The Devil's Lullaby (The Devil's Advocate Book 2)

by Michaela Haze

  Their heads appeared first. Bloody and without facial features. Then their shoulders. There were ten in the corridor that Luc stood in, but due to the size of the castle, I knew that he could have pulled hundreds of his blooded soldiers from the halls of the castle.

  The figures clawed their way out of the flatness of the walkway, as if being birthed. Each one was a mannequin without humanlike qualities, made up of the blood of betrayers.

  Lucifer clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth and they stood to attention. “Join the sculptures and bring me Luiz.” He commanded, and they turned and walked away.

  I felt the ripple of difference at the corner of the First Circle and my head whipped to the source of that power.

  “He’s here,” I said.

  Lucifer nodded and waved his hand in my direction. I felt the blanket that had been wrapped hazardously around my naked body as it melted and new clothing appeared in its place. Leather trousers and a white tank top. The same as my master’s.

  Was he still my Master when my power equalled his?

  Lucifer turned to the dining table and it melted into the Ether. Lucifer's throne and my preferred chair skidded backwards as the floor tiles rose to create a platform. The two chairs overlooked the room, regally, and the sconces burned a little bit more brightly as if affected by Luc's magic leaking into the air.

  I watched as Luc's expression closed like an iron shutter; his magic snapped into his body and it was as if he had none. Somehow that made the Devil seem much more dangerous. He had no tells. There was no way to gauge what lurked behind his mask.

  Lucifer cocked his hip and rested his elbow on the pommel of the falcata sword, hanging from his hip. I had no weapons, but I did not need any.

  With Lucifer's blood soldiers and Abaddon's stone statues guarding the perimeter of the castle, it was unlikely that anything could get through without invitation.

  He appeared out of nowhere, an unfurling serpent with a motley crew of several Demons. I recognised Faith, the leader of the Valkyries with her mottled grey wings and glowing red eyes. She headed up the back, almost in shadow as if her presence was something that she didn’t want to draw attention to. There were a few Leviathan with blackened saliva and razor-sharp teeth. They surrounded Petra, whose eyes were wide but she was otherwise unharmed.

  As if a weight had been released from my shoulders, I wanted to slump to my knees, boneless, and sob in elation. Petra was alive and safe. When I reached out and brushed the edge of her mind, just enough to gauge her emotions without being intrusive, I could see that she wasn’t broken. Simply confused.

  Abaddon was another matter entirely. His body hung between the arms of two Leviathan, stripes of fabric hung from his chest which I knew had once been his leather tunic. He had been whipped, and from the blood crusting on the lines on his chest, it had been done with an iron-tipped weapon.

  I clenched my fists but refused to show emotion, despite the turmoil in my mind. I reached out to Lucifer without conscious thought, our minds connected by a golden thread.

  She doesn’t seem to have been harmed. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  It was hard to miss the way that Luc's body stiffened, as shocked by my mental communication as I was.

  Something is missing. Lucifer said inside my mind, but his expression did not betray his thoughts.

  As if the King of the Leviathan was his oldest friend, Lucifer opened his arms and beamed brightly enough that it engulfed his entire face. “Levi! It’s been a while.”

  The Leviathan's cocky smirk faltered in confusion for just a second before he straightened his own mask. “Lucifer, always a pleasure.”

  “Come to return something of mine?” Lucifer's tone held no malice.

  “If the deal is good.”

  “The deal has already been done.”

  “That remains to be seen.” The King of the Leviathan was smug.

  Luc clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and swaggered forward; the flat of his curved sword slapped against his leather-clad thigh. The posse that the King of Envy had brought with him rippled in discomfort, but they did not move a muscle. Too frightened of drawing Luc's wrath. Levi was a bit further in front than the rest of this crowd; Luc and he were almost the same height although both were entirely different beings.

  The Leviathan King slunk back a fraction, like the snake he was before he realised and straightened his shoulders.

  “The message stated the sceptre is in exchange for the child.” Lucifer reached forward and tapped Levi's nose. The serpentine man flinched, and I empathised. It was difficult to be on the receiving end of the Devil's attention. It felt like being an ant under a microscope.

