LITMIR.BIZ

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demon trying to lie to us?” Dez snorted as a cold breeze stirred his hair. “Such a surprise.”

      Mischief, the kind that would bring down entire cities, flared in Roth’s eyes. He opened his mouth, but I stepped forward. “How is this possible? You—we know that it’s not.”

      Roth kept his gaze trained on Zayne. “It is.”

      “How do you know?” I demanded.

      A Warden snorted and muttered, “Can’t wait to hear this story.”

      His lips curled up on one side. “As all of you should know, if you’ve read your ‘when the shit hits the fan’ manual, there are four chains securing Lilith in Hell.”

      I nodded. I knew that Lilith, my estranged mother, was chained in Hell, but didn’t see how that had anything to do with this.

      “Two of the chains broke when Paimon tried to perform the ritual, leaving only two chains secured,” he continued. “A third—”

      “Wait.” Abbot raised a hand. “How exactly did two chains break? Paimon was stopped and Layla’s innocence—the key to the ritual—remains in place. So this cannot be true.”

      Oh my God...

      The whole innocence thing again. I bit back a groan as I folded my hand around my necklace. For the Lilin-raising ritual to have been completed, several things had to have taken place. The blood of Lilith had to have been spilled and that had come from the ring I still wore around my neck. My blood had to have been drawn and that also had happened, but the last two were the biggies.

      I’d had to have taken a soul and would have had to have lost my innocence, like in the biblical sense. Only Zayne and Roth knew I’d taken a soul and Abbot could never know or he’d put me down. The other part? I was still a virgin, so it couldn’t—

      “Paimon had the blood parts down,” Roth said, following my train of thought. He didn’t look at me as he spoke, but there was a razor-sharp edge to his words. Knots formed in my belly. “She was cut. I saw it.”

      How in the world he’d seen the tiny prick during the fight was beyond me. “Yes. Paimon drew my blood and it spilled, but...” That night came back to me in a rush. After Roth and Paimon had been trapped and sent to the fiery pits, the floor had been scorched where they’d stood and there’d been a hole in the ground, right where I’d been tied down.

      Abbot’s brows slammed together. He opened his mouth and then turned a piercing stare on me. I shrank back from the accusation in his glare. Did he know about Petr? That I’d taken the Warden’s soul in self-defense? I could already feel the noose circling my neck. Zayne shifted closer to me, and the air leaked out of my lungs.

      “Your innocence,” Abbot said in a low, deceptively calm voice. “You claimed that you were still innocent, Layla.”

      Claimed? “I didn’t lie to you.”

      “Then how did the chains break?” he demanded.

      “Now he believes us,” Cayman said, shaking his head. “How quickly he doubts Layla.”

      Even though that accurate observation stung, I ignored the infernal ruler as my gaze tracked over the demons and Wardens. Nicolai looked away when my gaze met his. Dez and Maddox stared at me with a look of dawning understanding. I couldn’t even look at Zayne to see if he was also jumping to conclusions.

      The only good thing I could see right now was that no one assumed I’d taken a soul. Instead, they believed I dropped my undies. My lips pursed. I was torn between denying what they were assuming, thereby revealing what I’d actually done, and keeping my mouth shut.

      Zayne let out a deep breath. “Layla told us that she’s...well, you know what she said. We have no reason to doubt her, but we have every reason not to trust them.”

      The relief that coursed through me was short-lived when Roth arched a graceful brow. “Considering I threw your ass out of that trap and took your place, I’d think you’d have a tad bit more faith in me.”

      I closed my eyes. This conversation was about to go downhill fast.

      “And I thank you for that,” Zayne responded in clipped tones. “But that doesn’t change what you are or the fact that Layla is still—”

      Heat swamped my cheeks. “Okay. Stop. All of you. This gossipfest about my virginity is not something I want to continue.”

      “You and me both,” muttered Dez.

      “But I was still rocking a hymen the last time I checked, which means I’m a virgin.” My hands formed ineffective fists when Roth’s brows climbed up his forehead. “So can we not talk about this anymore?”

      “Then if what you’re saying is true, the demon is lying,” Abbot spat.

      “The demon?” Roth scoffed. “That’s ‘Your Highness’ to you.”

      “Okay.” Cayman glided forward, raising his hands in mock surrender as the Wardens bared fangs in warning. “Nobody is lying—not our Crown Prince or our wittle, precious, virginal Layla.”

      I shot him a dirty look.

      He grinned. “As always, the text in which the ritual was written does not go into detail explaining how or what it takes for Layla to lose her innocence.”

      “I wish you would stop saying that,” I muttered, rubbing my brow. I was starting to get a headache. “It’s not like you can just ‘lose’ your innocence or accidentally misplace it somewhere and forget about it.”

      Abbot’s eyes narrowed.

      “Good point.” Cayman shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he rocked back on the heels of his boots, and by the glee in his expression, I had this horrible feeling that I’d just talked my way into a corner. “The loss of innocence refers to carnal sin and it’s not like you have to do the deed to experience the pleasure of sin. Correct?”

      Blood drained from my face as my mouth dropped open. Oh, I had experienced pleasure with Roth. That blood rushed right back to my face as the hours before we’d gone for the Lesser Key played out in my thoughts. Roth and I...we hadn’t done it, but we’d done other things. Well, he’d done things with his hand that I had only—oh God, I really needed to stop thinking about that right now.

      Roth’s impossibly long lashes lowered as what Cayman had said sank into the minds and imaginations of all those present. One by one, they looked at me like...like I’d murdered a nursery of babies and then bathed gleefully in their blood.

      “What?” I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the next. I glanced at Zayne. A muscle throbbed along his jaw.

      Cayman dipped his chin. “In other words, all she needed to do was have an orgasm.”

      “Oh my God,” I moaned, smacking my hands over my burning face. I’d rather be back in the alley, about to be sliced and diced by the Warden, than where I was.

      “And most likely not by herself,” Cayman added. “Besides, that is the only explanation.”

       Someone kill me now.

      Zayne swore under his breath and I thought I heard the word whore muttered from someone in the peanut gallery behind me, but I couldn’t be sure because no one reacted to the low murmur. It didn’t take a genius for anyone to figure out whom I’d experienced “the pleasure of sin” with. Wasn’t like I had a lot of options considering the whole “getting too close to anyone with a soul” thing.

      “Well...” Roth drew the word out. “This is awkward.”

      I slowly lowered my hands. “You think?”

      He didn’t look at me. “So now that we have this covered—”

      “But what about the taking of the soul?” Nicolai demanded.

      Hair

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