Lucifer Reborn by Dante King (ebook reader play store .txt) 📕

a smirk that was more smug than I felt. “I figured I just had to reach out and take it.”

Lilith’s face formed a little ‘o’ of surprise. Then she grinned, quite unexpectedly, and took such a deep sip of her coffee that the mug was nearly empty when she was done.

“That’s the kind of attitude I like to see,” the Headmistress said after she’d swallowed. She’d gone back to sex kitten mode like I’d flipped a switch somewhere inside of her.

She changes moods like Christina puts on clothes, I realized. I need to be really careful around this woman.

“The Academy,” I said, pouring Lilith a new cup of coffee as soon as she put down her mug. She gave me a surprised look, startled by my gallantry. “I believe you were going to go over some of the more boring points of our orientation?”

Lilith wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Two very cute horns sprang from either side of her head, a deep spiral groove cut into each almost like a drill. “Of course,” she said, smiling through her awkwardness. “I allowed myself to get a little carried away—my apologies. You need the basics.”

Both Christina and I leaned forward.

“Classes run year round,” Lilith explained, dropping into a didactic tone I would soon come to recognize. This was the way a demon or demoness sounded when they were giving a lecture—the kind they didn’t have much personal excitement about or stake in. Later on, I’d learn to avoid the instructors who sounded like it too much of the time. “You’ll have them six days a week, all save for Sinday—which would be Sunday to those of you used to Earth. We do the Sabbath a little bit different around here—like our coffee, it’s distinctly black.”

“Sounds like a heavy course load,” I said, rubbing my hands together. It would be a lot, of that I was sure, but I was ready. Christina, too.

“Not that we don’t have breaks and holidays, of course,” Lilith added with a wave of her hand. “The year is filled with celebratory events, most of which you’ll learn by heart. A calendar of events is published in the student commons, and you’ll be able to access it via your subspace as well, once you link that up to the Academy. Assuming you’ve learned how to access your subspace, that is.”

“I have,” I told her. Now it was my turn to kick Christina. The last thing Lilith needed to hear was that I’d had a threesome in mine the first time I opened my subspace—or that there was a live human hanging out there at this very moment. Not for the first time, I wondered how Maddie was doing.

“No problems there, then,” Lilith agreed with a smirk. “We don’t follow the calendar of the Saints, obviously, but we have our own pantheon of champions and superstars to compensate. You might be surprised at a few of the names you see when you get the full list…”

“I’m so excited,” Christina murmured. She turned to me, a big smile on her face, her wings flapping eagerly over her shoulders. “Thank you so much for bringing me here, Luke. This is everything I could have ever dreamed of and more…”

“Hey,” I told her, putting a hand on her thigh. “You’ve earned this.”

With a start, I realized I believed it. Any bitterness I’d felt toward Christina back in her human form had well and truly faded. Melted away in the hot, tight warmth of her luscious body. I didn’t even really think of her as a human anymore—this was my demon girl sitting next to me, my ride-or-die chick. We were a team, and that team was going to start getting a lot larger soon.

“So cute,” Lilith said—though, did I detect a trace of bitterness in that tone? “Now, we don’t have a lot of rules at the Infernal Academy. We leave strictness and austerity to those pious fools far up above.”

In a flash, the room was bathed in a holy, golden light. Two angels stood behind Lilith, each trying their damndest to tug her backwards, away from Christina and me. Although they worked with all their might, their muscles straining, the demoness remained calmly sitting in her chair, completely oblivious. What the Hell?

It only lasted a moment—like that strange vision I’d had while driving around Christina’s neighborhood, it quickly faded. Lilith gave me a strange look, her flawlessly plucked eyebrows rubbing together across her forehead as she tried to figure me out.

“The angels,” I said, thinking of the strange decision the Morningstar Program presented me with. What would have happened if I’d selected the Angel of Light, really?

“Just so,” Lilith hissed. “You can break quite a few of the so-called ‘rules’ down here, as you two learned in the Lust wing. But one you must follow is attendance. You’re expected to show up promptly to all of your lessons, and remain in class throughout your term. I know it’s very tempting to play hooky, or sneak out midway through a lesson for a tryst with this or that demon. You might think that such rules are flexible, the same way we treat the restrictions around fraternization, partying, and visiting the Fae realm. That’s why I’m here to tell you: it’s not. Tardiness and absences will dramatically affect your grades, and throw a wrench in your quest to become Archlord.”

I nodded. “I understand,” I told Lilith. There’s that word again, I thought, squinting. The Fae Realm. Xora told me one of the people working here was a transfer student from there. “Can I ask a question?”

Lilith trailed off, bewildered by my request. “I suppose,” she said, giving me a put-upon look.

“I know that this is the Infernal Realm,”I said,