by Nour Zikra
I went after her and saw her standing motionless not far from the door. A large prison cell wrapped around half of the room.
“Addy?”
Her eyes stared straight ahead. Following her gaze, I realized why she had frozen.
Reed lay on the ground inside the cell, his eyes shut and his face pale, just as I’d seen in my vision.
“Oh my God,” Addy whispered under her breath, loud enough for me to hear. She ran toward the cell and dropped to the ground not far from her brother. Her hands wrapped around the cell bars. I couldn’t see her face from where I stood, though I didn’t need to see her to know she was scared. Addy reached her arm between two bars, barely brushing the tips of her fingers against her brother’s cheek.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll get him out.”
I looked around the chamber for a way to unlock the prison cell and found a big metal key hanging from a nail on the wall right beside a door that looked similar to the one we’d just walked through.
“Here’s a key.” I took it down and hurried to the cell. I inserted the key into the hole and twisted it, turning the tumblers inside the lock. The cell door swung open silently.
Addy jumped to her feet and pushed past me to go inside. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” With shaky arms, she bent down and held Reed up against her. “I’m here now.”
Not knowing what to do, I stood, completely silent, and waited for Reed to come to.
She wiped the sweat from his face with her palm. “Please wake up, Reed.”
“Here.” I crouched beside her and took Reed from her. “Check his pulse.”
Without hesitating, she placed her index and middle fingers against his neck. A moment later, she exhaled. “He has a steady pulse. Why isn’t he waking up?”
“He’s been through a lot.”
“Yeah, and it’s all my fault.” She stood up and helped me pull him into a standing position. “Can we take him through the gateway like this?”
“Yes.”
I put one of his arms over my shoulder, and Addy did the same with his other arm. Together, we managed to get him out of the cell.
A few feet away from the door we’d come in, we stopped. The demon blocked our path. It stood on its hind legs and growled.
“Seriously?” Addy said. “I thought we already befriended you.”
The beast’s gums pulled back, revealing its strikingly sharp teeth. Behind it, more demons appeared. One by one, they closed off the exit. We both took a step back.
My voice low, I said, “Move slowly toward the other door. We just need time for you to open the gateway.”
Reed’s head lolled to the side, facing me. His eyelids lifted, and he registered me through the slits. “No,” he muttered. “Leave me alone.”
Addy’s voice wavered when she spoke. “It’s okay, Reed.” She took another step back. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“Ade.” Panting, Reed looked at his sister. “They’re demons.”
“I know.”
“No. This one,” he whispered and bobbed his head once in my direction. “Is a demon too.”
As soon as Addy’s eyes met mine, she looked away. She put her forehead against her brother’s and whispered back, “He’s not a demon. You have to trust me.”
The demons facing us cried out, their lungs filling with an obnoxious sound so shrill my ears felt like they were going to pop and go deaf. Reed closed his eyes, his nose and forehead scrunching in a silent scream. Addy was the only one who didn’t react. She backed away from the beasts, pulling us with her.
Once we had inched our way back, I pulled the door open. “This way.” I guided Addy and Reed out of the room.
Demon after demon dashed after us. Their claws swept left and right, trying to tear our organs out.
“We just have to—” I jumped back and dodged some talons. “We just have to hurry up and open the gateway. Can you do it, Addy?”
Addy screamed and retreated, forcing us to move with her.
“I don’t know!” She kicked at the demons.
I glanced in her direction and saw blood seeping through her pajama top over her stomach.
“Come on. You can do this,” I said.
“How? I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Still ducking away from each demon’s strike, I lowered my right hand from Reed’s back and placed it over Addy’s hand, where she held her brother. At first, she didn’t seem to notice my touch. After a few seconds, she looked my way, just for a moment, her eyes the color of the night during a full moon, shiny and dark all at once. My heart expanded just then, air passing throughout my body and swirling into my lungs, making me lightheaded.
“You can do this,” I repeated, hoping my words would make a difference.
We moved down another tunnel. The demons kept coming, taking a step each time we did, staying close to us.
Addy was quiet as she, for the most part, evaded the hits coming her way. When demons scratched her, she pushed Reed back and tried to shield him with her body. I could feel cuts across my body too. Although they stung, they weren’t as bad as the burns my back had endured a few nights ago.
When we neared the end of the tunnel, the world around us flickered. Addy’s room blended with the cave and the demons for a second before dying out. Breathing in and out, Addy tried again and again to keep the gateway in place. All her attempts failed.
We hit a dead end just as a dozen or more demons closed in on us with their killer teeth and claws. Next to me, Reed’s knees gave out. Just as his eyes closed, Reed’s head slumped over his sister’s shoulder. His weight suddenly felt heavier.
“Come on, Addy. Get us out of here!”
“I’m trying!”
Some of the demons up front opened their mouth and retracted their gums, ready to devour us whole. Saliva dripped from their pointy teeth like we were some delicious feast to be had.
I tightened my hold on Addy’s hand and closed my eyes, not wanting to see our end.
However, the end didn’t come. Neither did pain nor screams nor the silence of my heart.
