Down in Flames

by Jennifer Siddoway

  He flung Caleb to his demonic servants waiting by the walls as he forced me to my knees in the center of the room, something I’d grown accustomed to in my time here. My hair was falling out, the red was tangled with sweat or blood against my face. The white blossom that was tucked behind my ear was unbelievably still present, though hanging by its stem and stuck in the matted mess.

  Aidan stood calmly in front of his desk, his armor gleaming sinisterly in the candlelight, and placed his helm on the table top, completely at peace with his victory. I wasn’t sure how he could be so smug knowing the angels had tipped the scales against him. Surely, he knew no one on the beach stood a chance now.

  Caleb stood a few feet back from me. Aidan scoffed at the two of us kneeling there, disheveled and practically ripped to pieces.

  “Silly girl with her delusions of grandeur.” He gazed at the flower Caleb had placed in my hair after telling my family about our engagement. Was that only last night?

  “I would destroy you now if I didn't find that level of arrogance so damn appealing.” He came toward me in the same arrogant stride he always used, putting on the airs of his noble office. “What you saw above ground was only a tiny sample of what I’ll be able to accomplish once your blood unlocks the ley lines for my kingdom. With your help, my dear, I’ll be able to claim my birthright and rule mankind the way I was meant to. I was a lot like you once, filled with rage and seeking vengeance for my imagined slights. Now, I’ve found a better way of doing things. Michele was the only hiccup in my plan, I should have gotten rid of her long ago – I made the foolish mistake of becoming emotionally involved. It felt good to finally kill her. That was my original plan all along, but she kept finding new ways to impress and … amuse me. One less obstacle to deal with.”

  I roared at him, belching fire and brimstone, bubbling pitch spraying to burn on the floor, and almost forcing my captors to their own knees in my blind rage to claw his tongue out. “How dare you talk about her now,” I spat. “How dare you say her name.”

  Aidan smiled, coming forward and leaning down with his hands against his knees to look me in the eye. “I killed her. And I liked it,” he repeated. “And I’ll say anything I damn well please, you’re my prisoner now – you and your precious Guardian. The battle’s won, I remain victorious, don’t you see? Once the other Demon Lords finish rounding up the stragglers on the beach, we can move on to the next phase of my plan. It won’t be pleasant, mind you. Not pleasant at all, but the payout will be worth it. The magical energy flowing through the Earth will align itself with me and we can rule this land together – with you as my queen.”

  “If you think I’m going to let you use my body for some freakish ritual to unlock the magic ley lines, then you are out of your freaking mind.”

  “I didn’t plan on asking your permission,” he shot back angrily. “I own that body and can use it for any means that I see fit. Isn’t that right, roomie? It will be. It will be all the more poetic this time as I make your fiancé watch.”

  Caleb screamed behind me and thrashed furiously against the palace guard. A guard picked up the cauldron in the corner and set it down in front of me, while the other kicked me forward so I was kneeling over it. I stared down at it, wide-eyed and terrified, breathing frantically as he picked up the knife that was on his table and sharpened it carefully with a whetstone.

  “Don’t worry, love, it will all be over soon. I’ll make this as painless as possible. Your mortal life will end when I drain that fairy magic from your body, and you’ll return as a Demon Queen!”

  “Ahhh!”

  Aidan came closer, waving the dagger in his hand, and said, “Why do you fight this? I was in the Grove of Ancients when they held your trial, I know as well as you do there is no guarantee for what will happen to you once this life is spent. If you accept my love, then I would make you queen of this world and beyond. I intend to take it, whether you want me or not, even if I have to pull it from you kicking and screaming. Either way, I will receive my just reward.”

  As Aidan leaned closer to brush the hair on the side of my face, I could feel his breath in my ear as he touched the flower resting there. He ran his finger along one of its petals and then opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short suddenly. His face twisted in confusion and discomfort before he began coughing. He stood up, trying to shake it off but then erupted once again into an uncontrollable coughing fit. He couldn’t breathe.

