Page 16 of Claiming Chaos
“It goes right.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Ember tore the page from the pad and tossed it in the trash. “If neither of you remembers exactly, we’re screwed. We’ll have to get another copy of them.”
I leaned against the counter. “Prince of Hell sigils won’t be easy to find. If they were, Chrys would have them by now.”
“If anyone can locate them, it’s you.” She returned the pencil to the drawer.
“Say you do find them,” Shade said. “Then what? We still don’t have the skull.”
Chaos leaned against the counter next to me, and I fought the urge to scoot away. I was still miffed at him for the way he acted this morning, and miffed was good. It was better than the alternative, anyway.
What if you fall in love with him? No, no, no.
“One step at a time.” I paced to the opposite end of the kitchen. “Chrys is looking for the sigils. We need to find them first, and then we can work on locating her and the skull.”
“How will we find them first?” Miles asked. “She’s probably been searching the witchy web since she figured out who Chaos is. That’s a big head start.”
“Chrys is just an earth witch.” Ember wrapped her arm around me, giving me a side hug. “We’ve got a librarian on our team. Ash can find anything.”
Finally a task I was confident I could handle. “Give me an hour. If there’s a copy of those sigils somewhere on this continent, I’ll find it.” I headed for the stairs.
Chaos followed me down to my office, and I huffed, plopping into my squeaky chair. He needed to learn how to read the room. “I don’t need any help.”
He stood next to my desk, his gaze traveling from my eyes to my fists clenched on the surface. “I’ve upset you.”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” I fired up my laptop, hoping to Hecate it still worked after Shade threw it on the floor. The familiar start-up ping sounded, and I let out a breath. Thank you, goddess.
“I assume your question was rhetorical.” He picked up the drawers Chrys had pulled out and returned them to their rightful places in my desk.
Another sarcastic comment rolled through my mind, but it didn’t make it past my lips. We didn’t have time for games. If I wanted to keep this demon on my team, I needed to be straight with him. “You freaked me out up there.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
A hairband sat loose on the edge of my desk, so I grabbed it and tied my hair into a bun. “I know you didn’t, but…” I blew out another breath. “I like you a lot, but my loyalty lies with my coven. Going to Hell with you is not an option, and the fact you even suggested it is a huge red flag.”
He rested his fingertips on my desk. “The suggestion was harmless.”
“No, actually, it wasn’t. I told you ‘no,’ and you implied that my ‘no’ didn’t mean ‘no.’ That’s not cool.”
“I see.” He clasped his hands and said nothing more.
I guess expecting yet another apology from a demon was asking too much. When he didn’t offer one, I pulled up the witchy web and began my search. Looking for the demons’ names didn’t help. Chaos, Mayhem, and Discord were normal words, and all I got were definitions and listings for the Discord social media site. I tried prince of hell,demon prince sigil, and a few similar search times, but those gave me paranormal romance novels written by witches. Believe it or not, only a handful of magical authors wrote stories about magic. Most paranormal romance writers were human. Go figure.
“Does your Higher Power not monitor searches like this?” Chaos leaned down, resting one hand on the back of my chair and the other on the desk. “Will you and your coven not be investigated for looking up demons?”
“I use an encrypted browser, and there isn’t enough magic in the world for them to constantly spy on every coven’s activity. We’re fine.” I swiveled my chair, and he straightened, stepping back. Maybe a reverse image search would bring better luck. I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo of the mark on my arm before uploading it to my laptop.
Twenty minutes later, I’d found nothing. I slumped in my chair while Chaos returned the books Shade had knocked down to the shelves. “You don’t have to do that,” I said. “When this is all through, I’m going to reorganize the whole library.”
He put another book on the shelf. “The disarray bothers you, and this part of it was my fault.”
I pursed my lips. How could he be such a brute and then turn around and do something thoughtful? So annoying. “Thank you. I’ve exhausted the witchy web. Either we had the only copy of those sigils, or whatever book they might be in isn’t listed.”
He placed another volume on the shelf. “Was your dark grimoire listed?”
I dropped my head back on the chair. “No. Any coven who understands how powerful you are would hide it. Damn.” I should have realized that before I even tried.
“If you can’t find a copy, I doubt Chrys can either.” He sat on the edge of my desk. “We should kill her.”