Cipher

by Larissa Ione

  “It’s true!” Lyre shoved past the ring of Memitim before Hawkyn could grab her. “He didn’t know. He was devastated when he found out. He wanted revenge as much as anyone.”

  “Not as much as anyone,” Azagoth snapped.

  Lyre cursed as Hawk snared her arm and gently reeled her in. “Cipher killed Bael with an aural from Bael’s own armory.”

  Azagoth’s sharp eyes bored into Cipher. “You killed Bael? It wasn’t my souls?”

  Cipher would have been content to let Azagoth believe that his souls had taken down Bael, but Lyre would have none of it, and she shrugged out of Hawkyn’s grip.

  “He could have waited for one of your souls to do it,” she said boldly. “But he didn’t. He wanted Bael to pay for what he’d done.”

  Cipher swore storm clouds were brewing over Azagoth’s head. “Who are you?”

  “My lord,” Cipher said, moving to intercept, “this is Lyre. She helped me escape, and if not for her, Bael wouldn’t be dead.” He turned to her, awed by her bravery. She might claim to have weak powers, but she was a warrior from the tips of her wings to the depths of her heart. “And if she’ll have me, I would have her as my mate.”

  Lyre’s eyes flared, her mouth fell open, and he nearly groaned. Was it too soon? What if she rejected him in front of all his friends? What if she rejected him anywhere? He was alive because of her. He wasn’t drenched in evil because of her. He was home because of her.

  He owed her everything, and he’d already given her the one thing he never thought he’d surrender.

  His heart.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I would love to be your mate.”

  Relief and elation left him momentarily frozen, but once his feet could move again he gathered her in his arms. He wanted to celebrate properly, but it could wait.

  Azagoth wouldn’t.

  Cipher kissed her, a peck with a promise of more later, and turned back to Azagoth. “Lyre didn’t have to help me, but she did. When she learned all that Bael and Moloc planned to do, including murdering your children, she turned against them.”

  Azagoth’s gemstone eyes once again flashed with intensity, but when he spoke, the razor edge in his voice had dulled. “The daughter on the list, my daughter who died...she was part of a plan. I can accept that. I don’t like it, but it’s beyond my ability to change. Prove to me Amelia didn’t die in vain.”

  “I will,” Cipher vowed. “I swear.”

  Silence stretched, a make-’em-sweat tactic Azagoth had trademarked. “Hawkyn insists you’ll be an asset to Sheoul-gra,” he finally said. “Time will tell. But if you do anything, and I mean anything, to make me regret this...” Azagoth paused, his lips peeled back from deadly fangs. “I don’t need to go on, do I?”

  “No, sir, I’d rather you didn’t.”

  With a hint of a smile and a nod so shallow Cipher questioned whether it happened at all, Azagoth flashed away, leaving him with all he’d ever wanted.

  His home, his friends, and now, Lyre.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Life inside Sheoul-gra turned out to not be horrible.

  Cipher was right: his friends were decent people, and while many of the Memitim were a little chilly toward her, she couldn’t blame them. She and Cipher were fallen angels with a history of working for one of the worst overlords Sheoul had to offer, and given the recent murder within Sheoul-gra’s borders, trust didn’t come easily.

  But she was willing to do what it took to gain that trust. Azagoth was going to be a hard sell, and frankly, she chose to just avoid him when possible. Bael had been terrifying, but the Grim Reaper made him look like a kitten in comparison.

  Cipher had gone straight to work for Azagoth, hacking into enemy computers. Once his wings grew in and his powers were restored, Azagoth said he’d make use of his spell-coding skills, as well. At least his ability to flash had come back, so things were moving along.

  Lyre...she wasn’t sure where she’d fit in yet. Her powers were so weak she feared she’d never get a job, but just this morning, one week after escaping Bael’s clutches, Azagoth came to her with a proposal. She’d listened in silent terror as he explained that her lack of strong abilities had the potential to make her all but invisible to power-sensing demons in the Inner Sanctum, and in addition to using her for intel into Bael and Moloc’s methods, he had some spy work for her. Her gift of turning into a wisp of vapor would give her even more ways to ensure she went undetected.

  She could do that. It sounded fun, actually.

  And as she was sitting in their apartment inside Sheoul-gra, reading up on everything she could find about the Inner Sanctum, Cipher offered her a break.

  “I have a surprise for you,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her up from the sofa.

