The Third Throne: Angel of Darkness

by Tabitha Barret

  “As I said, I was very lonely. The mortal women didn’t make me feel anything but a moment’s pleasure, but it was quickly lost. It was after I had found you, but before I made the deal. I needed something greater than the mortal women to sustain me.

  “I had a lover in Heaven named Maraquette, the Angel of Virtue. She was on the Council along with Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Adrian. When I volunteered to fall, I asked her to come with me. She didn’t want to leave Heaven, not even for me. I was disheartened that our love wasn’t strong enough to keep us together.

  “Many centuries passed and my loneliness grew. I was called on by the Council and returned to Heaven briefly. I saw Maraquette and remembered our love. I tried to convince her to fall into Hell to be with me. She refused me again, but I sent word for her to visit me. When she arrived, I tried to convince her to stay. She had been upset with me for volunteering to leave, but her guilt over letting me go outweighed her anger and she agreed to be with me. She took control of the third throne. I was stupid enough to believe that her gentle spirit would balance us out. The problem was, she was too gentle, at first. Over time, she gained enough darkness, but she was not very good at controlling the Fallen. She eventually turned on me. She was disgusted by me. She didn’t understand the things that I had to do to the prisoners, especially those in the Realm of Nightmares. She said that I wasn’t the angel she knew in Heaven and had fallen in love with. I wasn’t kind to her and I didn’t make much of an effort to be gentle. I was far-gone, almost insane with evil. Her anger fueled my own and I acted disgracefully. She left Hell weeping. She said that the evil had destroyed me and that she would never return. She no longer loved me. At the time, I didn’t care, it merely added to my fury. Now I feel terrible for what I put her through.

  “She was so angry with Father for creating Hell and allowing His faithful angels to fall and reign here that she turned against Father and became a Forgotten. She abandoned Heaven and went to live in the Mortal Realm,” he knew it was her choice to take her disappointment out on Father instead of placing the blame on him, but he was still upset for putting her in that situation.

  Anjali, yet again, felt sorry for Lucifer. No one was strong enough to stay with him and help him. She understood his loneliness. “She was angry with you for doing your job because she didn’t get it. She hated you for being the devil and ran. Is that why you told me that I wasn’t allowed to leave? You thought I would freak out and abandon you, if given a choice?”

  “Yes. I thought that if I forced you to stay, it wouldn’t matter if you loved me or not. I had planned to make you submit to me, no matter the price. I’m sorry for thinking that I needed to dominate you, but there are worse crimes I have committed,” Lucifer looked into Anjali’s eyes for strength. He needed her forgiveness. He wanted her to stay because she wanted to, not because of a deal, or because of her suicide. He wanted her to stay because she cared for him.

  “Tell me what you did,” she wasn’t terribly upset about Maraquette. It was her choice to blame God for creating Hell instead of trying to understand its purpose.

  “When I found you and made the deal with Gabriel, I never intended for you to rule by my side, that was Gabriel’s provision. Even then, I knew I would not keep that part of the bargain. I wanted you here, but I wasn’t going to share power with you. The more that I looked at the empty throne to my left and the empty tower, the more I knew that we needed to find someone to take control of the third throne. We needed someone who could do what Tabbris was meant to do, balance out the throne. I didn’t think the Destroyer would be able to do that, so I found another,” Lucifer couldn’t face her. He knew that his confession would cause her to hate him.

  Anjali saw the shame on Lucifer’s face. “Gabriel created that provision as a way of protecting me. I have a feeling he didn’t think I could rule Hell either, but he wanted to keep me safe. I think he believed that if I were in power, there would be less chance of me being hurt. I agree with you, I don’t think I can balance out the throne. I have no idea how to do that. While I don’t want the throne, I do believe I can learn about evil from the souls in Hell, just as Gabriel intended. That’s all I want,” she shrugged as she felt the burden of ruling Hell removed from her shoulders. She still had to worry about the world, but she didn’t need to screw up Hell too.