My eyelids flew upward. The demons were still there, but they weren’t trying to eat us anymore. They kneeled on the ground with their heads bowed. In the center of the circle they formed stood the one being I wanted to strangle until his black, rotten eyes popped out of his narcissistic head.
Lucifer’s lips pulled up at either corner of his mouth, but his eyes didn’t smile. “Well, well. If it is not my old friend, Adriel, here with my child. I see you have lost your wings. Should I welcome you to my kingdom?”
Chapter Fifteen
ADELAIDE
Lucifer’s voice rang in my ears, breaking through my concentration. The gateway closed before I could even blink, leaving us facing the devil.
Lucifer flashed his teeth at me and said, “You thought you could slip past me and reunite with your frail half brother? How did that turn out for you?” He directed his attention to Reed. Black, hollow eyes scrutinized my brother for far too long. “I had higher hopes for you, Adelaide, but then you went and did this.” Shaking his head at Reed, he took a step forward. “I will give you another chance. Leave your brother here, return home, and do what I asked of you. You will be rewarded. I will give you a house of your own, money fit for kings, and anything else you can imagine. Perhaps you could have your own private island with servants at your beck and call. Does that not sound delicious?”
I felt a lump grow in my throat and clung tighter to Reed. Lucifer could hurt me, he could keep me as his prisoner, but not my brother; I needed to save him.
“What will it be, Adelaide?”
My silence spoke for me.
Adriel’s thumb pressed harder against my hand where it rested on Reed’s back. Through my peripheral vision, I could tell he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Lucifer straight on with a hard, defiant look in his eyes, his jaw tense.
I
gnoring Adriel and Reed, Lucifer kept his attention on me. “The demons sensed you, Adelaide. Every inch of this goddamned hell sensed you. You have my blood. You were foolish to think that no one would know who you are here.”
“Don’t talk to her like that.” A thick vein in Adriel’s forehead protruded, looking like it might snap in half.
“I will speak to my child the way I want, fallen angel.”
Adriel clutched my hand tighter. “Addy, open the gateway.”
“The gateway?” Lucifer let out a chuckle; it echoed throughout the cave, piercing my ears like a shrill audio frequency only I could hear. No one else seemed bothered by the sound. “You do realize that anyone with demonic blood can open the gate to Earth and jump through, even I? Which means that no matter where you go, I can follow. Do you really think you can hide from me?”
Reed’s head still slumped forward in total unconsciousness. The things he had gone through, the isolation, the shock, the fear; would they leave him scarred?
“You took my brother and used him to threaten me,” I said. “You’ve never been my father. I’m just a pawn in your stupid, evil game. I did what I had to do to save him, but that’s it. Your game ends here. I won’t help you anymore, and you can’t force me. If you kill him, you might as well kill me.”
“Oh, child. You have no idea how helpful you have been the past four days. The few people you turned have turned others, and they have turned others, and then others more. A sizable army has already formed thanks to you. And frankly, my daughter, I do not need you any longer.”
He stepped forward, a frown eating half of his forehead. I moved back an inch and felt the bumpy wall against my back. We were at a dead end. No way back, only forward—toward the devil.
All around Lucifer, crouching low, the demons hissed at us as if given a silent command.
I needed to distract them, so I kept talking. “Then why use me at all? You have people doing your work. Why me?”
Adriel’s hand squeezed mine harder, but I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me. Was he scared? I was scared. For a moment, I thought I felt his pulse ticking against my hand, surging through my skin, and sending a signal to my brain, like a warning.
Lucifer walked closer. Only a few feet separated us, and he kept shortening the distance. Reed’s Swiss Army knife weighed heavily in my pocket, cold and powerful.
“I will not give you the satisfaction of knowing your purpose,” Lucifer said. “I got what I needed out of you.”
Another step. I held my breath and pinched the knife between my fingers without pulling it out from its hiding place. Reed stirred beside me, but his head stayed low.
Inches between us now, Lucifer’s black eyes stared at me. He didn’t smile. He didn’t move. He just looked at me with those two black holes of his.
“I’m your daughter.” My voice was low, but I knew he heard me.
Lucifer placed his hands on either side of my face and pressed hard. His skin burned. Adriel’s hand gripped mine tighter than before. My eyes watering, I struggled to free my head and discovered I couldn’t, and there was no way to avoid the heat beating against my ears and cheeks.
Opening his mouth to speak and letting a sour smell drift into my face, Lucifer said, “Yes, you are my daughter. Which is why I will not kill you. No, your suffering will be far worse than death.”
I sensed Adriel stiffen, his hand like a rock over mine. Remembering the Swiss Army knife in my pocket, I surreptitiously took it out and flicked it open with my thumb. Lucifer looked at me with no emotion on his face. The more I stared back, the more I thought I saw black ink leaking from his black eyes.
My knife was in my hand one second, and the next it was half buried in Lucifer’s chest. I looked away from his face and studied the wound I’d created right where his cold, empty heart should be.
He staggered back, removed his hands from my face, and looked down at the knife in his body. For a second, his lip quivered like he was going to cry.
