“And the rest of our families,” Landon chimes in.
“Everyone we’ve ever known,” Jenna adds.
Emma stands up as well, her fingers twisting the golden bangle around her wrist. “You have a lot of nerve showing your face in New York City, bitch.”
Rachel’s next sentence comes out as a low growl. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t rip you apart.”
“Aside from the fact that you couldn’t if you tried?” Lily tries to shrug off all their comments, but I can see she’s hurt. “Look, go ahead and hate me. I’ve earned that. But don’t blame this all on me; I am not a murderer. Lucifer killed your families. I was only following orders.”
“Bullshit!,” Rachel yells. “You’re a murderer, and a coward-“
“Enough!” I put myself between Rachel and Lily, gesturing for Rachel to back off. “Look, I’ll try to explain everything later. But right now, I need you to just excuse us for a few minutes.” I grab Lily, and guide her out of the room, pushing her out into the hallway. Nick and Alyssa follow us as we walk up the stairs that will lead to the roof. Once we’re in the clear, I let go of Lily’s leather jacket, and ask, “Why are you here?”
Lily brushes herself off, and eyes me with mild annoyance. “Like I said, I saw your broadcast and figured that meant you were done with your little project.”
“Yeah, for now. What’s your point?”
“You promised you’d help me with my plan afterwards.”
That’s right; the agreement was that I’d help her trick Lucifer into leaving Hell. I still don’t see how we can pull it off, but I don’t think Lily would be stupid enough to come here unless she had it figured out. I let out a sigh, and ask, “What’s the plan?”
“Well, it’s simple. For all his charm and poise, Lucifer is really just a spoiled brat. When things don’t go his way, he gets angry. So all we have to do is piss him off, and we’re golden.”
Nick looks from me to Lily, and asks, “How do we do that?”
Lily flashes me a dangerous smile before giving her answer. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to steal a soul.”
18
I’m not sure if it’s because of my own plan’s success, or because I’m so desensitized to all the madness I find myself involved in, but Lily’s idea sounds like it makes a certain amount of sense. Apparently, I’m the only one who thinks so. Nick merely shakes his head, and Alyssa asks, “What good will stealing a soul do for us?”
Lily turns to Alyssa, and patiently explains, “The spoiled ones always get cranky when you take away their toys. So Heather and I are going to-”
“You and Heather? Alone? Not a chance.” Alyssa folds her arms, and declares, “I’m coming too. Someone’s gotta make sure you two don’t kill each other.”
“No way am I staying behind either,” Nick adds.
I shoot Nick a confused glance, and ask, “Are you sure about this? This isn’t a fun little road trip, we’re going to Hell.”
“Already been,” Nick replies. “And unless there are any other objections, I’d like to get this over with.”
Lily shrugs, and gestures for us to follow her. As the four of us walk down the steps leading into the building, I ask, “How long is this going to take?”
“Not long,” Lily answers. “Should have you back in less than half an hour.”
“Really? Even with the portals, and their stupid time thing?”
“I found a way around that. You’ll see in a few.” Lily leads us into an abandoned bar a few blocks down from our apartment building, and switches on all of the lights with a spell. “This used to be a ‘freak’ bar,” she explains. “People like us would drop in, have a few drinks, talk about life, it was fun every now and then. I knew the owner, he let me set up a permanent portal in the basement.”
Alyssa audibly sighs behind me. “You put a portal to Hell… in Hell’s Kitchen?”
Lily shrugs. “It seemed funnier at the time.”
The four of us walk down a flight of steps just to the left of the kitchen, and then through a wrought iron door at the end of a long hallway. Lily pulls it open, and at first, I could swear she accidentally led us into a darkroom that’s woefully lacking in hanging photographs. But then I realize we’re looking at a tear in the fabric of the universe, tinted a deep red, with ominous whispers emanating from the other side. Lily holds the door for me, and I step through the tear, waiting for the others as soon as I’m across.
