by SJ West
Like my knight in shining armor, I watch as Cade grabs Lucifer by the shoulders and pulls him off me.
“Stay away from her, Lucifer!” Cade warns as he comes to stand between me and my father like a protective barrier. “This is not the time or the place for you to attack her!”
“We’re out of time, you fool!” Lucifer rails. “And what kind of War Angel are you to take up for that thing? You know what she’s capable of, don’t you? She’s a creature that thrives on the misery of others. If you think she can love you, you’re deluding yourself with a romantic fantasy that will never happen. All she cares about is herself and destroying humanity any way she can. Has she even told you that she’s given Liana one of her seals?”
“Yes, she did,” Cade answers.
“You know what she’s done to the one God sent you to defend, yet you still want to protect the one person who is a threat to her? I thought you cared about Anna more than that, Cade. How can you love someone who has made Liana hate her own mother?”
I see Cade’s shoulders stiffen after Lucifer’s revelation. I have to admit that I’m clueless about what he’s referring to.
And then … everything falls into place.
When I look over Cade’s shoulder at Anna, our eyes meet, and I can see the depth of her pain. I didn’t know it would happen. I didn’t know Liana would be able to channel how I felt about her mother through our new bond, but I consider it an unexpected gift.
“Why would Liana hate Anna?” Cade asks, still unable to comprehend the connection. Sometimes, he’s just too naïve to fathom the strength of my hate for Anna.
“You’re an idiot,” Lucifer spits out as if he’s talking to a dog. “They’re connected to one another by the seal, you fool! Not only has Helena taken the love of her only daughter away from Anna, but she’s planning something that will take her crown away from her too!”
As I keep my gaze fixed on Anna, I see her wince as if Lucifer’s words have caused her physical pain.
All that talk about wanting to forge a peace between us makes sense now. I knew she was up to something, and now I know what. Anna couldn’t care less about me, but in order to win the love of her daughter back, she had to lower her moral standards and attempt to befriend me. Too bad Lucifer just ruined her plan. Now I know nothing she says can be taken seriously. It wasn’t as if I had planned for us to become bosom buddies anyway. After the events of this afternoon play out, she’ll return to hating me again. It was foolish of her to think there could ever be an everlasting peace between us. Our relationship with one another can never be a tranquil one.
“How can you stand there and defend a creature who does nothing but cause pain and misery to the people you’re supposed to be protecting?” Lucifer demands of Cade.
“Maybe a better question is, how can you stand there and blame her for what she is?” Cade counters caustically. “You made her, yet you refuse to accept the fact that she’s your daughter, too! Perhaps if you had been a better father to her, she wouldn’t be as broken as she is now!”
“That thing is not my child. I only have one daughter and that’s Anna!” Lucifer stridently declares.
“It’s no use, Cade,” I tell him. “He’ll never see me as anything but the worst part of himself he would rather forget about.”
I push myself off the wall and walk up to Cade, touching him gently on the arm.
“Let’s go,” I say. “I think we’ve disturbed Lucas’ party quite enough.”
Without waiting for his consent, I phase Cade to my bedroom in Hell and seal it off so Lucifer can’t follow. All I need right now is for him to come down here and continue to prattle on about the virtues of my saintly sister.
Cade turns around to face me.
“What was he talking about?” he asks, anger tinging each of his words. “Are you planning to hurt Anna? You promised me you wouldn’t.”
“I have no intentions of causing her any physical harm,” I declare in exasperation. “I do have a plan that may cause her to lose her crown, but you’ve known for a while now that I’m the one who organized Catherine Amador’s comeback to retake the Cirrus throne. That has never been a secret.”
“Considering how violently Lucifer attacked you, he seems to believe you’re about to do something else to help your plan along. Is that true?”
“Yes, but it’s nothing that concerns you, dear heart. Political games are played this way. You have to do certain things to cause a response. You shouldn’t worry about it. No one you care about will be hurt. I can promise you that much.”
“But you’ve already hurt Anna,” he points out angrily. “Liana hates her mother now because she’s connected to you. It has to be tearing Anna’s heart to pieces.”
“There’s nothing I can do about that,” I quip.
“Did you know it would happen?”
“I had no idea!” I profess honestly. “But I’m also not going to stand here and tell you that I’m unhappy about it. Granted it’s a side effect I didn’t see coming, but I’m not about to lie and say I’m sorry that it’s happened.”
“Where does all of your hate for Anna stem from? Is it because Lucifer loves her and not you?”
Cade’s question brings me up short. I pause to think about my answer. I should automatically deny that I need or desire Lucifer’s acceptance and love, but would that be a lie, even to myself? Why do I hate Anna so much? She’s never done anything to me to warrant my hatred. I’ve always been the aggressor in our relationship. The only time she’s ever truly tried to kill me was that night in Cirrus when I unleashed my hellspawn in her city. Even then, she had to know stabbing me with her sword or even attempting to use her powers on me wouldn’t end my life. It was a sad attempt by a desperate woman.
Maybe Cade has hit upon a truth with his question. I’m not completely sure.
