by Eva Brandt
As he spoke, his body shifted, growing more and more, until he became a behemoth of infernal proportions. His blue skin turned crimson and his legs melted away into a cloud of vapor.
Wonderful. He was using his ifrit form for our fight, and he’d magnified it using his Satan abilities.
Size wasn’t everything, but ifrit were really annoying, because through their nature, they didn’t have physical forms. Without a doubt, that must have been the reason why Jax had thought he’d be safe from Ammit. He would’ve probably been correct had Ammit been anyone else, but her ability to imprison souls had kept him trapped inside her anyway.
Now that he was free and had returned to his previous form, I had to fight something immaterial. Okay, then.
My magic wouldn’t have much effect on him. I already knew that. Still, I summoned it to me, dragging every drop of the fire that was my birthright into my claws.
A bright jet of flame erupted from my paws and I pooled all my fury, grief, anguish, and blood lust into it. The magic would’ve carbonized anything in its path. Darling ducked and hid behind a column, wary of finding her death at my hands.
When it hit Jax, it dissipated like it was nothing.
He laughed, a grating sound that made my sensitive ears hurt. “Oh, that was a good one. It almost tickled.”
My failure wasn’t a surprise, but it still irked me. I had to force my wolf back, because I instinctively wanted to lunge at him, to destroy him for what he’d done to Lyssa. But if I tried that, the result would be disastrous.
Maybe if I amused him enough, I could keep stalling.
I wasn’t a strategic fighter, but I did what I could. I sent another blast of magic at Jax, taming it into the shape of a wolf. This was a skill I’d painstakingly learned from Professor Jones. If you imbued your elemental magic with a little bit of your life force, you had a far better chance of hurting something that had your affinity.
The manifestation of my fury might have been impressive to anyone else, but to Jax, not so much. His demonic aura flared brighter and it began to absorb the sentient power that I’d used to animate my construct.
“Nothing you can do will ever be good enough,” he commented almost idly. “I can destroy you with a flick of my fingers. You’re nothing but an insect to me.”
My magic resisted him, but it wasn’t something I could keep doing for too long.
He was even more powerful than I’d expected. I’d never underestimated him—for fuck’s sake, I wasn’t stupid—but I hadn’t seen this coming.
Had he absorbed some of Ammit’s magic when he’d possessed her? If so, I was in more trouble than I’d thought.
Thankfully, I was not alone. Mikael, Callum, and Mephistopheles were still here. Callum was still out cold—which alarmed me—but the dean was still in the battle. He might’ve been injured, but he was still a High Lord of Hell.
With the corner of my eye, I caught sight of him doing something with his tail. A lot of people didn’t realize that damn thing was an actual limb and he could cast with it just as easily as he did with his hands.
Even if Mephistopheles still hung limply in his cuffs, the tail lengthened and surreptitiously made its way toward Mikael. It nudged his cuffs, and almost instantly, the lines of strain on Mikael’s face started to vanish. The shades of red on Meph’s tail darkened, as if it was seeping shadows out of the cuffs.
I couldn’t focus any further on the process. Instead, I continued my attempts to distract Jax. With a thought, I made my wolf hover mid-air and sent it to claw at Jax’s eyes.
I hoped that at least this part of his body would be more vulnerable to physical damage and I was proven right. My fiery wolf got a few good blows in before Jax snarled angrily and swept his hand through the air.
I couldn’t hope to make the enchantment dodge. When Jax struck my animated creation, I felt the blow echo all the way into my core and my hold on my beast faltered. I almost lost control of my middle form, and it was only sheer good fortune that kept me from falling into my regular hell hound shape and possibly abandoning all attempts to fight him off.
I swayed and leaned against one of the columns, trying to catch my breath. The symbol beneath my hand was warm, but not hostile. It was Leviathan’s sigil. I hoped like hell that he’d had the sense to provide Lucifer with support.
