by Nadine Mutas
“What?” I whispered back, rooted to the spot. I had no idea how to handle this. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Just do what you’ve been doing that made him happy before,” she said under her breath. “You were good at that. Go do that some more.”
And before I could protest—or marvel at the unexpected compliment she’d just given me—she shoved me into the room and closed the door behind me.
With the light of the hallway cut off, the room fell into almost complete darkness. Only the last embers of a not quite extinguished fire on a rug in the corner illuminated the gloom. No flames danced over Azazel’s wings. They were pitch-black, hiding him in the near darkness of the room.
It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the low lighting, and I squinted at the shape I knew to be him in the center of the room.
“Azazel?” I asked tentatively, my heart thumping in my chest like a trapped animal.
I wasn’t scared of him. Not really.
Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump.
Okay, maybe a little.
I inched forward, my shoes crunching glass, until I stood close enough to him that I could reach out and touch his head. With a slight tremble to my hand, I did just that. As soon as my fingers brushed his hair, iridescent flames ignited all over his wings. The darkness receded a little.
“Azazel?” I ventured again. My pulse was a roar in my head. “What happened?”
I cautiously let my hand glide down to his face, and he turned ever so slightly into my touch. His sigh echoed loudly in the deafening silence of the room.
“There is a festival,” he said, his tone inscrutable. “It commemorates the Fall from Heaven. Every year, high-ranking demons come to join the festivities at Lucifer’s court. All members of his own family have a standing invitation…including me. I haven’t gone in over two thousand years.” The flames on his wings flared brighter, and an edge crept into his voice. “It’s not the kind of company I enjoy.”
Of course not. I swallowed hard. If this shindig was held at Lucifer’s court, it would be like walking back into his own personal nightmare, what with demons being so long-lived that many of the ones who were there when he was a boy and witnessed his abuse would still be present today. My thumb stroked over his temple, a helpless caress.
“An RSVP is required to attend,” he continued, “even with a standing invitation. This year, I responded with yes.”
I stilled. My heart skipped a beat.
“The festival takes place in Lucifer’s palace.” A tense pause. “In the bowels of which your father’s soul is being kept.”
I had trouble breathing.
“Attending the festival is the only way to enter the palace without drawing undue attention. The festivities are notoriously chaotic, and it would be easy to slip away from the crowds.” His wings flared. “And to search and find a soul in the pits.”
My hand trembled against his cheek.
“I thought it was a good plan,” he said, darkness weaving between his voice, “if a bit dangerous.” He shrugged. “But doable. Get in, slip away, grab the soul, get out.”
Dizziness threatened to creep in from the sides, the ominous shadow of what he wasn’t yet saying encroaching on my mind.
“And then I received this.”
A note appeared in his hand. He held it out to me.
I took it with trembling fingers. Unfolding it, I squinted at the script I could barely make out in the dark. “A little light,” I whispered.
The tapestry behind me went up in fresh flames, casting an orange glow over the paper.
My dearest grandson,
I am delighted you have chosen to grace us with your presence at this year’s commemoration of the Fall from Heaven. I am looking forward to seeing you again. — L
PS: Please make sure to bring along your new pet. I cannot wait to make her acquaintance.
Dread spread inside me on icy claws, chilling me down to my soul. My breathing flattened, as if someone had dropped a boulder on my chest.
“I had every intention,” he ground out, “to leave you out of this. The very last place I want to take you is that hellforsaken palace. He hasn’t shown an interest in me in over a millennium, and I thought—” He clenched his jaw so hard, the planes of his face seemed to rearrange themselves. “I didn’t think my RSVP would draw any attention. There will be close to a thousand demons in attendance—I should have been conveniently anonymous.” His voice dropped to a growl. “But he noticed. He noticed, and with him personally requesting your presence, I have no other choice. I can’t back out, and I can’t leave you here.” He lifted his head and met my gaze for the first time since I entered the room. The flicker of violent lightning in his eyes revealed a glimpse at the unmitigated rage he’d let loose on the room earlier. “You’re going to accompany me to the Fall Festival, and you’re going to meet Lucifer.”