Then, a high-pitched laugh exploded from deep within his throat. It went on for ages, and all the blood drained from my face.
“Did you really think I could be killed that easily?” He gripped the knife and pulled it out. “I am the devil, child of mine. Do you think I did not make certain long ago to create a weapon so powerful that no one would know what it is or how to use it against me? I protect myself with that weapon, and I have made certain that you will not interfere.”
The Swiss Army knife fell to the ground. Black blood marked every inch of it. And yet, Lucifer hadn’t even flinched.
Shutting my eyes, I tried to summon the gateway once more. I felt the atmosphere shift around me, turning from hot to cold. Through closed lids, I pictured my room and the three of us standing in it. When I opened my eyes again, we were on the other side, standing in my room. All three of us.
H
We laid Reed down on my bed, removing all his warm, damp clothes, except for his underwear. He was burning hot, so I ran to the bathroom, grabbed a bunch of towels, soaked them in running water from the sink, and ran back and placed them all over Reed’s body. Adriel grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and poured a small amount into Reed’s mouth, just enough to help him satiate his thirst but not enough that he would choke while unconscious.
The apartment was empty, which was good because I didn’t know how I would have explained everything to Lizzy.
Wiping some of the sweat from Reed’s face, I said, “Is he going to be all right?”
“Let’s hope so.” Adriel pointed at the blood on my shirt. “What about you? Are you all right?”
I lifted my shirt up a little to uncover the wound underneath. A red cut, not too deep, had left half of my stomach bloodstained.
Adriel grabbed one of the wet towels, crouched down, and cleaned around the cut, his other hand resting against my hip to steady me. “Does it hurt?”
I winced. “Not too much.”
He glanced up at me, his irises dark and troubled and mesmerizing. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, don’t worry. It’ll heal.”
Lucifer’s eyes, the way he’d stared at me as the knife went through him, were still in the back of my mind.
“He said he had a weapon. What did he mean by ‘I have made certain that you will not interfere’?”
Adriel shrugged.
I placed my palm against my brother’s forehead to check his temperature. He was burning up. I couldn’t tell what that meant for his long-term health.
Reed opened his eyes halfway and muttered a jumble of words. It took me a moment to understand him. He was asking me what had happened and wondering where we were. Leaving his mouth hanging open, he revealed a swollen, dry tongue.
“Hi, Reed.” I took the bottle of water Adriel had used and, lifting Reed’s head up a little, poured some of the liquid into my brother’s mouth. “You’re safe now. We got you out.”
In between gulps, Reed said, “That was the devil.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I was there the night they took you. Don’t you remember?”
His blank expression answered my question.
“How long were you in hell? Can you remember?”
“It felt like weeks. Why didn’t you get me out sooner?”
“Oh, Reed.” I set the bottle of water down and met Adriel’s eyes. I wasn’t sure what to do next. Adriel didn’t seem to know either. “I have something to tell you. Just please don’t freak out, okay?” I said to Reed. “The night they took you, they came and took me too. I saw you there, you know, in hell. I . . . I guess you can’t remember because you were out of it.”
“Why’d they take us?”
“Well, Lucifer took you to threaten me.”
“Why?”
“Because.” I swallowed. “I’m his daughter.”
Reed’s eyes grew wide. “Is this a joke?”
“No, I
swear. I’m telling you the truth. He kidnapped you to get me to cooperate with him. I’ve never met him in my life, Reed, and then you were gone, and he made me drink something, and I saw everything. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true; he’s my father.”
“That can’t be true. You’re human. You’re my sister.”
“Yes, I’m human, and I’m your sister. But I also have his blood.”
“Are you half demon?”
Was I? Looking down at my pajama top, I eyed the red stains. Lucifer’s blood was black, while mine was clearly not. “No, I don’t think so.”
Behind me, something crashed to the floor. The noise sent me jumping away from the bed and spinning in one quick motion. Picture frames went flying to the ground not far from my feet. I raised my fisted hands to form a shield in front of me, ready to punch whatever monster had appeared.
“Whoa, it is just me,” Madadel said. He looked out of place standing between me and my only desk, like an eagle in a canary’s tiny cage. Tucking his wings by his side, he moved closer and stared down at my brother.
“No!” Reed shrieked and shut his eyes. “Leave me alone!”
I stroked my hand against Reed’s cheek. “It’s all right. That’s just Madadel. He’s your guardian angel.”
Reed looked up, his panting slowing down.
Madadel’s long locks fell over his face. Through the curtain of hair, he smiled at my brother. “I did not mean to frighten you, Reed. I am here to protect you.”
I crossed my arms. “You mean the way you protected Reed the first time?”
“I am sorry, Adelaide, but I could not interfere. I fought the demon off as much as I could while he was invisible to the human eye. However, once he became visible to humans, I could not do anything.”
“Why not? That’s a stupid rule if you ask me.”
“That is just the way it is.”
“He’s right, Addy.” Adriel stood to the side, almost as if he were purposely keeping distance between the angel and himself. “Angels are not allowed to interfere directly with hell. To be fair, this is the first time Lucifer has taken a human to hell without permission.”