Hell Bent

by Cate Corvin

  “I just want to rest,” she said. Her golden hair was as brilliant as sunlight against the darkness around us. “I want to give this to someone else and move on.”

  Inanna took her hands away from my chest and cupped them in front of her. A small orb of fire ignited in her palms, as golden as her hair.

  It swirled in place, drawing my eyes like a magnet. It looked so warm and alive compared to all the ice around me.

  “Years of waiting, and I’m finally free.”

  Inanna sighed, and pushed the orb into my chest. The fire passed easily through my skin, spilling warmth through my frosted blood.

  My twin fires roared back to life inside me, twining through the golden fire of the goddess.

  “You won’t be the same,” Inanna said. “You will be the truth inside you. The truth that we are.”

  She was already becoming misty, dissipating at the edges, but she dissolved entirely when someone walked through her.

  Azazel.

  He was the monster his scrying orb had shown me, a creature with a thousand blinking eyes, dark wings, clawed hands. It was the truth inside him, the truth I loved.

  He held out one of those hands to me, the claws shining. “It’s time to come back.”

  I was full of fire, my veins blazing with it. Inanna’s voice no longer sounded in my mind. I couldn’t feel her at all.

  The power was mine.

  I took his hand.

  Life.

  It was the feeling of fresh air in my lungs, my heart beating solidly in my chest, the blood running through my veins. The feeling of Sarai and her life, protected until the end.

  It was the fire coursing in my soul.

  I stood up and felt myself change as the power exploded through my physical body.

  My bones creaked and my back screamed with physical pain as new flesh tore free. I felt the softness of feathers, the sensitivity as each one touched the world around me. Six wings, dripping embers, aching to take flight.

  The fire wanted to blaze its way through every pore, through my eyes and mouth and ears.

  I saw the Spear at my feet, sparkling with a thousand colors. I’d never seen that before, the way the light danced in every hue around it.

  The weight of a halo pressed down on my head, spinning and crackling with energy.

  I was full of purpose.

  The evil wasn’t defeated, and the ones I loved were at stake.

  My mate bonds were stronger than ever, tethering me to them. I saw Lucifer, painted in shades of dawn, Belial and his wrathful fires, Azazel, the monster in the night.

  But my Tascius… his light wasn’t there. It wasn’t where it should be.

  I bared my teeth. “Where is he?”

  I realized dimly that I was looking down at them somehow, though my feet were still touching the floor, and my voice didn’t sound like my own. It sounded like someone had struck a deep gong, overlaid with iron wind chimes.

  Three people I knew stepped into the room, staring at me with a mix of horror and awe. Vyra and Haru, supporting a bloodied Michael between them.

  Somewhere deep inside, the old Melisande felt a twinge of fear at those looks. They didn’t look at me like they knew me.

  I was something different right now.

  Lucifer didn’t look frightened, though. His lips were set, and he carried an ebonite sword like he meant to use it.

  “Satan has Tascius. He broke his word. We’re with you, Melisande.”

  I slowly bent down and picked up the Spear, and as I did, something liquid dripped around my neck to the floor.

  It was dark as night and studded with cracked jewels. My slave collar, the ebonite melted and useless.

  She’d forged it to contain a mere angel, not the essence of a goddess, her own sister.

  I looked at the band around Belial’s ankle, and reached out to touch it. It shivered under my fingertips, and finally slumped and melted, releasing him.

  Lucifer came next, and finally Vyra and Haru brought Michael to me. The raging storm inside me eased with each bond I destroyed, freeing them from the city’s grasp and Ereshkigal’s greed.

  I looked at the mark Tascius had left on my arm, the eclipse of a moon. It shimmered silver against my pale skin, and the Chain was still firmly anchored to me.

  I followed the links, peering upwards. Towards the apex of the city.

  It took barely a thought to unfurl all six wings and leap out over the abyss. They worked smoothly together, cutting through the air silently, carrying me up over the tiers of Kur.