The room spun. Or maybe that was my head. I grabbed his shoulder for purchase, dizziness a buzz in my veins.
“I have no idea,” he continued in a low voice, “what he intends to do, but whatever it is, we’ll get through it, and then we’ll grab your father’s soul and get out of there.”
My eyes widened. “You’re still planning to go through with it?”
His energy was an electric hum in the air, his tone lethally soft. “If I am to enter that palace to face that wretched fucker again—and drag you there with me—I will damn well not waste the opportunity to steal a soul right from under his nose.”
I sucked in air, light-headed. “Okay,” I wheezed.
He leveled a stare at me that raised the hairs on my arms with its intensity. “You are not to leave my side. Ever. When I slip away to get your father’s soul, you’re coming with me, because I sure as fuck will not let you out of my sight for even one minute. Not at his court.”
All I could do was nod. I didn’t really trust myself to speak.
“The festival takes place in two weeks,” Azazel continued. “You will need to step up your combat training routine.”
Like that would make a difference should I face a demon attacker. I’d be mincemeat in under a minute.
His gaze was calculating as he studied me. “No one will expect you to be trained even a little, so whatever defensive skill you can show may buy you a few crucial seconds. Like I said, you will not leave my side, and a moment’s delay on the part of an attacker could help me defend you.” The hint of a wry smile touched his mouth. “And you’ll need to strengthen your mental shields again.”
Dammit.
The enormity of the situation hit me then. The sheer danger and impossibility of it. We were going to infiltrate Lucifer’s palace to get my father’s soul out. While I was numb with grief, Azazel had been planning this, plotting to go back into his own personal nightmare…for me. So I’d be happy again.
With my hand still on his cheek, I went down on my knees in front of him so our faces were level. I kissed him gently, my breath trembling, all my layers unraveled and raw before him. Holding his stormy gaze, I swallowed hard, found my voice and whispered, “Thank you.”
A week after the ill-fated note from Lucifer arrived, Azmodea blazed into the training ring where Azazel and I were currently sparring. My demon husband finally deigned to take over my combat training, to better correct my style, as he said. The fact I now had to go up against an unfairly hot demon whose naked chest slicked by sweat seemed to evaporate my brain cells only compounded my already weak “style.”
Which was why, when Azmodea blasted through the doors of the training hall, I was currently with my back on the ground, Azazel straddling me with a look somewhere between resignation and easily kindled lust.
“Why,” Azmodea called out, “by the nine circles of Hell, would you go back into that snake pit of a palace? And more importantly, why would you go without me?”
The look of resignation on Azazel’s face deepened, and with a sigh, he turned his head to his sister. “I take it Daevi told you?”
> Hands on hips, Azmodea glared. “You know she did. She just didn’t know why.”
Taking a deep breath, Azazel came to his feet with a grace that should have been at odds with his size, yet seemed to make perfect sense, like the elegant fluidity of a panther. He offered me a hand and hauled me up in a show of easy strength when I accepted.
“Here,” he said and handed me a bottle of water he’d summoned, then turned to Azmodea with a calculating expression. “We’re going to steal a soul from Lucifer.”
Azmodea summoned an entire settee, plopped down on it with a flourish, put her chin in her hand and batted her lashes. “Do tell.”
And he did. While he laid out the situation and our plan, I limped over to the settee and gingerly sank down on it, chugging my water and contemplating the weird turns my life had taken to lead me to the point I was plotting a soul heist with two demons in Hell.
“You will need a distraction,” Azmodea eventually said after Azazel finished.
He cast her a look. “Obviously.”
“Once Lucifer gets his claws in you in front of the court, he won’t let you go without an intervention.”
Azazel said nothing, but a muscle feathered in his jaw.
“Don’t worry.” Azmodea leaned back with a smirk. “I have just the thing.”
“Not the bats.”
She waved that away. “Much better, darling.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Tell me.”
