Chapter 9
Facing the blown-out window to the east of the castle, Abaddon inhaled profoundly and breathed life over the sculpture garden like a thick haze of milky glitter. I watched as one by one, each of the marble figures creaked to life. Their limbs were stiff, and their eyes were blank stone as they looked to Abaddon for his orders. He pointed to the border. All of the statues turned at once, in perfect time. The sight was eerie. The dead grass that circled the courtyard rustled in the breeze.
I squinted at the edge of the Styx and noted that the stagnant water had begun to vibrate. It’s surface bobbled as if something weaved underneath.
I nodded once to Abe, to ensure that he had my back and he palmed his dagger and Laced to the edge of the property. He looked up to the window and gestured for me to follow. I allowed my wings to spread and dived, using the icy wind current to allow my body to glide to the edge of the castle grounds.
When we passed the iron railings around the fortress, we were followed by the sound of grinding stone as the statues lined up behind us. My golden wings caught the light and shone over the surface of the water. I spread them wide, as the grey clouds overhead began to darken and swirl ominously.
I saw pinpricks of colour in the sky, a flash of red hair. Valkyries. I debated holding my palm out to Abaddon for a weapon but quickly decided against it. I did not need one. My hands began to give off steam as the icy temperately dropped below freezing. I stepped to the bank of the river as it began to part. The beast broke the surface like a bubble; two waterfalls streamed on either side of his broad mass as he rose taller than the height of the castle.
The King of the Leviathan had come for us.
He darted forward; his body swished from side to side like the hips of a seductive woman. His long canines were stained black with his venom. He opened his lips so that his gruesome teeth were level with mine and Abe’s faces. We stood still and waited for him to make his move.
Both of could not be hurt by his venom. The Leviathan’s display was posturing.
The water writhed with the dark forms of his brethren. The lower Envy demons swam under the surface like black tadpoles.
We were surrounded.
The Leviathan lurched forward; his jaws open wide as if he planned to swallow my body whole. With a flash of Hell magic, he became the suave armoured male that I knew him to be. The momentum from his lurch forward was not broken as he strode across the bank to both of us in his human form.
His eyes flitted across the army of white stone sinners. Our front line. Their blank stone eyes betrayed nothing. Levi’s smile did not drop as he took in my wings with a delirious happiness that I could not understand.
“Has Lucifer deemed me unworthy of an audience?” Levi opened his arms wide as his voice boomed across the bank of the river. A warbling battle cry echoed out overhead, and I looked up to the circling mass of Valkyries that grew closer with every passing second.
“You are not welcome here,” I said.
The Leviathan turned his head sharply, and his jade reptilian eyes zeroed in on me. “And here I thought that you had perished.”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t have spies here,” I replied with a snarl.
“I had so hoped that you had brought your progeny along with you.” The Leviathan’s voice was sickly sweet. “I wish to settle what Meesha began.”
“Did you send her?” I stepped forward, power rolled off me in waves as I thought of all of the ways that I could rip each tooth from his gums to maximise his pain. “Were you the one that sent that snake after my child?”
Abaddon put his arm out to stop me from taking another step forward.
“The Ice Queen appears to have thawed. Time was that my words could not have sparked a response, but your rage is positively delicious.” The Leviathan crooked his finger and picked his front teeth; his pink tongue darted out and licked the venom from his lips. “Apologies. I appear to be secreting in my excitement.”
Leviathan’s only lost control over their saliva when they were aroused and angry. From the King of Envy’s lecherous smirk, it was easy to determine which emotion to pin the response on. I cocked my head to the side and allowed my own feelings to drain away and be replaced by the numbness that held the darkness inside of me at bay.
“Did you send Meesha to assassinate me and mine?” I spoke in a delicate tone, but it hung heavy with an unsaid threat.
“Oh no.” The Leviathan said, shaking his head. “All I did was offer her sanctuary after the fact. You were the one that drew the Hound’s wrath. Bedding her and casting her aside. Did Lucifer never teach you, Pet? Never defecate where you eat.”
Abaddon spun his dagger around, manipulating it around his fingers with casual ease. “If you don’t get to your point, then I will cut your tongue from your mouth.”
“The masses will weep if you do.” The Leviathan winked.
“That would imply that you could pay attention to another being long enough to gift an orgasm.” I surveyed my nails, casually. “I highly doubt that.”
The King of Envy’s smirk turned antagonistic. “I am sure that I could melt your ice. If I could bear to touch someone so tainted.”
“Says the beast from the swamp,” Abaddon muttered.
“I was here when Hell was born, and I will be here long after it falls.” Levi swept his arms out and gestured to the circling mass of Valkyries overhead.