Maybe he heard me or maybe he didn’t, but that was when everything changed. I felt Mikael reach for me, only this time, his mental touch was far more powerful than earlier, when he’d helped me free myself.
He and I had a bond, one born from the time we’d spent together when we’d been younger, and then, solidified through the familiar connection we both shared with Callum. We didn’t always get along, but that was okay, because even when we fought, we weren’t truly apart.
This time, Mephistopheles was giving him a hand, because otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to share his magic with me again. Even with Mephistopheles’s aid, it would be tough. But we needed to help Lyssa. We’d failed her so far. We didn’t have much time at our disposal or a lot of options.
Another surge of angelic power flowed through me. It hurt, but it also filled me with renewed strength and a determination to bring this fucker down.
With a thought, I summoned my magic to my aid once again. The fiery wolf returned, wrapped in white light, in the divine magic Mikael had given me.
The wolf lunged at Jax and this time, it wasn’t so easy for Jax to repel him. When my magical construct clawed at his face, thin scratches appeared on the surface of his skin. They vanished a few seconds later, but Jax wasn’t laughing anymore.
“It would appear you have some tricks up your sleeve, hell hound. Not to worry. So do I.”
He flicked his fingers and a massive fist popped up next to the wolf. He made a grab for the construct, but I dissolved the spell at the last moment, avoiding getting trapped in his hold. Jax hissed in irritation as the backlash from my enchantment struck him, but he promptly set his anger aside. “Perhaps this is for the best. I did want to have a little fun before we finished this. After all, this is a party.”
Even if he wanted to take sadistic enjoyment in torturing me, that was okay with me. It would buy us more time. If I’d been in his shoes, I’d have made sure my enemy wasn’t a threat any longer before I indulged in trivialities. I wasn’t and his mistakes could come in handy.
Unfortunately for me, while fighting Satan, I’d forgotten something very important. Lyssa had other enemies at the school and Satan wasn’t the main reason why she’d left the academy.
“Oh, stop playing with your food, Satan,” a male voice suddenly said. “We don’t have time for games.”
A bolt of ice-cold magic struck me, propelling me at least a dozen feet away. I limited the damage it did to me and landed on my feet, but I was dizzy and rattled from the attack.
It took me only a couple of seconds to realize the source of the spell that had struck me. Cain, Lilith, and Eve had come to The Scholomance and had now started a conversation with Satan.
“This isn’t a party,” Lilith said. “It’s a world-altering event. You need to focus on what really matters, Satan.”
“I know that,” Jax said. “I was just waiting for you.”
Cain curled his lower lip but didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, I got up, already reconsidering my approach.
Their presence didn’t shock me. I’d already known Eve had been hunting Lyssa, and Cain and Lilith had sided with her. Still, their arrival couldn’t have come at a worse moment. I was wildly outnumbered and my strength couldn’t compare to theirs. Should I try to take one of them captive? Would that work?
Sensing my schemes, Lilith waved a hand toward me. This time, the magic that reached me wasn’t an elemental or telekinetic blast, but my wolf still recoiled, feeling the presence of a more dangerous predator. But I hadn’t backed down when attacked by Jax. I wouldn’t bow down to her.
I needed to endure this and fight them off for a little while l
onger, to buy Lucifer time to return. He’d realize what had happened, I was sure of it, and when he did, he’d come to help us.
“I know you’re relying on The Fallen One, Stefan,” Lilith said as if she’d read my mind, “but he won’t come for you. In fact, if things keep going the way I think they will, he won’t come ever again. And you need to be mindful of that, respect your betters and have some self-preservation for once.”
I bared my fangs at her. “I have plenty of self-preservation, thank you very much. You just don’t understand it.”
Most people didn’t. Maybe they thought I was being an idiot. But life without Lyssa wasn’t worth anything.
“Lyssa died convinced that we didn’t love her. I want to look into her eyes again and tell her the truth.”
Sadness and doubt flickered in Lilith’s eyes. Her gaze shot toward Lyssa’s decapitated body. I wondered if she felt any guilt or regret at the sight. In the past, she’d shown affection toward Lyssa, maybe even respect.