“Ah-ah. I won’t ruin the surprise. Trust me, it’ll cause the most delicious chaos.”
He raised a brow at that.
Turning to me as if only now remembering I was sitting right next to her, Azmodea asked, “Has he brought you up to speed on the court?”
“Uh…”
She shot Azazel an arch look. “Come on. She needs to know the basics of the who-is-who so she won’t accidentally insult anyone.” Facing me again, she patted my knee. “I’ll draw you a family tree and a diagram of the alliances. But the most important thing to remember is that besides Lucifer, the person with the most power at court is Lilith.”
I paused with the bottle raised to my lips. “Wait. The Lilith? As in the apocryphal first wife of Adam?”
“Very good,” Azmodea purred.
It was among the large collection of random facts I’d picked up over the years. The way my brain worked, I’d forget what I wanted to buy without making a list, but I could reference jump through ten articles on Wikipedia and remember weird details like this one subspecies of Canadian wolves who lived entirely off fish.
So, likewise, I had at some point learned that according to some non-canonical biblical texts, Adam had another wife before Eve, but she refused to obey him like a good little subjugated wifey, so she was cast out of Eden. Not a big stretch to see how her legend was a goldmine for feminist religious theory.
If you saw past the part where she was later demonized—literally—and became known as a baby-eating monster.
And now, apparently, I was going to meet the real-life version of her. Yay?
“Is she…a demon too? Some of the texts say she is.”
Azmodea shook her head. “No, sweetie. Humans don’t just become demons. Although she definitely is more than human now. Thousands of years down here have changed her…” She stared off with a pondering expression.
“She’s bonded to Lucifer,” Azazel said, his eyes on me. “Not unlike we are.”
My eyebrows shot up. “They’re married?”
“No,” Azmodea cut in. “Marriage was invented after their union.” She sucked her teeth, a small smile playing about her mouth. “She’s the reason Lucifer fell.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I’ll need to hear that story.”
“Ah,” Azmodea sighed, tilting her head and looking at the ceiling. “The great romance of the ages.”
Azazel made a very un-Azazel-like snort.
“What?” Azmodea pinned him with a look. “He might be a bag of shit in the family department, but his devotion to her is epic.” To me, she said, “Lilith was the first woman, God’s first daughter, and quite beloved at that. God paired her with Adam, and they were to create human life on Earth. Bummer was, Adam was a bore. Lilith couldn’t stand him. She refused to lie with him—that’s biblical for fucking—”
I spit out my drink.
“—which enraged God, as you can imagine,” Azmodea continued blithely. “No human life without ye olde horizontal tango, ya know?”
“Doesn’t need to be horizontal,” Azazel muttered.
I choked on the rest of the water that was stuck in my throat, tears in my eyes. They really needed to stop before I suffocated from laughing too much.
Azmodea patted my back. “There, there, dear. Anyway, Lucifer meanwhile had fallen in love with Lilith. He was still an angel at the time, the brightest star of Heaven. He’d been watching Lilith in Eden, and when she rejected Adam, he swooped in and made his move. Stole her from right under Adam’s nose, you could say. Well, it’s important to note that she wanted to be stolen.” She wagged her brows. “God found out, of course, and things went downhill from there. Lucifer was kicked out of Heaven and cast down into Hell, Lilith got thrown out of Eden and cursed to roam the barren wilderness alone, and Adam got a new woman, this time with a bit less of an ‘attitude problem.’” She made air quotes.
“But she still disobeyed the order not to eat from that tree, though, right? Is that true?”
“Yep. That was Lucifer’s revenge. He clawed his way out of Hell for that one, snuck into Eden and seduced both Adam and Eve to eat from the tree.”
“Both?”
“Sure did. Not that the old men writing these stories down left that little tidbit in there.” She winked at me. “But that wasn’t the end of it. While on the earthly plane, Lucifer sought out Lilith and offered to take her with him, to rule Hell as his equal. She accepted, and he brought her down here. God didn’t like that either, so he took Lilith back.”
