A Soulless Year Three

by Eva Brandt

And maybe that would have been true normally, but I’d never had a normal life. My luck was even shittier today than ever before, as I’d forgotten something very important.

  When Kemuel had said he wasn’t alone, he hadn’t just been referring to The Supreme Being. He might have been the High Seraph, but he wasn’t the only archon in the world.

  Two angels I hadn’t met before started to shift as well, their change a little slower than Kemuel’s, but just as powerful.

  “Well, this isn’t good,” Yeqon said. “It looks like they’re willing to demolish this whole city as long as it means taking you down with it.”

  “They’re crazy,” I replied, shaking my head. “I thought I’d started to understand angels while I was at Watcher Academy, but it looks like I was wrong.”

  “Good,” Leviathan replied. “You don’t need to understand them now. You have to fight them.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Leviathan,” Sariel snapped. “One archon is one thing, but three? That’s insane.”

  “If you have any better ideas, I’m all ears.”

  He didn’t, and neither did I. But I also hadn’t come back from the dead to give up now, damn it. Maybe we’d been a little rash in dispatching the rogue demons. Having a horde of rampaging hell spawn would have been very useful, at least as a distraction.

  As the thought crossed my mind, the ground beneath our feet—what little was left of it, at least—started to crack. “For fuck’s sake, what now?” I cursed.

  If someone else had decided they had a grudge on me for bullshit I hadn’t done or couldn’t change, I’d go ballistic.

  Everyone stopped fighting and turned to see what was going on. Leviathan started making frantic gestures, guiding his minions to move to the side. The archons continued to grow, but the energy around them turned different, warier.

  They were right to be concerned. Now that I thought about it, I’d seen something like this happen before, in the hell hound forest.

  Back then, Alyssa Michaelis had come to her lover’s rescue, because I’d used my power to tame him. Today, Stefan wasn’t here, but she showed up anyway.

  She emerged from the crack in the ground like a specter rising from beyond the grave, wreathed in smoke and flame. Once again, she was riding her demonic familiar, and in the light of the crackling blaze, his white fur looked tinged with crimson.

  “I’m told there was a mild misunderstanding here on who is responsible for the presence of the demons in The Mortal Realm,” she said. “That would be me and my husbands. She is no longer the leader of Hell. She hasn’t had any influence in The Infernal Realm for millennia.”

  “Your underlings disagree, Queen Alyssa,” Uriel said, “and this is exactly the kind of imbalance we’ve always tried to prevent.”

  “You had plenty of time to do that, when she was a resident of Watcher Academy, but you were too busy thinking about how to use her to see her for the threat she truly is.”

  “Things have changed,” Kemuel replied, his voice echoing over us like thunder. “We believed she deserved a second chance. We’ve learned from our mistakes.”

  Well, that was a bunch of bullshit right there. “I’ll stop you right now, because I’m getting sick and tired of this nonsense. I never wanted to fight you. Any of you. I don’t particularly want to do it now. If we’re in this position, it’s because of you.”

  Alyssa laughed. “Come now, Satan. You know that’s not true. But if you want to stop the pretense, that’s easy enough. Fight me. Here and now.”

  I scowled, not understanding where she was going with this. Alyssa might be trying to make a statement here, to point out she was the one in charge of The Infernal Realm. But she had bigger things to worry about now, since she’d just presumably been reunited with her daughter.

  “Something’s wrong,” Sariel whispered, confirming my thoughts. “She shouldn’t be here.”

  “Fight me,” Alyssa repeated, a little more insistent.

  Her aura flared and I could feel the desperation encroaching on me again, urging me to surrender, to accept the unavoidable. There’s no room in this world for two queens of Hell. Give up. Die.

  I shook myself, pushing back the thought that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I’d never wanted to be a queen, not in this life at least. All I’d wanted was to be happy, with my family. And if I had to fight to protect that, I would.

  Clutching my whip a little tighter, I smiled at Alyssa. “Kemuel sort of had dibs, but if you want to die so badly, I can’t possibly refuse.”

