by Eva Brandt
“We will, of course, make a second attempt.”
I had an increasingly bad feeling about this, even worse than before. What could’ve possibly determined Cain to encourage this? Everyone knew how dangerous Stefan was. If taunted, he could seriously hurt or even kill someone. It had happened before, and that was why people had been so wary of us.
But Gemma didn’t seem to care. She complied with Cain’s command. Her mind magic attacked Stefan again. When it struck him, his body melted into his wolf shape. He let out a sharp howl, one that held too much pain for my liking.
Cain ignored it. “It is possible to push through both fields if you try hard enough, although, of course, that comes with the possible danger of drawing the creature’s hostility onto –”
He never got the chance to finish the sentence. Something at the back of my mind started to throb and he screamed as my hatred and resentment materialized into mind magic.
Gemma went down like a rock, knocked out by my power in a single blow. I almost regretted not being able to make her suffer more, but for the moment, I wouldn’t question it.
This wasn’t about me enacting revenge. It was about making a point and showing everyone this behavior wasn’t acceptable.
I’d told Stefan so many times that he wasn’t an animal and now we had to deal with this bullshit? Fuck, no. I wouldn’t allow it. I absolutely refused.
Unfortunately, I forgot a very important factor. Professor Cain wasn’t just a student of the school. He was almost as old as Lucifer and his power far surpassed that of anyone I’d fought before.
He pushed back and the retaliation surprised me so much I instinctively lashed out again. My magic swelled over the classroom like a live thing. Every student started to scream—until they didn’t any longer.
Time seemed to slow, the world blurring and turning gray. From the abyss of their agony and my unleashed power, the ghost of a beautiful woman appeared. “Well, well. If it isn’t Lucifer’s newest Sacrifice.” She smiled at me, but the expression held no warmth. “We finally meet. I’m Eve, and I’ve come to claim what is mine.”
* * *
I’d first heard the story of the Original Sin when I’d been a child, as it had been described in the Bible. My mother hadn’t been an excessively religious person, but she’d given me the basics.
At the time, I hadn’t deemed it all that interesting. Mostly, I’d thought it weird that Eve had taken such a chance on the words of a snake. “It must’ve been a pretty tasty apple,” I’d told my mother.
“Probably, yes,” she’d said. She’d baked me apple crumble that evening and that had been that.
My perspective had changed since my arrival at The Academy of the Devil. I’d learned so much since I’d come here. That didn’t make Eve’s appearance any less surprising.
She was perfect. That was the only word I could come up with that would’ve suited her. Her long blond hair tumbled down to her waist in golden, untamed waves. Her eyes were as blue as the cloudless sky and her skin was so flawless it didn’t seem to have pores. I’d have liked to think that it was because she wasn’t a flesh and bone person, but I suspected she’d always been that way.
She was completely naked, and yet, she was more untouchable than the angels in The Celestial Realm. She scared me.
Everyone in the room seemed paralyzed. Shiro had frozen mid-bark, even if he was a familiar and an extension of me. This was bad.
“I don’t want any trouble,” I said. “I know you have your issues with Lucifer, but that has nothing to do with me.”
Eve let out a sharp chuckle. “On the contrary, Alyssa, it has everything to do with you. How can it not?”
It was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway. “Very easily. I make my own choices and he makes his. What he did to you sucks, it’s true, but don’t take it out on me.”
“You still think this is about revenge. It’s not. It’s far more complicated than that. But that doesn’t matter right now.” She shook her head, and for a few seconds, she looked sad. “Honestly, Alyssa, I won’t enjoy this. Please know that if there had been another way, I would’ve tried to use it. But there isn’t and I will do what I must.”
That was what people kept telling me, and usually, whenever I heard that, things didn’t end well for me. A particularly bad moment had been when Professor Grim had amputated Mikael’s wings.
This time, things were far more straightforward. All of a sudden, Eve grew fangs. In the blink of an eye, she had lunged at me and buried her sharp teeth into my flesh.
