Gem’s faith bolstered my pride, but it also reminded me how pride often came before my fall.
Thickening shadows darkened the sky. I turned away and headed inside. “Let’s begin.”
The security table where I’d tried to breathe life back into Anna’s body was blessedly empty. Wild animals or lessers had likely scavenged Anna’s body.
I pushed that thought from my mind. “Take the stairs down. You’ll find the control room at the bottom. Once there, turn on the equipment.”
Gem nodded and jogged toward the stairwell, building ice daggers in her hands.
Where the air had been dry before, it now smelled of damp and decay. Dead vegetation had blown in, gathering in the corners where it had started to rot. I wondered if, when this was over, I could persuade Mammon to set the building ablaze and reduce it to ashes. But that would mean revealing why this building deserved such drastic treatment, and I would not give that demon the satisfaction of knowing yet another way to hurt me.
Maybe I should burn my wings instead?
I should have done more.
A low hum trembled through the air.
This has to work. For you, Anna. For the mistakes I’ve made.
I shook off my human guise, unfurling my wings and anchoring myself in my true demon form. Relaxing my hold on my elemental touch, I sent it outward, stretching my touch far. Adam and Christian were close, but hanging back. Good.
I lifted my head, ran my tongue over sharp teeth, and braced myself, facing the forest.
See me, Mother.
The wave hit—a shocking blast of needle-like power that almost robbed me of control. I staggered, but the table where Anna had lain caught my eye, and on it, unnoticed before, her small cross necklace winked in the filth. Control it. Be better than before. Be everything you can be. Not just demon. Be more.
The sweet lure of power licked down my back, and a twinge of pain sparked down my newly healed wing, distracting my hungry thoughts. The pain was good. It reminded me of who I had been: the fallen prince, wings burned, pride broken. But I had come back from that. I had learned from my fall, and I was not the same demon that had coveted power. It did not control me.
Before I realized I’d moved, I was at the table, the necklace dangling between my fingers. Its cool touch hardened my resolve. I had control.
I fastened the necklace around my neck and pressed the cross to my skin.
A figure sauntered into sight from the tree-line as though he had every right to be here. Not Mother.
Mammon—Akil.
Power throbbed over me, whispering, Take it, destroy him, destroy them all. Make this world mine, make myself king. I closed my fingers around the cross. The voices quieted.
Akil wore that hint of a smile that said everything without saying a word. Which of the two personas had control, I wondered. Here, Mammon preferred to be Akil. That said a lot about the demon if I cared to listen.
I bared my teeth. “Come two steps closer and I will take great pleasure in killing you.”
Akil stopped at the threshold, breathed in, and narrowed his eyes on the facility behind me. “What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same.”
“Then do.”
“You betrayed me. Again. Baal was a fool to trust you.”
He tilted his head and tugged on his sleeve cuffs. He crafted his words carefully like I crafted my acts. He hesitated only because he intended to build lie upon lie.
“Pride, you and I may not have agreed in the past, but neither you nor I wishes to see this world wiped clean for the sake of a misguided deity’s idea of perfection.”
My fingers itched to clamp around his neck. I didn’t need to strangle him to choke the air out of him, but it would be immensely satisfying.
He took a step forward. I flared my wings in warning. “I have no time for you and your games, Mammon.”
He smiled. I wanted to claw that grin off his lips. “Games are all we have.”
“Get out of my way. Go back to her. Go back to Hell for all I care. Just go.”
Fire flickered in his eyes. “I didn’t betray you. I gave you the weapons you needed. She’s coming, and this time, she will not be lenient.”
“I’m ready.”
“There’s another way.”
“There was, until you…” I trailed off. A dark cloud moved against the breeze. Reaching out with my element, I found thousands of displaced pockets among the trees—all moving closer. The Blue Eyes.
“I have no wish to see you killed.” Akil almost sounded sincere.
It was my turn to smile. “She won’t kill me. I’m her son.”