  The stairway leading to the gate was defenseless, and the gate itself wide open. Nothing held me back as I swept through the open mouth, speeding past ebonite teeth and sand, and burst into the sky overhead.

  I screamed with joy just at the sight of the sun.

  It reminded me of how it felt to be alive and free.

  Below me, the desert of Irkalla spread far and wide for hundreds of miles. The beautiful sun sparkled off the Seven Gates, where I’d shed my pride and dignity to be brought into Kur like chattel.

  I would destroy them. Tear them down into rubble and set the remains on fire, then bury the ashes beneath the sand where they would never be found again.

  But the eclipse on my wrist called to me, pulling me back to the earth below. My Tascius was down there, my archangel, and the power inside me was furious at having a vow broken.

  Satan’s escape was marked by a trail in the sand, a wide swath interrupting the low, smooth dunes. I plummeted back towards earth and followed it, flying beneath the widespread Gates like a hawk.

  A smudge of color interrupted the blur of sand below me. I swung low, dropping down to the ground, and landed in a spray of sand.

  It was Nergal. His body was sprawled out, left like a piece of shed clothing.

  I bent over him, feeling for the spark of life inside him. It was in there, still alive, but it didn’t blaze. It was nothing but a low flame, flickering and threatening to die out.

  His skin was cool when I touched his forehead.

  He felt… pure. Clean. The only remaining essence of Satan was what the creature had left behind when he abandoned Nergal’s body.

  “Wake up and join us,” I demanded, but the King remained in the sand, his breathing shallow.

  The others would find him.

  I spread my wings, feeling the spark and crackle of cinders falling from the dark feathers, and shot into the air.

  Satan had left me a trail, whether intentionally or not. I glided low, following the oily smears of pitch spread across the sand beneath the sixth and fifth Gates.

  The Spear was humming in my hand, crackling with power and the desire to be used. It felt its mortal enemy near me, guiding me to him.

  I let the scars sear on my palm, enjoying the pain. The pain was what kept me focused on the task, on the righteousness of destroying the being who represented the opposite of everything I was.

  Then I saw him, just beyond the first Gate. He’d barely made it outside the bounds of Kur before succumbing to his greed.

  He was pure darkness, his arms wrapped around Tascius. My archangel fought him, but for every oozing tendril he sliced away, three more shot out and enveloped him.

  He looked like he was covered in shadows that were slowly consuming him, from his head to his toes.

  Tascius’s lips drew back over his teeth in a feral snarl. He shoved Satan’s face away, refusing to let him steal his body.

  I flew harder, riding the winds as the Spear ignited in my hand.

  Tascius suddenly burst into brilliant light, a blaze of cold silver moonlight that burned the landscape around him in shades of black and gray.

  The light tore through everything, dissolving the bonds Satan held around him. Satan backed away, stumbling on legs that weren’t skin or bone, but pure essence.

  I hit the earth with a crack, ripping a crater in the desert floor.

  Both Satan and Tascius looked at me.

  My archangel was pure
rage, but his eyes weren’t dark. He wasn’t caught in the grip of the Nephilim fury that would destroy his mind.

  But he lunged at Satan, determined to keep him away from me.

  I straightened up, my halo spinning in a whirlwind over my head, sucking in the darkness Satan had left behind him.

  “Take your hands off him.” I spun the Spear around, aiming the sharp prongs at Satan. “Do you really believe I never would’ve known the difference between you?”

  His featureless face turned towards me. Those empty sockets seemed to stare at nothing, but I felt the weight of his glare.

  “You broke our pact,” I said. From a distant vantage, I was aware that the metallic sound of my voice was scorching my throat raw, because it wasn’t really mine. It was both of us, the goddess of war and love sinking into my bones and changing me on a fundamental level.

  All I knew was that Tascius was mine, and I couldn’t tolerate another laying their hands on him.

  The power in me burst to life, weaving through my veins. Streaks of violet and white joined the gold, the air I exhaled glittering with it.

