Possessed (Hades Castle Trilogy Book 3)

by C. N. Crawford

  Long ago, Lilith and the Raven King had sat under the stars on one of Dovren's oldest hills, and I could see those stars gleaming now—the swirls of a distant galaxy high above us.

  Samael had said the little violet lights looked like his home. Night was falling, but maybe I could use it.

  I breathed in deeply, connecting to Dovren. With the Raven King’s help, I felt myself mentally going into the mind of the city. Now, I could map it out in my thoughts. I knew where I was—in the center of Dovren, an underground temple abandoned long ago. North of the river. Once, they had worshipped the death god here.

  The death god who just so happened to be my boyfriend.

  In the ancient days, mortals had cut off people’s heads, and thrown them into the river that flowed nearby.

  I was in the oldest part of Dovren.

  As I connected to the city, I imagined the swirls of little violet stars dancing across the streets. I grew them from the earth, moving them south, where the Iron Fortress loomed over the river.

  With any luck, this would be my path back to Samael.

  I just had to hope that he saw it.

  Samael

  I thought of Harlow in a white wedding gown, standing in a church aisle. She was my destiny, the thing that would stop me from staying a demon forever—and Lila thought I needed to make it happen fast.

  And yet when I envisioned it, I felt like I was being crushed under the weight of six feet of soil.

  Marrying Harlow would be like being buried alive.

  But who had decided my destiny in the first place?

  Whoever had created me had also kicked me out of Heaven. And what had been my crime? Passing on forbidden knowledge—helping someone. Maybe whoever made the rules was guided by a different set of principles than I was. Maybe I didn’t want to play by their rules.

  Lila was gone, so nothing mattered. I could marry Harlow, or turn into a demon. Who cared?

  My mind whirled.

  A knock sounded on the door, and I hurried over to it, pulling it open.

  Emma stood in the doorway, arms folded. “I hope I’m not speaking out of turn, but are you sure you want to go through with this wedding? Not being funny, but it’s a fucking stupid idea.”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “Lila thinks I should marry Harlow immediately.”

  She crossed into the room, slammed the door, and pivoted to stare at me. “Sorry, I don’t mean any disrespect, but what is wrong with you? Where has Lila been all day? When I last saw you two, you were deeply in love.”

  “I thought we were,” I said. “But then she saw the terrifying demon side of me. And she’s not just Lila anymore, is she? She’s Lilith, too. We have a history.”

  Emma was still staring at me with her arms folded, blinking. “And Lila told you to marry Harlow?”

  “Yes.”

  She arched a disbelieving eyebrow. “She said this to your face?”

  “She wrote it in the letter.” My mind flitted from one confused thought to the next. Why was I starting to feel like an idiot? “She was worried I would become a monster if I turned into a demon.”

  Emma lifted a finger. “Okay, first of all, Lila can’t write—”

  “I know,” I cut in. “She dictated the letter to Oswald.”

  Emma narrowed her eyes. “Oswald came to you with a letter dictated by Lila, declaring that you should marry Harlow. Immediately. And you didn’t think that maybe this was suspicious.”

  I cleared my throat. “Well I do now. Do you think Oswald was lying?”

  She went very still, watching me. “Oswald has always been pleasant. I’ve never heard him say anything terrible, but I can promise you this, Samael. If he said Lila wants you to marry Harlow, then maybe he’s lying. No way in hell she wants you to marry Harlow, who by the way, is an arsehole. Lila loves you, and if she said that you should marry another woman, there’s some fuckery at work.” Her eyes gleamed. “You know she loves you, don’t you? Why would you believe this so easily?”

  “Because when I killed her sister, I could see the horror in her face,” I said. “She just looked like it was something that would haunt her nightmares forever. The letter said that no one could love death.”

  Emma heaved a sigh. “That’s what you believe, but it’s not true. Maybe Oswald was clever enough to know exactly how you thought. How to manipulate you.”

  I turned, pacing again. A hot tendril of anger coiled through my body, and I reached for my sword and scabbard. “Where is Oswald?”

  She shook her head. “He said he was going out to make some wedding arrangements.” She bit her lip. “He still wants you to shag Harlow, I imagine. That’s why he added that bit to the letter. It’s the only way they can take you down. So where is Lila?”

  A wild storm of rage roiled in my mind, and I rushed past her, yanking the door open. Emma called my name, but I didn’t stop.

  They didn’t want Lila really. I’d severed the connection to their book; they could no longer force her to do what they wanted. Right now, they were probably torturing her, one last desperate attempt to control her when magic failed. My fingers clenched, my mind spiraling with dark wrath.

  They wanted to use Harlow to weaken me. Once they killed me, they’d cleanse the city, one nephilim at a time. One angel at a time.

  They’d come for Emma, for Sourial, for all the mortals they thought were traitors.

  When I glanced at my reflection in a window, I saw a pure demon there—gleaming horns and eyes of obsidian, black wings erupting behind my back, shimmering with shifting coppery swirls.

  Good.

  My angelic side was gone, leaving only a monster behind. And for what I was about to unleash, a monster was required.

  Stalking down the hall, I ignored Emma calling for me, asking what I was doing, what my plan was.