  Suddenly, his eyes flickered to the flower that was woven into my hair. “What is that thing?” he demanded angrily, holding a trembling claw over his face. The demons holding me seemed confused by this sign of weakness and watched him warily, but made no attempt to help. If a Demon Lord couldn’t defend himself, then what chance did they have?

  Caleb made use of their hesitation and managed to break free, attacking them unarmed until he stole one of their weapons. With his help, I shrugged out of their grasp and stood to face Aidan properly. After all he’d done to me and to my family, I wanted to see him die. His body towered over me as I plucked the flower from my hair and brought it to his face, forcing him to breathe in its toxic—at least to him—nature. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? I was so fixated on the branch that it never occurred to me I had another potent weapon from the Garden. “Oh, this?” I responded with a grin. “It’s a little flower – from the Tree.”

  Aidan’s eyes widened with fear as he choked on the blossom’s aroma, leaning back onto his extravagant desk for support. My confidence grew as I moved closer, holding it carefully in the palm of my hand and presenting it to him as a gift. His gasps of pain were like music to my ears.

  The Demon Lord swatted me away, trying to summon fire, shadows, spikes of blood, but was unable to concentrate on anything but the thick, paralyzing, throat-clenching scent that was sapping his power. I came at him again, gritting my teeth in rage. “Oh, Lord of Pride, I should have known it was ego that would betray you. You spent all this time preparing yourself for battle, imagining ways to protect yourself. You never thought death would come to you in the shape of a little flower.”

  “You vile girl,” he wheezed as the strength began to leave his body. “Get that thing away from me!”

  It took all his strength to suck in the air to talk, like a pierced, broken bellows, and though it only exposed him to more of the pollen that was anathema to his being, he couldn’t stop talking, trying to get the last word. His normally suave, powerful, commanding voice was reduced to a high rasp, his eyes were bloodshot with rage, panic, and a novel sense of mortality.

  I sneered, pinning him to the desk and climbing on top of him as he struggled to push me off. I shoved the flower in his mouth. His eyes grew wide as he flailed beneath me, growing weaker by the second as his eyes flickered back from red to their usual brown.

  Mephistopheles watched us from the doorway, his arms crossed in front of his chest and the hint of a smile on his lips. As Aidan’s right-hand man, he was next in line for the succession to the throne. Without Lucifer in charge, Mephistopheles would become king and take his place as the Demon Lord of pride. I didn’t care about any of that, as long as he wasn’t stopping me I had no problem with the power grab.

  With both my hands, I forced Aidan’s mouth to remain shut and leveraged my body weight against him. He began to shake and convulse against the mystic powers of my stolen bloom. Still, I would not release him until the job was done – until I was sure his life had ended. Aidan flailed against the desk behind him, grasping for something as I clamped my hand above his mouth and used the other, forcing him to swallow.

  Aidan’s body went rigid and convulsed as dark, viscous light was pulled out forcibly through his nostrils. It wasn’t like the other souls that I had seen, where it rose to heaven like a puff of air. This was thick and heavy like syrup, leaking out across the floor around him and coalescing as a shadow. His immortality and power, the base of his empire, was being separated from his body. The power of it caused my whole body to tremble. A smil
e spread across my lips when I realized the plan had worked—well, in a roundabout way—and I leaned in close to ensure we both fully felt and rode through his trembling, painful, unnatural death, when I felt a sudden and painful tearing right inside my ribs.

  I gasped in shock, glancing down at the knife that was buried in my chest and saw the blood. In my desperate attempt to kill him, I never saw him grab the ritual blade off the desk behind us. I was too concerned with ensuring—perhaps enjoying—his death.

  There were several emotions running through me when I saw it—shock, anger, regret, embarrassment—but I could not, would not back down. I had dedicated myself to destroying this demon that had systematically destroyed my family, knowing I would probably die before my success. Dying here and now, it was probably more than I could have hoped for; it would be a relief to know that he was gone, that I had taken him down with me.

  “Wynn!” Caleb screamed from across the room.

