by Leigh Kelsey
With a whuff of agreement, the giant red panda leapt into a sprint, racing ahead of them, watery lilac light catching her spiralling black horns.
“What are you thinking?” Hal asked behind them, his booming voice pitched lower. “It’s quieter than the last time we were here.”
“I’d noticed,” Luc agreed. “We ride on, aim for the fortress. I want to speak to Nygoya. She’ll know what’s going on here.”
“Nygoya?” Lili asked quietly, not daring to turn her head to meet his eyes, staring at the broad road they slowly progressed along.
“A general of mine,” Lucifer replied, his body so tense behind her. Even Cherish seemed to be moving stiffer, wary of their surroundings and especially of the few people they came across. They all looked downtrodden, their eyes cast to the floor and their movements quick, like prey trying to evade the notice of a predator. What had happened here? Or was still happening?
All at once, Lili realised how naive she’d been in agreeing to come to Hell and spy for Gabriel. If he’d thrown her into a city like this instead of letting her Fall to Earth, she’d have been utterly out of her depth. She’d have been dead or worse within a day.
Tali came running back towards them and uttered a series of noises at Lucifer, who astonishingly seemed to understand what she was saying. He nodded. “Fall in with us. Our route to the fortress is clear, but something’s going on in the south side of Aarvul.”
“What sort of something?” Renna asked, her chin-length hair whipping as she snapped her head towards Lucifer.
Luc’s arm tightened around Lili. “The kind of violence and lawlessness that would make the bible’s version of Hell look like Disneyland.”
Nygoya turned out to be a statuesque woman with fire-red skin, horns curling over her head, and massive membranous wings threaded with black. Unlike Renna, she didn’t give off a terrifying vibe, but she was so stunning that Lili couldn’t help but stare. There was something utterly magnetic about the woman, from her beautiful face, the smooth waves of black hair, to the elegant way she moved. Even the vast wings didn’t negate her grace. Lili felt like a clumsy filly standing next to a unicorn.
“Nygoya,” Lucifer greeted, approaching the woman and shaking her hand. The fortress was exactly as Lili had expected from glimpsing the outside, all cold stone and high ceilings, austere rooms and blocky furniture, the whole building smelling of dust, stone, and steel. It was less like a castle than a military compound, and Lili instantly felt out of place among the busy movement—soldiers running drills or ferrying equipment from room to room, others sat at tables oiling weapons, alert for commands.
Again, Lili realised just how silly she’d been to think she could successfully spy on Hell and Lucifer.
Nygoya faced them upon hearing Luc’s voice and Lili glanced up, meeting the woman’s swirling chestnut-brown eyes. Falling into them. One look, and the world faded around Lili, the men and women cleaning their weapons dissolving into blackness, even Renna, Luc, Tali, and Hal disappearing as those eyes ensnared Lili.
In the time it took a heart to beat, Lili was transported to a different place. It was a place she was familiar with but hadn’t been in years: the lush, vibrant garden atop Michael’s stone tower. She was in Wisteria, and for a second Lili frowned, not sure how she’d gotten there, certain she should have been somewhere else, but then she glimpsed the tall, tense figure stood at the railing and those concerns became cobwebs, easily brushed away.
“Michael?” Lili whispered, daring to tiptoe nearer.
Her father was here? He was home? For as long as Lili could remember, he’d been absent, preferring to spend his waking hours elsewhere. Where, she’d always thought, he didn’t have to encounter Lili. But now he was here, leaning against the stone balustrade and gazing out at the domes and towers of Wisteria, flowers shuddering in baskets hanging from the columns on either side of him, sending floral notes curling around Lili’s senses.
It feels so real, Lili thought, and then shook her head. It was real—why would it feel otherwise?
“Lili,” Michael said, turning. And there was a smile on his face, creases around his eyes and dimples in his lined cheeks. Lili had never seen him look happy like this. Whenever she’d seen him, he’d always looked … sad. Reserved. But now joy shone in his eyes, his thin mouth stretching into a smile. “What’ve you been up to, daughter?”
“I…” Lili racked her brain, but she wasn’t sure. “I was just in my room.”
