by Ivy Asher
“I should have seen it coming. I don’t know how I missed it…” she says, more to herself than to me.
“Missed what?”
“The Demonic Annulus line was wiped out. We didn’t know how or why, and then the Angelic line came under attack. We hid and did everything we could to survive, but our line was purged too. I’m the last one left. The same happened with the Gatekeepers. Until now, I thought they were separate, unrelated issues. But I think Morax figured out a way to use us. He could, in theory, make a realm by taking several Annuli to create a neutral ground for himself, as well as resetting demons, mortals, or angels to populate it. Combining that with the skill of the Gatekeepers, he would’ve been able to make a portal to that plane and come and go as he pleased.”
“Fuck,” Jerif declares, and Nefta nods at him.
“Delta, I suspect that you are more than just the average Annulus. You were born with both Heaven and Hell blood, and if Morax has been experimenting with Annuli and Gatekeepers on both sides all this time, then he knows more than us at this point about what he needs to possibly destroy the balance or even the realms as we know them. If he successfully started his own realm to rule, it’s only a matter of time before he wages war on Heaven and Hell and very possibly could take over. Maybe even the Mortal Realm as well.”
I can barely breathe after all the horrible truths she’s laying down at my feet.
“I wouldn’t have thought creating a new realm was even possible, but it’s clear I was wrong. Based on what your mates have told me, Lucifer’s army and the Legion tracked it down and destroyed it, thankfully, but the fact that it even existed in the first place violates so much of what Heaven and Hell hold dear. Who knows what the Ophidian is capable of at this point?”
Goosebumps rise up on my arms at her declaration. How could one being become so powerful and no one saw it coming?
Our line has been purged. I’m the only one left.
I hear those words a couple of times more in my mind, connecting that this is the reason that Nefta hid me. She kept telling Tazreel that it was for my protection, but wouldn’t say why. I thought she meant that it was because she was protecting me from Taz’s ego, but she was being hunted, and she didn’t know who was hunting her.
“So I can reset demons because Tazreel is my father, and angels because you are my mother. I’m a two for one special,” I mumble, not liking the way that truth feels in my mouth.
“What’s he going to do when he finds out?” I ask, looking over at Tazreel still on the fainting couch.
“Nothing, because you’re not going to tell him,” Nefta states matter-of-factly. “Delta, you are a strong ally or a dangerous enemy to the realms of this world as it is. But take what Morax now knows plus the ways he’s learned to corrupt our gifts, and everything about what you can do is infinitely more terrifying—or tempting—to the realm’s citizens, depending on which lens they view you and your abilities through,” she tells me seriously, her gaze intense, like she needs to hammer this part home the most.
“I worried before that Tazreel could use your ability for his own devices, and that, of course, would have been bad for the balance. That’s why I kept all knowledge about you secret. But now, if Morax is right, and your dual light and dark sides make you even more than we thought…” she trails off, letting the possibilities and realizations sink in.
Everyone could want to use me...or kill me so that I can’t be used. I could reset both Heaven and Hell and let everything in existence fall into Morax’s hands. Fuck my life.
“But Luce knows,” I say with worry.
“Yes, Lucifer knows what you are because he figured out what I was a long time ago. He played in my grandmother’s house and connected pieces of information back then when we weren’t careful enough in hiding it. Morax did too, I now realize, but he obviously took the knowledge to a whole other level that none of us thought possible.”
“But wouldn’t God have known?” I ask.
“Of course. They know everything, but they can’t—”
“Affect free will,” I interrupt and finish for her, piecing things together. I let air fill my cheeks before blowing it out. “Okay...just hypothetically here, say he takes me. Since I’m half Heaven and half Hell, he could use me to reset angels and demons both, right?”
“Correct.”
“And the souls I’ve already ashed—I mean, reset...he’s taking them into this new realm of his? A realm that he was able to make by picking off our family and using their power.”
“I believe so, yes.”