But in the end, that didn’t matter, because family bonds had to win out. “That’s touching and all, Stefan Schwarz,” Eve offered, “but sooner or later, this was always going to happen. Your female was the vessel of a power that didn’t belong to her. She was born to die. She would have never existed if not for the power she stole from me.”
“Did you know that Ms. Michaelis’s father is sterile?” Cain asked. “It’s a consequence of his refusal to follow the original contract of his ancestor. He should’ve never been able to have children. But he did, through this power, and now, the price for that anomaly has to be paid.”
“It’s not your place to decide that, Cain,” I replied. “If Lyssa was born in that family, you weren’t the one to arrange it.”
“And who do you think it was? The Supreme Being?” Jax sneered. “You know he doesn’t care about the petty matters of humanity anymore.”
“Enough,” Lilith snapped. “This is a waste of time. We’ve already established what needs to be done and we don’t need to continue to argue about it.
“You people keep forcing me into unpleasant positions, Stefan. Stay out of this. You and your pack have already made the situation more complicated than it had to be.”
She caught a glimpse of the still unconscious Callum and pressed her lips together in obvious displeasure. Scowling, she turned toward Jax. “We had a deal. We established Callum wouldn’t be harmed.”
“And he won’t be. He’s just sleeping and by the time he wakes up, it’ll all be over.”
Taking advantage of the small respite, Mephistopheles tried to make her see sense. “Lilith, don’t do this,” he said. “You know how it’ll end.”
Lilith shook her head. “It’s already done, Mephistopheles. And it’s out of my hands.”
“Your clan has tried for millennia to return hope to where it belongs,” Mikael choked out. “And now, you’re going to give it to Satan?”
“Of course not,” Cain answered in Lilith’s stead. “That power will go to my mother, as it was supposed to. And once this is over, we’ll make sure this little school starts treating my clan like it deserves. I don’t want any Adamson mixing with human trash.
“You and all the people like you have taken advantage of our talents long enough. Did you really think we’d allow you to burden Callum forever with that familiar bond? Your beast of a lover has been feeding on his magic for decades.”
What the fuck was he talking about? I’d never done that to Callum. If there was feeding involved, it was always mutual. That was how we’d met and bonded in the first place. I’d been a great source of food for an incubus, when he’d been much younger and prone to draining weaker people dry.
Yes, our relationship wasn’t ideal, but it worked for us. He’d been the one to suggest the idea of me becoming his familiar, so we could all go to The Academy of the Devil together. I’d known that Callum’s parents weren’t crazy about it, but he’d sworn up and down that he had it handled.
In any case, I wanted to tell Cain to fuck off, to crawl back to the hole where he’d come from, because he didn’t know shit about me and Callum. Mikael kept me from doing that.
He started laughing. It wasn’t a happy laughter, or even a sarcastic one. Instead, the sound held an edge of cruelty and malice, something which I’d always known was hiding deep inside Mikael. “Fool. You’ve gone too far and now you’re going to pay the price.”
For the first time, I realized that, at one point when we hadn’t been paying attention, TB had appeared next to Mikael. I didn’t know where she’d come from, but she was now curled around Mikael’s neck. One of her wings was broken, but she didn’t let that get in her way. She buried her fangs into Mikael’s throat, pumping her venom into his body.
Despite myself, I flinched at the sight. I knew how painful that bite was. But I also knew it was something Mikael encouraged and wanted.
Once upon a time, when we’d been younger, I’d asked Mikael why TB’s venom hurt him even if she was his familiar. Mikael had told me familiars were whatever they needed to be for the person they bonded with.
TB brought Mikael comfort and protected him, but sometimes, when she had to, she also hurt him.
As the venom coursed through Mikael’s body, his veins became visible, the lines jet black instead of red. He strained against the cuffs, once, twice, three times. His skin started to glow brighter as if he was about to implode.