At first, I thought she was going for a vampiric approach, one similar to Gemma’s feeding habits. But no, that would’ve been too merciful and easy.
Pain erupted through my body as Eve’s fangs ripped into my shoulders. At the same time, her claws tore through my chest, my sides and my abdomen, her attacks so vicious I couldn’t hope to fight them off.
I must’ve screamed, but I couldn’t hear it. The all-consuming agony was too much to process. I blindly reached for my magic, trying to protect myself like I had in the past. It didn’t work. Eve’s body grew heavier on top of me and she dug her fist into my abdomen, ripping through my flesh like it was paper.
It hurt… It hurt so much. I wanted it to stop. Please, please, stop. What have I done? Why? Why are you doing this?
Maybe Eve heard me, because she briefly released her hold on my body and looked down at me. Her eyes were ablaze with golden light as she chewed. “I’m doing this because I have to,” she said, licking her lips. “You are a vessel for my hopes and dreams. And you’re delicious. Far more than I expected.”
With that, she lunged at me again, gnawing at my chest. And I realized at that moment that she was eating me. I was being consumed, eaten alive.
I tried to struggle underneath her, but I was paralyzed. My mind and body refused to obey me. All I could do was lie there as she literally devoured me whole. And for some reason, it didn’t feel wrong.
My mind began to drift. For a few seconds, I could see myself lying in a pool of blood and gore on the floor of the classroom, with a demonic ghost on top of me. Eve had a piece of… something in her claw and was happily eating it. Was that my liver? I wasn’t sure.
I didn’t want to die, especially not like this. I didn’t want to abandon my lovers, my family, my Shiro. But the world was fading and so was I. And I didn’t have enough determination to prevent it, because a part of me felt this was supposed to happen.
Eve was hurting me, yes, but everything that was painful had a purpose. Maybe this way, I could finally achieve mine.
If any god was watching, I hoped he would protect those I’d leave behind. I had loved them with all my heart. I would’ve liked to stay with them, to give them everything I was. But that wasn’t possible. My destiny wasn’t mine. It never had been.
Or… Had it? Images flashed through my mind, the memories of all the moments I’d shared with my loved ones. The birthdays I’d spent with my parents. The two of them bickering over who got to help me with my homework, until I ended up doing it myself. Growing up through my difficult seizure-ridden childhood. Shiro and how tiny he’d been when I’d found him in that alley. The moment Lucifer had told me I needed to come to The Academy of the Devil. The first kisses I’d shared with Mikael, Stefan, Callum, Meph, and later, with Lucifer too.
As those thoughts crystallized in my consciousness, the unlikeliest thing happened.
A blast of crimson magic erupted from my prone body, sending Eve reeling. It was only for a moment and she soon recovered, but it was enough.
The next thing I knew, a familiar voice echoed through the classroom like thunder. “Get away from her!”
The light of The Brightest Star surged around us and Eve vanished from on top of me. She screeched in protest, and the sound burnt my hearing like a mournful, but grating requiem.
“You can’t stop this, Lucifer. You’re the one who set this in motion. You can’t save her. Why are you even trying? She’s not rea
l.”
“Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do!” he bellowed. “Of course she’s real, but you aren’t. You’re dead and gone!”
“Obviously not. I’m here now, no matter how much you might deny it. And you’re the one who wanted me to do this. Don’t shy away from what needs to be done now.”
“You know very well this was never what I wanted. Leave!”
His cry sent a wave of power through the room and the anomaly that had kept everyone else from acting cracked. The world turned back to normal. With another screech, Eve disappeared.
Within seconds, Mikael, Stefan, and Callum were by my side. They tried to help me, but they didn’t even know how to begin. “Oh, Satan… What…? How…?”
“Move!” Lucifer ordered sharply. “Let me.”
A golden silhouette appeared above me, so bright I was almost forced to look away. I resisted the urge. I didn’t have much time left until my world turned permanently black. I would cling to every moment of light, for as long as I could.