  She beamed. “Really?”

  “I’m not sure it’s a good surprise,” he hedged, “but it might be what you need.”

  Uh-oh. That didn’t sound great. Sounded terrible, in fact. “So where do we have to go for this unnecessary surprise?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  He escorted her to the portal, where they dematerialized and re-formed at the earthly forest clearing they’d used when they’d first entered Sheoul. Once topside, he flashed them to a dusty hilltop in Israel, and she cursed. Megiddo. He’d brought her to a place of angelic importance. Where executions and battles and expulsions from Heaven had taken place.

  “What the hell is this, Cipher? Why are we here?”

  A hot wind spun up, and a split-second later, Lihandra materialized alongside Lyre’s other sister, Bellagias.

  Anger, as hot as the wind, blasted her, but the funny thing was that she didn’t experience the murderous rage she’d felt for years while she was in Sheoul. This was just good old-fashioned pissed.

  “I asked Hawkyn to contact your family,” Cipher said. “I hope that’s okay.”

  It wasn’t, but she nodded anyway. “It’s good to see you, Bella.” All she could muster for Lihandra was a glare.

  Bella, always a softie, threw herself at Lyre, wrapping her arms around her in an enormous hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been so worried about you.”

  Lyre pulled back. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Mother and Father, too. And, believe it or not, Liha.”

  Lyre laughed, but when she looked over at her other sister, Lihandra’s expression was serious. “I’m having a hard time believing that.”

  “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t true,” Lihandra said. “I...regret what I did.”

  Lyre could have been knocked over by one of Lihandra’s lacy ivory feathers. “Seriously?”

  “I could have handled it better,” she admitted. “I don’t regret the demon’s death, but you shouldn’t have lost your wings.”

  Ah, well, that was more like it. Anger steamed through her again, but when she glanced over at Cipher, his calm, strong presence brought her down. Nothing from her past mattered anymore. Holding this grudge wouldn’t hurt her sister; it would hurt only her, and possibly her relationship with the male she loved.

  She had to let it go.

  “I forgive you, Lihandra,” she said, and it was her sister’s turn to be shocked. “But I don’t want to see you again. Not for a while. Maybe not ever.”

  “What kind of forgiveness is that?” Lihandra said in a clipped, stung voice.

  “Considering that just a week ago I wanted you dead, I figure it’s a pretty huge development. I’m sorry, did you want a relationship with me?” Lihandra’s mouth opened. Closed. Yeah, that’s what Lyre thought. As usual, she was playing the wronged party, but this time she got called out on her fake outrage. “I didn’t think so. Let’s just walk away from this with a fresh start. Agreed?”

  Lihandra bowed her head. “Since I’m no longer welcome in your presence, I’ll go. Take care, sister.”

  With that, Lihandra launched into the sky and flashed away.

  “She’s such a bitch,” Bella said. “But I should go too
. Call me and we’ll do lunch sometime.”

  She and her sister used to do lunch all the time, and Lyre truly hoped her sister was sincere. Especially because now that Lyre was no longer bound to Bael’s realm, she could flash anywhere she wanted to inside the demon and human realms.

  They’d just have to keep their lunches secret. While it wasn’t strictly forbidden for a Heavenly angel to have lunch with a fallen angel, it was a reputation-killer.

  She waved as Bella lifted off, and then she turned to Cipher, who watched with what looked like envy. It could take months to regrow wings, and until then, he’d be earthbound. Maybe she could keep him distracted. With sex. Yep, that sounded like a plan.

  “That was the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time,” she said.

  He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but it was. It so was. “After all those years of wanting revenge, I thought you might need some closure.”

  She flew into his strong arms, her heart singing. “You’re amazing. I love you so much.”

  Emotion poured out of her as she held onto Cipher, and her wings erupted of their own accord, surrounding them in the most intimate of angelic embraces.

  Swallowing a lump of his own emotion, he traced the edge of a wing with his finger. “I love you too.” Tenderly, he pressed a kiss into her hair. “And now I have a favor to ask of you.”

  “Of course,” she said. “Anything.”

  Shadows of hesitation danced in his eyes before he blurted, “Someday we’ll have kids, right?”

  She hadn’t really thought that far ahead, but yes, she absolutely wanted to have Cipher’s babies. Lots of them. “I can’t see why not.”

