The Devil You Know

by Zahra Stone

  Michael shrugged. “It’s true. Mom said to punish her, so I cut her up. I’d do it again if given a chance.” Even though I knew he hated me, the hurt was still fresh, and I winced at his words.

  Bellona laid a hand on my father’s arm and halted him. “Later,” she murmured.

  He looked at her for a long moment before inclining his head. “Very well.”

  “It is time,” Freyja decreed, and I swallowed. This was it. Make or break. For Lilith had plotted against my father for millennia, had laid trap after trap for him, I knew she would have prepared for this moment, would present the worst case possible against my father so that he would look guilty, so that the witnesses would side against him. I closed my eyes and prayed.

  Lilith’s testimony went on and on. My legs ached for standing so long, and I could tell the witnesses were getting restless, too.

  Eventually, Nyx stepped forward, hand raised in the universal stop signal. “You are going around in circles and repeating yourself. I say we adjourn for a recess before hearing from Eli.”

  “But…”

  “Silence!” Nyx demanded, voice sharp. “This is a court of the witnesses. Argue with me once more, and you will be in contempt. Not one word from you, we have heard enough.”

  “We will reconvene in two hours,” Gaia decided, and whispers and murmurs spread throughout the room.

  Lilith slumped in her throne, her face as dark as thunder about being overridden in her own realm.

  Hestia raised her voice to be heard over the noise, “Lilith! We require refreshments. Is there somewhere we can sit and eat?”

  Ashliel rose and answered on behalf of my mother. “Yes, of course, anything you desire. Please, come this way to the banquet room. Refreshments are being arranged as we speak.”

  Leading the way, the witnesses began to follow when Selene stopped and signaled to my father. “Eli? Come. And bring your Angel and daughter. I’m sure their feet hurt as much as ours from standing all this time.”

  Lilith opened her mouth to protest. When Nyx sent her a look, she quickly snapped it closed again without saying a word. Of course, she didn’t want Dad socializing with the witnesses, but not to be outdone, she rose and joined the procession out of the throne room to the banquet room.

  Lunch was decadent and plentiful. Platter after platter of roast meats, vegetables, salads, loaves of bread, and fruit filled the massive table we were seated around. Dacian was to my left, Dad to my right, keeping me out of arms reach from Michael, Gabriel, Ashliel, and Lilith. It saddened me that I needed to be protected from family, but it was sinking in that I couldn’t consider them my family anymore, for they didn’t consider me as such except for Lilith. She still liked to play the mother card, and I heard her drop my name more than once in conversation.

  After lunch, we proceeded back into the throne room, and it was Dad's turn. Thankfully, he kept it brief and surprised us all by agreeing with everything Lilith had said. Yes, he’d ignored her too often—it hadn’t been intentional. He hadn’t realized it at the time. But rather than talk to him, to explain how she’d felt, she’d left. And he was sorry. He repeated it, his apology was heartfelt, yet Lilith’s face remained carved from stone.

  And then he told the witnesses all that she had done in retaliation. She hadn’t expected it, hadn’t expected him to fight, for ever since being released from the tomb, he’d rolled over and let her have her way, feeling bad for hurting her. But not now. Here was the father I remembered. Strong. Fair. Honorable. He accepted his share of the blame for what had happened between them. Now it was Lilith’s turn to do the same, but the fury radiating out from her spoke volumes. She did not, nor ever would, take responsibility for her actions against him.

  Nut, Goddess of the Sky, delivered the verdict.

  “Lilith. Elohim. We have heard your testimony this day, and I’m sure my sister Goddesses agree with me in my assessment.” Turning to the Goddesses, in turn, they all inclined their heads toward her, communicating telepathically again. “Elohim,” Nut addressed my father.

  “Yes, my Goddess.” He bowed his head, his respect for her evident.

  “We find you not guilty. You have no case to answer this day.”

  “What!” Lilith screamed, jumping to her feet from where she’d been sitting on her throne, “NO! Not acceptable. He must be punished.”

