by Cate Corvin
My stomach twisted painfully. “Who? Who brought Azazel here?”
Ereshkigal was already losing interest. She turned around and picked up a silver necklace studded with rubies, holding it to her throat in the mirror. “I believe his name was Gabriel,” she said absently. “They’re all the same, it’s so difficult to tell them apart.”
My memories of the Between were fresh and clear. A god of night, a female archangel… Lailah and Nakir had been Azazel’s parents.
Ereshkigal was now holding emeralds to her ears. She didn’t see when I turned my head away, hiding my sneer.
Azazel was the blood of both Heaven and Hell. I could call to him through Ereshkigal’s power, if I tried hard enough.
And Gabriel… my God, how many millennia had he spent sowing discord and pain?
I wished we could kill him again. And again. And again.
“What about Nakir?” I asked, forgetting myself and mentioning the name she’d never told me herself.
Ereshkigal was too distracted by her jewels to notice or care. “He was punished for his transgression. This is a hard lesson you’ll have to learn, songbird. No matter how much you love them, sometimes you must use a sword instead of a whip. To hold your throne, you must eat your rivals alive, and keep your subjects in line.”
She looked up at me, a strand of sapphires glittering at her throat. A cold smile cut across her lips. “But you are, after all, like my little sister. Maybe my words are wasted on you.”
I ached to tell her they were. Love was stronger than whatever void of hate she held within herself.
Ereshkigal waved her hand. “Get out.”
I bowed and left, drifting under the beaded curtains without rattling a single drop of onyx. Guards were lined up against the walls, their cold eyes watching me pass.
I ignored them as I searched the halls on my way back through the palace, but no matter where I went, there was no sign of Azazel at all.
It was only after I’d given up on finding him that he found me.
I found a spiral staircase hidden in a wall recess and slipped inside, intending to go back to my room in the handmaiden quarters, but a strong arm slid around my throat.
“Sneaking around alone at night?” he murmured in my ear.
I stifled my gasp, hoping none of the guards passed us. “Azazel, you’re back.”
He spun me around and pushed me against the wall, pressing us into the dim recesses of the stairwell. A guard could walk right past and never see us. His own shadows only deepened the darkness.
His hands were planted on either side of my head, keeping me in place. He studied my face, taking in every detail, his brow creased.
“Every time I reach for them, the memories slide away,” he said. He slid a hand down, twining a lock of my hair around his finger and studying it. “But I know you. Your body, your face, your hair… it’s all so familiar to me.”
“We’re mates.” I looked up at him, willing him to remember. “You chose and marked me.”
I turned and pulled my hair aside, exposing the violet star on the nape of my neck. His fingertips ran over it, and I felt a shudder run through the coiled muscles of his body.
“I know I came here for you.” His whisper was nearly inaudible. “I might not remember much, but that is one thing I know beyond all doubt.”
I couldn’t pull him out of Ereshkigal’s grip by force, that was clear. All I could do was let him know who he was to me.
I let my hair fall back in place and looked into his eyes. “You once showed me who you are on the inside,” I told him softly. “You thought I would be afraid. But I love all of you, even that monster, as you call it.”
For a moment, Azazel’s soft breathing was the only sound.
Then he kissed me again, a low groan emanating from his throat. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer, sliding my tongue between his lips.
He arched against me; his entire body called to mine. Maybe his mind was far away, but the rest of him knew me.
Azazel pulled away first, lightly brushing my lips. “Stay away from her. I might not remember yet, but I know it would kill me if she hurt you.”
He stepped into a pocket of shadows and vanished.
I exhaled, my knees still a little shaky from his touch. One step at a time, and I would eventually unlock all of Azazel.
Then the Queen would have a Hell of an army against her.
15
Melisande
I slipped into my room and shut the door behind me.
Belial was sprawled across my bed, out cold. He was still crusted with dried blood, but his chest rose and fell in an easy rhythm.
Lucifer leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and looking out the window.
“You’re here,” I whispered, crossing to him. He lifted his arm and wrapped it around me. “I didn’t think she’d let you come.”
I leaned my head against his chest. At least I knew three of them were alive and well, even if Azazel was struggling to break through Ereshkigal’s grip.
I was sure Tascius was, too. His mark on my wrist remained intact, even if I couldn’t quite reach him through it.
Lucifer looked down at me, his gold-and-silver features washed out in the lack of light. “You made a deal with my father.”
I blinked. My eyelashes brushed his chest. “I did, and I don’t regret it. If he removes the soul-bond entirely, we won’t need to worry ever again.”
“What did you promise him?” he whispered.
I glanced up, but Lucifer didn’t look angry.
There wasn’t a whole lot of room to be angry here. We would need whatever allies we could get.
“I promised I would give in to his desires if he broke your soul-bond, but I lied, of course. I have no intention of allowing another Prime to gain control over me.”
“Lying to the Father of Lies,” Lucifer said. “Some might say that’s playing a dangerous game.”
There was no heat in his tone. He stroked his fingers through my hair, hugging me close.