“That’s probably part of the reason,” I admit. “When you live with someone for as long as I did Lucifer, you tend to feel a bit territorial about their relationships with others.”
“Can’t you see that you’re just punishing Anna because you feel slighted by Lucifer? She reached out to you today …”
“Only because she’s trying to find a way to make her daughter not hate her as much,” I interrupt. “She doesn’t want to be my friend because she likes me.”
“It may be her motivation, but I think it should prove to you that she’s willing to give you a chance.”
“Give me a chance,” I scoff with a roll of my eyes. “I’m not sure why you think having Anna as a friend is even important to me.”
“Because I believe you want friends. I think you want people in your life you can count on, but you’re too scared to admit it. Lucifer’s rejection has damaged you more than you might want to acknowledge, Helena.” Cade takes a step forward. “But I’m not rejecting you. I know who and what you are, and I accept the fact that there are things about you that I don’t like. I also accept the fact that you may never change.”
“Even if I wanted to change,” I tell him, “I don’t think I can.”
“And I accept that fact,” he says. “All I ask is that you think about how what you do affects me too.”
“Think about you?” I ask, confused by his request. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“When you scheme against those I care about,” he says, “I want you to consider how it will make me feel.”
“And why should I care about how my actions affect you?”
“Because I think you want what we have growing between us to work out as much as I do.”
“Stop listening to the idiot. He just wants to change us into something he can love without feeling guilty about it.”
I look over Cade’s shoulder and see the mirror image of myself standing a few feet away.
“Go away,” I tell her.
Cade glances over his shoulder to look for the person I’m addressing.
He looks back at me and asks, “Who are you talking to?”
; It’s only then that I realize the other me is simply a figment of my imagination.
“I’m not a figment,” she tells me irritably, crossing her arms over her chest as she stares at me with an air of disapproval. “I’m just the sensible part of you that comes out when you’re about to do something stupid. You need to throw this guy out of your life and concentrate on what’s about to happen.”
“Helena?” Cade asks. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. Come on.” I take hold of his hand and quickly phase us out of Hell.
I transport us to a spot I know no one else will think to search for us: our cemetery.
I feel my body instantly relax as we stand amongst the graves. The quiet of the place calms my nerves and brings a sense of peace to my heart.
“Walk with me,” I practically order, tugging him along to stay by my side.
We walk for a long time without talking. Occasionally I stop to read a headstone, but I never linger for more than a minute. Thirty minutes go by and still Cade doesn’t say a word. He simply allows me some time to think about what he said to me.
I begin to wonder if I should stop my plan and find another way to disgrace Anna. Even if I wanted to put an end to it, I’m not sure there’s time. Silas and his men have probably already started the countdown and found a safe place to lay low until it’s time for him to make his broadcast and have the rebellion angels enact the second part of our plan. I have no idea where they are right now or how to contact them. I glance over at Cade as we walk, wondering how he’ll react when he finds out what I’ve done. I know he won’t be pleased, but will he see me as a monster he no longer wants to be around once he learns the truth?
I really can’t take that chance.
I stop walking and turn to him. “I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I want you to stay in Hell for the next couple of days. Will you do that for me?”
“Why?” he asks, obviously suspicious of my motives.
“I can’t tell you that right now. I promise I will, but if you care about me like you say you do, I need you to do this for me. Will you?”
Cade studies me with a critical eye for a moment before saying, “Either you’re hiding me from something or you’re hiding something from me. Which is it? If you answer that question truthfully, I’ll do as you ask.”
“I’m hiding something from you,” I confess, but it’s the truth, and he’s already promised to do what I want as long as I didn’t lie to him.
“And how mad will I be when I discover what you’re hiding from me?”
“I’m guessing very mad,” I say confidently. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be trying to hide it.”
“Who are you hurting this time?” he questions in a low voice that tells me he wants to know the answer and yet he doesn’t.
“No one you know personally,” I promise.
Cade sighs heavily and looks away from me. I’m not certain if he just can’t bring himself to look at me or if he needs a moment to collect his thoughts. It’s probably a little bit of both.
When he does look back at me, he says, “Will I be there alone or will you be staying with me?”
“Most of the time I’ll be with you, but tomorrow morning I have an appointment that I have to keep. I’ll need to leave you alone for an hour, maybe two at the most.”
“I don’t like being there,” he tells me candidly. “It makes me feel uncomfortable.”
To be honest, I don’t particularly want to stay in Hell right now either. My stubborn subconscious has more control over my mind while I’m there than I like. The only advantage to keeping Cade in Hell is that no one can enter into my domain unless I allow them to, and he can’t leave without my permission.
“If I let you stay somewhere else,” I say, thinking of a compromise, “do you promise not to leave?”
“Where else would we go?”
“Back to planet Sierra,” I say. “I’m sure Evelyn has a place we can use while we’re there.”
“I would much rather stay there than Hell,” Cade replies in relief. “Are you sure she won’t mind putting us up for a while?”
“Of course she won’t,” I say, secretly thinking that even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. She’ll do what I want or face the consequences of defying me.
