The Angel's Fall (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 6) by Katherine Sparrow

and now she is hiding out somewhere from my Dad who wants to kill her and eat me?” She giggled.
    “It amuses you?”
    “The opposite. Just, I was so used to having a normal kind of life, and then here comes everything.” She fidgeted and clenched her jaw, clearly fighting her own magical compulsions.
    I breathed deeply as a similar compulsion rose up in me to grab her and take her away. But not yet. Not without Merlin. And not until I’d seen the Queen, and more importantly, the King of Hell.
    Lila matched my breathing, and it seemed to help a little.
    “Tell me about the instability of this realm,” I said. I stood and looked out her window.
    Far below us stretched a city. Some of it looked ancient: tall stone houses and cobbled streets. Other parts of it were thoroughly modern: cell phone towers and a ragged looking helicopter flying across the sky. On the streets I saw all manner of creatures and humans walking near each other. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but not this. It appeared mundane and orderly, though I knew full well that a city could easily hide all kinds of horrors within. As I gazed out at the large city, the sky pulsed and went strange, filling with the dusky nothing and wide strips of gray. They covered the sky.
    Lila came to stand beside me, and we said nothing until they disappeared.
    “It’s weird, right?” Lila murmured. “The King and Queen have been pissed about all the wobbliness.” As she said the word Queen, her fingers twitched and she glanced at her door. “They were wondering if you were responsible for it.”
    “Not me. Curious.” Hell was a land of infighting and clever creatures. It could have been caused by any number of their machinations, except for the fact that it had started when Lila arrived. She might not have any idea what effect she had on this realm. “Tell me, how does it feel to you, when it 'wobbles'?”
    She frowned. “Hmm, okay. So this one summer my Mom and I lived in San Francisco, in this crumbly place with a million stairs that felt like it was coming apart every time there was an earthquake. It feels like that. Like this place is all going to fall apart. A part of me likes the feeling, you know?”
    I nodded and kept my face blank. Lila had no idea how truly powerful she was. I wondered at her saying she liked it. I wondered if some part of her that she was not yet aware of was causing the destabilization. If so, it might be leverage to get her out of Hell.
    “Destruction can be lovely. It can be a creative joy,” I said carefully. This was my Lila, and yet not the same Lila I had once known.
    “Yeah, you get it, of course you get it. I love that about you.” She strummed her fingers against her bed a couple of times and shifted around as though she could not get comfortable.
    “One last thing. I’ve wondered about your bond with the Queen. How can it be broken?” I asked lightly.
    Lila flinched away from my words. She scratched her blue arms again.
    “Theoretically,” I added. “I’m merely asking theoretically.”
    Lila stood and paced across the room. “My Queen can break it. She’s the only one.” Lila spoke quickly, breathing hard. “I never can. I shouldn’t even think about it. I can’t even—”
    “Forget I asked,” I said.
    “Okay. Okay.” She nodded and sighed. “And, um, well, so, it's time. Is that okay? It's not that I want to….”
    “You have been most gracious in fighting your master,” I said.
    She rolled her eyes. “Way to rub in the slavery piece, yo.” She snapped her fingers.
    My time-loop spell broke with a dull thunk. Lila moved beside me and grabbed my arms. She tied my hands in front of my body with some silver rope that appeared in her hand. “Sorry, sorry.”
    “It's fine.” I went limp and pliant. She must do what she had promised the Queen, and there was no reason to make this harder for her than it already was. Besides, I had to go and speak to the Queen. Not because I hoped anything