Fuck. So every time I thought I was killing one of those demons that I ashed, I was really just putting them right back in Morax’s hands as they reset, wiped clean for him to control all over again.
I let my head drop in my hands, my elbows braced on my knees where I sit as I try to digest all of this. “Are they alive? Our...family?” I ask, the word feeling strange on my tongue.
Nefta’s eyes grow solemn, and she bows her head. “I don’t know. I suppose there’s a chance, but all I can think is that if they were still alive and in his grasp, then why would he be so desperate for you?”
“Yeah, that’s a good point,” I agree thickly, wishing there was something else I could say to make the possible truth of that hurt less for Nefta. I can tell just by her voice that she’s struggling with this—to know that her family was probably being kept captive by Morax while he used them until they died or he killed them.
“So what the fuck am I supposed to do?” I ask after a moment, lifting my head up again to look at her.
“You’ll learn how to properly use your Annulus powers, including wielding the scythe. We’ll prepare for Morax in case he tries to create another realm and build another army.”
I shake my head, partly in denial at this huge burden she’s putting on me. “How does all of this affect the Hell portal here? I’ve already been inducted to be a Gate Guardian. I can’t just walk away from that,” I tell her. “I have a responsibility to this portal, and it’s clearly fucking broken, since my induction didn’t seem to do a damn thing against letting Morax’s army through.”
Nefta cocks her head. “You can’t be a Gate Guardian. Your blood wouldn’t allow it. You’re not meant to be tied to a single portal, or that could compromise your nature of neutrality.”
Well...fuck.
“So the induction didn’t work?” I confirm. I feel like shit now. I thought my presence helped, but I left the Gate and the guys even more vulnerable. On the other hand, I feel some level of relief too, because at least the Gate isn’t actually worse off than we suspected. It just never got stabilized like we thought it did.
I look over at the guys, feeling like I just failed them. “I’m so sorry. I thought I would’ve been able to help.”
“Nothing to apologize for,” Echo tells me, as I feel a shadow brush against my shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “We’ll figure it out.”
“How?” I ask incredulously, feeling more and more shit piling onto my shoulders. I’m a possible world-ruiner, and their Gate is still fucked. We’re just throwing good news around like glitter today.
“I said you can’t be a Gate Guardian,” Nefta interrupts. “I didn’t say you couldn’t help fix the Hellgate.”
Her words pull me up short. “What?”
“Go down to Hell’s Embrace. You’ll need to go to the literal Hellgate to do this. Demonic Gatekeepers created the Hellgate, but it was demonic Annuli who made it work. You can go down and help to reset it to its former glory, like the way it was when it was first made. It’s one of your true duties, after all.”
I sit up straighter, finally glad to hear some good fucking news. “I can? How do I do that?”
She opens her mouth to explain, but Tazreel groans just then and sits up, scratching away the unconsciousness from his eyes as he looks around. “What happened?” he asks, his voice scratchy from sleep.
Nefta takes this opportunity to get up, abandoning her teacup as s
he walks over to me, so I rise to my feet too. “I need to go now. I’ll be back, but there’s something I must check on before I can return to the Legion and report everything that happened. If you need me, call,” she says in a hurry.
“But—”
“Your scythe is the key, Delta,” Nefta says with one arched eyebrow, indicating a heavy double meaning.
She sends a look over her shoulder at Taz. “Good to see you aren’t completely useless on the battlefield, Pride,” she says, turning and sweeping out of the room before he can say a word back to her.
Taz scowls at the empty space she just was occupying. “That angel is a pain in my ass.” He looks over at me, like he’s just now noticing I’m here. “Ah, Delta. Glad to see you didn’t die. Must be my Abdicated blood that kept you quick on your feet.”
“Must be,” I say dryly.
His wings poof up behind him. “Did you see I had the Ophidian in my grasp? Even held a knife to his throat.”
“Fuck, we’re never going to hear the end of his bragging about that,” I mumble under my breath. Crux snorts.