  Azazel hesitantly brushed his fingers over my shoulder. “Delilah…”

  I didn’t push him away, although I knew I should have. “Just let it go. This was always going to happen.”

  Maybe everyone knew that. Even the angels were content with this development, since no matter what the result would be, The Infernal Realm would suffer. But I didn’t care about them, not right now.

  Alyssa dismounted from her familiar and gestured for him to wait to the side. I found this strange, but didn’t comment. I didn’t have Demogorgon with me, so maybe she wanted to be fair.

  Then again, maybe she just didn’t think the wolf’s involvement was necessary. As I stepped forward, the Power of Hope—or rather, that of despair—began to grow more and more potent. “What’s the matter, Satan?” Alyssa mocked. “Not feeling so brave now, are you?”

  Her words reminded me of the conversation I’d had with my other self, in The In-Between. “I’m many things, Alyssa Morningstar, but I’ve never been a coward. I wonder if the same thing can be said about you.”

  In response, a blast of magic erupted from her body. I shielded myself with my wings, but there was only so much I could do against that kind of power. It was energy manipulation, but at the same time, it wasn’t. The insidious nature of her skill burned me, coming dangerously close to making me kneel.

  But my determination was stronger, and I broke free. I lashed out with my whip, aiming at Alyssa without needing to see. I hit my target, but she caught my weapon in her hand, bringing us to a minor stalemate.

  Now less hindered by her suffocating power, I willed my own to travel through the whip. Alyssa saw this coming, and before the magic of death could touch her, she let go.

  The weapon left a mild burn on Alyssa’s hand, but she didn’t seem to care. As I pulled back the whip, she flicked her fingers in an almost careless gesture and her injury instantly healed.

  “A whip,” she said. “How quaint. Real demons don’t need something like that.”

  As she spoke, her tail lengthened and sprouted spikes. Her horns started to grow and her eyes glinted with a fierce flame of near insanity.

  Yes, something was very wrong here. Alyssa had her daughter back, didn’t she? She should have recovered, but she hadn’t. Why?

  Maybe if things had been different, I’d have tried to reason with her. But she wasn’t my friend. She was my enemy, and I was tired of having to compromise and fight for my life every single second of every day.

  I would end this here, just like I’d promised.

  Alyssa’s tail flashed through the air, more dangerous than any whip I could have ever wielded. But I was ready for it. With a thought, I let my own aura spread. Unlike in Tokyo, there were no more humans here I had to protect. Everyone who’d survived the demon attack had been killed by the out of control growth of the archons. And even if that hadn’t been the case, I couldn’t afford to hold back in a battle against Alyssa.

  Because of Alyssa’s use of the magic of Hope, almost everyone watching the battle had backed away. It was still dangerous to go all out, but I ignored that. And when Alyssa’s tail touched my aura, the appendage shriveled away and died, as if it had been touched by gangrene.

  Alyssa didn’t even blink. If she was in pain, she didn’t show it. Because of the tail’s momentum, its remnants struck me anyway. A cracking spike went straight through my side, and I clenched my jaw to suppress a scream as agony exploded over me.

  Th
e spike broke off seconds later, but that wasn’t a good thing either. Despite having been separated from Alyssa and essentially killed, it still carried traces of magic. Alyssa didn’t have a direct connection to my body, but it was close enough.

  Voices erupted in my head as panic and despair flooded me all over again. My view of The Mortal Realm blurred and I felt as if I was back in Hell, being torn to pieces by people who should have been loyal to me.

  But this time, I didn’t let the feeling destroy me. I pressed my hand to my side, crushed the remnants of the spike, and cauterized the wound. It hurt like hell, but it stemmed the bleeding. Good enough. Satisfied that I wouldn’t die anytime soon, I lunged forward, toward Alyssa.

  She tried to fly out of my reach, but she was imbalanced due to the loss of her tail, so she didn’t get very far. When it became obvious that I was faster, she struck out at me with everything she had left.