“Come here, look at this.” Michael gestured to her and, tentatively, Lili crept closer, her stomach erupting into butterflies when he slid his arm across her shoulders and pointed with his other hand. He was acting so casually, as if they spent time together every day. Lili’s heart warmed but her eyes stung. How often had she wanted to feel something like this from him, something even remotely resembling fatherly affection?
“What is it, Father?” Lili whispered, afraid if she spoke louder, her voice would break.
“Feather runners,” Michael said with a smile.
Lili gasped, pushing onto her tiptoes to see. Across the city, right above the lapis domes and turquoise and copper roofs, fledgling angels flew. Streamers of feathers echoed in their wake in a celebration of the Battle For Wisteria, the skirmish that established the city hundreds of years ago. Gabriel had swooped in at the very last second of the fight, and saved thousands of lives by slaying the demon who’d invaded Heaven.
An oily, sick feeling twisted Lili’s belly at the reminder of the archangel, and she glanced away from those trailing feather banners, all in honour of Gabriel.
“What is it, Lili?” Michael asked, peering into her face. “You seem … troubled.”
Lili shook her head, not meeting his gaze, her eyes falling on the wind-shaken flowers. This should have felt like a simple, ordinary moment but she couldn’t help but ruin it with thoughts of Gabriel. “It’s nothing,” Lili whispered. “Gabriel isn’t the man I thought he was.”
Michael tensed, folding her into a hug that stunned her into silence, a yearning and ache filling up every part of Lili’s soul. “He mistreated you?” Michael breathed, a promise of retribution that made Lili stand straighter.
“It’s fine,” she murmured.
“It’s not.” Michael drew back, waiting until she looked up at him and glimpsed the cold rage on his face. “If he hurt you, Liliana, I will destroy him.” He tipped his head, laying a kiss against her hair. “Nobody touches my daughter and lives.”
Lili shook her head, her heart pulling tight and a hitch in her breath. “Why … why do you care? You never have before.”
She really didn’t mean to say it but … it was true. Why now?
Michael sighed, stepping back and meeting her eyes. “That’s my gravest error, Liliana. I never should have neglected you.” He lifted a hand, hesitant in the moment before he squeezed her shoulder. Something inside Lili crumpled, but … it felt too good to be true. She wanted so badly to believe it, her heart straining. It could be true, though. If he’d changed, if he’d realised that he’d neglected her for years and he should have been spending time with her, getting to know her, taking care of her like a real father should… It was possible. Wasn’t it?
“I’m sorry,” Michael said softly. “Truly. Can you forgive me?”
Lili opened her mouth to respond, but a new voice intruded on the moment.
“I’m sorry, sire. She shouldn’t have succumbed so easily, I wasn’t actively trying to lure her…”
Lili glanced around, searching for the woman who’d spoken. “Father? Is someone else here?”
When she faced Michael again, he was gone, and the tower-top garden was fading out around them, stone walls and austere coldness replacing the open-air flowers and warm bricks columns.
“Liliana sweetheart?” a different voice murmured, close by, breath fanning across her face. She knew that voice but it was hard to grasp his identity, her mind still stuck on her father squeezing her shoulder, smiling at her, a
pologising for neglecting her all those years. “Liliana? Can you hear me?”
“Oh, for Hell’s sake,” a sharp female voice snapped. “Move.”
Impact struck Lili’s cheek and her eyes flew open, her mouth falling into an O of surprise and outrage. Pain fractured across her face, burning and sharp, and she gasped.
“Renna,” a man growled—Lucifer, Lili remembered. He sounded furious. “Get away from her! Liliana? It’s alright, just look at me. I’ve got you.”
Lili focussed on Luc’s face, his eyebrows low with worry, his crimson eyes fixed on her face. “How do you feel, sweetheart?”
“Fuzzy,” Lili replied, pushing away from him and stumbling to her feet. She’d fallen to the floor somehow, and as she rose, dizziness swirled through her. She drew in breath after breath, tasting dust and metal in the air, and steadied herself against the solid warmth of Lucifer’s body. “What happened? I was … with my father?”
A breath punched out of Luc and he held her tighter. “Oh, Liliana.”
“What?” She peered up at him, not sure why he’d sounded so sad.