  I wanted to speak to one more person before I left.

  I found Sourial’s room and pushed through the door. In the dark wood room, he lay under crimson-and-gold-threaded blankets. A fire burned in the fireplace, casting wavering light over him.

  A white-haired healer hovered over the bed, mumbling spells. She glanced up at me, a worried look on her face. “He just started to wake up a bit. He nearly spoke to the young man.”

  My blood pounded. “What young man?”

  She smiled at me. “The mortal one with the blue eyes. He was in a few times today, bringing fresh linens and things. But the angel needs to rest now. You must return later.”

  I pulled up a chair next to his bed. “I need to speak to him alone.”

  She shook her head. “He needs to rest.”

  “He’s immortal,” I said impatiently. “For once. He can’t die.”

  She huffed and crossed out of the room, just as Emma was stepping inside.

  I touched his shoulder. “Sourial?”

  He blinked, and his hazel eyes landed on me. “Took you bloody long enough, didn’t it?” he muttered. “I thought you were ...” His eyes started to drift closed again.

  “Sorry about that,” I said quietly.

  Blood soaked through his bandages. “Oswald …”

  My heart sped up. “Yes?”

  He shook his head. “He’s the one who tried to cut my heart out. He was here. I tried to talk… He is the Baron …” His eyes lost focus, and his eyes closed.

  Fury ignited me, and the pieces of the puzzle started to slide together in my mind. Oswald had been here for years, watching my every move, learning my weaknesses. Plotting against me in my own home. Of course, he’d seen enough messages from Sourial to fake his handwriting, to set Sourial up and deflect attention off himself.

  Oswald had been here to free Alice.

  When he thought the end game was nigh, he had run to Belial. He thought he had a chance to end it there.

  But when he saw that the fight was not going his way, he scampered down to the prison. When Lila flew back with him, he pretended to sleep. He avoided our questions, listened in to our conversation. He glea
ned enough information to convincingly fake the note from Lila; he knew she was angry with me for killing Alice.

  But things were unravelling for him now, weren’t they? So many loose ends. He’d lost control of Lila. We’d severed the connection to the book. Sourial wasn’t dead after all, and he was in here all day, checking to see if he was conscious.

  And now that Sourial was waking up, Oswald was on the run. Desperately trying to force the marriage to happen right away, hoping he could kill me before Sourial could talk.

  A panicked enemy could be dangerous indeed, lashing out wildly like a trapped beast.

  Emma put her hand on my shoulder, her expression anxious. “Is Sourial going to be okay?”

  I nodded. “Yes, but Oswald won’t. He and his Free Men will be dead soon.”

  She sat in the chair next to Sourial, and placed her hand on his head like she was feeling for a fever. “I’m going to stay here with him. But what are you going to do, Samael? How are you going to find Lila?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  It was nearly impossible for me to think clearly through the red haze of primal fury.

  I had a single plan, and I had to hope that it would work.

  Could I use the book to find the Free Men?

  I raced back to my room, my thoughts aflame with desperation. Rushing inside, I snatched the book off my bed.

  My heart thundered as I flipped through the pages.

  At last, I found a spell—the one they’d probably been using to summon Lila. It was a spell for binding, for sharing thoughts with another, written in my native tongue. I’d used its opposite spell to break Lila free from their control. Could this one help me see into the minds of the Free Men? Into Oswald’s thoughts?

  I launched into it, feeling the magic skim over my chest.

  When I finished the spell, I closed my eyes, waiting to see a vision of Oswald.

  Nothing.

  In my mind’s eye, all I could see was Lila, chained up and in pain.

  Anger tightened around my heart, and I slammed the book shut.

  I stalked out the door. I couldn’t simply wait here. I had to go out and find her, because if I lost her it would break me completely.

  I understood it then, as clear as a bell—Lila wouldn’t make me a monster.

  But losing her? That absolutely would.

  I would burn the world down around me.

  My wings burst free behind me and started beating the air, taking me into the skies. Icy wind whipped over me as I swept along the river, desperately trying to find a clue, a sign.

  Beneath me, mortals were going about their business as if it were a normal fucking night. As if the world weren’t about to end, as if Lila weren’t about to have her heart ripped out.

  Snow swirled around me, vortices of white that made it harder to see.

  But why search on my own?

  I had an entire Clovian army at my command in Castle Hades. We could tear this city stone from stone until we found her, all of us searching together.

  They might ask why we were looking for Lila—a demon who’d poisoned them. But I also knew they wouldn’t dare question me out loud.

  I reached up, disappointed to remember the horns on my head. Maybe not. They followed angels, not demons. Perhaps Serena could help me find her…

  But as I soared east, a pale flicker of violet caught my eye, and my heart skipped a beat.

  There, beneath the falling snow, were swirls of little violet flecks, like galaxies beneath me. Like home. Whorls of beautiful light, spread out, twinkling in the snow.

  Lila had done this.

  Lila had figured out how to lead me to her, and she’d set out a trail for me.

  I raced through the icy skies over the star-like swirls beneath me. I soared north, into the ancient heart of the city, where tall stone buildings loomed over narrow streets. In this cold, the center of the city was nearly abandoned—just shadows and snow around me.