  His lips curved into a happy smile, but his eyes remained shadowed. “If we have a girl, and it’s all right with Azagoth, I’d like to name her Amelia. Would that be okay?”

  “Oh, yes,” she whispered. “What a wonderful tribute to Azagoth’s daughter.” And what an incredible male he was to want to honor her that way. How had Lyre gotten so lucky? She held him tighter, putting their hearts together. “Thank you, Cipher. Thank you for hacking my password and rebooting my system.”

  He laughed at the computer reference and pulled back just enough to look down at her, his gorgeous eyes mirroring the joy she felt. “I can say the same about you. I can even thank Flail. If she hadn’t gotten me abducted, I never would have found you or discovered my unique power.”

  She wondered where Flail had gone after the torture box had opened. Who was she working for now? And was she going to seek revenge? The female would be crazy to attempt it, but she’d never struck Lyre as all that stable. They were going to have to be on guard.

  Lyre playfully drummed her fingers on Cipher’s chest. “So Flail’s forgiven?”

  The dark, deadly smile tipping up one corner of his mouth gave her delicious shivers. “Oh, I’m still going to kill her. But I’ll thank her before I do.”

  “That’s my evil boy,” she teased.

  But really, the good/evil battle they both were facing as True Fallens was something everyone, from demons to humans to angels, had to endure on a daily basis. It was part of life, and there was a reason for it. There was a reason for everything, and for the first time in years, she believed that again.

  She believed in a lot of things again.

  Epilogue

  Moloc stared out the window at the glorious scorched earth and burning corpses that surrounded his stronghold. One would think there had been a battle, but it had been better than that.

  The explosion of his soul merging with Bael’s had caused a catastrophic blast he still felt inside him. And oh, it was good.

  He was whole for the first time in his life.

  He and Bael had always had a strange relationship, knowing that they were both brothers and a single person, and he’d wondered how it would feel when they were finally melded together inside one body.

  Now he knew. It felt like power.

  He reached for the vial next to him, a vial he’d been saving for thousands of years. A gift from Satan himself, the little glass tube contained the Dark Lord’s blood, meant to strengthen him and, he hoped, give him a psychic connection with his king.

  As he brought it to his lips, there was a tap at the door. The chaotic half of his soul that had been Bael wanted to strike out at the interruption, but the calm half, the one Moloc had possessed, overruled.

  “Come in,” he said, but added for Bael, “but if you displease me, you die.”

  The door swung open and Flail strutted in, a smile on her usually pouty lips. “I have news from our agent inside Sheoul-gra.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Cipher and Lyre are there,” she growled. “Azagoth has accepted them.”

  “Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected,” he said. “What about his young human-realm children?”

  “They’ve all been taken to Sheoul-gra. We won’t be able to kill more of them.”

  He smiled. “No matter. I have a new a plan. One that is guaranteed to force the Keeper of Souls to release Satan from prison.”

  “You won’t be able to kidnap Lilliana,” she warned. “Not even with your insider. She’s guarded all the time.”

  “That’s the beauty of it, my love,” he said, Bael’s influence already affecting his choice of words. “I won’t need to abduct her.”

  “Why not?” Confusion pulled her brow down. “I don’t understand.”

  That was because she was beautiful but not all that bright. Females never were.

  “Because,” he said, his heart racing with anticipation, “when the time is right, Lilliana will come to me, and Azagoth will be mine.”

  * * * *

  Coming October 15, 2019 from 1001 Dark Nights and Larissa Ione:

  REAPER: A Demonica Novel

  THE DEMONICA SERIES RETURNS...

  He is the Keeper of Souls. Judge, jury, and executioner. He is death personified.

  He is the Grim Reaper.

  A fallen angel who commands the respect of both Heaven and Hell, Azagoth has presided over his own underworld realm for thousands of years. As the overlord of evil souls, he maintains balance crucial to the existence of life on Earth and beyond. But as all the realms gear up for the prophesied End of Days, the ties that bind him to Sheoul-gra have begun to chafe.

  Now, with his beloved mate and unborn child the target of an ancient enemy, Azagoth will stop at nothing to save them, even if it means breaking blood oaths and shattering age-old alliances.

  Even if it means destroying himself and setting the world on fire…

  * * * *

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  In a world where humans and supernatural beings coexist — not always peacefully — three things can bring everyone to the table: Love, a mutual enemy, and, of course, food.

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