I placed my hand on the scar over his heart, feeling his heartbeat beneath it. It wasn’t a permanent solution to the soul-bond, but it had worked for now.
“Haven’t you noticed the change, Lucifer?” I asked quietly. “He’s not just Satan anymore. Both he and Nergal are fighting for control of that body, and I think Nergal might be close to winning. Azazel told me to remember what I’d learned… and he once told me that Satan’s essence would take on the characteristics of his vessel.”
Lucifer nodded, his eyes distant.
“He’s become smarter, better able to control his hunger, but he’s also subject to Nergal’s emotions. Nergal hated Ereshkigal as much as we do. I also don’t believe he genuinely cares about me— it’s Nergal speaking through him, and their emotions are combining into something else.”
“But you and the King of Kur had never met,” Lucifer reminded me.
“No.” I glanced out the window as well, at the great cliff beyond my room. The light of the river danced off the dark walls of Kur. “But I’ve been piecing it together. Nergal loved Inanna. Ereshkigal calls me her little sister. It’s like their past is replaying again in our present, and I’m filling Inanna’s role this time.”
Lucifer’s mouth tightened. He gripped my arm, the one that had been burned. “And now you’re healing like an archangel. I’m certain none of the other powers have died to begin the transmutation on you.”
“That’s because I’m not taking on an archangel’s powers. I’m taking on hers.”
Lucifer stared at me. Maybe it was just the sickly light of the city, but his golden skin looked paler. “Melisande…”
“She speaks to me, inside my mind. I’ve borrowed her power. When Ereshkigal whipped me…” The phantom taste of blood filled my mouth. “Inanna’s magic mixed with mine. She kept me alive. I think this is just a remnant of her being inside me.”
It had to be a temporary remnant. I couldn’t
consider the alternative. The goddess was suspended between life and death; it wasn’t possible that I was beginning a transmutation into her form.
It wasn’t possible to ascend that far.
“Their past ended with Inanna’s heart being ripped out of her chest and eaten.” Lucifer’s eyes had hardened. “I won’t sit back and allow that to happen to you.”
I brushed his cheek, trying to comfort him with my touch. It was a small comfort, but it was better than nothing. “I know you won’t, and I’m hoping it doesn’t go that far. But Lucifer… if your father breaks the soul-bond, you’re the only one of us who isn’t bound to the city through your collar. You can leave Kur and find a way to bring the Spear of Light to us.”
My mate’s arm flexed around me. “No one else besides you can touch it.”
“You’ll find a way.”
“I also wouldn’t leave you here alone.”
I frowned up at him. “You might have to. I need the Spear, Lucifer. It’s the only way to destroy a Prime power.”
“If it weren’t for me, you could’ve killed Satan already.” His jaw was still tight with suppressed anger and misery. “It would’ve been worth the sacrifice if it meant keeping you out of here. Ereshkigal would never have laid eyes on you.”
I gently pounded on his chest with my fist. “Don’t talk like that. I made a choice, and I stand by it.”
Lucifer tilted his head back until it leaned against the wall, like he was looking right through the stone overhead to the sky above Kur’s desert. “Not everything is a fairy tale ending, Melisande,” he said. “Sometimes things don’t turn out fine.”
“Well, you know me. I would walk through Hell or high water to get what I want.” I rose up on my toes and kissed his taut jaw. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for all of you.”
He relented and kissed me back, and finally steered me towards the bed. “Get some sleep. I’m sure she has a lot of fun in store for us.”
I carefully climbed over Belial’s sleeping form and curled up against his side. His warmth was as good as a blanket, washing over me. My eyelids were heavy as I watched Lucifer take up his guard, watching both window and door.
I wished Azazel were here, too.
Slowly, my eyes closed.
In my dream, I stood next to Inanna in a chamber of white marble and gold.
A massive man reclined in a bed. There was a faint green tinge to his brown skin, but his black eyes were cold.
My dream-logic told me this was Tammuz. The god who had defeated her in battle and forced her to become his wife.
Inanna trembled next to me, but it wasn’t from fear. I glanced at her beautiful face, nearly a foot above my head, and saw that her jaw was clenched tight with rage.
Despite that, tears poured down her cheeks. She left my side and walked to the bed, fists clenched at her sides, her golden hair trailing to the floor behind her like a veil.
I winced and looked away, and the room shifted around me.
When I looked up, I was still there, but the sunlight was dying. Tammuz was gone.
Inanna laid in the bed, staring up at the ceiling with dead eyes.
Blood stained the sheets like an animal had been slaughtered there, but she was a goddess. No marks remained on her skin to tell the tale.
Even in the dream, my stomach clenched sickeningly.
I turned around and found myself in the desert, no sign of the temple remaining. The sun beat down on our heads, because of course Inanna was standing next to me again, this time with a faint smile of satisfaction.
Two armies of nothing but corpses lay baking in the sand. I stepped down the side of the dune with Inanna, our feet raising no dust.
