn’t want to say anything. You’re always so skinny, and you still are other than a little bump.” Betty looks at my stomach, smiling. Then she flicks her eyes back to mine, and her face goes slack. “How? Lucas is—you didn’t—no, it’s not possible.”

  “Lucas is the father, and trust me, I know how crazy that sounds.”

  “I thought vampires couldn’t reproduce. Sorry, that makes it sound like I’m talking about an animal. I meant everything I’ve heard says they can’t get someone pregnant and female vampires cannot get pregnant.”

  “They can’t. Vampires are dead, and dead people don’t have babies.”

  “I’m so confused.”

  “I still am,” I say, shaking my head. “Back in September, Lucas was cursed, and the curse made him start coming back to life, but only so he would die. I was able to lift the curse, but before that, he was human enough to knock me up.”

  “Holy shit.” Betty blinks a few times. “Holy. Shit.”

  “Hah, you’re telling me. It’s the last thing we thought would happen, and it was quite the surprise, trust me.”

  “I bet. You look great, though! And—wait, September? That was so long ago.”

  “It feels like it. I’m eighteen weeks along.”

  “Holy shit!” she repeats. “You kept this from me for eighteen weeks?” Her hand flies to her mouth. “Or did you just find out?”

  “I found out pretty soon. I had terrible morning sickness pretty much from conception. I still do, but luckily there is a potion for that which works like a charm, pardon my pun.”

  Betty is still staring at me in disbelief. “When are you due?”

  “Mid-June.”

  “Do you know what you’re having or is it too early for that?”

  “We’re pretty sure it’s a girl.”

  “Oh my god.” She slowly shakes her head, smile forming. “Is Lucas excited?”

  “He is so freaking excited. He never thought he’d be able to have a kid in this sense. I mean, Eliza is like his vampire-daughter, but to have an actual baby…it’s fucking insane,” I say with a laugh. A customer comes over, asking for help finding a book.

  “I gotta take off soon,” I tell her as I put the rest of the stuff for the display back in the box. “I’ll see you later? And keep what I told you quiet.”

  “Of course! Congrats, Callie.” She gives a small wave and leads the customer down an aisle. I close up the box and take it behind the register and then go to find Kristy to say bye before taking off. I start my Jeep, wait a minute, and then bundle up and walk out in the freezing air. The sun is starting to sink, and it’s getting colder and colder out.

  Mentally preparing to go out in the cold, I flip up the hood of my jacket and dash outside, careful not to slip in the icy sidewalk. We got a decent snowfall last week that of course mostly melted before the temps plummeted. I’m shivering by the time I get into the driver’s seat, quickly closing the door behind me.

  “Why didn’t I take Lucas up on his offer to go to the vineyard?” I grumble.

  “You still can,” Julian says, appearing next to me. Nearly jumping out of my skin, I turn to face him. “Hello, Callie.”

  Chapter 9

  “Jesus!” I exclaim, still startled.

  “It’s Julian. My name is Julian.”

  “I know. It’s an expression.”

  “To call for Jesus?” He tips his head. “I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t really, either. It’s just something people say.” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose. Why are you here? Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing in particular. I was able to get away without being noticed and wanted to give you an update. And say hello, from both me and your father. He’s been watching from afar but cannot risk coming here again.”

  “I know.” I let out a breath and put my Jeep in reverse to back out of the parking spot. “I missed you.”

  Julian smiles. “I missed you, too.”

  I have no idea what it’s like amongst the other angels, but I get the feeling Julian is a bit of an outcast. It makes sense considering that he’s the only angel other than my father who thinks I should be allowed to live, and to judge me on my actions instead of what I was born.

  “How are things?” I ask.

  “Heaven is on high alert looking for Lucifer.”

  “No one knows where he is?”

  “No,” Julian says. “And I’ve been lurking around the underworld as much as I can without being detected. The demons are growing restless, as suspected.”

  “How long do you think we have until they do something totally reckless?”

  “I’m not sure, though it’s becoming apparent Lucifer does not intend on returning to Hell anytime soon.”

  “Right.” I bite my lip, mind whirling. “Would any of the other archangels go down instead? Put the demons back in line or something?”

  “I do not believe any other archangels would be well-received in Hell unless they claimed the throne and stated themselves as the new ruler of Hell.”