For a place I’ve never been to, Hell seems agonizingly familiar. The obsidian spires rising in every direction tug at my memory, as does the blood red sky full of stars. I finally remember just as Nick steps through the tear; Lucifer brought me here, once upon a time. It’s been so long, I’d forgotten about the last time we spoke. At least in a dream, I didn’t have to worry about the heat. Now that I’m actually here, I regret ever complaining about the chilly October air.
Lily and Alyssa emerge from the other side of the portal, which surprisingly looks like an iron door on this side as well. “No time to waste,” Lily says as she takes the lead. “We need to be in and out of here as quickly as possible.”
Nobody argues, and we follow her along a winding path between the obsidian spires. I look around for buildings, or even mountains, but aside from the spires, the landscape is completely barren. It’s clear that this place isn’t meant to sustain life. In fact, I’m sure it was carefully designed to do the opposite. Lily notices me trying to find some sort of landmark, and says, “There isn’t a lot up here. This is just the service entrance… the real show is down below.”
“Real show?” I wrap my arms around myself, and watch as she presses her hand against the surface of an especially wide spire. I’m not entirely sure I want to know what she means.
When Lily pulls her hand away, a glowing hand-shaped imprint remains, and widens into a doorway. Lily steps through, then frantically gestures for the rest of us to do the same. I squeeze through the doorway into what looks like an elevator, with a mirror above us and a blood red carpet below. Once everyone is inside the elevator, Lily presses a button marked 9, and the door slides shut behind us.
I get a faint sense that we’re moving downward, but either we’re moving very gradually, or the ride is remarkably smooth. If I let go of the fact that I’m currently in Hell, I could consider this the most comfortable elevator ride of my life. But the moment I think to say so is when I hear the first of the screams. They start off faint, and ragged, but their intensity grows the deeper we go. More and more voices join in the chorus as we pass the second floor, the third floor, the fourth. By the time we reach the fifth floor, my hands are over my ears, trying to block out the agony-rich screams pouring in on us from all around. Nick and Alyssa are doing the same, but Lily looks completely unaffected. I suppose when you’re Lucifer’s daughter, you get used to this sort of thing.
Tears of pain are welling up in my eyes as we pass the eighth floor. The screams have blended together into one never-ending wail, so loud that there’s no point in covering my ears anymore. Thankfully, the world falls silent the second the elevator stops at the ninth floor, and the door slides open again. I leap out into the open space as soon as I get the chance, gasping for air. I close my eyes, and lean against the nearest wall. I’d appreciate it if there were any other way back home; I never want to experience that ride again.
When I open my eyes again, they’re to a sight that I never would have expected. We’re in a semicircular room, devoid of any useful interior lighting, instead lit from the outside by raging fires and magma flowing swiftly down the sides of mountains reaching for a blood red sky. The walls and ceiling are made of smooth black marble, the light pouring in from the floor-to-ceiling windows reflecting off their flawless surface. The floor appears to be the same material, but broken into disjointed pieces, a faint red light glowing from between the cracks. On either side of the massive window sits a statue of a griffin, their empty eyes seeming to watch us as everyone else slowly ventures into the
room.
“Come on,” Lily urges as she pushes past me. She waves her hand once, and glowing cracks spread across the wall opposite the window, illuminating what looks like a twisted trophy collection. A bizarre collection is lined up against the wall, each item standing atop a short marble pillar. Among them is an open jar with Greek lettering around the lip, a mummified hand, a half-eaten apple, a golden fiddle, and a tiny urn in the very middle. Lily stops in front of the urn, reaching out carefully, as if she’s afraid to touch it. “Here it is…”
“Why is this one soul here?,” Nick asks. “What’s so special about it?”
Lily shrugs, and says, “Usually, when Lucifer gets hold of a soul, he corrupts it, and turns it into a demon. But this one is special to him. It’s much more powerful as leverage than it is as a soldier.” Lily wraps her fingers around the urn delicately, and lifts it from the pillar. Each of us tenses up, and waits for the room to come crashing down around us, but nothing happens. I can only hear our breaths, growing louder and louder in the silence. It dawns on me that the heavy breathing isn’t coming from any of us; I can see the others in front of me, but the loudest breaths are coming from behind. I slowly turn my head, and catch a glimpse of the griffin statues prowling towards us before the closest one pounces.
