CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I didn’t know my way around Lucifer’s castle and wouldn’t risk shimmering back to his throne room, a room I’d only seen briefly. I didn’t trust my memory of the room to get me there. But, if Lucifer didn’t want me using magic without his knowledge, I’d use that to get me there. I’d use it to get to him.
I’d leave his trap and his suppression spell in place until I was ready to take his heart out of his chest.
I gave Chicken a quick pat on the head, reached for a bit of ambient magic and shimmered back into my bedchamber in the Arcana Realm.
Lucifer wanted to be worshiped, that much was clear. The spectacle he’d made, the joy on his face when I gave him the tiniest crumb of false reverence. He wanted to be worshiped like Lillith.
I could almost understand it. Power is intoxicating.
Seeing Lillith with everything he wanted when, in his mind, she hadn’t earned it or worked for it and possibly, didn’t even want it—I didn’t blame him for dividing the realms and stealing all the power he could.
But once he knew his greed caused others harm and affected other realms and races, he should have stopped.
He didn’t.
And he stole my best friend and captured my realm leaders. That I couldn’t understand.
So I aimed to remind him of exactly who he was dealing with.
Zurie fucking McCaine, the new goddamn High Queen.
The new Lillith.
The one given the power he so desperately wanted.
I gave myself a long look in the vanity mirror—dirty hair and face, damp leathers, hollowed out cheeks. I needed a shower, hell I needed a damn power washer to get the layers of prison cell grime off me.
But it didn’t matter and I didn’t have time for that anyway.
I turned to the armoire and pulled out the dress made for this occasion. The ballet-slipper-pink fabric rustled against the other garments, my dirty fingers leaving smudges on the chiffon as I set it on the bed. I wrestled myself out of my sticky leathers as fast as one can do such a thing and slid the gown over my head. It fit perfectly, as I expected, dipping low in the front like my last dress which gave my realm leaders more room for contact. With any luck, this would be over quickly, without need of their magical bolstering.
Though, facing off with Lucifer without them at my side was not at all what I’d call a best-case scenario.
I reached outward for a strand of Arcane Realm magic to glamour away the week’s worth of filth but thought better of it. I wasn’t hiding behind glamours anymore. I wanted the Blood King to see what he’d done to me, see it and know that I was there, about to take his heart despite and because of it.
Barefoot, in a pink ball gown with mats in my equally pink hair, I forced a steadying breath into my lungs.
“One shot. Two spells,” I said to my slate-eyed reflection.
I had to make it quick or he’d pull me back before I’d dispelled both.
I caressed the spider web spell with my mind.
It hummed back and released its tendrils, blinking out of existence. With a thought, I cast away the suppression spell staunching my flow of magic and power flooded into me once more.
And just as fast, I was yanked into the in-between.
As I expected, I stood in the Blood Realm throne room, bypassing any guards or traps I would have tripped if I’d shimmered in myself. This time, Lucifer wasn’t glowing like a goddamn neon sign. I could make out the whole room. The colossal skylight at the peak of the room’s pitched ceiling flooding the center of the throne room in light, the nude witches floating behind the dais, spelled to spool magic for him, the smaller throne to the right of Lucifer’s, and Dex’s inscrutable, dead gaze boring into mine.
And then there was the blood-red floor and walls.
I focused on the room because I couldn’t look at the cages.
“Impressive,” Lucifer said from his bone throne. “I have to admit I didn’t think you had it in you. I should have known better though, shouldn’t I? You were chosen for a reason, after all.” Lucifer smiled as he looked me up and down, eyes lingering on the low neckline. “You tripped the spell on purpose,” he said with an amused tone.
“I did. I had this made special, just for you. It’d be such a waste if you didn’t get to see it.” Against my better judgment, I turned in a circle, letting him see the entire gown, and putting my back to him.
Lucifer ignored the gesture, green gaze meeting mine. “You have her eyes.”
“I’m aware.”
“You must believe you have the upper hand.”
I stepped forward, into the light pouring in from above. “Release my horde, release my friends, set the witches free, and give back the power you stole.”
Lucifer smiled at me. “Why in Lillith’s name would I want to do such a thing?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re destroying your own realm and putting fae and shifter lives in danger?”
He shrugged. “There is no greater mistress than power. Creatures from every realm revered Lillith, worshiped her as a goddess. I only want the same. Is that so wrong?”
“Yes,” I growled and summoned every branch of magic I had, shifter, arcane, green, shadow, and even the unstable blood magic from the ether. I blasted it at all him.
I was the new High Queen.
I had all the power now.
It hit him square in the chest, exploding his throne into thousands of bony shards. Lucifer stood, wings unfurling, and even as I poured magic from each realm into him, he walked toward me, his gait undisturbed, his face neutral.
With a single wave of his hand, he ended my attack, flicking it away like a mere annoyance. He stopped a dozen or so feet before me and laughed. “Did you think it would be so easy? We’re the same, you and me. You might be the Chosen One, but I have just as much power as you. And,” he said, closing the distance between us. “I have a millennium of practice wielding it.
“I’m sorry, Zurie McCaine, but you were never going to win this.”