Evelyn, Kate, Mochi and Albert found themselves on the benches of the little pza beside the waterfall above Dis.

  “Welcome to Hell, the city of Dis to be precise.” Kate gestured over the railing behind herself.

  Albert got up to look where Kate had just pointed. “This is Hell?”

  “Yes, this is Hell.”

  “I see why you two would want to move here.”

  “It is beautiful. I hope you can trust me when I say that the other demons, those who are far older than me, are incredibly kind people. Evelyn was welcomed with open arms. Usually, humans aren’t allowed to live here but when she didn’t feel safe in her own home anymore, she got my provisional one. That one over there.” Kate pointed across the Acheron. “Everyone here accepted her, over the st year she became just another citizen of Dis.”

  “I have so many more questions than before.”

  “I can’t answer every question, some things are secret, but I will do my best. That’s what I’m here for. But I also want to quickly teleport to my parents’ home to wish them a happy new year. So, unless you want to stay on this lovely ptform up here for a while or walk to Evelyn’s home on foot, I can teleport you where you want to go right now. Otherwise, Evelyn can shoot me a text and I will be there within a few minutes to taxi you wherever you need to go.”

  “Eve?”

  Evelyn pondered for a second. “Let’s walk to my home. I want you to see how I live here.”

  Albert nodded. “Then we do that and you tell me all about your new home and friends on the way.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Kate nodded as well. “Alright then. If you need to get back home without me, Evelyn knows who to ask. If anything else happens, just ask any demon you come across. Everyone here will help you. I’ll see you two ter.”

  “See you ter, Kate. And thank you for showing me this.” Albert smiled warmly.

  “My pleasure.”

  Evelyn waved. “See you.”

  Kate arrived in the cold winds of the slightly snowy garden around her parents’ mansion. She didn’t even need to ring the doorbell for Lizzy to open the massive wooden doors and pull Kate inside.

  “You absolutely nut, why wouldn’t you teleport into the house?”

  “Good to see you too, Lizzy.”

  “Wonderful to see you. Let’s warm you up, shall we? I just made more tea.”

  “Busy tonight, aren’t we?”

  “Not really, just making sure we have it cosy in here. It is horrible outside.”

  Kate smiled and nodded. “That it is but also quite pretty.”

  “Oh absolutely. Come, Amelia and Mike are waiting.”

  Hugs were shared all around as Kate and Lizzy entered the living room.

  “Kate! I thought you were celebrating at the library?”

  “Mum, I can teleport and I wanted to at least have a little toast with you all.”

  “I hope you can settle for tea, we kind of emptied the champagne a while ago and I didn’t buy a third bottle.” Just a cursory gnce at everyone’s minds confirmed that most of the previous two bottles, besides the one gss Lizzy took, ended up with the two humans in the room.

  “The alcohol isn’t necessary, it’s the thought that’s important.”

  Mike handed his daughter a cup of tea. “It’s good to see you anyway.”

  “And It’s good to be here. I might need to hop out to py teleport taxi for Evelyn ter, but I think she will be busy for a while. Until then, let’s have a nice night.”

  “Yes, let’s.”

  Everyone clinked their cups together. “Happy new year!”

  It didn’t take long for the family to get comfortable in front of the firepce. These days the Crowley parents counted Lizzy as their daughter too, often joking about their two demon daughters. Most of their acquaintances and other retives found that quite amusing too, entirely without knowing how true Amelia’s jokes were.

  “So, mum, Evelyn actually got turned today too.”

  “Really? I knew she wanted to be a demon. I almost expected her to be one already.”

  “She wanted to wait until tonight. She’s actually with her dad right now, talking him through all this.”

  “You should give him our numbers, just in case he wants to talk. Accepting you both was easy enough, but it was still damn strange. Least I can do is offer him an open ear and maybe a little help.”

  “That’s very kind of you and I already told him that he just has to ask. He even seemed quite happy with that offer.”

  “Let’s see if he takes it. What about you though, you happy currently?” Amelia poured herself some more tea.

  “Life is good. I actually stumbled into some ancient mystery stuff but that is something I might tell you about once we have unravelled everything. There are some parts that you aren’t allowed to know. Stuff about demon involvement with ancient humans that is dangerous knowledge.”

  “I see. Well, whatever you can tell us some day will be good enough.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more…”

  “It’s alright.”