  “Like I did,” I say ruefully, rolling my eyes at myself. “And right. Angels and demons are enemies…but Lucifer is an angel, too. It’s a lot to follow.”

  “For a human, yes,” he says, and I know he’s not meaning it as an insult. “Lucifer took the darkness that was already in Hell when he was cast down there and used it to create most of the demons.”

  “Most of?”

  “Some were there before he was.”

  I take my eyes away from the road for a second to stare at Julian incredulously. “There are demons older than Lucifer?”

  “Yes.”

  I blink as I wait for him to elaborate, but I don’t think he got the hint. “You gotta explain this one to me. Simply, please.”

  “Heaven and Hell were part of creation. Where there’s light, there is darkness. Where there is good, there is bad. Hell was a place created as a punishment, which is why Lucifer was sent there when he was cast out of Heaven.”

  “That makes sense. I just hadn’t thought of it before.” I slow at a stop sign, thankful for my four-wheel drive, though it does little good when the road is icy like this. “So, these old-as-dirt demons, what kind of power are they packing?”

  “A lot. Enough that Lucifer locked them away.”

  “Fuck,” I mumble as a shiver goes down my spine. I’m starting to feel overwhelmed again, and I know I need to stop asking questions. The saying ignorance is bliss is true, but I can’t help myself. “If Lucifer created the demons, why do they want to overthrow him? Don’t they like him?”

  “They respect him, I suppose, but I wouldn’t say they like him. Demons are evil, Callie. That’s all there is to them. They were created from darkness, and darkness is all they are capable of.” Julian twists in his seat. “This is upsetting you, I can tell.”

  “It’s fine,” I shoot back, so used to deflecting any sort of negative feeling and telling everyone I’m fine, as if saying it out loud enough will make it true. “It’s a lot to take in, and honestly, it’s really frustrating that the more I learn, the more questions I have. It’s just…it’s just a lot.”

  “It is,” Julian agrees.

  “And if Lucifer doesn’t return, and another archangel won’t go in and put them back in their place, that leaves me, doesn’t it? I named myself queen. The crown appeared around my head.” I flick my eyes to Julian again. He’s hard to read since his expression is either blank or concerned.

  “Your father won’t let it come to that. Lucifer will return to Hell.”

  “I do believe that,” I say honesty. “Eventually, and what scares me is what’s going to happen in the meantime. Those other demons saw me and heard me. I feel like a ticking time bomb, and sooner or later, they will come for me, and we know it’s not going to be to congratulate me on my new p
osition of power.”

  “Even if you were to go and sit on the throne, it won’t be that simple, Callie.”

  “Of course not, and I don’t expect to waltz into…into…wherever the throne is and expect the demons to bow down and submit. I purposely don’t get into politics, but even I know there has to be some sort of transfer of power, and since we’re talking about demons and Hell, probably a ritual.”

  “Yes. And you would have to pick a court of demons willing to follow you. You have angel blood and can sit on the throne, but remember, demons are evil. You’ll have to prove to them you are a worthy ruler or they won’t accept you.”

  “And I’m guessing that doesn’t mean come up with new and fair policies or promise free healthcare.”

  Julian gives me a blank stare, not following my sarcasm. “Demons do not need healthcare. To earn their respect, you’d have to do something remarkable, like Lucifer when he led a rebellion against his father.”

  “So what you’re saying is, whatever demon trying to claim the throne is going to do something dastardly?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Great. Must be Tuesday.” I shake my head and slowly turn off the main road. The downtown area of Thorne Hill is plowed and the roads are salted, but once you get out of city limits, it’s a toss-up of whether the plow trucks are going to come through or not, and usually, if they do, the snow has been so packed down from being driven over that the roads are pure ice. “And I’m almost afraid to ask,” I start. “But I need to know if anything has been said about Remiel.”

  At the mention of his name, I get a flash of being back in the woods, watching the most terrifying fight that led to my father killing my uncle in order to save my life.

  “Yes. Michael was able to use the story that he went after Bael on his own. Though now others are wondering if Lucifer was the one who opened the rift, letting Bael out on purpose to cause chaos.”

  “Well, shit.”

  “Yes,” Julian agrees. “It has made the search for him all the more dire.”

  “What happens when an archangel dies?” I ask. “Do they go to Heaven, even though that’s where you guys all hang out already, right?”