  Lucifer’s head snapped up. “You don’t want to rule by my side?” Lucifer was surprised by her admission. She was the first person in history not to want the throne.

  “I’m saying that I don’t think I would be any better than Tabbris or Maraquette,” she shrugged.

  “Then you truly underestimate yourself. You have done more for me in your time here than anyone else. Please, allow me to finish what I was trying to tell you,” Lucifer needed to speak quickly before he lost her forever.

  Anjali nodded and waited for Lucifer to continue.

  “Everything was in place for your arrival. Gabriel had sworn to me that you would come this time. I was anxious to obtain you and I foolishly believed he would finally hand you over. At the last moment, he changed his mind and hid you. I was enraged. I lost control and many suffered. I went to Heaven to plead my case to the Council, but my pleas fell upon deaf ears. Though they had sanctioned the agreement, they were swayed by Gabriel’s reasons for the delays and allowed him to keep you from me. I was distraught and I did something unforgivable,” Lucifer brushed the hair from her cheek and mentally kicked himself for not waiting for her.

  “What did you do?” Anjali smiled at him, waiting for his next confession, hoping that it was something that she could forgive.

  “There was an angel in Heaven; she was beautiful, intelligent, and sweet. Serena was the Angel of Insight. She had always cared about me, but I was very devoted to Maraquette. When I saw her again, I decided to woo her and convince her to come to Hell to be with me. While in Father’s light, I become my old self again. I told her about my loneliness and sadness. I cried to her about the horrible things I had to deal with. I didn’t lie to her, but my very demeanor was a lie. She felt sorry for the angel that was weeping at her feet all the while knowing nothing about the monster that I would become when I left Heaven. She agreed to come with me. She had fallen in love with the old me, the Morningstar. What she got when she arrived was the Prince of Darkness,” Lucifer hated thinking about Serena.

  “You tricked her, even though you didn’t mean to. She only saw the Morningstar, not the devil,” Anjali understood the problem since she was personally living it. She too only knew the good side of him, though she had witnessed some of what he was capable of.

  “Yes. It takes a while for the darkness to seep back into my heart and soul, so Serena didn’t see the change in me right away. It was a while before I was back to my dark ways. By that time, she had started to enjoy sitting on the throne and helping me make decisions. At first, she was good at balancing out the disputes and problems. She was a natural at ending quarrels. She was right at home in the Tower of Unity and things were good. Unfortunately, she began to crave power. She demanded servants of her own, which she was granted. Then she wanted to do more in the realms, she wanted to punish the prisoners, so I allowed it. She was phenomenal at torturing and the prisoners feared her. Serena had become the Princess of Evil to my Prince of Darkness, until there came a time when she had surpassed even my foul ways,” Lucifer shook his head. He should have known better than to bring someone as good as Serena into Hell.

  “The shrunken head throne was hers, right?” Anjali understood why she didn’t like this room. It held the memory of all immoral things that had been done here and the power inside of her didn’t like it.

  “Technically, the heads were still attached to the bodies that they belonged to and they were still living souls. She forced some of the murderers from the Realm of Fire to be bound together to make a throne for her to sit upon. She’s the reason that this became the Tower of the Depraved,” Lucifer appeared sickened by what Serena had done.

 
Anjali leaned around him to look more closely at the throne sitting upon the black marble dais. She realized it wasn’t just heads, but intertwined bodies that made the shape of the chair. Her stomach turned when she pictured them as living souls. The room spun a little and Lucifer put his arms around her and held her.

  “Let me guess, there’s more,” she whispered, not really wanting to know more.

  Lucifer reluctantly nodded his head. “Tabbris installed the mirrors in this room because he loved to bask in his own perfection, but eventually he used them because he was paranoid that everyone was out to get him, which they were. No one liked him. He said he wanted to be able to watch his back from all sides. It actually came in handy a few times when I plotted his death. Serena used them for a different purpose. She ultimately wanted to become the Punisher of the Fallen and oversee the Fallen who had stepped out of line. I agreed and the Fallen were sent to the Hall of Mirrors to be punished. Hades and I figured that she couldn’t do any worse to the Fallen than us, so we allowed it,” Lucifer hesitated for a moment when he thought about how the tower used to look.

