Lucifer
“You’ll be okay.” I say the words, but they don’t ring with the truth. I’ve seen the hovering spectre of death too many times to believe my words. It comes in different forms. Hellions dissolve into the Hellfire, claimed and destroyed. I don’t want that for her. My Dahlia.
The shrill cry of my child echoes through the quiet room, punctuating my frantic pleading. I reach down and push a lock of her hair behind her ear, cradling my infant daughter in one hand and the cheek of my lover in the other. Blood leaks from her mouth, eyes, ears, and nose. Her pupils are so large that they encase her irises completely in black.
“Don’t do this to me. Don’t do this to us. Please, Pet. Please just stay with me. A little longer. Please. Don’t do this. Don’t close your eyes. I’m here.”
“Luc,” She croaks.
“No.” I order her, “Don’t do this.”
She lifts her hand to touch the side of my face. I can smell her scent on my skin, like frozen flowers and crisp winter show. Her fingers are limp and her eyes can’t see me anymore.
“Can I hold her?” She whispers.
My face crumples in defeat. I know what she is doing. She’s saying goodbye. I despise the situation with every ounce of my being. I want to scream at her for her foolishness. For allowing the events to align to force her death.
I had forgotten that I was holding a part of her. Our newborn child. I rest the squalling bundle on her chest, and the pale cream blanket quickly becomes damp around the edges as the wound on her chest does not heal. I keep my grip on my daughter’s tiny warm body, so that Dahlia does not drop her. I admire the baby’s clear grey eyes as they blink up at me.
Dahlia sobs but tries to catch it before it escapes her mouth. I’m unable to talk around the growing lump in my throat. It’s burning presence constricts my chest. I place my delicate fingers on the silver cuffs on her wrists and they spring open. What had once been some of my finest magic now rests on the floor of the archives.
I know it’s too late, but hope is deadly and it rears its head even though I try to quash it.
Hell magic sparks over her skin and rushes forward into the air like static. It does not heal her. I knew it wouldn’t. I look down to see that she has not stopped bleeding. Her thighs are slick with blood as she haemorrhages. In that second, one of the most powerful people to ever walk the plains of Hell has fallen.
“It's time.” She whispers and strokes out child’s tiny button nose. She memorises her small face.
“I can’t.” I whisper.
She blinks and a drop of blood lands on our baby’s cheek. She hands me the child without a word. Her chest heaves as she splutters a wet cough and I hear her heart battle between the rush of Hell magic and the meat of humanity. I watch helplessly as her eyes glaze over and her arms slump to the floor.
I’m left holding a howling child. I can offer no comfort. I cannot contemplate existing. Living. It has become too painful.
Dahlia is a husk. Empty.
She’s fucking dead.
I bury my head in the warm bundle of blankets and inhale the scent of my newborn daughter. I sob dry tears. Never have I felt such sorrow. Such pain. The wound of her absence is a festering pit that will never heal. Something plunks to the ground. It’s a pebble. I recognise it at once. It is one of the ingredients to the Ice Prison.
She got them? Damn, my wily female. She did it.
I force my numb hands into action, reaching into the pockets of her trousers by her feet and searching for the articles that I seek. Abaddon comes and takes my child away, soothing her with a battle hymn. Heaven before earth.
Her body grows cold as I frantically search Dahlia’s lifeless corpse for the flower and the feather.
The threads of Hell approach, curling towards us like a snake seeking its prey. They want to take her.
“I’m not done!” I snarl and fling out my power like a blanket.
I mutter the words that the Lord spat in my face as he destroyed my grace and created my prison.
The world rips open and claims my Consort. My Mate.
The Ice prison swallows her whole, but I fear that it may be too late.
The story continues in The Devil's Lullaby
Coming 5th December
Available on Preorder now