  Satan tilted his head, all vestiges of the demon he’d possessed gone. Several moths crawled from the darkness and fluttered into the air.

  I pursed my lips and blew that glittering power at them.

  They died in the breath of glimmering magic, fluttering to the ground and becoming ash.

  “It has begun,” Satan said. It was impossible to tell if that grotesque face was smiling or not. “Now you are becoming one of us.”

  I lifted my six wings, relishing their weight on my back. The weight of the halo sank down on my head and shoulders, but with each scrap of darkness that was pulled into its spinning light, I felt my power grow.

  “I am, and my purpose in this world is one thing: your destruction.”

  “Is this Melisande speaking? Or the goddess who both blessed and cursed you?” Satan took a step closer. “This is your nature now, destruction and carnage. War. I didn’t think you would give in so quickly.”

  I felt the fire dancing in my eyes. “I didn’t give in. This has always been my destiny, from the very beginning.”

  The Melisande, the born-human, raised-angel version of myself buried deep inside this new form, knew it was true as soon as I said it.

  My entire life, the Chain had led me here, to finish what Ereshkigal had started and pass the power on to a new form. Even the angelic body Gabriel had raised my dead soul to fill was meant for this.

  Satan faced me, no longer bent on taking over Tascius. He held out a hand that dripped, and each droplet hit the sand and became a worm. “Is there nothing I can say to convince you to join me? I tried to show you that I am capable of more than what this form granted me. Together, we could make all of Hell tremble before us.”

  “If you were really capable of more, you wouldn’t have tried to steal what’s mine.” It was such a relief to be free, to sink into a fighting stance and ready myself against him.

  Satan looked down at the sand seething with insects around him. His oozing form began to tremble. “Well, then. If I cannot have you…”

  The black gel oozed away as he shuddered violently, his form splitting apart.

  “I will destroy you. Come, Melisande. Let’s finish our dance.”

  28

  Melisande

  The darkness melted away, splitting apart like Ereshkigal’s body had done.

  What stepped out was nothing like the creature he’d been before.

  He matched me in height, towering even over the Princes and archangels. A crown of twisted, fire-blackened horns rose above his skull in a crown, the inverse of my halo.

  Split hooves hit the sand and melted it where they touched, leaving mangled clumps of glass behind him.

  His entire body gleamed with black scales, dripping fire between them.

  “Now you see my true face,” he said with a grin.

  But of course it was a grin. The scales melted away at his jaw, leaving the skull-like bone beneath exposed in a rictus. His mouth was full of sharp teeth that overlapped in jagged waves.

  “I was more impressed with the Dragon.” I spun the Spear and caught Tascius’s eye.

  This was my fight, not his. My fight to the death, to prove that I’d come all this way for a reason.

  He felt those emotions when I sent them down the bond, even though he looked pained at having to step out of my way.

  It was the one moment in my life where I needed to prove that even alone, I was worthy of this.

  Satan’s jagged teeth flashed in the sun. “Is he too afraid to face me?”

  Tascius’s shoulders stiffened.

  “No. He knows that this is my time.” I raised my Spear. The solid weight of its golden shaft was comfortable in my hands. “Everyone else has proven themselves. Now it’s my turn. I told the Queen of the Dead that I would raze Hell if that’s what it took. Perhaps my path wasn’t always clear, but now I’m here, and I have the power to do that.”

  I felt Tascius send me his love and belief through the bond. He had faith in me that I could achieve this.

  I felt the others coming, following the path Satan had left. Tascius blazed with light, calling them to him. This desert was now my arena floor, and they were my witnesses.

  Satan’s forked tongue flickered out. It was the only warning I had before he launched himself at me.

  His tongue slapped across my face, leaving a stinging burn like acid across my cheek. Claws dug into my arms, drawing blood that sizzled in the open air.

  I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with the dry scent of the desert and the stench of his true form, and blew fire in his face. The glimmering gold flames ate at his exposed skull and withered his forked tongue.