  “Silence!” Nut waved her hand, and a gust of wind pushed Lilith down onto her throne. “You imprisoned a God. A God! Do you think any of us would allow that to slide? To go unpunished? Do you know what the penalty is, Lilith, Daughter of the Night?”

  “W…what do you mean?” She knew then, knew she’d seriously misjudged this particular course of action. She should never have called the witnesses. But it was too late. She had. And she had to obey their decision. Only she’d never thought it would be her receiving the punishment; you could see the panic in her face.

  “Death. We could sentence you to death for imprisoning a God,” Nut continued, voice grim. I swallowed and looked at Dad, who looked back with a slight shake of his head. What did that mean? That he wouldn’t let them kill mom? I wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this, but I did know I didn’t want her dead.

  “However,” she continued, “Eli has requested that we spare you, and we will honor his wishes.” I closed my eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief.

  “Lilith, Daughter of the Night, you are hereby banished to the realm of Toqith. Neither you nor your citizens can leave this place. The door will be sealed forevermore. No one can enter, no one can leave.”

  “As long as my children, all my children, are here with me, I do not care,” Lilith answered. Heads swiveled toward me.

  “Oh, I’m not staying. No way. I’m returning to Hell,” I said.

  “Hell is fallen,” Lilith gloated.

  “I don’t care. I’ll rebuild,” I argued.

  “And I’ll help her,” Dad chimed in.

  “No, that’s not acceptable,” Lilith argued.

  “Silence!” Nut cut her off again. “This is not a negotiation, Lilith. Lucifer is free to leave; she has done nothing wrong in this case. You kidnapped her and forced her to stay against her will. She is free to go if she so chooses.”

  “I do. Choose to go, that is. And I’d like my powers returned.”

  “It will be so,” Nut assured me with a nod.

  “You will regret this,” Lilith told me, her eyes shooting daggers. A shiver danced up my spine at her threat.

  “Witnesses? We are agreed?” Nut addressed them.

  All nine of the Goddesses stepped forward, hands clasped, and said in unison, “By the power of the witnesses, let it be so.”

  I thought something would happen, something magical, but nothing did. Lilith sat sullenly on her throne. Michael and Gabriel stood on either side of her, Gabriel looked guilty, Michael looked bored, and Ashliel had a new clipboard she was madly typing things into. Out of everything, her betrayal hurt me the most. We’d run Hell together, and aside from Levi, she was one of my closest friends. To learn that it had all been a lie? I lowered my head to hide the tears. I just wanted to go home.

  The Witnesses departed, the citizens of Toqith filed out of the throne room, chattering about what had gone down, and Lilith sat on her throne, stunned that none of it had gone her way. That she’d failed.

  Catching a glimpse of Ashliel filing out of the room, I hurried to catch up, grabbing hold of her arm to halt her.

  “Ash.” I didn’t know why I’d stopped her. Didn’t know what I was going to say. I was still unbelievably hurt by her deception, that our friendship had been a lie.

  “You want me to say that I’m sorry, Lucy?” she asked with a familiar arch of her brow. “I’m not. I always thought you were too soft to run Hell. Too fair. Too good. You didn’t deserve it.”

  “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.” I didn’t have a witty comeback, barely had words at all for my former friend.

  A hand came down on my shoulder,
and I looked up to find Dacian by my side.

  “Ashliel.” He nodded at Ash. “I liked you better as a redhead.” Then he steered me away.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I had no idea, none.” I sighed, blinking back tears, “I thought she was my friend, I trusted her implicitly, and all along she was spying on me, all along she was…”

  “Don’t dwell on it. You can’t change it, and don’t beat yourself up over it. None of us knew. She had us all fooled.”

  Wiping a tear from my face, I sniffed and then squared my shoulders. It was over. Lilith had lost and was now imprisoned in her own realm, unable to hurt us ever again. It was…surreal. And just when I was settling into my new normal, of being able to breathe and mentally planning the rebuilding of Hell, I felt it. The severing of my connection with Levi.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I gasped, clutching my chest.

  “What is it?” Dacian asked in concern, peering into my face. Panic swept over me, making it hard to breathe, hard to think. I’d lost the connection. He was…gone.