“No, but I will.”
His human appearance flashed away in a blast of heat that singed the tips of my wings. I recoiled. Not my wings. Not again! And then a little icy demon was between us. Her glittering, jagged, razor-sharp wings sprang open and speared forward.
“Get away from my Pride!” Gem snarled. Swords of ice extended from her arms, poised and ready.
Mammon stamped backward, embers sailing from the edges of his wings. The king’s marks shifted and twitched beneath his skin. “You are fools!”
Gem stalked forward—a shining beacon of light driving him back. “Why are you doing this?”
“Mother wants this,” he growled. “She wants the power. She wants it all. You have given her the key to both worlds.”
What key? What did he mean? A storm approached, filling the space between forest and sky and framing Mammon’s burning wings.
The army of Blue Eyes drew closer, and behind them, Mother’s great and terrible power reared up.
The veil’s power pushed at my back, luring, demanding, seducing. Take it and match her in gloriousness.
Silent lightning forked above, unzipping the purplish sky, revealing the churning, bruised hue of the netherworld.
The veil had opened.
Chapter 28
The light from the netherworld spilled into the human world as the veil unraveled.
“Turn off the machine!” Mammon ordered. He spun and faced the oncoming horde of strange white creatures. They slunk from the trees, their whiteness creeping forward as one.
“No.” I wasn’t turning off the machine. It was opening the veil, but that was good. I needed Mother here. I needed her to see this, to see me. To be proud of her creation.
“Li’el?” Gem asked. “What’s happening?”
I took to the air and threw open my wings so the crowd of Blue Eyes could witness all of me. I whispered air across each of them, reminding them of who I was. I could kill them, but I didn’t. I could harm them, but I hadn’t. I was their king, and they were under my control.
“Stop,” I whispered.
They slowed as one.
“Stop.”
Thousands halted. Leaves and dust settled, dirtying up their white skin.
See me, Mother!
I had her army. I had the veil. Now all I needed was the elemental blade. Lifting a hand, I called to it with every cell in my demon body. I was in control. I was the Prince of Pride. I had earned my title. The sword would come to me. It would complete me.
Any second now.
I reached harder.
Power crackled. The veil twitched. Elements churned.
The Blue Eyes suddenly collapsed. Every. Single. One.
No.
The sound of their collapse rumbled through the air like thunder, and behind them, inside the approaching storm, I felt Mother smile.
The spread of bodies dissolved into papery white flakes and stirred into the air, whipped up by a howling wind. Fragments clung to my black wings. So many…
She had killed them all.
“Pride!” Mammon snarled.
Thousands of lesser lives, thousands willing to believe in me. What if they were just the beginning? The people in her tower could be next, and then the world, until there was no one left to care for.
The clouds and sky churned and inside it, th
e weakened veil thrashed. And she came.
“Get inside,” Mammon snarled at Gem. “Turn off the machine!”
If Gem listened to him, we would all die.
She hesitated, looking up at me for answers.
I needed more time. I needed to focus. I needed more control. I needed the blade. I needed… more power.
Dissolving into air, I poured inside the EcoZone building. The sound of Mammon’s howl followed me close behind. More power. The blade was close. I could still do this.
Inside the chamber buried deep beneath the facility, Adam Harper stood at the controls. The rainbow colors of the veil washed over him.
“Pride?” he asked. His grip on the lever faltered.
“Keep it on!” I strode forward, pushing through ripple after ripple of desire telling me to turn and take it all.
The veil captured inside the dome danced and flowed. All the elements of creation, right there. A river of potential. Mine.
“Pride, no!” Gem reached for me, her ice shining.
I plunged my hands into the stream. I didn’t feel her small hand on my shoulder until it was too late, but I heard her scream. They would hear her scream in the netherworld, because deep inside a stone cage, buried in the king’s fortress where no light or air could reach, the mad queen screamed too. I heard her wail as though it were coming from my very soul.