“Look out!,” I yell as I dive out of the griffin’s path. Lily and Alyssa throw themselves out of harm’s way as well, but Nick whirls around and holds the creature in midair with a spell. What used to be a statue has shed its stone exterior, now sporting a fine set of feathers on the front end, and tawny fur towards the back. It’s exactly as I’ve always heard griffins described; half eagle, half lion. And much more intimidating than I’d ever expected.
The second griffin lunges at me, and I roll out of the way just a second before its powerful beak snaps shut around where I was crouched. I hurl a ball of flame at my assailant, but it shrugs off the blow and swipes at me with its claws. I back away as quickly as I can, pulling Krystal’s guns from within my bangle as Alyssa tries her hand at attacking the griffin with a concentrated burst of energy. When that fails, I unleash a hail of fire from my pistols, and at least one of the energy bursts slips right between the beast’s eyes, but to no avail. For all the good we’re doing, we might as well be fighting actual statues.
It isn’t until I hear the incredible thud of Nick slamming his opponent into the ground that I put two and two together. “It’s an illusion!,” I cry out. “These things aren’t really alive!”
“Then what the hell are they made of?,” Lily shouts as the second griffin turns and lunges for her. Instead of trying to defend herself, she leaps out of harm’s way, her arms wrapped protectively around the little urn we came here to collect.
“How should I know?” I switch out my pistols for the blade my father gave me, and wrap my hands tightly around the hilt. I swing at the nearest griffin, and though the blade doesn’t come anywhere near cutting through its flesh, I’m rewarded by the sort of clang I would get if I had struck stone. It turns and shrieks at me, but I pay it no mind. Now that I have a better idea what these things are made of, this fight is as good as over.
I leap out of the way of another lunge, and notice in the corner of my eye that Nick is slowly being herded into a corner. He might be much stronger than a normal spellcaster at this point, but he’s nowhere near as experienced as the rest of us. I put away my sword, and yell, “Nick, when I say pull, you pull!” Nick shoots me a confused look over the griffin’s shoulder, but I’m sure he’ll figure out what I mean. I focus on the back half of the griffin, and pull it back towards me with a spell. Nick catches on, and does the same with the front end. I can hear the beast cracking under the pressure of our tug of war, until it splits into two halves, neither one moving, or even bleeding once we set them down.
Lily and Alyssa aren’t coordinated enough to do what Nick and I did, so I step in to help. I pick up a chunk of rock from the corpse of the first griffin, and throw it at the second, grinning when I hit the side of its face. The creature whirls on me, and crouches as if it’s going to pounce, but I don’t give it the chance. I’m already by its side, with my hand right on its feathered forehead. I unleash a torrent of power, and the griffin’s body splinters apart into thousands of jagged chunks of rock. I stand over the crumbling pieces, wondering if it’s wrong of me not to feel any remorse. Sure, these weren’t real griffins, but they seemed sentient. Would I have consciously killed them to protect my friends if these things could bleed, and feel? I can’t say for sure.
A metallic groan creeps through the room, and a chill runs through my veins as I turn towards the source of the sound. An ornate door across from the elevator slowly swings open, red light spilling through the widening crack into the room. For a moment, I wonder if the door might have opened on its own. But a few seconds later, Lucifer walks into the room, straightening the cuffs on his suit as he enters. “This had better be good,” he mutters before looking up, but when he finally notices the four of us standing over his slain statues, he looks anything but displeased. In fact, he flashes me a mischievous smile. “Stealing? Really?,” he asks incredulously as he notices the urn in Lily’s hands. “I thought that was beneath you.”
For a split second, nobody knows what to do. This is exactly what we wanted; to get Lucifer riled up to the point where he’ll chase us home. But now that the moment of truth has arrived, we’re all rooted to the spot.
Lily is the first of us to snap out of it. “Run for the elevator!,” she shouts as she sprints towards the exit.
