Lucifer Reborn by Dante King (the reader ebook .TXT) 📗

demon’s strength and speed in the field—a good knowledge of Gluttony can mean the difference between success and failure on an important mission for the Lords of Hell.”

I could read between the lines. As a potential Lord of Hell myself, it would do me in good standing to understand as much of this as I could. “Good to know,” I said.

By my side, Christina looked just as excited as I was. “Look at those ovens! Those things could fit Hansel, Gretel, and the witch too, huh?”

Xora beamed with pride. “Everything at the Infernal Academy is top notch. Oh, here comes one of your potential instructors now. Ceelz, want to say hi?”

It was the demoness wearing the chef’s outfit—the one who’d shrugged off the pupil’s failure with the apple. Her suit was caked in what I first assumed was some kind of dust, but as she brushed it off her shoulders, I realized it was flour.

“Welcome, new students!” She flashed a toothy smile. Her canines were the size of my index finger, curved like the tusks of a boar. She towered over Christina, Mareth, and I, a good head taller than everyone else in the Gluttony wing. Her uniform fit her like a glove, doing little to hide the sleek muscle of her arms and legs. This woman took care of herself—she was like a sexy orc. The green skin and amber eyes only heightened the comparison.

“Students, this is Ceelz, a Professor of Demonic Cuisine. Ceelz, this is Christina and Luke. Mareth’s been assigned as their shadow at the Infernal Academy.”

Her gaze lingered for a few moments on Christina, then spent significantly longer on me. “You’re him,” she said, tapping a finger against the tip of her chin. “The new Archlord candidate, right?”

I wasn’t used to such frank treatment—even from demons. This woman had just sized me up like she wanted to eat me, although since she worked with food all day, maybe she was just hungry. She was gorgeous, sure, but more than a little bit intimidating, too.

“Luke,” I said, taking her hand in much the same way I’d done to Xora when we first met. “I—”

My hand was no longer holding hers like an old-time gentleman. She had my palm inside of hers, and squeezed like the two of us were about to start an arm-wrestling competition. Xora’s eyes went huge as she watched the tall demon give me the firmest handshake of my life. Pain flared in my bones, my eyes watering as I struggled not to let it show. Ceelz grinned savagely, as if she’d just proven something to herself.

Then something snapped inside of me, and I squeezed back. Surprise showed on Ceelz’s face as I met her grip with my own, shaking her hand back vigorously. “Nice to meet you,” I said, tucking my hand behind my back as soon as the greeting was done. I hesitated to look down, fearing I’d see nothing but mangled fingers.

Ceelz grinned. “That’s some serious power,” she said, looking at me with new eyes. She indicated Christina. “Is she your follower?”

“We’re attending the Academy together,” I said, not willing to say any more. It didn’t do to blab everything to every willing ear that came by—one of the things I’d learned in life through painful trial and error was to keep my cards close to my chest. “Maybe we’ll all end up in the same class together.”

“Yeah, I doubt that,” Ceelz said, the smile staying plastered to her face. “I bet you’re hungry after using your demonic ability like that. I’d be happy to show you some of my cooking skills some time. Working here full-time, you get used to having a hell of an appetite…”

I could have laughed. Two minutes together, and this woman had already propositioned me? Or was her offer of food more innocent than it seemed?

Xora leaned over, dropping her voice to a stage whisper. “She is not joking,” the rusalka muttered in her accent. “The woman can eat a ton. Were it not for duplication spells, demons like her would eat the rest of us out of the Academy…”

Huh. She certainly didn’t look it, from the muscles. I thought about those super-ripped people who won hot-dog eating competitions: champion eaters. Or Olympic athletes who put down thousands of calories in a single meal from all they burned off swimming or running. Ceelz looked like she could’ve been one of those kinds of girls, for sure. Real athletic.

“Good to see new blood,” Ceelz told Xora. She nodded back at a group of students trying to balance a cornucopia between them, pouring various smoky chemicals into the horn. “I’ve got to go. They’re about to cause another incident…”

“Sure thing,” Xora said, but the tall, green-skinned demoness had already moved past us. Ceelz grabbed the horn right before it tipped, some of the liquid splashing on the floor. It seethed across the tiles like water splashed on a hot grill, leaving scorch marks everywhere. “Great. The janitor’s gonna have a field day with that…”

My stomach gave another one of those bone-deep rumbles. I’d just used my powers shaking Ceelz’s hand, and it turned out matching the strength of a tough woman like that drained my demonic energy considerably. More than even redecorating Maddie’s rooms had…

A worrying thought occurred to me. “Hey, Mareth?”

The succubus had been conferring with Xora in low tones a few steps away—I figured they were discussing which wing to send us to next. She glanced up, her face brightening. “Yeah?”

“The subspace,” I said, picturing the living room I’d built with its roaring fireplace. “If I start running low on demonic energy, nothing bad happens to it, right? Like, it stays up even if I’m tapped dry?” My voice picked up a nervous energy the more I spoke. “I’ve got a live human in there right now. I’d hate for anything to happen