by Riley Hunt
Copyright © 2021 by Trish Beninato and Tiki Kos
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editors: Nicole Zoltack and Pinpoint editing
Cover Designer: Burning Phoenix Covers and Design
Interior Design: Red Umbrella Graphics Design
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Acknowledgments
Thank you!
About Riley Hunt
About Tiki Kos
Prologue
Lucifer
There is an old illusion. It is called good and evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche
“The afterlife is a very serious matter, Lucifer. One that the Archangels have been monitoring even before the age of man.” The lanky Angel with his sickeningly perfect blond curls and white-as-an-innocent-soul suit lounged on the edge of the mahogany desk. He looked around the mortal age of sixteen.
A little punk.
That smug smirk of holiness needed to be wiped off, and I had just the tool for the job in Helius, my scythe, but it was unfortunate that I was stuck in this Limbo, a waiting room for the immortals. A public toilet, to be more precise, but I had to suffer in this room if I ever wanted to get to Eve.
She was the only thing that mattered, and I would wait an eternity to get to her, but first, I would have to deal with these Angels, pathetic dictators of everything that is good and holy—or so they claimed.
Anything connected to these bothersome Angels, from the floor to the couch and even the slightest details on the desk like the pen and blank notepad, had to be void of any sort of color. If I’d had any say in their decor choices, I would’ve picked red. No wonder the humans have depicted me as a red daemon with two horns sticking out of my head like some sort of deer creature. I loved red. It was the color of passion, fire, and blood—my three favorite things in this existence.
Other than justified punishment of the deliciously wicked, of course.
“The Arch Angels have many pressing issues to deal with, and your malfunctioning Adam system is last on the list. If you aren’t getting as many souls as you need, maybe that is your own predicament.” He inspected his nails for dirt.
But everyone knew Angels didn’t get their hands dirty. That was what they’d created Reapers for, or the lower-level Angels they liked to brainwash into thinking they had genuine power despite being only pawns of Heaven, foot soldiers in this never-ending war of immortality.
“Have you considered that one of your daemons is siphoning the souls you have collected? As I understand, there are several subspecies who devour souls which you should already be aware of.”
The audacity of this so-called Angel was insulting. Who did he think he was, speaking to me with such familiarity? I was the original fallen Angel. I had my wings and had fallen long before this inferior hand puppet was a fat little cherub suckling on his maker’s teat.
“You speak as though you know me. If you did, then you would understand what a crucial part I played in creating Adam and Eve. I know when something is going awry with the system.”
Annoyance coursed through my veins like molten lava. This waiting game was getting on the last of my nerves. If those bastard Angels wanted to keep me waiting, I would show them just how barbaric I could be. This white-washed room would look lovely doused in a coat of Angel blood. The ways in which I could torture this immortal prick were endless. Sure, he wouldn’t die, but at least I wouldn’t be bored and stuck in this room like some sort of punished human child.
A sulfur bath might stop that smirk, or I could hand him off to the Harpies. They would enjoy the flavor of his divine flesh and might be interested in seeing how much torture it would take to break an Angel. After all, what kind of leader would I be if I didn’t allow the Daemons in my realm a little treat once in a while?
I stopped these torturous thoughts and focused on why I’d come to this God-forsaken realm. There was a balance to the world, and if that tipped in either direction, it meant both Helius and Heaven would fall into the chaos. I reveled in the order which I had controlled for millennia. I wouldn’t let the Angels muddle in my business. I needed to punish mortals. If I didn’t sentence those souls, how would they ever learn to repent for their sins? This was the only reason I’d fallen from His grace. We agreed I could rule Helius for as long as there were humans who needed to be punished. I’d seen what the world was like these days with crime, despair, and pointless, never-ending hate. I could gorge on the deliciously delightful torture of a soul’s pain and had my entire day booked up with thinking of ways to punish the sinners, yet I hadn’t had a single soul delivered in two months.
Eve or the Angels were to be the blame. Either the Angels were keeping all the souls for themselves and breaking the sacred agreement, or Eve wasn’t allowing the Reapers to pass through. I wasn’t certain which one was happening, but I wouldn’t stand around and let it ruin my fun.
While I paced back and forth, annoying melodic music played in a loop. With all the human technologies and a library with every single song ever created, one would think they would choose better music, but that was too much to ask for from these conceited bastards.
The elevator opened, and out stepped two Angels dressed in matching white suits. One of them I knew by name—Michael. His silver-blue eyes burrowed into me. As if some lower-level Angel would intimidate me.
The other immortal I had no recollection of. Her dark hair bundled in waves on the top of her head, wrapped in a golden silk ribbon. She had a very regal sense about her and a smirk that announced that her ego was unpleasant.