“We’re never gonna make it,” Alyssa observes, and she’s right. The elevator’s way too slow for a speedy escape. So I do the only thing I can think of; I tear open a new portal just in front of the elevator, and Lily barrels right through it just a split second after its creation. Nick and Alyssa make their escape as well, and I follow behind them as closely as I can, making sure to hold the portal open so Lucifer can follow.
I stumble, and nearly fall as I step from slick marble onto the streets of New York City. The others aren’t far away, catching their breath in a tight huddle behind a blue Cadillac. I sprint towards them, heedless of the fact that we made it, and it’s a good thing I did. Lucifer emerges the second I turn to look back at the portal, with enormous black wings spilling out on either side of him. His hazel eyes lock on Lily, and I can’t tell if he’s furious or amused. “Nice try, kid,” he calls out as he calmly walks toward us. “But I’m gonna need you to give that back.”
Before Lucifer gets very far, a white shaft of light falls to Earth from the sky, and Michael steps out from within, flanked on either side by Tyrael and Valtiel. I can’t see Michael’s face, but I can feel his rage radiating outward, even from a few feet away. His voice is dripping with hatred as he asks, “What are you doing here, Brother?”
“Good to see you too, Mikey.” Lucifer grins, and gestures towards Lily. “My stupid kid took something of mine, and I need it back.”
“Your emergence from Hell is in direct breach of our agreement. What could possibly be so important that you would come here to retrieve it?”
“Well, that doesn’t matter. What matters is, I’m here. And you know what that means.”
Michael grunts, and hangs his head. “I know… I wish it didn’t have to come to this.”
“Neither do I, brother. Believe me.”
Lily waves her hand to catch Lucifer’s attention, and asks, “What are you guys talking about?”
“Our agreement,” Lucifer answers. “Our game with the Nephilim was Michael’s idea, but it was to prevent us from the only alternative…”
“All out war,” Michael puts simply. “Should one of us go back on the rules of the game, we’re to settle things the old fashioned way; on the battlefield.”
“No!” Lily slams a fist down on the hood of the Cadillac, leaving a dent in the metal. “That can’t possibly be the only way-“
“Shut it,” Lucifer warns. “The grown-ups are talking.”
Michael’s head turns to Lily, and then to me, and his gaze makes me want to sink into the ground. It’s so full of disappointment… this may not have been my plan, but I still feel like I’m the one who let him down. His attention shifts back to Lucifer, and he says, “So be it. Let’s settle this once and for all.”
“Alright,” Lucifer mutters. “Right here, seven days from now. I’ll bring my army, you bring… all twelve of your angels. And we’ll see who gets to be the new God.”
“We both know how this will end, brother,” Michael growls.
“Oh, please. Heaven will bleed long before you ever strike me down.”
Michael scoffs, but ignores the jab. “Until we meet again,” he says with a dismissive tone. “In the meantime, I’m sure you can show yourself out.”
“With pleasure.” Lucifer folds his wings down against his back, and turns to walk back through the portal. He turns his head to flash me a triumphant smile before he steps over the threshold, and returns to the depths from whence he came.
19
Part of me is afraid of what my father will say to me now that Lucifer is gone. If I hadn’t helped Lily steal a soul, Lucifer wouldn’t have set foot on Earth. He and Michael wouldn’t be planning a war. As it turns out, I need not have worried. Michael doesn’t seem angry with me in the slightest. But he shoots me one last disappointed look before he and his angel guards vanish into the night.
Lily sinks to the ground, and takes a seat on the curb. She looks up at the moon, and mutters, “Holy shit, did that ever backfire.”
“Yeah,” I whisper. Saying her plan backfired is quite the understatement. We’ve made things infinitely worse than we ever imagined. Maybe pissing off Lucifer was the wrong move to make. But then again, if we hadn’t acted, would things have turned out any differently? Lucifer seemed all too happy to fall into our trap, and he certainly didn’t seem perturbed by this turn of events. No, I’m sure all of this is exactly what he wanted. He must have been waiting for an excuse to set his own plans in motion.
Scarred (the Spellbound Series Book 3) Page 15