  “No—” The Leviathan growled but Lucifer placed his palm over the man's mouth in a gesture that was so intimate that it became intimidating.

  I saw Luc's eyes harden. “Ba'el carelessly forgot to inform you of the consequences of making deals with First Circle Demons, I suspect.” The devil removed his hand and patted the King of Envy on the shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak but Luc put his finger up to stop him. “Ah, Ah. Let me finish, Snake.”

  Lucifer began to walk around the Leviathan, eying him without shame. “Do you know what happens when you renege on a deal with the First Circle?” Lucifer didn’t wait for an answer. “The Sceptre for the Girl, you said. That’s a deal in my book. My lovely Dahlia provided the sceptre. Give me my daughter or your soul is mine.”

  The Leviathan's expression was self-assured. “You can’t take the Soul of one of the Seven.”

  “Can’t I?” the Devil cocked his head to the side innocently. The Leviathan’s smile slid from his face.

  “You can’t barter for more in exchange for my progeny. I'll have your soul.” Luc hissed as he took a step closer. “Do you know what I’ll do with it, Lizard? I’ll swallow it whole.”

  The King of Envy bared his teeth, showing the pin-like canines, stained black with his poison. He jabbed his chin, gesturing to the members of his swarm. They parted and allowed Petra to walk forward. I stepped towards her —stopping myself from running to her — once she was by Lucifer’s side.

  If anyone suspected the depth of my emotion towards my daughter, then she would be in even more danger. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her towards me as I stepped back towards the thrones.

  “Abaddon, over here please,” Lucifer commanded as he slapped his hands together proudly. The Angel of Destruction needed a healer but no one wanted to show a sense of urgency. To rush would have shown weakness. Abe came to my side and I could smell the iron inside of his wounds. It burnt my nostrils in its potency.

  “Thanks for your cooperation, old friend.” Luc had relaxed into his easy smiles and casual friendliness. “Don’t be a stranger.”

  We faced the small crowd, and waited for them to leave, but they did not. My brow furrowed in confusion as a pulse of rotten magic rippled through the foundations of the castle. I dropped to my knees and cradled my child to my chest to prevent her from coming to harm.

  The ground under the castle trembled.

  Ba’el’s magic saturated the air like a bad smell.

  He had arrived.

  Chapter 23

  Luiz came from the doorway, and I thrust Petra into the waiting hands of my Hellhound. Luiz disappeared in a flurry of Hellfire as everyone in the room burst into action.

  Ba'el had broken through the wards, somehow. I rushed to the window and looked outside, but every single statue and bloody figure was still, casting shadows onto the dead grass.

  I turned to Lucifer. “He’s not outside.”

  Luc disappeared and reappeared in the blink of an eye, in front of the Leviathan. He gripped the front of the serpent’s armour and pulled him close so that they were sharing the same breath. “What did you do?”

  Gone was the King of Envy’s entitled and smug demeanour. It melted away to fear. The Leviathan shook his head frantically and looked at the small crowd around him.
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br />   “Kill me.” Levi pleaded with a serpentine hiss. “Do it, Lucifer. I have been a prisoner for too long. I would rather burn than be a puppet to Ba'el much longer.”

  Luc pushed the man away in disgust. “Go back to your Circle. I have no use for such a weak and pathetic creature.”

  The Leviathan scrambled back before melting into his other form. Envy curled in on himself until he disappeared.

  “He’s here.” Abe repeated ominously, before he coughed and a mouthful of blood came from his lips.

  I closed my eyes and inhaled but the air was oppressive.

  Lucifer peered over the window’s stone ledge as I had done moments before. “I can feel him. Where is he?”

  A brainwave hit me immediately, and my stomach sank when I thought of the possibilities. “He’s inside the foundations of the castle. He's going to cut the power to the First Circle.”

  “Our daughter was just a distraction.” Lucifer snarled, and as his wrath grew the air thickened with static. “You, stay. Dahlia. Come.” He commanded, pointing to the wounded Abaddon to remain in position.

