“Ba'el isn’t aware that we know about his involvement in all of this. Luc tried to enter the Fourth Circle but Wrath has warded it strongly.” The Hellhound was grinding his teeth; his movements were twitchy, as if he needed something to do. “We’ll have to demand a meeting at the First Circle. Lucifer needs you.”
I rubbed my hands over my face, so roughly that if I was wearing makeup it would have smeared. “I’m working on it.”
Luiz stepped away with a nod and disappeared in a flurry of Hellfire, as if my vague sentence was good enough.
I fisted my hair against my scalp and ground my teeth, welcoming the pain the radiated from my jaw. Once I had allowed myself a moment of weakness, another to add to the growing pile, I pulled myself from the bed and discarded my pencil dress for a silk blouse and a sensible pair of trousers.
I closed my eyes and focused on the familiar sensation of Lacing with my wings tucked into the Ether. Pulling together two places like stitching a blanket and tightening the thread, only the fabric was the space between worlds. Without air or substance.
I stepped onto the warm earth of the forest floor, as if I had taken a quick jaunt to the shops. The sky was pink and birdsong swathed the air.
It was a forest full of life, everything single colour imaginable. Leaves the colour of a virgin’s blush. Sepia tree branches dipped to welcome me as I walked from the edge of the world. Heaven was truly worthy of its name. The Summerland.
I had only ever been inside of the organic structure that housed the Lord. I had not seen the outside. It was a contrast from the harsh red skies and dusty paths of Hell. Everything was soft, even the breeze and the ground. The smells.
Angels glided down the stairs as I walked up to the entrance. The stone steps were cracked as nature fought its way through and won. Pink flowers, as fat as my fist blossomed and waved as I walked past.
I did not know what came over me, but when I raised my hand to my eyes, they came away wet. I was crying. An impossibility but then again, I was a Demon that had divinity poking out of my back.
I found myself at the entrance to the cavern that had only ever brought pain before, as if an invisible force was directing me.
I stepped onto the damp limestone before hooking my leg at the knee and removing my Louboutin’s. I placed them, with care, at the entrance to the cave and walked to the water’s edge.
The liquid was so clear that I could see the bottom, but I knew from experience how deep it was under the surface. Every ripple produced a kaleidoscope of colours. I waited for a second, expecting a grand entrance.
Nova appeared. One second she was there and when I looked away, she had arrived. She strode across the surface of the water, clothed in white Grecian dress. An abnormality for the typically nude God/Goddess.
“What do you want this time?” She crossed her arms over her ample bosom. It highlighted the effect of her low-cut dress. Her entire demeanour implied that she was innocent despite the contours of her human form.
“Uriah told me that you could help me.” I said simply.
“You’ve not only taken my Lucifer but you want my Purest as well?” Nova’s tone dripped with venom.
“No one is Pure.”
“Uriah is. Unless you took that from him.”
My lip curled in distaste. “I don’t understand why an Angel's sex life is any importance to you.”
Nova reeled back as if I had struck her. “You dare to touch that which is mine?”
I brushed my hands down the front of my blouse. “Shall we begin this conversation again?”
“You are as bad as Lucifer.” She hissed.
“And yet, you loved him.” I shrugged.
Nova's expression wiped clean of emotion and she surveyed me with cold eyes. “I am merciful. What do you desire from me, child?”
Okay. Total 180, but I can work with that. Lucifer is the same. I thought. Perhaps that was why he still loves her.
Shut up.
Shut up.
Shut up.
She cocked her head to the side as she could hear my thoughts, and I reinforced my mental shields. I had no idea how they would stand against a creature older than anything that had ever existed.
“The First Circle has need of me.”
“And Ba'el sceptre has failed you?” She asked lightly.
“Ba'el took it from me.”
She laughed but it was a forced sound. “I can see why that would be a problem.” She eyed my body critically and her lips turned down as if she found me lacking.