I pursed my lips. “I take it that didn’t go over well?”
Azmodea gave a small huff. “Caused the war between Heaven and Hell. See, Lucifer had managed to rally support among his former brethren in Heaven, and there was a good-sized contingent of rebel angels who opposed Lucifer’s punishment. He gathered them around him and attacked Heaven. It was an epic battle, and contrary to what is generally known, God didn’t win. Would he have won eventually? Maybe.” She shrugged. “We’ll never know, because he offered a deal. Lucifer would get Lilith back if he agreed to stay in Hell for all eternity, never to set foot on Earth again, and if he took up the task of punishing the sinners for God. Lucifer agreed, and the truce has held ever since.”
“All that is to say,” Azazel followed up, “that to wrong Lilith is to incur Lucifer’s wrath like nothing else. His devotion to her has not abated in thousands of years.” He gave me a look from underneath his lashes. “Be careful when you speak to her.”
I swallowed past the knot of unease in my throat. “Got it.” Frowning, I added, “Wait. If Lucifer and Lilith are such an item, how come he had a child with Daevi?” Devoted, my ass.
Azmodea smirked. “Whoever said their relationship is exclusive?”
My expression must have shown my bafflement, because Azmodea gently added, “Devotion and love don’t equal monogamy. Consensual polyamory is a thing, you know.”
My cheeks heated. “I do know that,” I muttered.
“Both Lucifer and Lilith are happy to invite others into their bed,” Azmodea went on. “It’s quite common among our kind. Demons like to share.”
“Not all of us,” Azazel said silkily, his eyes full of lightning as he looked at me.
My face burned even hotter. “Good,” I whispered, and sent him a small smile.
Chapter 18
“Zoe.”
I paused in pulling on the dress Azazel had gifted me for the occasion—a luminous dream of intricate, red lacework across the sheer bodice and long sleeves, ending in a whirl of diaphanous fabric f
or the ankle-length skirt, the color of which segued from cream to blood red at the very bottom. The dress was see-through again in most places, with high slits among the skirt to give teasing glimpses of my legs up to my upper thigh when I walked.
I’d never in my life worn something so exquisite and fragile and absolutely stunning.
Turning to Azazel, who stood in front of the windows to the balcony outside his bedroom, I raised a brow in question. The look on his face gave me pause.
Eyes shuttered, he came closer, moved around me and worked the buttons on my back. “When we go to his court tonight,” he began, his voice holding a rough edge, “I will have to be…different.”
I frowned, but before I could interject with a question, he continued.
“As will you. The deal we made when Zaquiel came to visit…it still stands.”
I opened my mouth, closed it. Something heavy sank into my bones, chilling me. “I’ll be your pet.” I swallowed, nodded. “Of course.”
His hand paused on the last button. A gentle, tender caress of his finger over my nape, then his touch fell away. A second later, he reached around me with both hands, the sparkling object he was holding drawing my gaze.
In the mirror, I watched as he laid the choker necklace in place. Adorned with rubies and diamonds, the band fit snugly around my throat.
My chest constricted. Funny, wasn’t it, that the first piece of jewelry he gave me was a collar…and not a ring.
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected. The churning in my stomach told me whatever it was, though, it didn’t chime with what I got.
Foolish, I berated myself. Don’t be foolish. After all, this was never meant to be real.
Right?
His gaze held storms as I met his eyes in the mirror.
“Let’s play,” I said with a smile.
And because I’d practiced my shielding in the past two weeks, he caught none of the thoughts flitting through my mind, none of the wondering how—despite my better senses—that pain in my heart felt real enough.
We flew over the heavily patrolled border to Lucifer’s territory, the sentries letting us pass only after checking Azazel’s invitation. The same dreary, barren landscape shrouded in everlasting twilight gloom spread out beneath us, lit here and there by random fires. Howls and screeches rang in the air, and every now and then the haunting wails of the tortured souls reached over the rushing of the wind and the other horrifying sounds.