  “I take it from your expression that she hurt them worse than you did. I can’t even imagine what this woman was like,” Anjali had chills when she pictured someone crueler than Lucifer in charge of punishing people.

  “We were wrong to give her power over the Fallen. She hung them from the ceiling and faced them toward the mirrors. She cursed them to slowly decay and become withered. They watched their beautiful features rot as they felt the pain of death. She made their bodies fester and decompose. They felt all of it. Angels, who had never aged a day in their lives, were driven mad by the experience. They screamed in agony until there was nothing left that enabled them to make noise. It was horrible to witness and yet she delighted in their misery. The Hall was nearly impassable and was covered in every fluid imaginable. Even I couldn’t enter here without feeling sick. She taunted them and made them pay tenfold for every sin they committed. The Fallen were terrified of her and wouldn’t dare speak to her unless spoken to. There finally came a point when her mind shattered and she became lost to the evil inside her. Her own servants begged me to release them from her service. She was forced to abdicate the throne because she was no longer mentally competent. One day, she locked herself in her bedroom and tried to cut herself to pieces. Hades and I decided to end her. We knew that we couldn’t send her back to Heaven after all that she had done. She would have killed herself from the guilt. I had ruined her and I had to put her out of her misery. I took her head and swore I would never try to bring another here,” Lucifer had tears in his eyes as he spoke.

  Anjali could see that he was in terrible pain over Serena. She held him and comforted him. “We all make mistakes in our life and we have to live with the consequences, but how could you have known what would happen? You said that Maraquette had turned on you and hated you. You didn’t say that she tried to slaughter everyone on her way out. If she hadn’t become crazed, then why would you assume Serena would lose her mind? I know it wasn’t your intention to turn her into a monster; you just wanted someone to help ease your pain. She’s the one who couldn’t handle it,” she felt for him as she watched him break down in her arms.

  “I never wanted to hurt her or drive her out of her mind. I swear it. I was cruel to her, even more so than I was to Maraquette. I know that I am responsible for her downfall. I ruined her. I am the reason she is gone,” Lucifer couldn’t take the guilt anymore. He let all of his sorrow for Serena rise to the surface.

  “She could have left. Did she ever once ask you to release her from Hell?” Anjali wanted to make Lucifer see that it wasn’t entirely his fault.

  Lucifer stopped when he realized that Serena had never asked to go back home. “No, she liked it here. At first, she tolerated it, but she never asked to leave. She never said that she wanted to return to Heaven.”

  “Maybe she wasn’t as stable as you think. I agree that you shouldn’t have brought her here, but maybe you weren’t completely to blame. I mean, you sit on a throne made of skulls, not souls. Their heads weren’t alive when you made the throne, were they?” she paused, hoping that they hadn’t been alive.

  “No. Nor are they mortal heads. They are the skulls of Rogue Angels. I gave the deathblow to two of them. The other was slain by Michael. I merely took their heads, and no, they didn’t have flesh on them when I commissioned the chair. They were burned in the pyres long before the throne was created. I told you, I was never as deranged as Serena,” Lucifer didn’t want Anjali to think even less of him, if that were possible.

  “Then I still believe she was weird before she got here. If you can out-do the devil, then there is something very wrong with you,” Anjali shrugged.

  Lucifer smiled and looked at the woman in his arms. He couldn’t believe she was trying to make him feel better about destroying an angel. She was truly a gift to him. She had a way of seeing past all the guilt until she got to the truth of things. The more Lucifer thought about Serena, the more he thought Anjali might be right. Serena was always a little different from the other angels. He wasn’t dismissing his guilt, but she helped him see that there may have been more than one reason for Serena’s demise. He had just confessed some of his worst sins and still this beautiful creature was holding him. Hades was right about one thing. He didn’t deserve her.