  I stepped forward and held my hand out to meet his finger. I was immediately pulled into the Ether when we touched.

  We Laced to the beginning of the caverns; dust fell from overhead as the world around us trembled. I cursed under my breath.

  “If this place collapses, getting trapped is going to hurt exponentially,” I warned.

  “Come.” Luc strode into the underground network with confidence that I did not feel. “If you have a chance to fight Ba'el, I want you to take it.”

  “You’re more powerful than I am.”

  “Not so. I am also one of the Seven. I cannot kill another Original. The pillars of Hell are evenly distributed. If one falls, they all fall.”

  I rubbed the top of my arm as I walked by his side. Every so often Luc would take a turn into the darkness that I did not understand and lead us further into the depths of the caves. The sounds of screams began to filter through the stone walls, but they echoed and whispered in a way that played with my mind and toyed the line between reality and hallucination.

  I stopped walking.

  “Lucifer,” I said, tugging his hand to a stop, and my eyes widened in realisation. “When I fell, I fell into the foundations of the castle.”

  “Yes,” Luc replied in a carefully measured tone.

  “Are the foundations of the castle linked to the Summerland in some way?” I studied his face for a sign that he was lying, not that I would be able to tell if he was.

  Luc's eyes flashed silver and he cursed under his breath. “I certainly hope not. Though you would not be the first person to fall to end up in the foundations of my castle. Fuck. FUCK!”

  He gripped my arm and we Laced to the beginning of the hole that he had pulled me from. The creaking sounds of whining sinners accompanied the low rumble of destruction as everything around us buckled against the laws of physics.

  Luc's magic rose in a silver swirl and pressed against the cavern walls around us to prevent them from collapsing.

  “I don’t know what he's doing, but if he’s collecting the souls down there and connecting to the Summerland at the same time. There is no telling how powerful he could become.” Luc reached forward and gripped both of my cheeks. “I need you to go down there and take him far away from this place. I need to stay here to protect the First Circle.”

  I nodded silently. “Tell Petra that I—”

  He put his finger to my lips to silence me. “Go down there. Save our home. Come back alive.”

  I nodded and I turned away. Luc gripped my hand and tugged me back to him before I could leap into the darkness. He placed a cheeky kiss on my lips. “And marry me?”

  My mouth popped open in an 'o' before he pushed me down the hole with a wink and I descended into darkness.

  I put Luc's words out of my mind as I walked deeper into the darkness. I thought of the way that Luc's magic had danced in front of me like a beacon, helping a lost traveller.

  I flexed my fingers, invisible in the darkness, and concentrated my magic to the fingertips. That part was easy. Finding a medium that could help me was harder. The temperature was the easiest to manipulate but the magic offered no physical light. I clenched my fist and thought of the shadows inside of the throne. The pulsating threads that I had only ever felt before, but had never seen.

  My hand illuminated with blue sparks like a broken lightbulb, only to immediately go out again. No emotion was tied to my magic, but I found the right rope to pull inside of myself and I yanked it hard.

  My hands burst into powder blue electricity, thousands of volts flying over my skin like fireflies. I turned over my hand and walked forwards. The shadows moved away from me, as if they had form and could not stand the light.

  The rumble of destruction loomed overhead, while the floor creaked under the strain of whatever Ba'el was doing. I had to hurry.

  The foundations of the castle were expansive and impossible to navigate, even more so than the caves. I had no idea how Lucifer did it.

  There was no light, save for my blue hands as I moved forward in one direction. I was uncertain if it was the right one.

  It felt like a bubble popping in my stomach at first, right where I had imagined the ball of wrath that I had stolen from Ba'el. The feeling intensified the more I veered to the left, so I followed my instinct. I was connected to Ba’el. Part of him had lived inside of me when I had stolen his power.

  I did not see him until my blue hands cast shadows across his battle-scarred face.

  “You can't stop me, Pet.” Ba'el warned with a low voice and a snide smile. “Go back to your home and salvage your effects, because this castle is going to fall.”