  “My bond with Levi,” I choked, hysteria building. “It’s broken. Gone. I can’t feel him!” I ended on a cry.

  “Okay, okay, calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down!” I yelled, swinging around in circles, not knowing what I was looking for, not knowing what to do. What do I do?

  “Lucy!” Dacian grabbed my shoulders and halted me. “Breathe. It might not mean what you think it means.”

  “What? That he’s dead? Why else wouldn’t I feel him? Through all of this, despite having my magic locked down, I could feel him. He was alive. And now he’s not.” I crumpled. We’d been so close, so very close, and now he was gone.

  “Remember when he got pulled into another dimension by Zuska, and you thought all was lost?” Dacian reminded me. “We got him back. He survived.”

  “I wasn’t bound to him then. I didn’t know. Not for sure.”

  Dacian pulled me against his chest and dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Have faith.”

  “What’s happened?” Dad approached, took in my distraught appearance, and addressed Dacian rather than me. Smart man. I was bordering on hysteria. My body was shaking, and I could barely breathe due to the weight on my chest.

  “She can’t feel Levi,” Dacian explained, running a soothing hand up and down my back.

  “Come. We shall find him together.”

  “I can’t leave. She suppressed my magic.” I sniffed into Dacian’s chest, leaning heavily against him. I was tired. Really tired. So tired I could lay down on the floor and die, for, without Levi, I didn’t want to continue. I couldn’t live my life without him.

  “I returned your power, Lucy. You’re okay. You’re whole,” Dad told me.

  “Not without Levi, I’m not.” And I began sobbing all over again. I thought I heard Dacian sigh, and I tried to pull myself together but failed miserably.

  “Don’t give up on him, Lucy. Just because you can’t feel him doesn’t mean he’s dead. Something else could be interfering with your connection.”

  I lifted my head and peered at my father through bloodshot eyes. “You don’t think this is one last-ditch attempt from Lilith to hurt us, do you?”

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past her. Let’s go see, hmm?”

  With Dacian holding one hand and Dad the other, we flew out of Toqith and returned to Hell. I felt the tug on my heartstrings that I wouldn’t see my brothers or Ashliel again. They’d chosen their paths; this was their destiny, not mine. Then I was distracted by what lay before me as we flew past the Gates of Hell. It was just as I’d left it. Not broken or empty. My two remaining dragons flew above the gate, on guard. And Hell, HQ sat upon the cliff like it always had. It hadn’t fallen. And my bond with Levi? It was there, as clear and strong as ever.

  “Oh, my Goddess!” I clutched my chest, rubbing at the sweetness of the ache in my heart. It had gone from utter sadness to utter joy so fast it hurt.

  “You feel him?” Dacian asked as we materialized in my office.

  “I do!” I smiled, my relief bringing tears to my eyes once more. I’d never cried as much as I had on this day. “Let me go find him.” I rushed to the elevator since he wasn’t in my office. Dacian and Dad were at the monitors, surveying the Earth. From what I glimpsed on the screens, all was well there, too. Amazing. I made a mental note to ask Dad about it once I’d found Levi.

  Upstairs I ran through the apartment, calling his name. He didn’t reply. He wasn’t there, I knew the minute I stepped inside that the apartment was empty, but still, I searched, going from room to room. No Levi. No Mr. Meow. No Nibbler. Where had they all gone?

  Anxiety was nipping at my heels when I returned to Dad and Dacian.

  “No?” Dacian glanced at my face, then back at the monitors.

  “He’s not here!”

  Dad sighed. “Damn it.”

  “What?” I seized his arm, forcing him to look at me.

  “I think your mother may have boobytrapped Levi.”

  “Boobytrapped? How?”

  “She went to a lot of trouble to make you think Hell had fallen; my best guess is when you returned to this realm, Levi was transported elsewhere.”

  “To another dimension?” When would this end? The traps and games my mother had planned were mind-boggling.

  “I’d say she sent him back to Earth.” Dacian was still looking at the monitors. “He’s part human. I don’t think she wanted him dead, he was no threat to her, plus if she did, she could have killed him and left him here for you to find.”

