Magnus

“What was Hell like?” Amalia asked as we traversed what was becoming an increasingly twisted pathway through the Abyss.

From this angle, and with the walls closing in on us, I couldn’t see the monolith. Being unable to see anything beyond ten feet of our surrounding area had me contemplating climbing the rocks to take a look from above. I could cloak myself while I was up there, but I doubted the view would reveal much more than what I saw from the top of the hill when we first entered the Abyss.

“Magnus,” she prodded.

“It was Hell,” I said when I recalled her question.

When her delectable mouth pursed, and her eyes slid sideways to meet mine, an increasingly familiar tightening started in my groin. Had there ever been a woman I desired as much as her? I tried to think of the answer, but I couldn’t recall anyone before she walked into my life.

I could only remember what it felt like to have her lips against mine and her flesh beneath my hands. And out of all the women I’d been with, she was the first demon I kissed. Some of the humans insisted on kissing during sex, and I obliged when I had to, but I’d never felt the compulsion to taste a woman as I did with her.

And I would taste her again as soon as I got her out of this place, alive.

She’s still mortal.

The reminder caused my teeth to clench. She was right, she was safer here than I was, but I hated this vulnerability in her that I hadn’t known she possessed until recently. No matter what happened, I would make sure she attained her immortality. My protective feelings toward her had me questioning just what she was to me.

Is she my Chosen?

The more I pondered that, the more it made some sense. I experienced a draw toward her from the beginning. I wanted her, badly; I felt more protective of her than any other, but I’d never wanted a Chosen and wasn’t sure how to deal with the possibility of having found mine. I’d seen the loss of a Chosen destroy demons before, and I’d vowed not to be one of them.

I was not a demon to fall in love, but discovering a Chosen didn’t guarantee love between them. However, all the mated demons I’d encountered loved each other deeply.

The Chosen bond made demons inherently stronger. It also gave them a weakness they’d never experienced before as they now had someone else walking around whose death would equal theirs.

Lucifer killed my parents, but I’d learned later in life that my father’s death propelled my mother into going after Lucifer without any concern for herself. She’d handed me over to Kobal. Then, she went to hunt Lucifer and died. Her love for my father drove her to such reckless behavior, and because of that, I’d always seen love as a weakness.

Amalia could be my Chosen, we could one day complete the bond between us, and I could keep myself from falling in love with her. If she were my Chosen, I would welcome the strength the bond would bring me, but if I kept from loving her, I might also be able to live without her should she perish. The idea of her death caused my teeth to clamp together; it would not happen.

“I could see the fires of Hell through the windows of my seal, but what was it really like there?” she asked. “What was Lucifer like? What is the king like?”

I stopped walking and turned to face her. “It was a hideous pit of misery. Demons slaughtered demons, angels slaughtered demons, Lucifer was a prick who deserved to die, and the day I watched it happen was the best day of my life. He slaughtered my parents when I was two.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be; it was centuries ago.”

“Do you remember anything about them?”

“My mother’s hair was dark, and my father’s was the same color as mine. I recall being hugged between them and sitting on the ground playing with them as they wove illusions around me. They loved me, and I loved them, but that’s all I remember.” I could still feel the warmth of their love for me, but it wasn’t enough to keep my mother alive. “They died before either of them could teach me what I was capable of, and there were no other illusion demons to do that either. I am the last of my kind.”

“What happened to you after they died?”

“Kobal, the king, brought me to a Chosen pair of visionary demons who had lost their child ten years before, during a surprise attack from Lucifer and the angels.”

“How awful for them,” Amalia murmured.

“We should discuss something else,” I said when her eyes turned ochre again.

“No. I want to learn more about Hell and you.”

Those words pleased me more than I’d expected.

“What happened after that?” she asked and started walking again.

I fell into step beside her. “The visionary demons raised me. They never had another child before they were killed by the craetons twenty-eight years later, a year after I stopped aging.”

“That must have been difficult for you.”

“It was.” I didn’t like recalling the sadness their passing caused. “I may not have been theirs, but demon children are rare and precious, and they loved me as if I’d been a product of their love. I started fighting with Kobal once I aged into my immortality, but after their deaths, I plunged into the battle. I wanted Lucifer dead in the worst way, and I was reckless in my youth. When I look back on those days, I know only luck, Kobal, Corson, and even Bale kept me alive throughout those centuries of my life. Then, once my grief, youth, and bloodlust were spent, I started to reevaluate what I was doing.”

“And what did you learn?”

“I was doing it all wrong.”

Amalia stopped walking, and I faced her. “I don’t understand,” she said.

“I’m an illusionary demon, and I knew I was capable of conjuring things such as this.” Holding out my palm, I brought to life a perfect, red rose in the center of it. She smiled as the rose started spinning in a slow dance over my palm. “Go on, touch it.”

She glanced at me before stretching her fingers forward. Her smile faltered when her fingers slid through the rose, but it returned when the flower remained.

“Amazing,” she breathed.

“I thought the same, back then, but I knew there was a lot more potential in me. Curious about my kind, I decided to read up on what past illusionary demons could do. In the process, I learned I was barely scratching the surface of my abilities. My illusions distracted our enemies for a brief time, but they were parlor tricks at best.”

“So what did you do?”

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the war with Lucifer and strengthen my abilities at the same time, so I retreated from the war. I hoped our friendship would be enough to keep Kobal from killing me, as I never told him why I abruptly decided to stop fighting.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

“I was afraid if I told him, Lucifer would somehow discover what I was trying to do and come after me. No one wants an enemy who is trying to grow stronger, and back then my illusions weren’t a concern to anyone. I also don’t think the craetons knew what I was then, or now, as in battle it’s almost impossible to tell who is doing what.”

“I don’t think they know either,” she said. “I’d heard of you, but I’ve never heard anything about what you are capable of doing.”

“If Lucifer never learned the truth of what I was doing, he’d remain too busy trying to defeat Kobal than to concern himself with going after the coward many viewed me as. I preferred to let them all think I’d tucked tail and run, than to reveal the truth and risk everything.”

Amalia seized my other hand and squeezed it. When she went to release it, I held on to hers so I could feel the warmth of her delicate hand within mine. It wasn’t a good way to keep my distance from her, but I had to touch her.

“I staked out a corner of Hell, claimed it as mine, and started practicing,” I said. “I created a demonic carnival meant for Hell alone. I trapped craetons and lower-level demons there, turned them into sideshow freaks, or killed them.”

“Kind of like the jinn with the Abyss,” she murmured.

“The demons who entered my world weren’t tricked into it; they went there to kill me. I may have been flying under Lucifer’s radar, but there were still plenty I’d pissed off over the years and others I pissed off after I left the war. Those demons just weren’t prepared for what they encountered, but believe me, they all deserved what they got. The jinn are not so discerning.”

“No, they’re not,” she agreed, “but I still don’t like it.”

“Then it’s a good thing I don’t need to build any carnivals on Earth, Freckles.” As I’d hoped, a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.