“I believe I killed the most on the battlefield, too. Certainly more than your mother. One hundred sixty-seven demons, I culled,” he adds proudly as he rocks back on his heels. “I counted.”
“Of course you did,” I reply, barely suppressing the urge to roll my eyes. But then I remember Lucifer, and a grin spreads across my face.
The sight of it makes Taz stop preening long enough to narrow his eyes on me. “What?” he asks warily.
“Lucifer wants to talk to you. Immediately,” I say, adding some flair to my tone as I wag my brows.
That takes the wind out of his wings. “Why?”
I lift a shoulder. “Don’t know. He said it while he was wearing your body like a coat. It was pretty fucking creepy, actually.”
Taz sighs, looking up at the ceiling. “Fuck, I hate when he does that.”
“I bet,” I say cheerfully. “So you better go back to Hell quick and see what he wants. I think you’re in trouble.”
He snaps his eyes onto me. “I most certainly am not in trouble.”
“Are you sure about that?” I ask, working to keep my face perfectly serious.
Doubt and worry flash over his features for just a split second, and I nearly lose it right then and there. I think the corners of my lips twitch, because his expression turns pissed. “You’re a little shit, you know that?”
I chuckle. “You don’t wanna be late, Taz. You better hurry.”
“You’re just trying to get rid of me.”
I place a hand over my heart in mock offense. “Me? I would never.”
I hear a couple of the guys snicker, and Taz’s teeth clench. “This is why I never wanted progeny!” he complains before turning on his heel and stomping out of the room. “I will summon you at a later date!” he snaps before disappearing down the hallway.
“Can’t wait!” I call like a smart ass.
Iceman gives me a wry look. “You really love to push his buttons, don’t you?”
“Yep,” I say with a grin. “But I have to enjoy every little piece of happiness I can get, since it seems like my life isn’t going to be getting easier any time soon.”
The guys all surround me, like they’re silently offering me their support. “We’ve got your back. Every step of the way,” Iceman promises.
“I know,” I reply with a smile as I look at each of them and wonder how the hell I got so lucky to find them. I take a deep breath. “I guess we should go down to Hell’s Embrace? See if we can figure out whatever vague talk Nefta hinted at with the Hellgate?”
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Echo asks me.
“I have to be,” I answer honestly. “Our portal is fucked, and apparently, I can’t be a Gate Guardian, so I’m no help to you that way. My induction apparently did jack shit, but I’m not going to just leave the Gate and all of you vulnerable,” I say, shaking my head. No wonder I didn’t feel the attack the way they did. “I have to do something, or we could just get overrun again as soon as Morax regroups and starts building up his army again. We can’t waste any time.”
“Then let’s go,” Jerif says as he nods at me. “Call your scythe.”
I raise a brow at his bossy tone. “Aren’t you going to say please?” I say teasingly.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll be saying that later when you beg,” he replies, and fuck, his banter wins over mine. My cheeks go pink at the wicked promise, and the other guys all seem to be on board with Jerif’s plan, which reminds me of that group sex dream I had in what seems like forever ago.
Fix the Hell Gate.
Fuck the shit out of my demons.
Try not to get caught and used as a pawn in realm domination.
Sweet, looks like a pretty solid to-do list to me.
I exhale a steady breath and shake out my hands. I loosen up, dispelling the arousal that Jerif stirred in my belly, and focus on calling my scythe. Holding my right palm up, I get ready for her. “Come on, Red Queen! Let’s do this shit.”
My hand prickles, and then my scythe appears in all her bladed glory. I let out a shriek that takes the guys by surprise as I jump in the air with a huge victorious smile on my face. “Yes! I fucking did it! Did you see that? I called and she appeared, just like that!”
“We saw,” Jerif says dryly, rolling his fiery eyes. “Now let’s go.”
I follow him and the others out of the room, tsking at his surliness. “Don’t worry, Queen,” I say, petting her wood slightly. “Jerif is very impressed with us, he just isn’t good at showing his feelings.”