I put my hand on my hip and challenged her with a look which she ignored.
“I gave you the gift of Divinity. As a commendation for your sacrifice for your child.” Nova sounded tired.
“And my child has been taken by Ba'el.”
She nodded, resigned, and stepped from the glass surface of the water as if it were a street pavement. My back was to the water’s edge as she faced me.
“You have work to finish in Hell.” Nova stated. She placed her hand on my chest, over the scar tissue of the Enochian rune for love. “The symbol here. Don’t ever doubt his love for you.”
Her voice was lost as she pushed me down into the water. It filled my ears and mouth and lungs. Burning and cleansing as it went.
I thrashed but it did nothing until I had no choice but to relax and let myself sink to the bottom of the pool.
I barely had enough time for a smug thought to surface. “Falling isn’t so bad.” Before the bottom of the underground lake gave way to fire, sulphur and screaming agony.
I was raw. A skinless corpse flayed and seasoned with salt. There was only so much pain that a body could take before the synapses between the nerves and the brain shut down to protect itself.
Somehow, falling from Heaven bypassed all of that.
It was beyond any pain that I could comprehend. Acid. Melting skin. Charred and cracked. So much burning. The scent of my arid and cooked flesh filled my nostrils and I was certain that I would never forget the smell.
And then there was darkness without peace. A writhing pit of tortured sinners, waiting for their punishment at the hands of my master.
I was inside of the foundation of Lucifer's castle. Trapped in the murky pit of liars, cheaters and the prideful.
Chapter 22
Time lost meaning as I huddled, broken, amongst the pleas of the sinners.
Free me. I did nothing wrong.
I didn’t know.
They didn’t tell me Hell would be like this.
I cared not for their superficial words and apologies. My wings were sharpened bone, skeletal and pockmarked with burns. Any semblance of Divinity had been ripped from my being. I had been created from Lucifer’s wings. My very essence had begun as a broken holy symbol, and the very thing that had sparked life inside of me had been torn out through my shoulder blades and left to rot on my back.
No one had told me that it would be that way. That being Fallen was being ripped apart piece by agonising piece and placed back together tainted and poisoned.
My darkness had always hovered at the edge of my consciousness. A serpent that demanded to be fed with all manner of Sin. Sex. Alcohol. The pain of others and the corruption of humanity. That creature had blossomed into something malevolent. It had been a separate entity before. Now it was me.
I had been powerful before, but I hadn’t been Fallen.
I had been Angelic before, but not truly. I had valued my connection to Hell too much to give into the power that the Summerland promised.
I had straddled the two Magicks.
Now I had made my choice.
A silver light snaked its way through the moving shadows, a benevolent smoke that found me immediately and beckoned me forward like a finger. I knew that it belonged to Luc immediately. I knew that I did not need his assistance, but I was damaged and healing as I laid under the castle.
The magical guide was my Master's way to snapping his fingers and calling me to his side.
Would I be able to do the same as him? To puppeteer others from the inside and out?
I could influence minds but thoughts, feelings and suggestions took time like a floral arrangement. Everything had to have its place or the thought would be rejected as unnatural.
If I threw my own conscious inside of another’s mind, I could tear their essence from them as I had done with Nora Bleu and countless others.
Luc could force someone to walk to the edge of a cliff and jump in seconds. He could wear the faces of others, a skill that I had never possessed.
When I had been vaguely Angelic, none of those powers had presented themselves to me. I could have claimed them, perhaps if I had stepped over the threshold of Divinity.
You'll never see Uriah again.
My broken wings trailed behind me as I walked into the light of Lucifer’s magic. The thought of my personal Angelic guard halted my steps.
I needed to save my daughter without a doubt.
But I had lied to the Angel when I said our sex would have been without emotion. I slammed the lid on the thought before it could blossom and pushed it down into the recesses of my mind, hoping that the pressure would reduce it to smoke. It didn’t disappear, but it stayed tucked away. No doubt to plague me later.