  “There is a thing I thought about though. There was some talk about holidays in Hell that I almost completely missed, but I wanted to look into all that ter. Maybe there are some that you can come by my pce for and we can celebrate together.”

  “That would be lovely. Getting a chance to spend more time in Hell is always good and getting to see some more of demon culture would be incredible.”

  “I’ll see what there is to celebrate and how. Even if there isn’t anything good soon, I am sure we can arrange something for you to come visit anyway. I mean, technically I can just take you there, Polly and Sariel insisted that it’s my choice who I take into Hell and when. Had an entire discussion about that on my st birthday. But it still feels wrong to just take you there without asking someone.”

  “Yea, I get that. I think I would feel the same in your position.”

  “I’m still getting used to making executive decisions like that. Allowing Evelyn’s dad into Hell so he can see that it isn’t a bad pce, allowing two angels to fall and become demons… some decisions just feel absolutely right but there are still some mundane things that cause me to doubt myself.”

  “Falling angels? That sounds like a story I would like to hear.”

  Kate smiled warmly. “Apparently angels and demons are simir enough that when you anchor the soul to the respective other realm, angels can turn into demons and, before immortality, I assume demons could become angels. Today this is a one-way thing. Anyway, I met this one angel before, when we freed Lilith. That one and an angel from higher up their hierarchy came to the library to surrender to us and fall. I gave the okay for all that. There were more than enough other demons, justiciars, Eisheth and ter Polly, Sariel and Athena, who could have denied the angels’ transformation, but no one did. So, Kokabiel and Tariel are two happy demons now. It was remarkably quick and unceremonious.”

  “I see. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember Sariel also being a fallen angel, right?”

  “Yes, she fell like two thousand years ago.”

  “She was a bit intimidating but quite awesome. Let’s hope your two new friends find their home like you did. And like Sariel did.”

  “The two new ones aren’t really like her. Still, I am certain they will find their home in Hell. I actually asked them specifically not to do what Sariel did for a long time and dedicate all their time to serving others. They need to find their own lives and who they want to be. Maybe they can do so quicker than Sariel did. She only started letting herself have some free time and hobbies quite recently.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. Are the heavens that bad?”

  “From what I have heard, yes. At least in some parts, the parts that we deal with. I don’t know much though.”

  “Oh dear. At least now they have friends and maybe even a found family.”

  “I have no doubt about that. Totally different topic, sorry, but you and dad always went on vacation over the winter holidays. Why stay here this year?”

  Amelia shrugged. “It just felt right. I guess it took a long time to sink in, but this is where we want to be. All those vacations and travelling around the world were fun, sure, but we also did that for work. Last year we started adding a few days to every work trip for some sightseeing and whatever local stuff we could do. Doing that and watching you settle down somewhere amazing, not to mention Lizzy choosing to remain here for us, made us realize that we were travelling mostly out of habit. We always went away for the holidays, so we kept doing that. Not anymore. This is our home and we will spend the special days of the year here, where we belong.”

  “I… didn’t expect such a deep answer, honestly.”

  Kate’s mother chuckled. “You can read minds, don’t tell me you had no idea.”

  “Genuinely, no, I had no idea. Lizzy is so bouncy these days that I can barely hear your and dad’s thoughts at all. I would have needed to prod deeper anyway for that. I don’t make a habit of doing that casually.”

  “Fair enough. And here I was getting used to the idea that you can just pluck things from my mind. Strange how it starts to feel normal. How all of it has become sort of normal. Yea, my daughters are demons. That’s just a thing. When I feel bad, Lizzy hugs me and then storms off to fetch whatever instantly makes me feel better. It’s amazing.”

  “But isn’t that scary? Knowing that nothing is secret when I’m around?”

  “Not really. I mean, I have always trusted you and there is even a small positive. That entire ordeal with Prudence’s death and Walter showed me that it’s a good sign that you choose to be around me every so often. You told me about many humans being so very negative internally and I make an effort to be a positive person. And it helps me too, things feel nicer. I want to believe that you spending time here is confirmation of all that working.”

  Kate sighed and smiled. “I don’t know what about that one visit to Hell made you overthink your life but yes, it is working. You have become a good mum.”

  “That’s all I ever wanted to hear in my life. Thank you, Kate.”

  “It’s the truth. And dad, you’re a good dad too.”

  Kate’s dad didn’t answer as he had just stuffed an entire cookie into his face but gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up.