  I mulled it over, my eyes flicking over the screens, scanning for signs of Levi.

  “I think you’re right,” I said.

  “Dacian, help Lucy search for him. I must return to Heaven, but if you need me, call. I will come.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Dad?” I hugged him, not sure what to say. He’d answered my prayers, had come to Toqith and rescued me. “Do you know where he is? Can you find him?”

  “I wish I could, Lucy, I really do. But since he became part fire demon, I cannot get a firm lock on him, other than he’s alive. And I think Dacian is right. Earth is the first place I’d look.” He hugged me tightly. “I’ve repaired what damage I could from Lilith’s interference. I’ve answered prayers, there are many more to go, I’ve performed the odd miracle or two, and now I need to get back to Heaven and continue my work. You go. Find Levi, I’ll send someone to monitor Hell for you, but this is a temporary arrangement—you need to return and take the helm, understood?”

  “Yes, Father. I’ll return.” I knew what he was saying, the hidden words. With or without Levi, my place was here. I could see three of the screens monitoring Hell flashing, indicating trouble was brewing. “I’ll sort that out before I go,” I told Dad reluctantly.

  “I’ve got it. You go. The quicker you find him, the quicker you will return. I imagine it’s only souls kicking up a fuss about their punishment.”

  “Thank you, Dad,” I whispered, fresh tears in my eyes as I hugged him one more time before stepping back and wiping my arm across my eyes.

  “Ready?” Dacian asked.

  “Ready.”

  Together we flew to Earth, intent on finding Levi.

  We couldn’t find him. I was losing hope when Dacian suggested we check in on the key while we were on Earth. Apparently, they had arrived in Heaven safe and sound, and Dad had returned them to Fury Island.

  “They may know something,” he suggested.

  “Pft, doubtful, but okay. I know I don’t have much time, I’m needed in Hell, but I don’t think I can face returning without Levi.” I admitted my worry for Levi trumped my concern for my own realm.

  “We’ll find him.” He sounded so confident, so sure. I wished I had half of his conviction. My thoughts turned to my mother. She’d done this. She’d taken Levi from me. If I were her, where would I send him? She didn’t want to hurt him per se, but she wanted him out
of my life, that much was clear. She’d spirited me away to her own dimension and had been intent on keeping me there, away from him. What would I do if I were Lilith?

  Flying in low over Fury Island, we came in to land in front of the vet clinic.

  “Can you feel them?” Dacian smiled at me, and I beamed in response. Yes! I could feel my bond with the key, and they felt me, for the door flew open, and Del was running toward me, arms outstretched, Duke bounding by her side, barking, and Jase at a more leisurely pace, bringing up the rear.

  “You’re back!” Del wrapped her arms around me and squeezed, and I laughed, hugging her back.

  “I am. Are you okay?”

  “We’re all good.” Releasing me, Del stepped back and eyed me up and down. “And you? What did she do?” Her last words ended on a scowl, and I decided I wouldn’t tell them what I’d suffered while imprisoned on Toqith. It would only distress them more.

  “I’m good. Everything is sorted. Lilith has been locked in her own dimension; no one can enter or leave.”

  “I see some amazing things have been happening on planet Earth. All of our people are back,” Jase drawled, sliding an arm around Del and tucking her into his side. I remembered then that the entire population of Fury Island had mysteriously disappeared around the same time the Valkyrie had shown up. I made a mental note to thank Dad.

  “Yeah, Dad’s been busy.”

  “We met him. Seems a nice bloke.”

  I barked out a laugh. Typical Jase, laidback as usual.

  “I’m looking for Levi. Have you seen him? Heard anything?” I asked. It was a long shot, but I was desperate.

  “Oh. You don’t know?” Del chewed on her lip.

  “Know what? Is he here?” I couldn’t begin to hope, but when she nodded, I could have kissed her. Her next words stopped me in my tracks. “There’s something you should know, Lucy.”

  “What?”

  “It’s Levi.”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s…”

  “Oh, my god! What? Just spit it out, Del. I can’t take any more suspense or drama.”