  “Perhaps you’re right. Someday I will discuss it with the other angels and see if your theory is correct,” Lucifer’s gaze dropped down to Anjali’s dress and his heart sank. “That dress belonged to her. It had a high stiff collar on it, but it was removed along with her head,” Lucifer cringed.

  Anjali froze. She was wearing the dress of the dead deranged angel. Shit, it was no wonder everyone immediately took notice of her and got the hell out of her way. It was the symbol of Lucifer’s attack dog and assassin. Even worse, she was wearing clothing that someone had been beheaded in. She couldn’t find enough air to breathe. Her skin crawled and she desperately wanted to tear the thing from her body and burn it.

  Lucifer backed away from her knowing this was the moment when she attempted to either kill him or storm off, never to be seen again. He knew she could never forgive him for trying to demean her.

  “Why did you make me wear it?” she tried not to gag and backed away from him.

  “It was a twisted reminder of the consequences of letting someone rule by my side. I thought that if I took you as my servant then you wouldn’t end up like her. I believed it was the power of ruling, coupled with my viciousness that drove her to madness. I thought if you wore the dress, it would keep me from allowing you rise to power. The dress was a physical reminder, in case I changed my mind about honoring the contract. Also, I wanted everyone to leave you alone. The Fallen all fear that dress. None of them would be brave enough to touch you while wearing it. You also look amazing in it,” Lucifer didn’t know what else to say.

  Anjali paced around the room. It wasn’t the answer she had expected.

  “When I blew up your tower, I came close to losing it and obliterating everything, but I stopped myself. I realized that I didn’t want to kill Hades, even though he deserved it. I didn’t want to hurt you. I stopped myself from going too far. I know I had trouble reigning in my power, but I wasn’t using it to burn Hell to the ground. I used it because I didn’t want to die. Even when Hades tried to seduce me in his tower and I threw him across the room, I stopped myself from maiming him. I wasn’t so far gone that I wanted blood. I’m supposed to destroy and I don’t want to. I will let the dress be a reminder of what I don’t want to become, though I seriously want it dry-cleaned. I understand Hell; I get what goes on here. The wicked must suffer, but the punishment must fit the crime. Serena didn’t understand that. She took things too far,” however, she was going to get someone to beat the dress against a rock and make sure all the crazy was out of it.

  Lucifer looked at her in disbelief. It seemed there was nothing he could say that would make her run from him.
He was both relieved and scared. He wanted to be happy, but he was still afraid to get his hopes up. He was so pleased by her response that it took him a moment to register what she had just said.

  “Hades tried to seduce you?” the world turned black as an image of Hades, dead at his feet replaced every happy thought in his head.

  Chapter 17

  Lucifer looked like he was going to rupture a blood vessel in his eye. She hadn’t meant to tell him about Hades’ treachery. It just slipped out. If she didn’t think fast, Hades would be dead and Lucifer would have to find two replacements to fill the thrones.

  “He didn’t get far, I swear. I stopped him and I vow that I will break his legs if he ever tries to touch me again,” she knew Lucifer was turned on when she spoke about being violent or cruel. She hoped it would be enough to make him pause. “I will beat him with his own throne. I’ll get scorpions from the Realm of Poison and shove them down his pants. I’ll throw him in the Realm of Drowning Seas and hold his head under,” she rambled off as many horrible things she could think of.

  Lucifer stopped fuming and imagined her fighting Hades. He chuckled at the thought of watching her break his legs. She was trying to distract him and it was working.

  “Please, don’t kill him. Punish him however you want, but leave him breathing. I will address his lies to me. There were a number of false statements that he made and I want to deal with him my way, if you’ll let me,” she smiled and put her hands on his face, forcing him to look at her.

  “I still think the throne and dress suit you and not because you are crazy, but because you are able to stop me from committing murder,” Lucifer gave her a wickedly sexy smile. “Very well, I will let you deal with Hades, for now. Know that if he tries his touch you again, I will end him,” Lucifer traced her lips with his fingertip as she nodded solemnly.