Lucifer met me at the entrance to the hole. I looked up and squinted as the light from the sconces made it difficult to see properly. I felt as if I had been in the darkness for so long.
Lucifer had used the hole as punishment before. I would kick and scream and bite to avoid it. Only the Devil could release someone from the foundations of the castle. I wondered if I could have broken myself out, if I had been patient enough to wait.
He reached down and my hand slipped into his callused fingers. He lifted me as if I weighed nothing and pulled me to his chest. One arm wrapped around my shoulders and the other stroked my hair.
“What did you do?” Lucifer whispered.
“I did it for our daughter.” I said without emotion.
“You sacrifice too much. My Dahlia.” Luc sounded like he was crying, but that couldn’t be the case. Nevertheless, his shoulders trembled as he held me. His grip tightened as if I would dissolve at any minute.
He took a deep, staggering breath. “I was young and foolish when I took that sceptre; now you're paying the price for my mistakes.” He buried his face in my hair.
I reached up with two hands and held him at arm’s length. His silver eyes, effervescent like moving glitter, were so focused on me and full of love that I couldn’t look directly into them. It was blinding. I would have stepped back in shock, if only he didn’t have a hold of my body.
“Anything you want. For the rest of your life. I will bond my soul to yours and you will rule as my Queen. You can take my crown. I don’t want it if it means that you won’t forgive me.”
“Bring my daughter home to me, Lucifer.” I whispered as my face cupped his jaw. “I want the you that helped me walk when I was too fat to do much but waddle. I want the Lucifer that held my hand and told me it would be okay. I want your smiles and your tricks.” I paused and drew a shaky breath. “But first, fight with me to bring our daughter home and to show Hell that they cannot go against their True King of Kings.”
“Something arrived for you, not long after you Fell.” Lucifer had wrapped a fur blanket around my shoulders. Sore and stiff as if every movement had to be relearnt; my heart fluttered with his uncharacteristic attention to the pain I was in.
“The Lord is rather clever, and is not self-serving.” He continued as he opened the doors to the dining hall. We were greeted by a very canine bark, much lighter than the gravelly sounds that Hellhounds generally made.
“The Guardian?” I stepped forward to the red-eared, white snow dog and extended my arm so I could brush the top of his head. He dipped down in a semblance of a bow.
“My brother Michael, you mean?” Lucifer's lips pulled to one side with a crooked and easy smile.
“Thank you for trying to save her.” I told the dog.
Luc sobered at that, and whilst the question hung in the air he did not ask it. “I suppose that Nova wants your curse revoked?” He asked the dog.
The Guardian made the canine equivalent of a duh expression.
Luc rolled his eyes and walked past the guardian to take his place in his preferred chair at the head of the table.
“What is that?” I pointed to his throne incredulously. What had once been a twisted hunk of metal, burnt and warped in places and tarnished at the sharpest points looked like a writhing mass of Shadows and ink under the surface. I could see the blackness that came through and stained the silver, I could see the threads of Hell and Lucifer's throne was one of the pillars at the centre of life itself.
I was lost. Unable to break away from the siren song of the magic. It was in its purest and most base form. A sentient being.
Lucifer stepped in front of me, but I had been too preoccupied to notice his movements. His wide shoulders blocked my vision and the thrall of the raw magic. My attention snapped back and jolted me like a rubber band. I rubbed my arms to install some warm under the fur comforter around my shoulders but it did not work.
“You know what it is, Dahlia. You can see it too now.” Luc's eyes softened as he held out his hand for my own. I needed something to hold onto and he was the strongest and surest thing that I knew.
Without another word, Lucifer led me to the smaller chair to the right of the throne. A plush and padded, velvet Louis Vuitton style dining chair.
I tightened the throw around my shoulders but the skeletal wings on my back made it difficult to seal myself against the chill.