“I’m so sorry, Alyssa,” Lucifer murmured. “I’m so sorry. Hang in there. Don’t die. I know it hurts, but don’t let go.”
I wanted to tell him I wasn’t in any pain. I wanted to apologize for lying to him, for hiding the truth about the ghost and not telling him what I’d seen. But the words just didn’t come.
By my side, Shiro let out a loud howl. I felt something flicker inside me as he cried for my imminent loss. “Lyssa! Don’t go!”
“She’s not going anywhere, hell hound, not if I can help it,” Lucifer growled. “I’ve lost enough in life.
“You hear that, Father?” he shouted, this time speaking to someone else entirely. “You’re not taking this too.”
His fierce defiance sank deep into my torn muscles and filled every vacant spot of my ruined body. The shadows encroaching on my vision dissipated and I could see my lovers once again.
“There you go,” Lucifer said. “That’s it, love. That’s it. Don’t give up. Stay with us. Don’t let her win.”
Stefan, Callum, and Mikael joined in. “Come on, princess. You can do this.”
“You’re stronger than this, Lyssa.”
“Come back to us, my darkling.”
The thread of my bond with Shiro started to tighten again. “Yes. That’s it, Lyssa. Stay!”
I didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, following their voices and Lucifer’s magic, I managed to recover. It was actually a little weird, because logic stated I should’ve at least had a seizure after all that. I hadn’t. But that mattered a little less than the fact that I was literally in one piece.
I stared at myself in disbelief, unable to process the fact that I wasn’t dead. I distinctly remembered Eve pulling out some of my organs and eating them in front of me. Hell, I was still covered in blood and my dress had been reduced to scraps.
And yet, I felt fine. A little light-headed, yes, but overall, okay, and definitely not dying. “W-What?” I stammered.
“There are some perks to being an angel,” Lucifer said, cupping my cheek with a gentle hand, “even a fallen one. And I think maybe I still have a little favor with The Supreme Being. Welcome back.”
Maybe I should’ve thanked him. Once again, he’d saved my life. He’d kept me from being eaten.
But I found it hard to express my gratitude in words. Instead, what came out was something entirely different. “What is going on here? Why? Why…? I don’t understand.”
Lucifer didn’t answer. He just hugged me close, so tightly I was almost afraid he’d break me in two.
I hugged him back anyway, still lost, confused and terrified. One thing was certain. I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to have a real conversation with Lucifer and find out where we were headed with this.
I still remembered the way it had felt to be eaten, but that wasn’t what scared me most. I needed to know why I hadn’t been able to fight her off, why giving my body to her had seemed natural.
“Lucifer? Why did Eve say I wasn’t real?” I whispered in his ear.
He went rigid under my touch, but this time, he replied. His voice echoed in my head like a sentence. “She said it because, up to a point, it’s true. I’m sorry, Alyssa, but you’re not a person, not really.”
Vessel
After the bombshell he’d dropped on me, Lucifer carried me out of the classroom, straight to The House of Pride dorm. Meph was already there when we arrived and he kicked everyone else out, with the exception of Stefan, Callum, Mikael, and of course, Lucifer.
It was the first time we’d all been together as a group. I’d never seen Meph interact with Lucifer at all. I suspected they’d done this on purpose, because the moment they were together, I could tell they had an intimate relationship, one deeper than anything Meph had mentioned.
I didn’t blame him for it. Meph was a demon and older than three-quarters of the people in this school put together. He and Lucifer had a close connection. I just wished I didn’t have to find out these things after a life or death experience.
“What the fuck happened, Lucifer?” Meph asked, his wings twitching. “Why did I feel an outburst of magic earlier?”
“Eve attacked Alyssa. I take it you cast some kind of spell of protection on her?”
“It wasn’t a spell, it was a talisman,” Meph explained. “But it didn’t do much good.”