  Before he could finish the last word, I placed both of my hands on his cheeks. I tugged his head down to meet mine and planted a wet and slobby kiss on his lips. I used his distraction to Lace us to the Second Circle. His home. Wrath.

  Ba'el pushed me away with enough force that I went skidding across the marble floor of his throne room.

  His frustration was a roar that shook the firelight torches on the wall. I watched as he tightened his fists and tried to Lace to the First Circle.

  “Fool us once, Ba'el. Lucifer's magic will never let you into the First Circle again.” I purred.

  He plucked a broadsword from one of the many weapons that decorated the throne room.

  I backed away and leapt to my feet. Reaching for the nearest blade on the wall, I chose the curved axe with a polished obsidian handle. The second my fingers brushed the weapon, my entire body jarred and my teeth slammed against each other in shock.

  Okay. I couldn’t touch the weapons. That made sense.

  Hindered by the slack, skeletal wings on my back. I circled slowly. Ba'el did the same. Neither of us was willing to show our back to the other.

  I allowed the familiar sensation of ice to spill over my fingers and steam rose in the air. Frost decorated my fingertips and grew until it surpassed my wrist and extended past my elbows.

  “You may have stopped me from taking the First Circle and ripping it apart, but I still have the Sceptre.” Ba'el swung his sword to tease me and it sliced the air with a whoosh. “The Summerland will feel my Wrath.”

  “Who cares about a bunch of pigeons?” I shrugged, with my eyes on his blade.

  “Once Nova learns the truth about her precious Lucifer, about how I never betrayed her, she'll take me back.” He said smugly.

  “And yet you want to tear her home to pieces?” I laughed without humour. “You either want her to forgive you or you want to destroy her. Pick one.”

  His eyes flashed red as he licked his bottom lip, drawing his sword and readying an attack. “I am Wrath. To destroy is my Divinity.”

  He gave no physical sign that he was going to attack, but Ba’el was a skilled fighter. Much more so than I. I felt the sting of his blade as the metal kissed my lower arm. My instincts had raised it to protect my face. M
y breath hissed through my teeth and I jumped back.

  Ba'el's movements were like a jaguar, as he stalked back to the other side of the room. He brought the heavy blade to his face and inhaled my blood from the length of it.

  My teeth gritted and the long crimson line of parted skin did not knit together as it should.

  “Devil’s silver?” I kept my tone light, casual, even though my elbow was leaking blood onto the floor like raindrops.

  “My own brand of Magic.” He smirked.

  “It smells like rot.”

  Ba'el's lips curled over his teeth but he did not come back with a witty retort. Instead, the King of Wrath lifted his weapon over his head. The air parted as he appeared in front of me. The heavy blade swung down and I rolled to the side and moved across the room. I could smell Ba'el inside of my nostrils, feel the air of his movement against my skin.

  He swung his sword again, and it was close. I ducked back and a lock of my honey blonde hair dropped to the floor and into the discarded blood that leaked from my wound. He was quick.

  Red Circle. Red Throne. Lost to blight and ill. Take my power little girl, and give it all I will.

  My ears prickled at the intrusion. Something ancient spoke. Its deep voice rumbled throughout my brain. I tried to make sense of the words, as I dived away from the swing of Ba'el's sword.

  “Deceitful throne!” Ba'el snarled, pointing his sword at the cracked black monstrosity as if his weapon was a finger. “Shut the Hell up!”

  Red Circle. Red Throne. Thorn of lies and all. Reach out and touch my power, the world will feel your Thrall.

  Ba'el shook his head and muttered to himself, his broadsword swung low as he gripped his short cropped hair with one hand and fisted his locks. Pulling them in exasperation.

  “It's because you're shiny and new. A Fallen. Wrath is calling.” Ba'el cocked his head to the side, his words were manic. “Knock. Knock? You can’t answer the door to my power if you're dead, Devil's Bride.”

  “You’re positively insane.” I said.

  I was closer to the throne than he was. He had given too much away. I turned on my heel and darted for the pillar of Hell. Obsidian stone, cracked and glowed with burning red embers like molten lava. I reached forward, outstretched fingers. The power raised up like a feline ready to be petted.