“What was the point of your visit?” I drawled, bored of the theatrical show the King of Envy displayed. He stood in front of me with his pompous golden armour; the dark-haired warrior and the leader of the swarm that threatened to breach the surface of the river Styx.
“I take it that Wrath has fallen to your Circle if you have command of the Valkyries?” Abaddon said as he looked up at the swirling cyclone of winged demons.
The King of Envy’s jade eyes glinted. He did not answer the question but instead swung forward with his fingers hooked into claws. He swiped at my body, but I had enough time to jump back as his physical body failed in its attack. A second later, I felt his magic grip my stomach like a burning vice. I held in my gasp of pain, and instead flexed my magic like a whip. It wrapped itself around the top of Levi’s arm, leaving a smouldering mess of skin that looked like dripping wax in its wake.
My wings stretched without conscious thought.
“If you take to the skies, the Valkyries will consume you.” The Leviathan panted as his flesh knitted over with golden jade scales. They spread up his bicep and over his shoulder until the covered the right side of his face.
The shirt that I had borrowed from Uriah had three long strips torn from the belly of the white fabric. I reached into one of the gaping holes and gripped Ba’el sceptre and pulled it free of my underwear elastic. I held it over my head in triumph.
“I do not need the skies to escape,” I said with a smug expression.
The Leviathan’s arrogance smirk dropped from his lips like a dead weight when his eyes rested on the ruby-hilted Devil’s silver. “Where did you get that?” His voice was a mixture of awe, fear and avarice.
I waved it and pointed the sharpened tip in his direction. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
The Levithan darted forward again, this time with greedy human fingers. “Give it to me.” his forked tongue rolled over the words and changed them to a hiss.
“I don’t know what you planned to do here today, Leviathan, but I advise you to leave.” I brandished the sceptre and the metal begun to turn red until it looked like it belonged in a blacksmith’s fire. “You might have thought that Lucifer would crumble to your might, but I will never.”
“You don’t know what you have.” The Leviathan watched the glowing Devil’s silver as if it had put him under a spell. “You could end this all. You could save us all.”
I ignored his cryptic words. “If you ever threaten my home and my family again, I will roast you on a spit and feed you to the nightmares.” I threatened.
The King of Envy scoffed and drove into the stagnant golden water of the river. Slowly, the forces that he had brought with him receded like the tide.
Abaddon and I stayed on the bank of the river and stared at the now empty river. He did not sheath his daggers, but the line of marble statues behind us froze into their typical positions. There were two adultress sculptures on either side of me, both with their hands clasped in prayer as they looked stoically to the clear grey skies.
“I don’t like this,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“The Leviathan has spies in the castle. Someone told him that Lucifer left the First Circle. It’s been three years since the Devil has set foot outside of his fortress. The Leviathan has been biding his time.” Abe’s eyes swung to mine. “We are weak without Lucifer.”
“He’ll be back soon.” I sighed, as I rubbed my hands over the front of my ripped shirt. “Perhaps when his blight of madness has passed, maybe before?”
“His incoherence does not bother you?” Abe blinked in disbelief.
“I battle my own darkness every day.” I kicked up my leopard print stiletto so that I could survey the heel. “Maybe the part of me that cared about pandering to Luc died when I did.”
“You can’t mean that.” Abaddon gestured towards the castle with his chin, and we began to walk back. The statues remained in position on the bank of the river, a shield against attack.
I shrugged. “I died, Abaddon.”
“But you’re back now.”
“But I still died.” I hissed. “Where was my Master when I was inside of the darkness? Did he pry apart the dimensions to find me? Did he reach up to the Summerland to barter for my release from the Ice Prison? No. He sent his own child away and wallowed in his own filth.”
“Those words don’t belong to you. Who has been filling your head with such vitriol?” Abaddon reached up and clasped both of my cheeks. He stared into my eyes as if he expected someone else to be looking back at him.
A burst of lightning crashed overhead as we walked into the courtyard. I recognised the flood of energy that came with Luc’s presence. “Daddy’s home.” I laughed bitterly. “Convenient, wouldn’t you say?”
“That is the kind of attitude that can only result in one of Lucifer’s punishments,” Abe whispered, placing his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t want to see you beaten.”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “But does he?” I jerked my finger upwards to the ceiling. “I deserve to be held. I deserve to be comforted for my sacrifice.”
“You learnt long ago that begging for attention like a child does not work, Dahlia,” Abe warned.
I folded my wings flat against my back and faced the stairs as I felt my Master’s magic flow over every surface. My knees buckled from the familiar pressure of the Devil’s presence.
Abaddon lowered himself down to one knee; his dagger was placed in front of him.
