Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7)

by Emily Goodwin

  “Oh, why does that wound way too easy?”

  “Because I didn’t mention the hall will be filled with demons.”

  “Great.” I let out a breath and adjust the flower crown on my head. “Let’s go.”

  Crows caw above us, and a weird, muted light shines down upon the ground. The place looks earthy, but the feel is all wrong. Julian holds out his hand and summons his dagger.

  “When we get to the sigil, I’ll cut your hand,” he tells me. “Put it on the center of the pentagram.”

  “What is this sigil, an oh-shit button or something?”

  “That’s exactly what it is. The trick is, though, it has to be an archangel who activates it. I just hope your blood is strong enough.”

  “Me too.”

  With a nod, Julian sprints forward. My low heels are not what I’d choose to wear to a trip to Hell, but it’s not like I had time to get dressed for this. Julian pushes large iron doors open and—oh shit—he was right. This place is crawling with demons.

  My heart jumps into my throat and I look past them, finding the sigil on the ground. It’s a large pentagram, with the archangel sigils carved around it. Just get to the pentagram, I tell myself. That’s all I have to do. Get to the pentagram, put some blood on it, and then Julian can fly me home in time for the second serving of cake. Which isn’t a thing, I know, but I’m making it one.

  We step into a dark and cavernous grand hall of Lucifer’s castle. The place smells like brimstone and it's way more rustic and gothic than I’d peg Lucifer’s style to be. A circle of hellfire burns around the throne, which is tall and black and encrusted with millions of jewels.

  “Get to the pentagram,” I whisper to myself. “All I have to do is get to the pentagram.” Getting away from it, out of this dark castle, and back home where my baby shower is still going on. Swallowing hard, I curl my fingers into fists. “What’s the plan here?”

  “Activate the sigil and don’t die.”

  “I like the simplicity of it, but uh, how do we get past them without dying?”

  “I’ll distract them,” Julian, holding his dagger up. “Get to the sigil and then get out of here.”

  “Not without you.”

  Julian’s brows push together, and his usually stoic face shows more emotion in this moment than I’ve seen before. “You might have to.

  “Julian, no. I refuse to accept that.”

  “We have to close the gates,” he says, ignoring that he just said he’s going to sacrifice himself. “That’s what matters, Callie. The fate of the entire world depends on it.”

  “We came to Hell together, we’re leaving Hell together. And if you want a distraction, I can give them a distraction.” Hellfire sparks around my fingers.

  Julian nods. “And I’ll kill as many as I can.”

  “I’ll get to the sigil and then we’re getting out—together.”

  Julian doesn’t say anything or give me the smallest nod this time. “Be careful, Callie.”

  “You too.”

  We crouch behind a big stone pillar, getting a little closer to survey exactly what we’re walking into. Most of the demons are in human form, to some extent at least. The bodies they’re in are decaying with scabs and scar tissue covering most of their exposed skin. The smell of sulfur fills the air, so strong I can taste it.

  It’s hard to see the pentagram beneath all the demons, and if I can’t even see it, then there’s no way I can activate it. We need to clear out this room. I look at Julian, meeting his eyes for what won’t be the last time.

  Inhaling, I push my shoulders back, hold out my hands, and summon hellfire.

  “I hear you’re looking for a new leader,” I say, voice echoing off the stone walls. “Well, I’m here.”

  “The half-breed,” a demon sneers, gnashing his teeth at me.

  “I’m really over that name,” I say, wiggling my fingers and making the hellfire rise and fall in my hand. “And as your new queen, I’m going to order you to stop saying it.”

  “Hell needs a king, not a queen!” the same demon sneers.

  “Seriously?” I quip. “Not only are you literally pure evil, you’re sexist too? Well, I don’t feel sorry about this.” I close my fist, putting out the hellfire and conjuring an energy ball instead. I throw it at the demon, hitting him right in the chest. It looks like lightning hit him, and blue energy sizzles through his body before he explodes, collapsing into a puddle of goo on the floor. Is that how demons die when they’re in Hell? Cool, but gross.

  That definitely got everyone’s attention. The other demons turn, murmuring amongst each other about what to do with me.

  “Kill her and eat her!” a large demon with boils all over this face says.

  “She’s pretty,” a demon in a female body croons. “I want her skin once we snuff out her light.”

  I conjure another energy ball and see Julian slip out from behind the column, dagger in the air. “No one is snuffing anything, okay?” I narrow my eyes and hold out my hand, letting the energy ball grow in power. Bits of red spark along with my usual blue light, making it take on a brilliant purple hue. Some of the demons back away—as they should—but others get angry and rush forward.

