Inferno Diva's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Inferno Diva finished her last song and walked off the stage still wearing the crowd's heat like a coat. The dressing room mirror threw back a face painted for worship, but her hands shook against the counter. She wanted the infernal throne. She had wanted it since the night she burned her handlers alive and walked out of the ritual circle wearing their souls like jewelry. Every demon lord below thought her a stage act, a succubus with a good voice and a bad temper. She planned to unseat one of them by the next dark moon. The problem sat in front of her, plain as the red bulb above the mirror. She did not know which lord was bleeding. Strike the wrong one and the courts would grind her into ash before the encore. She needed a name, and she needed it from someone who traded in names for a living. Velvet Mirage arrived without knocking, the way she always did, and closed the door behind her with one finger. She sat on the couch, crossed her legs, and waited until Inferno Diva turned around. "Relax. I already know why you came looking." Inferno Diva did not sit. "I need a weak lord. A real one. Not a rumor." Velvet studied her nails. "There is a viscount downstairs whose consorts have been walking out for a month. His court has stopped paying tribute. He drinks alone on the seventh night. That is the one you want." She paused. "I will trade you the name and the hour of his weakest guard." Inferno Diva's mouth went dry. "For what." Velvet finally looked up, and her smile was patient. "A favor. Unspecified. Called in when I choose." Inferno Diva thought about the throne, about the century she had spent training her voice to break stronger men than a bored viscount. She thought about what it meant to owe Velvet Mirage anything at all. Then she held out her hand. Velvet took it, and spoke the name into her palm like a kiss. The room felt colder after. Inferno Diva now had her target, her window, and a debt written in someone else's ink. She began pulling pins from her hair. The viscount drank alone in six nights. She had that long to decide what a favor to Velvet Mirage would cost her when the bill came due.