I remained standing. I had earned my place by his side. I would not allow myself to be waylaid anymore. I felt like I had woken up by the darkness of Lucifer’s chambers.
“Pet.” His voice was caramel, husky and broken with unshed tears. I blinked and looked up to the platform at the base of the staircase.
“You missed the Leviathan’s posturing, Lucifer.” Abaddon stood up from his show of fealty and brushed the knees of his trousers, even though the marble of the atrium was spotless.
Luc nodded in response, but his silver eyes did not move from my face. His plush lips were parted, as his expression hovered between disbelief and joy. His mood swings made me seasick.
“I can’t do this.” I did not realise that I had spoken aloud until I watched a dark cloud pass over Lucifer’s expression.
Lucifer walked towards me with a kind of confidence that could only come with having control over every facet of his domain. I found myself blossoming under his gaze, against my will. My hands rose, and when he reached me, Lucifer cupped the back of my neck. My own hands tangled in his platinum sheet of hair and all of my emotions burst into a crescendo. I was a puppet under his hands as his lips met my own.
My eyes remained open in shock.
Had there always been something missing from his embrace?
I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. I threw myself into the kiss with desperation. I had always sought the approval, the love and the attention of my Master. Why did his embrace feel like I had none of those things?
His tongue traced my own and my body flushed with arousal as it remembered all the times that he had used his tongue elsewhere. I shivered. Lucifer’s fingers in my scalp began to burn, and the tang of pain flooded my core with the promise of more.
But there was nothing else.
No chemistry. I was a marionette. Had I been blinded by the Devil?
Why did I feel such a flood of guilt the second that the uncertainty trickled into my mind? I broke the kiss. Shaking my head in confusion.
I finally noticed that Abaddon had left us to our reunion. Why had Lucifer kissed me? When a few hours before, he had determined that I wasn’t welcome in his domain.
“Where did you disappear to when we were under attack, Lucifer?”
As if he had heard my internal quandary, Lucifer tightened his grip on the back of my head. His touch had changed from that of a delicate lover into something dark and harsh.
“You may have fooled my second, Nova, but I will find out why you are determined to infiltrate my home.” He flicked one of my wings, and I flinched.
“Did you ever truly see me, Luc?” I whispered. “Was I just a replacement for your Lord?”
I Laced away without waiting for permission to leave. Something I had never done before in his presence. The question that pulsed against the edges of my mind like a migraine was too loud to ignore. Had his kiss lacked any feeling because of me, or because he thought that I was someone else?
And why had Uriah’s kisses plagued my mind?
The lips of my enemy had tasted better than the object of a millennia-long idolisation.
I disliked the stables because Lucifer had killed my first friend there. The hay on the ground had been replaced over and over, but nothing could erase the blood stain that Kaleb had left behind on the concrete floor of the second stall.
No Hellhorse would willingly venture into the area where the man that took my first kiss had been blown to smithereens. His blood had run down his face through his tear ducts as Kaleb’s eyes had rolled back inside of his skull.
He had been a First Circle demon, although his inception was less eventful than my own. Kaleb had been created by Abaddon to be my friend. I held out my hand and surveyed the carefully placed lifelines on my palm. Lucifer had designed them. Just as he had designed the rest of the platinum-haired body that I wore. I was the feminine version of his own form.
The First Circle was the home of Pride and Vanity, after all.
I was a walking mirror.
I clenched my fist and felt my skin ripple like silk in the wind as I pulled the familiar skin over myself. My hair darkened to a honey colour, my eyes shifted to match and changed shape at the edges. Almond instead of round like a baby deer.
I had been poisoned by emotion. I had not wept when Kaleb had been killed in front of my eyes by Lucifer’s magic. I had mourned for only a day for my friend and companion. The man that I spared with during weapons training under Abe’s watchful eye.
Lucifer had not said a word to me as he pulled Kaleb’s own magic from his body and blew it away like sand. Even in the beginning, Luc had not wanted me but he did not want another to have me either.
The Lord of the Summerland had not just given me wings; she had opened my eyes to things that I did not want to see. I clenched my fists and pressed them into my eye sockets. No matter how hard I rubbed my eyes, I could not wish away the image of Kaleb’s death from my mind. The writhing of Lucifer and the Lord of the Summerland as they fucked and loved one another. The flash of Luc’s face as he gripped my throat and slammed my head into my mirror. The Leviathan’s smug face when he had succeeded in rattling me.
I had never been the one to initiate it before, but I needed to call a meeting with the remaining Original Seven. Something needed to be done about Envy’s grasp for power. The King of the Leviathan, leader of the swarm and general pain in my arse was a problem I could address. In the grand scheme of things, Levi seemed easier to deal with than my own warped love life.