  “Volunteering to be next?” I ask the big demon who wanted to eat me. I shove the energy ball into his chest and step back, so he doesn’t get demonic goo on this girly, designer dress. I flick my eyes up, seeing Julian jump from behind a column and plunge his dagger in between the shoulder blades of a demon. Light pours from the demon’s eyes for a second and then he melts into a pile of bubbling blood and flesh. Julian moves back behind another column, dodging out of sight.

  Rubbing my thumb over my fingers, I conjure a string of magic. “As I was saying, I am your queen, and you will obey my orders.”

  “Why should we listen to you?” a demon questions, black eyes narrowing on me. “You don’t look like someone who’d rule with darkness.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving,” I say, well aware I look like I should hop on my unicorn and pass out rainbows in this getup. “And you should listen to me if you want to—”

  “An angel!” another bellows right as Julian stabs another demon. Oh shit. The demon collapses and Julian looks at me, eyes wide. Chaos erupts from there, and I stumble back, desperately looking around for the pentagram on the floor. If I can just get to it, I can close the gates.

  Throwing my hands out, I telekinetically shove the closest demons out of the way and see an archangel sigil. The demons that got knocked to the ground are on the pentagram.

  “Julian!” I yell, looking through the sea of demons for him. He moves his dagger through the air, slicing into a demon. Another comes up behind and slashes his claws against Julian’s back. “No!”

  Julian whirls around, blood seeping through his shirt, and stabs his dagger into the chest of the demon. I hold both my hands together, conjuring a big energy ball. Using all my strength, I throw it into the crowd of demons, burning through half a dozen of them.

  But then more come through the large iron doors.

  Demons swarm around me. I can’t conjure energy balls fast enough. I hold out my hand, calling forth hellfire. Blue flames glow before me, and I shove them forward, setting two more demons on fire. But there are too many. I can’t keep up.

  “Julian!” I call again, looking for my cousin. I see him at the last second, right before a demon grabs him and wrestles him to the ground. “Julian!” I scream and send a blast of hellfire before me; it knocks several demons down and burns two. I rush forward and use magic to shove the demon off of Julian. It has its teeth sunken into Julian’s shoulder, tearing his flesh off his body. I know he heals, but I can’t help but panic at the sight of his blood.

  The demon springs back up, and I pick up Julian’s dagger, stabbing it hard into the demon's chest. Julian gets to his feet and puts a hand on my shoulder.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I think so. There are so many of them!”

 
“We should go.” He takes my hand, ready to fly me out of here. We didn’t close the gates. We failed. The demons are going to keep coming to earth, taking and taking until there’s nothing left.

  “Enough,” someone booms, voice echoing off the chambers and rattling the walls. I turn and see Lucifer standing in the threshold, wings spread behind him and eyes glowing red. He looks absolutely terrifying and it’s such a welcome sight. “I am your king, and you will bow down to me!”

  A red crown of hellfire burns around his head, and he extends his hand, burning the demons nearest us to ash. I need to learn that trick. Three more demons rush at us, leaving the pentagram exposed.

  It’s all the time I need. Using Julian’s dagger, I slice it across my palm and dive forward, knees hitting the ground hard. I slam my hand on the center of the pentagram and feel something pulse through me. The sound of a great iron door slamming shut echoes around us, so loud it makes my ears ring.

  Holy shit, it worked. I closed the gates of Hell.

  Julian jumps in front of me, brandishing his dagger. He’s been injured already. I’m not sure how he’s going to take on more demons like this.

  “Not so fast,” Lucifer tells the demons, who come to a sudden halt. “I created you. I gave you life.” He snaps his fingers. “And I can take it away.”

  The demons fall to the ground in a pile of ash, and the other demons in the hall slowly slink away. The fires start to recede, and everything is silent once again.

  “Lucifer,” I start and run toward him, dress flowing behind me. “You…you saved us.”

  He shrugs it off. “It’s fun being the hero every now and then, even though coming down here did damn us all.”

  “What do you mean?” I put my non-bleeding hand on my lower abdomen, feeling almost as if I need to lift Elena up because she weights too much and is too heavy.

  “You shut the gates.”

  I look at Julian, not sure why that’s a bad thing. “That’s we wanted to do.”

  “You shut the gates,” he repeats. “And you locked us in.”

  Chapter 38

  “Wait, what?” I ask though I heard Lucifer clearly.

  “The gates are shut, kiddo. You prevented a lot of demons from escaping, but it’s also put us in quite the pickle.”

  “You got out before,” Julian says slowly.