  Satan screeched, a sound loud enough to split stone, and jerked away from me.

  I hadn’t moved so much as an inch despite the sand shifting under my feet, or the onslaught of a Prime’s power.

  Confidence settled over my shoulders. I’d trained for this throughout my entire second chance at existence.

  I stepped forward and thrust a low kick at his stomach, driving him back. He responded with a slash of claws, gouging through my calf and drawing more shining blood.

  It hardly hurt. I was drunk on the sensation of power flowing through me, the incredible high of being nearly indestructible.

  I laughed and lunged in, driving the Spear towards his heart.

  But he was a slippery bastard. He slithered aside and moved in, backhanding me with enough force to shatter a building.

  I didn’t shatter, but I did go flying backwards.

  I landed hard and sent up a cloud of sand. My face actually ached where he’d hit me, right on top of the sting of his tongue.

  He ran at me, hooves kicking up fire.

  I got up and blocked him, driving the Spear upwards to take the brunt of his attack, and he slammed into me again.

  I went airborne, a comet in space, smashing through stone and metal. It tore against my wings, ripping out feathers, and when I came to a halt on the sand once more, I looked up.

  They were in the sky above me, circling like vultures. Angels like the sun, moon, and dawn, a monster of stars, a pale succubus.

  A lion and a flaming fox watched from the dunes, both ready to jump in.

  They couldn’t take this from me. It was everything I wanted; every cell in my body screamed at me to get up and fight. I had to fight for them, for love, the other half of my nature.

  It was the call of blood and fire, the true meaning of life. Even Sarai’s little spark, deep inside me, was a part of that burning river in my veins.

  I must become wrath incarnate to protect her.

  I flipped to my feet, stomach muscles barely noticing the strain, and saw what damage Satan had done.

  He’d flung me through the Seven Gates of Kur, across all the miles they covered. Every single one of the ebonite arches was shattered and twisted, leaving a ruin into the city itself.
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br />   Inanna was long gone by now, but her flames were a song in my blood. I summoned it to me, my wings catching fire, the Spear igniting with arcs of light.

  My wings carried me upwards, past the circling angels and demons, high above it all.

  Below me, Satan stretched his mouth wide, ready to take a bite out of me.

  The fire ate at me from the inside. Destroy, consume, annihilate.

  I obeyed, dropping once more.

  It felt like falling again, the plummet to Hell that I’d already done once before. This time I was ready for the scorch of heat as I picked up speed, the wind ripping at my hair and feathers.

  My halo spun faster, razor-sharp edges looking for blood.

  I raised the Spear, plunging towards Satan’s hungry jaws. The wind picked up speed, howling when I collided with him.

  The Spear ripped through him. The points carved away his flesh, pierced through his throat, blasted his bones to slivers.

  The desert exploded under the impact, the dark sand swept upwards by the windstorm I’d created. It blew around us, blocking everything out of sight, stinging my eyes.

  Satan let out a low groan, his insides already gleaming with bright light as he caught fire. The Spear burned through him, eating away at him bit by bit like a ravening wolf.

  “This isn’t the end of us,” he said, speaking around the Spear’s shaft. “Our song isn’t done.”

  He fell to his knees and I drove the weapon deeper, seeking out his deepest point. Hot blood splattered across my face and chest.

  When the first golden flame licked my hand, I ripped the Spear free and kicked him, forcing him onto his back.

  His whole body was broken. The power exulted at the wreckage we’d wrought together, the destruction of our nemesis.

  “Another will rise and take my place,” he whispered, the fire eating through his guts, seeping out between his scales. “The wheel keeps turning, and I will always find you.”

  The force of the explosion had burned his eyes out. He looked up sightlessly at the sky and exhaled a wisp of steam that was carried away by the wind.

  His chest stopped rising and collapsed on itself, his heart eaten by fire. Slowly the scales covering his body began to drift away into ash, until he was nothing but a charred husk.