  Aidan smirked painfully and then went crashing to the floor. He decided that if he was going to die, he would at least bring me down with him.

  What a douche.

  The skin of Aidan’s face began to crumble and turn gray, breaking apart like ash. The toxin spread out onto his chest and arms and legs slowly began disintegrating as well. As he turned to dust before my eyes and settled on the ground, a breeze came through the doorway leading out onto the balcony. It blew the fragments of his being into a thousand different pieces and carried them away on the wind, never to be reassembled.

  I clutched my hand around the wound in my chest, where the knife was buried deep. Every movement of my body, every attempted pulse was a painful twist and tear around several inches of iron. My shirt was quickly saturated with dark, heavy blood; I was shaking with relief, pain, weakness, and cold as my life ebbed in oozes and spurts. When I looked down, there was blood everywhere. Time stood still as I looked back at Caleb in anguish.

  “Wynn!”

  The pain didn’t sting, it ached as I fell to my knees, unable to stand. Any movement was difficult and breathing became a chore. In my vision, everything glossed over in some type of dreamy montage that allowed me to fully appreciate the beauty in destruction.

  I couldn’t see it, but I felt my body shaking, convulsing from shock, blood loss and pain. It wouldn’t be long. My head hit the floor and Caleb came rushing over, his captors having fled the horrific scene of the witch with her demon-slaying flower, and knelt beside me. Carefully, he slipped his hand to cradle my head and turn it to look at him. In the white cape and golden armor, he truly was my handsome prince.

  I guess this was a fairy tale after all.

  His face was pained, agonized as he pulled me close and kissed me on the forehead, “Wynn, hang on. Stay with me,” he pleaded. “I know you're tired. Hold on. Hold on to me and we'll make it through this together. Don’t leave me.”

  I looked up at him and smiled, though tears were streaming down his face. He was crying for me.

  Even after everything I’d done, to him, to myself, to my family, an angel was crying over me.

  I reached up to wipe away his tears, leaving a smear of red on his perfect cheek. Caleb kissed me on the forehead and begged me, “Please, Wynn. I love you. Don’t give up, not like this.”

  I could only hear about half of what he was saying, my consciousness kept fading in and out. The world was spinning and I felt my limbs go weightless, being lifted to a higher state of being. As I looked up at him, my vision narrowed and I could make out the figure of someone else. It was a tall, red-haired man, with a freckled complexion. He was illuminated by a pure white light that made him shine brighter than the sun itself.

  I recognized him. Uncle Garrett?

  “Don’t give up, Wynn,” his calm, baritone voice called out to me. “You’re a fighter, you always have been.”

  Caleb was still calling to me, pleading for me to stay with him, to live our lives together, but I was already seeing past him, smiling weakly to the angel watching over us. Garrett reached down, and my spirit reached out to catch his hand—but instead he pushed my shoulder down reassuringly, like putting a sick child back to bed. I exhaled in awe, wheezing painfully.

  “Wynn,” Caleb cried. “I love you, don’t leave me now. We’ve still got a whole beautiful life ahead of us. You have to hold on a little longer.”

  I smiled at him weakly, but my eyes saw past him to the angel that was watching over both of us. I exhaled in awe at the sight of my protector, wheezing painfully. As the darkness descended, his silhouette was the last thing I could see, surrounded by a halo of light.

  My eyes flew open and we were still in Aidan's office, gasping. Caleb knelt over me, his hands placed carefully around my body as he tried to heal the wound from the dagger.

  When he saw me looking up at him, I heard him gasp out a gargled sob of joy and he kissed me tenderly on the lips.

  “Wynn, don't ever scare me like that again.”

  I chuckled dryly, which immediately became a groan – that was a mistake. As my body shook, I felt the ripping pain of the bloody gash. “Sorry, I'll try to remember that in the future.”

  Slowly, carefully, he helped me to my feet and wrapped his arm around me for support. Together we limped over to the balcony and gazed out at the demon city of Avernus.

  “We've got to get back,” I told him desperately. “Nate and the others are still up there fighting.”