  Distantly, I heard the sound of an oncoming army—feet hitting stones, men marching in unison. Were the Free Men already coming for Dovren?

  It made sense. They planned to make a spectacle of my death.

  At last, the flecks of violet led me to a set of crumbling stone stairs that led downward, by the side of a dark road. I landed fast and hard—the landing of someone inexperienced, because desperation and panic were starting to rob me of all rational thought.

  From the road, the little stars led underground. My wings snapped back into my body, and I charged down the stairs. At the bottom, I reached a wooden door—locked.

  Fury inflamed me.

  I slammed my fist through the wood, over and over, splintering the door until it swung open on its hinges. When it did, my world tilted.

  She was lying there, eyes closed, a knife in her heart. Her lips had gone blue, skin the wrong shade.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  This was all wrong.

  It felt as if I were plummeting through darkness, completely lost, the solid ground ripped out from under me.

  Samael

  Frantic, I knelt by her side, touching her face. As I did, she shivered.

  She shivered.

  Hope blossomed in my chest, and I yanked the dirty rag from her mouth. Then, I grabbed the hilt of the knife, ripping it out of her heart.

  Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped for breath, like someone brought to life again.

  I started to rip the chains from the wall, bolts flying off, metal snapping. In a few minutes, she was sitting up. She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around me. “I was freezing.”

  I held her tight. “I saw the galaxies.”

  But as soon as her shivering died down, she was on her feet again, already moving for the door. Apparently, the blade hadn’t been poisoned, and her ability to heal worked remarkably fast.

  Stunned, I watched as she plucked a set of skeleton keys off the wall and jammed one into her manacles to unlock the chains.

  Only then did I notice she was wearing my sweater, which hung down to her thighs.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She met my gaze, eyebrows rising. “So, you didn’t marry Harlow, I take it?”

  “No, which is convenient because I plan to marry you, and I think having another wife might have made it awkward.”

  “Was that another terrible proposal?” Amusement lit up her eyes. “You’re supposed to get down on your knee when you propose. I thought we went over that the last time, when you just threw a ring at me by the river.”

  A slow smile spread over my face. “I was created eons ago from primordial clouds of stardust as a divine scourge of evil. I kneel for no one.” I moved closer to her, my blood pumping hard at the sight of her unharmed. “Unless I were between your thighs, then perhaps I could be compelled.”

  “I think that can be arranged.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “But first we have to kill Oswald. He is the Baron. And his army is coming for us.”

  “Was he here? Is he the one who stabbed you?”

  “No, he didn’t stab me, and I haven’t seen him. But he said something to me once, something about a backbone of steel. Harlow repeated it back to me just now. She said she was going to marry the Baron, and that he has a backbone of steel. She said she was going to marry you first—”

  Fury simmered. “Harlow? She was here?”

  “Oh, yes. She’s had some fun tormenting me down here, Samael. But the important part is that she says the Free Men have an army coming for you. She seemed very confident that you and I would both be dead by the end of the night.”

  “I heard them marching from the north.” I crossed to the stone wall and pressed my ear against it. Closing my eyes, I listened to the faint vibrations. Moving closer, faster. “They are coming for us already. I need to go to Castle Hades. I will command the Clovian army to fight against them, and the Free Men will lose.”

  Lila threaded her fingers together and stretched her arms. “Let’s make the streets run
with mortal blood tonight, shall we?” Her eyes burned with a terrifying ferocity. “And Samael? I want you to promise me something. You must not kill Harlow, okay?”

  I frowned at her, perplexed. “Why would I not kill Harlow?”

  She flashed me a dark smile. “Because that kill is mine. Consider it a wedding gift.”

  “Done. Let’s go.”

  Lila

  As soon as I was aboveground, I felt something through the cobbles—a quiet trembling. Icy wind whipped through the narrow passages in the oldest part of the city.

  We weren't far from Castle Hades. We quickly took to the snowy air, wings beating against cold.

  There were a lot of people to defeat tonight, but I had to get my hands on Harlow.

  A freezing gale tore at us as we soared for Castle Hades. And as we drew closer, I could see them coming from the north, marching through the streets: thousands of Free Men dressed in black. And in all likelihood, they’d already seen us.

  By now, they’d probably clocked that Samael was not getting married to Harlow.

  This was a last, desperate attempt to gain control of the city.

  I didn’t think they’d have much of a chance.

  They could surround Castle Hades, but the Clovian army was far better trained than they were, led by the angel of death himself.

  We soared over the city, and swept over the outer walls of the castle, then the inner walls.

  Only then did I realize that we were not about to be given a warm welcome.

  We hovered above the courtyard, wings beating the air with loud thumps.

  A dozen archers stood below, arrows aimed at us.

  An officer was shouting at us, but he was speaking in Clovian, so I had no idea what he was saying. Only when I glanced at Samael did I understand the problem.

  The Clovian army followed orders from the angels. The angel of death led their forces.

  But the angel of death wasn’t here anymore.

  Their arrows were aimed at a demon. Samael’s bronze horns gleamed, and his eyes were dark as the night.