He shook his head, not answering.
“Liliana, is it?” a smoky voice asked, and Lili peered over Luc’s shoulder at a woman with fire-red skin, dark movie-star hair, massive wings, and curling horns. Oh. Nygoya. Lili remembered now, the memory coming to her slowly, unwillingly. She’d locked eyes with the demon woman and … suddenly been in the garden with her father. Lili nodded at Nygoya numbly, her head trying to sort through how it had happened.
“I’m sorry for what happened. I’m a lure demon, you see, I can make someone see their heart’s desire whenever they meet my eyes. But you … I wasn’t even trying to lure you, you just fell under. I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you’d be so susceptible.”
“Oh,” Lili mumbled. She’d figured out it wasn’t real but it still hurt to have it confirmed. She’d wanted it so badly. Although, from what Nygoya was telling her, that was why she’d seen it. That was what she wanted most in the world? Her father’s affection? Now Lili understood why Luc had looked so sad.
Lili put a hand to her stinging face and narrowed her eyes in Renna’s direction. “You were the one who slapped me, weren’t you?”
“You’re welcome,” Renna replied, purple arms crossed over her chest.
Lili scowled but she supposed she should thank the woman. If she hadn’t slapped Lili, she’d still be in that fake garden with her fake father. It hurt so much to realise it hadn’t been real.
A raspy tongue slid over Lili’s hand and she jumped, realising Tali had slunk up beside them and now blinked at Lili with beady black eyes, a deep rumble in her chest. This close, Lili could see every strand of fur in her giant red face, lighter fur splattered around her eyes, nose, and mouth.
“She’s asking if you’re okay,” Luc said quietly.
Lili forced a smile and nodded. “I’m alright, thank you, Tali.”
The tilt to Tali’s head said she didn’t believe her, but she just butted Lili’s hand with her nose and padded across the hall to where a platter of bamboo shoots and leaves had clearly been left for her, her bushy tail training behind her and soldiers scattering from her path. Clearly, Tali had a reputation if these demons respected and feared her in equal measure, but Lili liked her anyway.
“So,” Lucifer said, his arm tight around Lili’s waist as he faced Nygoya. “Now that Liliana is alright, tell me everything that happened in Aarvul this past month.”
Three weeks ago an alpha demon had stormed into Aarvul’s city hall, killed the mayor—a man Lucifer had apparently known for a hundred years—and took over the heart of the city. Since then, alpha demons—the biggest and meanest demons, the cannibals and killers and ones who couldn’t be reasoned with—had been terrorising the more placid, peacekeeping demons and, worst of all, hunting down the spirits waiting out their judgement here, and sucking what remained of their life energy from them. Which broke a fundamental law of Hell.
Plus, breaking that law was a grievous disrespect to Lucifer, and that alone made Lili mad.
“Where is Valun now?” Luc asked, massaging the bridge of his nose with one hand, his other arm still locked around Lili’s waist.
Nygoya’s face tightened, her wings tensing behind her, a sign Lili had learned meant she was furious. “He’s taken over the old location of city hall,” she said, her mouth twisted to one side. “It’s gone now, flattened to rubble and … rebuilt.”
“Rebuilt how?” Hal asked, startling Lili as he moved, his bulk blocking out the light of the vaulted window as he came to stand beside them. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”
“Because it’s been rebuilt into a coliseum,” Nygoya said, her voice hard with anger. “And every day at noon and midnight the alphas throw lesser demons in with monsters to fight to the death. At the end, to celebrate the spectacle, six spirits are rounded up for Valun and the victor to feast upon.”
Lili’s eyes went wide. “You’re not … serious?”
Nygoya’s eyes were flinty as she met Lili’s wide gaze. “I am.”
Lili’s stomach flipped. She’d known Hell was bad, and that Aarvul would be dangerous, but fights to the death… Bloody images filled her mind, of heads caved in, limbs torn, throats brutalised and gushing vital lifeblood. But she drew a breath, held it, and glanced up at Luc. As long as she stayed with him, she’d be safe. “Maybe Aarvul is like rome after all,” she dared to whisper.