Iceman snorts beside me, while Echo and Crux snicker.
“Keep it up, Warrior Princess, and I won’t just have you begging later. I’ll be painting that ass of yours red, too.”
Dammit, now I’m horny again. This is gonna be a long walk to the Hellgate.
25
I exit the massive mausoleum that is Hell’s Embrace, and step out onto the path that leads to the actual Hellgate.
Luckily, the weird gong noise doesn’t go off like it did the first time I walked this path, so there’s no loud ass noise that rings out to deafen me. Which is a really good thing, because we’re on edge enough as it is. I think we were all half expecting for Morax to be here waiting to ambush us, but the long cavernous space is completely empty and quiet—thank fuck.
I don’t dare entertain an ounce of relief though; I’ve learned my lesson in thinking, oh good, this is going well.
We walk in alert silence, but nothing is hiding out in the shadows or leaps out to attack us. Echo disappears a few times, his body seeming to evaporate in the blackness around us, like he’s double-checking nothing is lurking around, but with a few sweeps in the shadows, he soon confirms that we’re alone.
We make quick time to the Hellgate, and I’m once again awed by its presence. Even more so now that I know beings like me helped to make this thing work.
I look up at the massive double doors made of blood-red flames, my eyes sweeping over their spiked tops. Instead of a sense of foreboding like I had the first time I saw it, I’m just filled with curiosity.
Now that I’m looking, and I mean really looking at it, I can see that it seems...tired. I know that’s a fucking weird thing to say about the doors of Hell, but some of the flames don’t look as thick or as strong as they should. There’s supposed to be a solidness to them—the flames should be so thick it should be just a conglomerate of layered red, barring any sight past them.
But instead, the Hellgate’s fire is completely out in some spots, and I know that’s where Morax’s army was able to break through.
“As Gate Guardians, you’re not only tied to protecting your portal, but your powers are also feeding into this Hellgate to strengthen it, right?” I ask.
“Yes,” Iceman answers.
I turn to him. “This looks bad, Iceman.”
He grimaces at the sight. “It does.”
“It’s pulling a l
ot of fucking power from us too,” Echo says, and I look at him with concern. We just got done with a huge energy-depleting battle. It’s not good that the Hellgate is draining their already compromised reserves.
“So...now what?” I ask. I really wish Tazreel could’ve kept sleeping for two more minutes so Nefta could’ve spelled things out for me, but it seems nothing in my life is meant to be easy.
“No fucking clue,” Crux says as he and the others stare at the beat-up looking Hellgate.
“I guess I’ll just...look around,” I say with uncertainty. I move to approach the Gate, but a warm hand closes around my arm, and I look back in surprise to see Jerif.
“Just in case you touch the Gate,” he grumbles. “I don’t know if it’ll do anything to you since you’re not a Guardian.”
“Aww, look at you, riding in on your noble steed and shit,” I tease.
He pokes my wing, making me shriek in an obnoxiously loud giggle as I flinch away from the ticklish touch. He smirks at my reaction, but keeps hold of my arm. “Jumpy much?”
“Shut up. They’re sensitive,” I say as I try to bat him away, but my wings have other ideas. It seems that just by touching them, they’re now greedy for more. It’s like a puppy that you stop petting, so it comes over and moves your hand and won’t stop giving you the puppy dog eyes until you pet it again.
My wings come out, and the one Jerif touched stretches until it’s around his back and curling inward, as if it’s giving him a hug. My other wing is getting frisky too, and is trying to flirt with Echo as it reaches out to stroke his ass. “Not now,” I scold as I give them both a light tap with my elbows. “We have to focus.”
My wings slouch in disappointment, but they settle back against me like good pets, and I give them a stroke. “Good girls,” I coo. They perk up a little at that. My wings and I have come a long way.
“Okay…” I say, shoring myself up with a little breath. “Nefta said that my scythe was the key…”
I step back a little and hold the scythe out. The Gate doesn’t react at all.