Power. It was too small a word for the avalanche that crashed through me.
I stared into the veil, and Mother peered back at me, pride glowing in her eyes. We will remake the worlds together.
The humming slowed, and the throbbing wave of power stuttered.
No, no, no… Not yet. It wasn’t enough.
I blinked and watched the flow of the veil thin to nothing.
Adam Harper had his hand on the lever. Defiance as strong as any demon’s element burned in the mortal man’s eyes.
“This is wrong,” he said. Those words would be his last.
Mother appeared in a blast of white light.
With a gesture, she flung Adam backward. He hit a wall with a sickening crack.
“No!” Gem screamed. She flung a lance of ice, piercing Mother’s abdomen, but Mother merely swept it aside. She was the elements. Gem couldn’t hurt her. None of us could.
Mother fixed Gem in her sights. She lifted her hand and crafted a ball of writhing light.
No, not Gem! I yanked open the veil, snatched Gem’s arm, and shoved her through, blocking Mother’s line of sight. Gem whirled and froze under my glare.
“Go!” I told her.
Pain erupted down my back and flashed across my wings. Sickening agony threatened to empty out my mind. All my beautiful black feathers curled in and fell to the ground like autumn leaves. My wings… my wings… not my wings… I need my wings. I need them… They are me. They are my pride. Could I save them? I scooped up an armful of feathers. I couldn’t let them go. Not again. Not after everything they had cost me.
“This is… wrong.” Adam Harper’s words brought me back. He had gotten to his feet and stood behind Mother. Just a man. Not worthy of her attention while she worked to destroy me. But I saw what this unassuming mortal man held in his hand: an injector.
It wouldn’t work.
His eyes behind his crooked glasses met mine. He knew it wouldn’t work. “Go,” he mouthed.
He plunged the injector into Mother’s back.
Mother jerked, then she turned and thrust both hands into Adam Harper’s chest. In a blink, she turned everything he was and everything he would ever be into ashes.
Mother turned her attention to the control panel. The lever had broken, either by Adam or in the brief battle with Gem. She ran her hands over the controls, rage contorting her face, and then she turned the heat of that rage onto me.
Terrible power built, crushing in from all sides. The feathers in my arms burst into clouds of ash. Her needle-like elemental tendrils crackled against my skin. She had the power to make worlds or destroy them. She would destroy me, but I had control. I was my own demon, not hers.
“This world is no longer yours to remake.” I stepped backward through the veil and closed it on her scream.
Chapter 29
Mother’s scream rang out across the netherworld’s dark plains long after the veil had closed.
I’d fallen to my knees after coming through, shock and fury rendering me numb. I knew all too well how the ragged mess on my back looked, but strangely, it wasn’t my wings I mourned. She took my city and my people. But she has not broken me. No beast shall break me down again.
I climbed to my feet and spread the shredded mass of sinew, muscle, and bone.
No beast shall take from me again.
Inside, all the rage, the injustice, the wrongness Mother had inspired bubbled up and broke free in a guttural roar.
I am Pride!
As my roar filled the silence, resounding demon cries howled and bayed in answer.
I was done bowing to demon games. It was my turn to reign.
Gem’s intake of breath alerted me to her glittering presence. In all the darkness surrounding us, she shone as her demon self. “Your wings?”
“I don’t need wings to destroy her. Come. This ends today.” I swept Gem up in a funnel of air and tucked her icy body against me as we crossed the broken lands to the king’s fortress.
I set her down in the courtyard and materialized solidly beside her. Lessers scurried into the shadows, sensing we weren’t to be provoked. Gem kept her chin and wings held high. As a half-blood, she knew how to hide her fear. She had been to the netherworld before as a naive laboratory experiment who had barely known her name, let alone how to survive among demon-kind. The netherworld couldn’t hold fond memories for her.