“It is about bloody time.” I scowled at the holy folk. “The least you could do was create a bar with some alcohol to keep your guests entertained, instead of this hand puppet.” I smirked at the punk of an Angel, who was twirling around in the white office chair as if he were in some sort of amusement park.
“Brother light bringer, we are so pleased to have you back in our midst. How long has it been? Several Millennia?” The woman smiled.
“Time is irrelevant when you are immortal.” I sneered. “Shall we get down to business and skip the pleasantries?”
“My, my. You are one eager beaver, Princess of Darkness.” Michael chuckled.
I ignored the attempt at humor. I didn’t understand why this Archangel had picked up the nasty habit from humans.
“We need to speak of Adam,” I demanded. “I wish to inspect Eve and see if her system is going awry as well. There is something wrong, and the sooner we fix it, the fewer repercussions we will have.”
“We cannot allow you to enter Heaven.” The woman shook her head, but her hair stayed perfectly in place. Heaven enjoyed its illusions of perfection. “Our Father would never allow it, and neither shall we.”
“And why is that?”
“Once you fell from His grace, we were never to permit you to enter the kingdom. You are forever doomed to walk in the darkness. You will never know His love again.” An unholy flash of anger rose across her face as she spouted the venomous words.
/> But I wasn’t like them—I didn’t care about His false love. I knew exactly what He was, and that was why I had an entire kingdom to myself.
“I do not want to stay. I want to check if Eve is malfunctioning.” A sigh slipped out between my lips. “I’ve done my time in that realm, and I happen to enjoy my freedom. My home is my home, and that will never change.”
“No.” She snapped. Her teeth curled against her lips as a gaze stared back at me.
It was more than clear that she’d brainwashed herself into believing I had no right to step foot in this place.
“No? I will not take that as an answer. You will allow me to pass, or else… “
“Then we have no choice.”
Before I could say anything at all, the unnamed Angel cupped a hand on my head. A strange warmth buzzed through my veins, twisting through my entire body. At first, it felt like nothing but an itch, but the measly tickle briskly turned into burning. Being from Helius, I was used to the heat, but this was nothing like my home. This burning suffocated me like a hand wrapped around my throat. I tried to reach for her hand, but Michael slammed my attempt down.
They couldn’t kill me.
I was the Lucifer.
I was immortal.
“I—” Only the single word managed to pass my lips before the world before me disappeared.
Chapter One
Ana
Smog blanketed me from view as I crouched on top of the roof, watching hundreds of souls milling through the streets like a herd of cattle. Not that they would see me anyway, if I didn’t want them to. A gust of wind blew past me, raising tendrils of my long, dark brown hair as it went. I pulled the escaping strands back into a high ponytail and adjusted the black leggings that wiggled down my waist. It seemed like everything I owned was black.
I liked the how the darkness camouflaged me, but, even more so, I was thankful that this world had finally advanced to modern clothing. Let’s be honest, dresses, stockings, and corsets weren’t the best fit for an Angel of Death. At least, not for me.
“Analise.” A faint voice sounded behind me. Even though I wouldn’t ever admit it, my heart hammered against the wall of my chest. No one ever called me by my God-given game. I preferred Ana.
My hand curled and an engraved silver dagger appeared as I whipped around with lightning swiftness. It wasn’t often that someone was able to sneak up behind me. There was a curvy woman in dark blue jeans, an oversized sweater, white tennis shoes, and a haircut that the humans describe as a Karen. It was an outfit that you wouldn’t expect a Reaper to wear.
“Layla? What are you doing in my sector?” I stood up and looked over my shoulder one last time to make sure the target of the night didn’t escape without me seeing.
“The Angels are concerned that you’ve become unfocused and…” Her voice held a coolness that told me that she didn’t actually care one bit. This Reaper was trying to climb her way up the ladder. Truthfully, I couldn’t remember when the last time a Reaper ascended into Heaven was.
“As you can see, I’m waiting for my target.” A slight annoyance sounded in my voice. I always followed all the rules. The rules set in stone were simple: Don’t change a soul’s life path or choose to walk a different path. Don’t become involved with souls or play the life game. Do not tell anyone the truth or reveal ourselves. And do not fuck with free will.
There was a nagging feeling that this sudden visit had more to do with me being a loner than not doing the job properly. The Angels held office meetings, but I never went to one, and, so far, no one had forced me to. That was probably not going to change anytime soon.
“I pray that I don’t need to remind you what happened to the last Reaper who disobeyed orders.” There was a smugness to her that I didn’t understand.
Any time a Reaper messed with freewill or any of the rules, they were gone. We never saw or heard from them again. They were snatched from existence—unmade, the upper management Angels claimed.