Luc just laid a kiss against her hair. “Stay here while we go deal with Valun.”
Lili stiffened. “No.”
Renna snorted. “You come with us and you’ll be eaten, dismembered, or burned to a fiery crisp.”
Lili scowled at the woman. “I’m starting to really dislike you.”
“Ooh,” Renna gasped, clasping a lilac hand to her heart. “I’m devastated.”
Lili pursed her mouth and turned sharply away, not caring that it was rude to ignore Renna. “I’m coming with you,” she told Lucifer, ignoring the flash of disagreement in his eyes. “If there’s a … a fighting ring full of dangerous demons, I’m not letting you go alone.”
“He won’t be alone, Your Highness.” Renna rolled her eyes. “We’ll be with him.”
Lili was beginning to wonder if Your Highness was a sneer rather than a title. She glanced at Luc but dropped her eyes quickly, not brave enough to ask. “I’m still coming.”
A muscle feathered in Lucifer’s jaw but he took a slow breath and said, “You stay close to us every second we’re there, and when I tell you to do something, you do it.”
“Okay,” Lili agreed, if only because she was getting what she wanted. Needed. Lili was capable of a lot of things but letting a friend—or whatever Lucifer was—go into a very deadly place, while she stayed where it was safe, worrying the whole time, wasn’t one of them.
“Are you sure you’re an angel?” Nygoya asked abruptly, eyeing Lili with new interest. “You’re not like any angel I’ve met before.”
“Um,” Lili mumbled. “Thanks.”
Nygoya nodded, then spun to face the tables of people cleaning weapons, looking casual but clearly alert for her commands. “Alright people, listen up. The devil is heading out to the coliseum, and he’ll need a team with him to shut that whole mess down.”
“About time,” someone grumbled.
“Shut up, Travis,” someone else grumbled back.
“Arm yourselves,” Nygoya shouted over them, her wings fluttering, drawing Lili’s attention to the sharp claws at the apex of each wing. “Be ready to move in thirty minutes.”
It occurred to Lili a moment too late that she had no idea how to ride into battle, fight an alpha demon, or dismantle an illegal fighting ring.
Her stomach became a riot of nervous butterflies, but it was too late to back out now.
Lili
I’m fine, Lili assured herself, her hands locked into fists of orange-red fur as Tali raced down the colourful stone streets of Aarvul, Lili c
linging to the giant red panda’s back in a cloud of fiery smoke.
Beside them, Lucifer, Hal, and Renna rode their hellstallions, demonic mist pouring from the beasts’ nostrils, and behind them streamed the majority of Nygoya’s demon army. Lili had never been so scared or so conscious of her inability to fight in her life. She wished she’d taken the self-defence class at the academy, but she was an angel, and Michael’s daughter at that. She’d thought she’d spend her time making a life with him and organising functions for the charity she’d been working with at the academy.
Not racing through the streets of a Hell city on the back of a demon, flanked by the devil and his most trusted warriors. Lili wasn’t a hundred percent sure she knew who she was anymore, but at least she wasn’t the naive girl who Gabriel had manipulated so easily.
“Eyes ahead,” Lucifer yelled as the group careened around a corner, a bulldozed eyesore of stone hulking at the end of the road, crude steps hammered into the ground to create something that did look unnervingly like a Roman coliseum. Throngs of demons hovered around the steps, some sitting and clearly waiting for a show, others drinking from pint glasses and smoking long cigarettes. They looked like a crowd at an Earth football match and Lili’s stomach twisted at the normalcy of the scene.
Well, if you overlooked the rainbow hue of skin-tones, the alien body shapes, the array of horns, claws, wings, and fangs, and the monster-sized animals weaving among the crowd. This was very clearly not an Earth football match.
“Liliana, stay with Tali. Do not leave her side,” Luc shouted. “Understand?”
Lili nodded, then realised he was too focussed on the nearing crowd to see her and yelled, “I understand.” She wanted to tell him to stay safe, to be careful, but something held her back. Demon soldiers were all around them and Lili didn’t want to suggest that he wasn’t capable. Lili had seen him unleash shadows into the breach in the sky, and there was a sense of power all around him, even when they were safe in Iarlon. He’d be fine.