  Our wings clashed, and fire licked over her skin, burning me, turning my feathers to ash. She clawed at my face and her horns expanded further. One of them dug into my shoulder, and I jerked back, narrowly avoiding the loss of an eye.

  I snapped the horn and pulled the broken piece from my shoulder. I threw it at her like I would have one of my own feathers. She batted it away, ignoring her own wounds.

  Still undeterred, she threw a fire blast at me, and I was too close to properly dodge. When it hit me, I crashed straight into an office building, shattering windows and cubicles in my wake.

  Human bodies were all around me, some of them now in pieces because of the power of the blast. Gritting my teeth, I flew out of the building and found Alyssa flying outside yet again.

  The time I’d lost in the explosion had cost me. Her horn was no longer broken, and her tail was already growing back, like she was some kind of reptile. Great. She didn’t try to attack me with it again, but it still wasn’t good news. All my effort would be for nothing if she just healed from every injury I gave her.

  There was only one answer, only one way we could move forward from this. Sometimes, to achieve great things, a sacrifice was necessary. I thought about all those humans in the building, about my vow, about my lovers, about my conversation with my mentors and with myself.

  “If you like spreading despair so much, why don’t you get a taste?” I whispered.

  And then, I threw all caution to the wind and flew straight at her. It was a reckless move. She saw me coming and her claws went straight through my chest.

  But she didn’t touch my heart, not in time. I grabbed her throat and willed her to feel every single ounce of pain I’d experienced in my life. And she screamed.

  As souls went, Alyssa’s was young. She had been created specifically to become the Vessel of Hope. She had suffered a lot throughout her mortal life, more than I’d expected. But she couldn’t carry the weight of the sorrow of a primordial soul.

  Several things happened at the same time. With a deafening boom, her aura faded, as did mine. As our powers clashed, the spell weaved around the battlefield came crashing down.

  As we fell together, the angels and demons started moving again. Alyssa’s familiar jumped on us first, grabbing my wing and jerking me away from her. Sariel caught me before I could hit the ground and covered the hole in my chest with a shaking hand.

  The world was blurring around me. Alyssa was still screaming. The sky was bleeding. More and more demons were coming out. And I could do nothing but lie there, helpless.

  “It’s okay now, Delilah,” Sariel whispered. “Just rest. You did the right thing.”

  “Liar,” I croaked out. “You’ve always been a liar. If I live through this, you have to promise to never lie to me again.”

  Azazel and Yeqon joined us. It was completely irrational of them to abandon the battle just to stay with me, but we’d never been very rational when it came to one another.

  “We can’t make that promise,” Azazel replied, kissing my temple. “But we can swear on our own souls that we’ll protect you.”

  There were so many things I wanted to say to them. It wasn’t protection I needed from them. That wasn’t what had made me come back and face Alyssa.

  I must have said at least some of that out loud, because Yeqon pressed his hand to mine and squeezed it lightly. “You’ll tell us why you came back soon enough. Rest for now.”

  I intended to do exactly that. As dramatic as it would be to die in my lovers’ arms, I doubted it would happen. If I’d survived being turned into salt, I’d recover from this injury too. But I was still in pain, so falling asleep sounded like a great option.

  Sadly, even that was too much to ask for in my fucked up existence.

  “This is all very touching,” a familiar voice said, “but I’m afraid I have to intervene. You see, I don’t tend to agree with angels a lot, but this time, I’ll just have to make an exception. You’re too dangerous to be left alive, Satan.”

  With some effort, I looked past Sariel’s shoulder. I was unsurprised to see Abel standing there, together with Fara and a group of demonic symbiotes.

  Fuck. This was just getting ridiculous.

  Michael’s Hope

  Earlier, The Infernal Realm

  When we placed Hope in Alyssa’s arms, I didn’t expect any miracles. The power of motherhood was among the purest things in the world, but it had its limits.

  I should have known Alyssa and her daughter would never follow the rules that applied to the rest of us.