“No. I can assure you that the Angels don’t need to worry about a thing.” But now, I was pissed off with the intrusion. I had been a Reaper in this world since the beginning, when humans were only a speck of dust. Heaven and Hell were real, but they weren’t what humans imagined. There weren’t any magical celestial beings flipping around with cherub faces, but this world, the one we lived in now, was a place where humans went before they ascended to a higher plane of existence. Or descended to Hell, aka Helius.
Limbo.
Every soul on this planet was here on a continuous loop of time to complete tasks or to learn important, life-changing lessons, however you want to put it. Everything you saw around you was real but also, in a way, fake. It was a complex computer called Eve that ran past the understanding of the current society’s knowledge base on Earth. It processed information faster and stored it on such a level that mortals were hundreds if not a thousand years from discovering similar technology.
Eve was always changing exponentially and would always be far more advanced than anything else in the universe, celestial or otherwise. It needed to be to hold all the information ever created or made in the realm in the realms soul related on Earth and in the other realms. Limbo was a separate realm from Earth, where the souls were pretty much in a big-ass game with one hell of a computer running it.
I was one of the appointed overseers of entering and exiting. The official title was Lower-Level Angel Management—LLAM—but we like the name given to us by the mortals we escort. Reapers. ‘Angel of Death’ was a favorite, too, because seriously, who wants to keep saying LLAM? That was pretty lame. No pun intended.
What they mostly required us to do involved maintaining the program, cleaning up, and escorting the recently arrived and exiting souls. But we weren’t allowed to be a part of humanity, not really.
Why? For many reasons. We could see all the choices they had made in their lives. We might know them in a different life, and it might tempt us to change the path for them. Unlike us, they arrived with no memory of anything before their new lives. Well, most of the time.
Sometimes, the automation department screwed up, and the soul would scream that reincarnation is real, which is, without a doubt, true.
I moaned, remembering the last time one soul refused to forget. He caused an insane amount of damage. Buddha could be a real jackass, trying to warn the world of what was to come. I rolled my eyes at the memory of that bald, chubby man, but he was one hell of a card player.
Now, you’re probably thinking this isn’t such a great gig. Wrong. In this world, people chose to play the game, but in the world we would one day return to, there wasn’t a choice.
We came, we learnt, and we left. And by we, I mean Celestials.
As game masters, we lower-level Angels weren’t in the endless cycle. We just oversaw certain parts.
“Shall we keep it that way? Heaven needs their souls, and we don’t want to keep them waiting,” said Layla warningly. I blinked as I stared at her for a moment. I’d become lost in my thoughts, forgetting she was there. But she seemed to not notice. She turned away from me as a steel portal door that looked like it belonged in a prison appeared, and, without another word, the Reaper vanished.
I flipped my middle finger in the air, even though Layla would never see. Truth be told, I was getting tired of this shit.
This job wasn’t a cakewalk. Time moved differently here. It was slower, a hell of a lot slower, and don’t even get me started on vacation time. That blew. Every decade, you earned half a day. We lived just like the souls cycling through lifetimes but with two differences: we didn’t age, and we could bend the rules when we wanted to. Kind of like the 1999 hit, The Matrix, but without all that tech and ‘choose a pill’ bullshit.
There was a point in time where the Angels had almost had to shut that shit down. It was way too close to the truth in some respects, except with all the aliens and people being fed on. Souls were much easier to contain, but the entire world was maintained and everything in
it by us, celestial-made beings.
It wasn’t all bad if you remembered to follow the rules, something we mockingly called the Reaper commandments. We still could enjoy the same luxuries they gave the mortal souls, and the Reapers had enough coin as long as we lived obscurely. We could interact as long as we didn’t interfere, and we could even make friends, but we couldn’t impose our opinion on any decision or choice they could make. That made it hard as Helius to make and keep friends in this world. I preferred to just stay to myself. Why bother getting to know someone you would escort to Heaven or Helius one day?
But it wasn’t all grim. Eventually, everyone would win the game, and they wouldn’t have to come back. But Helius, the perks in this job were too sweet to give up. And eventually, I could retire. But it damn sure wouldn’t be today.
The further up you went, the harder the work, and you had to move to where humans did not live, at least not physically. And there wasn’t any liquor there. This world had some perks. I heard Helius had the good stuff, but it was only for the people who worked there.
Ya know, after a hard day of torturing, ya gotta let loose. I laughed to myself at the grim yet humorous thought.
Yes, Helius was real, but not for all eternity. Although, it felt that way. And, if you screwed up too terribly, like, you caused the genocide of millions of people? Well, you would find yourself stuck there for a very long time. And once they did, in fact, cut you lose, if they ever did, then you would spend many more life loops without much of a break, all to make up for your actions.