  “And it took me years to break out, though this time I’m not in chains,” he tells us and walks through the hall. I hurry after him, heels clicking on the brimstone pathway. “I’ll get us out, one way or another, though. Taking a pregnant half-human…that might be tricky without opening a gate again. We don’t want anyone else escaping, now do we?”

  “Anyone else?” I question, looking at Julian again. “I don’t like the way you said that. We closed the gates. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  Lucifer waves his hand over a stone wall and another passage appears. He steps into it, looks around, and then turns to me again.

  “Oh, it is. The demons can’t bring Hell to earth like they planned, but the world is still doomed.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Four demons escaped.”

  “Just four? That’s not too bad.”

  “These four are.”

  “Four…you say that like it has significance.”

  “It does. Because these four demons work together, and I think you’re familiar with them.”

  A shiver runs down my spine and the same cramping feeling tightens my abdomen, way more intense than anything I felt before. I have too much time left to go into preterm labor. These are Braxton Hicks contractions, not the real thing. But when the pain doesn’t subside in a few seconds, I start getting worried.

  “Are you all right, Callie?” Julian asks, reaching for my hand. I open my mouth to say yes, I’m fine, because I have to be fine. Because I’m not going into fucking preterm labor while I’m trapped in Hell. I can’t get the words out, and it takes everything I have not to double over.

  “Yes,” I pant, after a full thirty seconds have gone by and the contraction is over. “I’m peachy,” I say through gritted teeth, and even Lucifer is looking concerned. “Now, these demons…who are they?”

  “Maybe you should sit down,” Lucifer tells me and extends his hand. He leads me up the stairs to the throne, and waves his hand, slamming the large iron doors to the throne room shut. He heals the slice on my palm and I heft down on the throne. It feels good to get off my feet.

  “Renniken,” Lucifer calls, snapping his fingers. The demon appears, brought forth from a circle of hellfire. “Be a footstool for the princess.” He smiles at me. “Which is what you are. While I am the king, you are next in line, which makes you the Princess of Hell.”

  “Yes, master,” the demon says and drops down to all fours in front of me. He’s a demon in human form. I’m officially part of Hell’s royal circle, but it still feels weird to put my feet on his back, though I do anyway because I really need to have them up so my ankles don’t swell.

  “Princess of Hell has much less of a ring to it than Queen of Hell.” I shake my head, getting back to the point. “These demons,” I press. “Who are they?”

  Lucifer looks at Julian in an exchange of glances I wasn’t meant to see.

  “Tell me,” I say, and the ring of hellfire that surrounds the throne room sparks.

  “The demons,” Julian starts, brows furrowing. “They were four of the original demons Lucifer locked up when he was first cast to Hell. And I believe you know them as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

  Heir of Night, Book Eight in the Thorne Hill Series, is coming in 2021! Click here to preorder!

  Thank you

  Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy life to read Reign of Night! I hope loved the continuation of Callie and Lucas’s love story! :-) I appreciate so much the time you took to read this book and and would love if you would consider leaving a review. I LOVE connecting with readers and the best place to do so is my fan page. I’d love to have you!

  www.facebook.com/groups/emilygoodwinbooks

  About the Author

  Emily Goodwin is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of over a dozen of romantic titles. Emily writes the kind of books she likes to read, and is a sucker for a swoon-worthy bad boy and happily ever afters.

  She lives in the midwest with her husband and two daughters. When she's not writing, you can find her riding her horses, hiking, reading, or drinking wine with friends.

  Emily is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Agency.

  Stalk me:

  www.emilygoodwinbooks.com

  emily@emilygoodwinbooks.com

  Also By Emily Goodwin

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  Stay

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  First Comes Love

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  Twice Burned (Love is Messy Book 2)

  Bad Things (Love is Messy Book 3)

  Battle Scars (Love is Messy Book 4)

  Cheat Codes (The Dawson Family Series Book 1)

  End Game (The Dawson Family Series Book 2)

  Side Hustle (The Dawson Family Series Book 3)

  Cheap Trick (The Dawson Family Series Book 4)

  Fight Dirty (The Dawson Family Series Book 5)

  Paranormal romance:

  Dead of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 1)

  Dark of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 2)

  Call of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 3)

  Still of Night (Throne Hill Series Book 4)

  Curse of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 5)

  Queen of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 6)

  Immortal Night (Thorne Hill Companion Novella)

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  Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 1)

  Deathly Contagious (T
he Contagium Series Book 2)

  Contagious Chaos (The Contagium Series Book 3)

  The Truth is Contagious (The Contagium Series Book 4)