She was both next to me and lying on the sand in slashed and dented golden armor, laughing with her last breaths. Corpses were tangled around her like a bed of death.
A figure shimmered out of the desert heat and fear coursed through me, but Nergal was… himself. His eyes were blue, and he looked down at the dying goddess, who flashed bloodied teeth at him in snarl. She wanted to die, the only freedom she would find.
That didn’t stop him from picking her up from the corpses and carrying her away.
The Inanna at my side took my hand, and the desert faded around us.
My dream took us through the green valley where Nergal brought her. At first, the goddess of war and love was like a wild animal, refusing to go near him. She growled when he came too close, her fingers curling around knives whenever he drew near.
The sun and moon flashed overhead, cycling through endless days. Months. Years.
Eventually, Inanna let him touch her hand.
She didn’t snarl.
The Inanna beside me put a hand over her heart. I felt her sadness even in the dream, so deep it was like my own heart being broken to see this time and place again.
“Why are you showing me this?” I demanded, but nothing came out of my mouth.
Inanna and Nergal went into the house he’d built for her, smiling at each other. Their hands were clasped so tightly it was like they’d been bound together.
A dark presence stained the green valley, and I realized Ereshkigal had appeared on my right. She stood next to us on the bluff, sneering down at the house and the couple that had disappeared inside it.
My dream was frenetic, flashing through scenes as Inanna pulled me away from the valley.
There were the Seven Gates of Kur.
Ereshkigal and Inanna stood on the sands beneath the final gate, staring each other down. Inanna had been whipped bloody, her face cut, but she pointed to Nergal, clearly demanding that the Queen free him.
One of the Queen’s clawed hands shot out and plunged into Inanna’s chest, driving through skin and bone. When her hand re-emerged, she clutched Inanna’s frantically beating heart.
I saw Azazel behind her, watching with a dark frown as she bit into it, letting the blood drip down over her chin.
Then we stood in the throne room. Ereshkigal lifted Inanna’s body, still barely breathing, and hung her on a hook.
Nergal was screaming. Ebonite chains held him down, stopping him from going to her. Ereshkigal just ran her bloody claws through his hair as she walked away.
“None of this has to do with me,” I told her. I felt sick. None of this history had anything to do with our lives. These weren’t our grudges to bear.
Inanna simply looked at me. “You must be strong where I was weak.”
She placed a hand over my chest, her fingertips resting on my clavicle.
My wings spread out to cover myself, and I realized there were six of them. The dark halo I’d seen in Azazel’s scrying orb spun over my head, sucking the light away from Inanna, devouring her whole.
Before she vanished entirely, she brought up a knife and plunged it into my heart.
I sat up with a gasp, my wings trembling.
There were only two of them, the way it should be.
“What?” Belial’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me back down to the bed. I settled against him, taking deep breaths as the phantom pain in my chest faded.
I’d dreamed every detail in perfect realism, down to the warmth of her hands, the sharp pain of the knife breaking my skin.
“I had a nightmare,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep.”
Belial made an indistinct sound and pulled me closer, nuzzling his face against my shoulder.
I blinked into the darkness, feeling for the Chain again. Hoping for some sort of answer as to why we were here at all.
My mate marks were strong, linking me to Belial, Lucifer, and Azazel. The chains glowed in the darkness like beacons. Only Tascius’s was faint, but it was still whole.
But there was a fifth chain now, thin and sparkling.
I squinted my eyes at the golden links that emanated from my chest, right where Inanna had stabbed me in the dream.
It led through the wall, in the direction of the throne room.
Where her corpse waited for me.
>
16
Lucifer
Ereshkigal loved her games.
We were just her players, chess pieces for her to move around the board.
Even without the soul-bond eating into my heart and soul, I still felt like I was trapped in someone else’s web. Free will was an illusion, something just out of reach beyond my fingertips.
I watched Melisande sleep soundly, sprawled out over Belial. A lock of violet hair tickled his nose, and he brushed it away without opening his eyes.
I hoped they were enjoying their moments of peace. There was a tension in the air that hummed against my nerves, made me want to pace the length of the cell she called a bedroom, scratch out all my feathers.
Something was coming. Not knowing if it was hope or despair would drive me to madness soon.
I’d prefer to get it over with.
I glanced out the window at the city beyond, crawling with life. It was more like a hive than a city. Dis’s open streets and sky were a thousand times better than this underground anthill of demons.
Before I could settle in to watch the guards’ paths and shift changes again, I felt a tug at the broken soul-bond.
It was faint now, but I knew my Father’s mental touch.
And it had changed. It used to feel like insects creeping through the back of my mind, tinged with rage and the pain to come.
There was a new edge to it, one that wasn’t entirely antagonistic. If Melisande’s theory that Nergal was fighting back against the power invading his soul was correct… well, I just hoped she was right.
I slipped out of the room silently. It was the first time in weeks I’d been allowed to wander alone in the halls of the Kur palace, all thanks to Ereshkigal’s one-sided deal with Melisande.