“Follow me,” I told her. Lessers crawled along the hallway ceilings, curious and wary of us passing below. Gem’s shimmering skin scattered light, sending it dancing across mildew-dripping stones. She dazzled while I absorbed shadows. The Court didn’t know what was about to hit them.
Outside the throne room, I pushed my element ahead and flung open the doors. The Court was in session, Baal at its head, presiding over a squabble of bickering demons. As Gem and I strode in, a demon predictably tried something stupid and lunged at me. I choked him without sparing him a glance. Another hissed at Gem. She grinned back, sprouting ridges of ice armor in warning.
“Pride, you will wait!” Baal boomed.
“I don’t think so.” I shoved a sniveling water demon out of my way and slammed my hands down onto the table, scattering the glyphs to a chorus of gasps. I pointed a finger at Baal. “I made you a promise.”
Fury rattled his scales. The king’s lips rippled. “What do you want?”
“The mad queen.”
More gasps. I scowled at the pathetic excuse for a Court. Half the demons here were barely more than lessers. They only called themselves princes in the absence of anything better. It was a disgrace to the Dark Court and a disgrace to my kin. Baal’s reign was a joke.
“Get out!” I snapped.
Baal growled a warning. “The Court does not listen to you, Pride.”
“This is no Court, as you well know. The Fall decimated the old way. It is time for you to evolve or die.”
Snarls and growls bubbled among their number. I lifted my shredded wings and let them get a good look at the savagery inflicted upon them. “Get out and be grateful I haven’t slaughtered you all, you pathetic excuses for demons.”
Baal simmered in rage, but he dismissed his flock with a strained nod. “How dare you—”
“Save it,” I snarled. “Do I look like I’m in the mood for demon power games?”
“What happened?” he finally asked. His glare flicked to Gem—an unknown demon—and back to me. “Where is Mammon?”
“Mother happened.”
Baal’s slitted eyes widened. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Mammon had told me of Mother’s origins, yet I hadn’t believed Baal would hide the truth of her f
or all these years.
“You knew,” I confirmed.
“It cannot be—”
“Oh, it is, and she’s decided we’re all mistakes and she’s entitled to a do-over because of reasons.”
“It is not possible.” He stumbled away from the table—from me—and regarded my wings with awe. “It’s been so long, I almost believed my own legends. It cannot be.”
“Get over it.”
“Mother…”
I rolled my eyes and caught Gem’s shrug. Demons. “The only reason Mother hasn’t started remodeling here is because she can’t come through.”
“You know that for sure?” Gem asked.
“If she could, she would have come after us. That doesn’t mean it’ll last.”
Gem considered that and asked, “Did my… Did Adam…” She didn’t need to finish; the answer was already in my eyes. “He tried to stop her.”
“No, he only meant to distract her. He knew exactly what he was doing. He saved us. He did a good thing in the end. You should be proud.”
She pressed her frost-touched lips together and nodded firmly. This was not the place to discuss it, but she knew she could if she needed to. “Torrent?”
“I didn’t see him or Noah. Only Mammon…” I wet my lips and returned to glaring at Baal. “Mammon is playing fast and loose with his allegiances.”
“Mammon,” Baal echoed. “The marks… He should be able to at least subdue her.”
“Yeah, no. He has his own agenda.”
Baal slumped forward, hands spread on the table, and bowed his head. “Mother… She’ll destroy everything. We must stop her.”
Finally! “And now we’re on the same page. Give me the mad queen.”
I had never known Baal to be fearful. He had always been a pillar of control. But as difficult as his demon face was to read, just the mention of his queen tightened his eyes. “She is… I cannot.”
I knew what the mad queen was. I had witnessed her as a little girl when she had tried to bring chaos down upon us all. Dawn. She wouldn’t be human now. Years sealed in the dark could destroy the most stable mind. Hers had never been stable to begin with. Chaos abhorred control. Whatever waited inside that stone prison would be unfriendly, but we were out of options.
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