“In fact, we should go there now and get you …”
I suddenly drop to my knees, clutching my chest with both hands.
“Helena!” Cade yells in dismay as he kneels down beside me, grasping my arms to prevent me from toppling over onto the ground and landing on my face. “What’s wrong?”
I take in a large gulp of air, unable to answer his question as I begin to absorb a cascade of new energy. I let out a cry that’s a mixture of both pain and ecstasy. I know exactly what’s happening. Silas and the others have set the first part of my plan into motion, and now I’m reaping the rewards from their effort: an infusion of new souls has just entered Hell.
Chapter 14
(Anna’s Point of View)
As soon as Cade and Helena phase out of the room, we decide to leave Cirrus and continue Lucas’ party in our New Orleans home. It doesn’t feel safe to stay in my cloud city, considering the fact that it’s been the main target of both Helena and the rebellion angels twice now. If what Lucifer has been told is true, we need to brace ourselves for whatever is coming next. I knew Helena would probably take advantage of our split attention since the babies were born, but I suppose I hoped that by trying to befriend her we could move beyond her vendetta against me.
Now Helena knows I was only being friendly to her because I was trying to help Liana. No, that’s not exactly true. If I’m being completely honest, I was trying to help myself. I wanted to make Helena stop hating me enough to give me a chance to form a relationship with my child. I don’t see that as a possibility now. Not unless Helena has an unexpected revelation that makes her more amenable to a truce between us.
Once we have the party set up in the dining room, Lucifer pulls Malcolm and me aside, asking us to follow him down to the kitchen.
“There’s someone you need to talk to,” my father tells me. “Andre and Jered have been keeping an eye on him until you could go speak with him yourself.”
Lucifer phases to the kitchen, giving us no other option but to phase to follow him.
Once there, I’m surprised to find Baal present. When I first met Baal, he inhabited the body of Rafael Rossi, former Emperor of Alto and Bianca’s husband. Rafael’s corpse was found in the rubble of Alto after Baal and Mammon tried to destroy it. Baal then assumed the body of Ryo Mori, who was recently elected Emperor of Cirro, which is the cloud city that controls all of Asia.
“Why the hell are you in my house?” Malcolm asks him crossly.
Baal rises from his chair at the table, hands raised as if to prove he comes in peace.
“I only came here to give you the warning about Helena’s plans,” he says. “That’s all. I swear. Like I told Lucifer, all I know is that she has something big arranged for later today and that it’s supposed to force Anna to abdicate the throne of Cirrus.”
“She didn’t give you any details?” I ask.
“I never met with Helena personally. She sent Levi to tell me to be ready to back them up tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I ask in confusion. “I thought whatever she has planned was supposed to happen today.”
“It is,” Baal verifies, “but after it happens, the Empress and Emperor of Nimbo will send invitations out to all the cloud city leaders to attend a special meeting in the Mars pavilion tomorrow morning. Presumably, they’re going to ask you to step down and hand over control of Cirrus to Catherine.”
“Well, that’s never going to happen,” Malcolm grumbles. “But I still don’t understand why you’re here telling us this. Why risk betraying Helena?”
“She threatened to take Bianca’s life if I don’t cooperate with their plan,” Baal tells us.
“I didn’t like it, but I’m not strong enough to fight and win against her. Your wife is the only one I know of who might be able to take her down before she becomes even more powerful.”
“So you genuinely care that much about Bianca?” I ask him, unable to hide my misgivings about such an occurrence being true. “Enough to risk your own life to give us this information?”
“I know I’m a bastard,” Baal freely admits with a nonchalant shrug, “and I don’t deserve someone like Bianca, but I also can’t help the way I feel when I’m around her. Do I love her? I’m not sure. I think I do. All I know is that I’ve placed her life in danger by caring about her, and I need your help to ensure she stays alive. I know you and Bianca are friends. All I ask is that you help me protect her from Helena. I’ll do whatever you want as long as you can guarantee that you’ll keep Bianca safe.”
“I can’t make a promise like that,” I tell him, “but I can assure you that she’ll be under my protection until this war with Helena is over.”
“I’ve never heard you call it a war before,” Malcolm says to me.
“She’s threatening our family and my city,” I reply. “I don’t see how we can think of it any other way now.”
I look at Lucifer. “Have you heard anything from our contact within the rebellion angels about this?”
“You probably won’t,” Baal tells us before Lucifer has a chance to answer. “Helena is keeping those in the know to a very small number. Levi wasn’t even told what’s going to happen today until right before he came to see me. I could tell he wanted to fill me in on the details, but he fears Helena as much as, or more than, any of us. He kept his mouth shut because he doesn’t want to get on her bad side any more than he already is.”
“Our contact hasn’t reached out to us,” Lucifer tells me, answering my initial question.
There’s a moment of silence before Baal asks, “I don’t suppose Gabe has had a vision of what will happen?”
“That isn’t his name now,” I say tersely. “And don’t ever call him by that name again, or so help me God, I will tear your tongue from your mouth. I refuse to have him learn about his past life through you. His name is Lucas, and no, he hasn’t mentioned having a new vision recently.”