One by one, First Circle demons entered the room, without fanfare or showboating. Traditionally, someone would try and outdo the other and catch Lucifer's attention. The atmosphere was sombre instead.
Eyes flickered to me but instead of skirting over and disregarded me, red eyes widened. As Lucifer's Pet and the Queen in name only, I was normally ignored. This time, I was not. Breaths hissed through teeth in shock. Gone was the prejudice and suspicion that had come with my Divinity. The sense of being an outsider and never truly belonging to my own home evaporated.
There was awe. The same word whispered over and over. Fallen.
“My subjects,” Lucifer addressed everyone in the room, his hand gripped my own. “The Leviathan is bringing war to our doorstep once more.”
There were murmurs in the crowd but no one sounded shocked.
“Can I trust that every Demon here will protect the Prideful City? As I will ensure that the Castle of Ice is protected?”
More murmurs of agreement.
Luc's eyes flashed in warning as he stood up and nodded for me to join him, but I shook my head and kept my eyes trained on the table. Gone was the foolish pregnant girl who had jovially danced by his side and lit up like a Christmas tree when he had announced my newfound importance to the crowd.
I remembered the looks of disapproval that day. The hatred at my place by The Devil's side. The jealousy. Even though there had been whispers of my millennia of torture. Mind games and pain.
He had broken me so that no one else would.
I had been pushed from the Summerland and stripped. Burned. I felt like I had a fissure running from forehead to belly and all my goodness was leaking slowly onto the floor.
I had Fallen to save my daughter and their King.
I was so lost in my thoughts that it took a few seconds to realise that the inane chatter of the crowd had faded to nothing. I looked up, surprised. Every Demon. Imp. Fiend. Lower. Higher. Whatever Chaste they belonged to, were kneeling for me.
I opened my mouth and turned to Lucifer only to find him on his knees as well. His forehead to the ground.
The Devil was kneeling. To me.
Time existed differently between Hell and the Human Realities. There was no night or day. No noon or sunset. Keeping hours was a human concept to which Demons did not adhere.
The Leviathan had
made clear in his message to Lucifer that he would come to the First Circle to return Petra. There was a deal to be made for her return, but the King of Envy’s arrival was dependant his whims and not our own.
I could sense Luc's tension from the twitch in his knuckles, despite the bright smile on his face. The crowd loved him, cheering. Each person had greeted him like an old friend as I slipped easily into my old role of standing silently by his side with an expression like a stone-cold bitch. A habit that I had picked up from his punishments. I did not know what Luc expected of me so I had stayed stalwart and rigid. Face neutral and bored as I dogged his every step like my feet were tethered to his.
The mass of First Circle Demons left shortly afterwards to safeguard the Prideful City from whatever Ba'el and his puppet, the Leviathan, could throw at us.
“Do you miss Abaddon?” Luc asked when we were finally alone.
“Yes,” I replied quietly and did not go into more detail.
“Looking back on our history together, Abe has been an effective buffer.” Lucifer's lips twitched into an easy smile. “I would have been worried about your affections towards him, but a thousand years by your side without a move has taught me to trust him with you.”
I made a non-committal hum in the back of my throat.
“We will get them back.” He tilted his head and used it to point to the open doorway. “Come.”
We walked into the hallway, onto the frozen blood floor with smoky whorls of steam rising as the frigid temperature met the warmth of the corridor. Luc placed his hand on my shoulder and gestured for me to stay still. He walked ahead; his hips swished from side to side in his signature swagger and his long white brushed his waist. The Devil turned to face me, his silver magic swirled around him like a fog. My newly found ability to see Hell Magic made my head swim as I watched the beautiful vines and smoke that I had only ever imagined before my eyes.
His magic entered the floor and I took a step back into the safety of the dining hall threshold.
Lucifer rolled his shoulders and raised his arms.
The Devil's Lullaby (The Devil's Advocate Book 2) Page 20