  Caleb nodded in acknowledgment and I teleported us back to the realm above. The beach of Fairhope, Alabama was red with blood oozing down into the shoreline.

  There were no demons left to speak of, the only ones were shriveled husks lying on the beach. Angels and fae were tending to their wounded and I went in search of someone who could tell us what had happened.

  “Ariel,” Caleb called out to one of them.

  An angel turned at the sound of her name and saw us coming up beside her. She recognized Caleb instantly and smiled slightly. “Caleb, it’s good to see you. We weren’t sure what happened after Lucifer took off with you.”

  I’d never seen, nor heard of Ariel before, but clearly Caleb knew her as one of his companions from the olden days. “A fortunate chain of events, I assure you,” he responded dryly. “Lucifer is dead.”

  “This must be the Earthwalker,” the angel mused. “It’s a pleasure to finally be meeting you.”

  “You as well,” I told her.

  “What happened here?” Caleb pressed.

  Ariel sighed, looking back at the destruction and casualties that lay as far as the eye could see. “It happened very fast,” she assured him. “Baal destroyed Sathanus after Wynn released him from the doll, taking back his kingdom as Lord of Wrath. Once he was done with her, Baal turned on the other Demon Lords. He was furious at them for not releasing him sooner and respecting his reign as king. With him on our side, the balance of power shifted. It became the entire realm of fae, the angels and Baal against two measly Demon Lords. Asmodea and Belphegor started panicking and when they felt Lucifer die as well, both of them disappeared. They left everything behind in the hands of some minions that we were easily able to pick off one at a time. The war is ended, friend. Enjoy it.”

  “Thank you,” I told her quietly.

  Ariel nodded and went back to cleaning up the mess along the beach. As I stumbled across the loose soil, I came to the figure of my mother who was turned over on her back and lined up with the other dead. Her raven black hair fell down across the sand and a ghostly sheen was cast over her face. It looked similar to how we’d seen her in the hospital, but this was much more permanent.

  I looked down at the grey tinge around her lips and swallowed hard. Caleb held me tighter and whispered softly against my forehead, “She loved you, Wynn. I know she had her faults, but what your mother did, sacrificing herself ... that was love.”

  Nodding sadly, I swallowed the lump that had risen in my throat and said, “I know.”

  A new wave of sadness hit me that I had not been expecti
ng. I’d prepared myself for this while she was sleeping in her coma, but now that she’d come back, we had a chance to bond. I saw what happened on the battlefield – she died trying to make it right.

  That’s what she had told me on North Beach, that she would do anything to make it right again. She died keeping that promise.

  In the distance, we saw Maya and Nathan bending low above another form. My heart started beating wildly and I tugged frantically on Caleb’s shirt to get his attentions. “Caleb, over there!”

  We started running and with every step I took there was a sinking feeling in my chest.

  No! God, please anyone but him.

  My breathing was ragged and tears started flowing before I even saw the face of who I knew would be there.

  Dad.

  When I saw his eyes and lips parted slightly in death a heartbreaking wail escaped my lips and I fell crashing to my knees. Hand over fist I scrambled across the sand until I reached him. There was no blood, but his skin was cold and the light had left his eyes. I was shaking and sobbing as I stared wide-eyed at his body, my heart thumping against my ribs and hammering in my ears. I tried to wipe the wetness from my face, but the sobs leapt racking through my body.

  “No! Oh, daddy, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!” I screamed out helplessly.

  Nate, Maya and Caleb watched me silently, all mourning the same beautiful life that had put the welfare of his children above his own.

  “This shouldn't have happened!” I croaked out through whimpered sobbing. “He was good and kind. None of this should have happened.”

  Nathan rose from where he was sitting and came to wrap his arms around me. For a while we cried and let out the sorrow and devastation of that moment. He put his arm around me as I collapsed onto his chest, crying uncontrollably. It was my greatest fear come to life and nothing and no one could make it right again.

  Nathan held me while I fell apart for a while and then leaned back to place an envelope in my hand. “I found this in his pocket,” he told me gently. “You should read it.”