“On the contrary, if not for the talisman, Alyssa would likely be dead. It alerted me to what was going on and briefly disrupted the spell keeping everyone in stasis.”
Of course. The flask. That must’ve been what had blasted Eve away. I checked my pockets and realized I didn’t have it with me anymore. It must’ve shattered in the process.
Weirdly, that thought was enough to snap me out of my trance. “Can you guys stop talking about me like I’m not here? What’s going on? Please tell me.”
I wasn’t proud of the fact that my voice cracked at the end of the final sentence, but I didn’t think I could be blamed for it. Lucifer turned toward me, and I’d never seen his gold eyes look so dull and tired. “All right, Alyssa, but this won’t be easy to explain,” he said with a sigh. He paused, as if gathering his thoughts. When he spoke again, he asked me something I didn’t expect. “How much do you know about Greek mythology?”
“Enough, I guess,” I replied. “I watched Hercules and read Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Why?”
“Well, those myths aren’t completely inaccurate. Do you recall the tale of Pandora and her box?”
Everyone knew that story. Even people who weren’t huge fans of mythology knew it, since it was so popular it had turned into a widely used metaphor. “Of course. What does that have to do with me and Eve?”
Lucifer didn’t give me a real answer to that question. “As you might also be aware, the so-called box wasn’t a box at all,” he offered instead. “Many have said that it was actually a jar. In any case, the receptacle was said to hold death, disease, and countless other calamities. When Pandora snapped it shut, she left hope lurking in the bottom.”
“Yes, I know all that,” I replied, “but I still don’t understand. Why does that matter right now?”
“I’m getting there. The myth is actually a distorted version of the tale of The Original Sin. You see, Alyssa, when The Supreme Being created The Garden of Eden, he did so to hide a powerful secret. The secret of creation.
“This was something I could not abide. I believed that knowledge was something we all deserved. But I couldn’t touch the tree that protected this powerful secret or any of its apples. Nobody could, except the people who guarded it—Eve and her husband, Adam.
“I encouraged Eve to eat an apple, so that she might discover what I wanted to know. I knew that eventually she and Adam would share my father’s secret with their descendants and loved ones, and it would spread without me having to do anything about it.”
“I take it something went wrong.”
Lucifer grimaced. “You could say that. The true secrets of
creation aren’t meant to be seen by a mortal mind. Eating the apple almost shattered Eve and her husband. She was unable to finish it and tossed the core away. And that core, as you might have already guessed, held hope.
“Unfortunately, this meant that part of The Supreme Being’s knowledge was unleashed into the world, while his biggest gift was discarded and left behind.”
I frowned at Lucifer, his story temporarily distracting me from my predicament. “But that can’t be right. People have hope all the time, for the future, for their children, their friends, their families. Hope exists.”
“It does, but it doesn’t have the form it should’ve had. It never survives for too long.
“You see, after Adam and Eve were banished from The Garden of Eden, Lilith went in search of the apple. As you know, she was Adam’s first wife and she still had access to the garden. She found the fruit and she managed to salvage its seeds. Using a powerful enchantment, she sent these seeds out into the word, to take root in the hearts of all mankind.
“At the time, she also hoped that, through this, true hope would return one day. And it did. Several times. But it never ended well. To give you an example, Helen of Troy was a vessel of hope.”
I was beginning to understand where he was going with this. Fuck. “I take it I’m one too. One such vessel.”
I didn’t want to hear his reply. I already knew what it would be. Still, when he nodded and confirmed my suspicions, my heart fell.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s what makes you special, Alyssa. You were born with the power to give hope to anyone, and also to extract it.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” Mikael piped up, speaking for the first time since Lucifer had started his tale.
I looked at him, having not expected his intervention. “Explains what?” Did he just mean all my weird powers or was he referring to something else?
“Demons… We don’t have a lot of hope, Lyssa. You remember what’s written on top of our gate, right? Abandon all hope. That’s not a metaphor. Hope doesn’t survive here, not for long.