  The moment the two of them touched, Alyssa’s eyes shot open. She gasped and gently cradled her daughter in her arms, tears flowing down her pale cheeks. “Hope? Is this… Is this real?”

  “It’s real, Lyssa,” Lucifer said. “We’re together again.”

  Mikael and Callum knelt at her bedside, trying to reassure the still distraught demon queen. I left them to their reunion, uncomfortable with witnessing the private moment. This meant I had to be alone with Cain Adamson of all people.

  He plopped down on a couch in my brother’s lounge and stared up at the ceiling. “Did Lucifer really agree to help you bring Delilah back?”

  I answered him with a question of my own. “Do you really want to earn her a second chance?”

  Cain smiled at me slightly. “Of course. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” He looked at his still blood-stained hands, and it occurred to me that we hadn’t gotten the chance to address every detail of his return and true allegiance.

  “I never thought things would end like this for me,” he said, “but it was worth it. I believe that.”

  Something about his lost expression stirred a thread of compassion inside my heart. “What happened, Cain?”

  “My mother was there, in The In-Between. And Lilith.” He looked up at me and I could have sworn I saw the hint of tears in his eyes. “I killed them.”

  My breath caught at the admission. I would have never expected that. For as long as I could remember, Cain had fought for his family, trying to bring Eve back and give her a second chance, the life Lucifer had robbed her of. This seemed so out of character. “You killed them? Why?”

  “They would have never allowed me to take Hope back, and it needed to be done, so there would be peace between the realms. I’m so tired, Archangel Michael. But I know that Delilah also wanted that—peace.

  “That Lilith, that Eve were just shadows of who they used to be, corrupted by The In-Between. I had to end their existence before their souls were completely destroyed. Or at least, that’s what I think. Maybe I’m fooling myself to make myself feel better about it.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Not really.” Cain shrugged. “In the end, I would have likely killed them either way.”

  He said the latter words as if he’d just had a sudden realization. Dark magic pulsed around him like a disease. I sighed and went to sit down by his side.

  We needed to cast the spell to help Delilah, but until Lucifer came back from seeing his wife, I couldn’t actually make my move. I might as well do something
constructive with my time.

  “You’re hurt, aren’t you?” I asked, letting my hand hover over his. “Let me see.”

  He did, although he barely seemed aware of what he was doing. He was moving like a man in a dream. Shock was settling in. I wondered how I’d gotten to this point in my life, to sitting in my brother’s living room, tending to Cain Adamson’s injuries.

  The dark magic came from a self-inflicted curse. I did my best to contain it with my divine abilities, but I couldn’t completely suppress it.

  “You should stop doing this to yourself, Cain,” I told him. “Not everything that goes wrong in the world is your responsibility.”

  I knew better than to think he would believe me. Based on the damage to his bone structure and nerve endings, he’d been carrying the curse for a long time, for the better part of his life, maybe. But still, something in my voice seemed to reach him.

  “I don’t understand,” he said, shooting me a confused look. “Doing what?”

  “Hurting yourself with the curse,” I explained.

  Cain gaped at me, as if he couldn’t process what I’d just told him. Then, much to my surprise, he burst into laughter. “Oh, this is just perfect. This is… How did I not see it before?”

  Tears started flowing down his cheeks and I watched in alarm as one of the oldest beings on the planet succumbed to hysteria. I didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t a wound I could mend with my magic, and I feared that if I tried, I’d just make everything worse.

  “Of course I did it to myself. I twisted my own magic. I thought I was so clever, fighting it all this time, but in reality…”

  As I listened to him, I felt out of my depth. Reading between the lines, I suspected this might have something to do with Abel’s death. There had been rumors about the Adamson line and where the incubus power came from. But how could I ask Cain about that, when he was trying to deal with guilt, heartbreak, and loss?

  Fortunately for me, my brother came to my rescue. The door to the bedroom opened and Lucifer emerged from inside. “Am I interrupting?” he asked.