No such thing happened. The cuffs cracked under the pressure of the magic he now emanated. TB removed her fangs from the bite wound and Mikael took a step forward, looking utterly calm and not at all like he’d just asked his familiar to put him through torture.
“You know what?” he asked, his voice mellow and level. “I’m tired of you doing whatever the fuck you want. I think it’s time for a new Satan. And since my father isn’t conveniently around to take care of you, it looks like it’s up to me.”
A flaming sword was already manifesting in his hand and I grinned.
A savage hell hound was dangerous. A savage nephilim was lethal, and our enemies were just about to learn that lesson, the hard way.
Mikael’s Malice
For as long as I could remember, my existence had been a taboo. I’d grown up knowing I was part of a species that wasn’t supposed to exist. My mother had been a demonic symbiote and she’d brought me to live with Stefan’s pack because she hadn’t known what to do with an infant. She’d done her best, but sometimes, I suspected she wished she’d terminated the pregnancy.
I couldn’t blame her for it. It wasn’t in the nature of symbiotes to breed like mammals. Archangels were similar, which was likely part of the reason I existed. I appreciated that she’d at least made sure I had somewhere to turn to, even if she hadn’t wanted to raise me. Stefan’s pack might not have been my home, but it had been something. It had been better than my father’s brief attempt to take me to The Heavens.
I knew many would have thanked my mother if she had gotten rid of me. I was an abomination and I knew it.
Angels didn’t hate nephilim because we were half-demons. Demons didn’t hate us because we were half-angels. They hated us because we belonged to one individual species, but had all the features of the other. It made us very prone to losing our minds.
Never had I understood this better than the moment I watched Lyssa die, betrayed by someone I’d tried to keep safe. Darling and I hadn’t been close, but I’d sensed her half-divine nature. I hadn’t wanted her to suffer for it, so I’d kept her secret.
Mephistopheles always had told me I was too kind. In this, at least, he’d been proven correct.
Well, perhaps it was time for all the secrets to come out in the open.
I wasn’t surprised when TB showed up by my side. She was resourceful and although I’d had no idea what had happened to her, I’d known that she would make her way to me, no matter what.
“I am here, my Mikael,” she hissed, curling against my neck. “How can I help?”
“You alr
eady know how,” I whispered back.
TB didn’t hesitate. During our first days together, she hadn’t understood, but now she no longer had that problem. She struck without mercy and her venom rushed through my veins like acid.
The agony far surpassed the pain the cuffs had caused me before Mephistopheles’s intervention. I embraced it anyway, using it to crack the shield around my heart.
It was easy, because the crack was already there. Watching Lyssa die had left a mark. If I hadn’t lost it already, it was because I knew we could bring her back.
But that was not enough any longer, not when it was becoming obvious that no one would come to help us, not when Lucifer was missing, probably under attack by the other Princes of Hell.
TB’s venom brought out all my anguish and torment. I might have been the leader of The House of Envy, but that was just because, for three decades, I’d suppressed my anger at the world. And I was more pissed off today than I’d been in all those years put together.
My power surged forward, destroying the cuffs that held me captive. “You know what?” I asked. “I’m tired of you doing whatever the fuck you want. I think it’s time for a new Satan. And since my father isn’t conveniently around to take care of you, it looks like it’s up to me.”
A sword very similar to the one my father used appeared in my hand. The group stared at me in disbelief. Undoubtedly, they didn’t deem me much of a threat. Mephistopheles knew better.
“Congratulations,” he drawled, still bound in his shackles, but not looking in any way put out. “Now you’ve done it.”
Jax—or better said, Satan—snarled at us and the ground beneath his form started to crack and melt as the temperature in the ruins increased further. “What? Do you think this little display of yours intimidates me? It doesn’t. Angelic power won’t be enough to save you.”
“Good, because it’s not intimidation I seek. It’s blood. And I’m not an angel. I’m a nephilim.”
“Oh, shit,” Lilith said. She realized what was going on, but it was too late.