by Leigh Kelsey
“Nothing much,” Crystal finally answered, everything about her cagey now.
Lili wandered over to the dresser, scanning the knick knacks and photos strewn among jewellery boxes and make-up. She picked up a picture of Crystal and Melissa, trying to find the reason for all this dark magic in the photo. Instead she saw something that made her heart stumble. “Crystal,” Lili breathed, turning. Bernard stopped whatever he’d been saying at the tone of her voice, the others looking over at her. “When did Melissa get this scar?”
Crystal frowned. “I dunno? Five years ago maybe? She was messing around on the climbing frame at the park and she fell off.”
Lili nodded, looking at the picture again. A scar went from Melissa’s hairline to her eyebrow. A scar Melissa hadn’t had when Lili spoke to her either on the road between Iarlon and Jast or in the interview room.
“Shit,” Bernard grunted, coming up behind Lili, heat rushing into her back like a radiator had suddenly turned on.
“Problem?” Cerny asked, still keeping an eye on Crystal.
“A slight one, yeah,” Bernard answered sarcastically.
It was Lili who said it, looking from Cerny to Russ to Crystal. “The woman in Lucifer’s cell? It’s not Melissa.”
“Then who the hell is it?” Bernard demanded, pacing over to the window and looking down at the street.
“Um.” Crystal lifted a hand, bracelets making a percussive sound as they slid down her wrist. “So Melissa didn’t make it?”
Lili didn’t think Melissa was alive anymore, but she didn’t dare say that to her sister. The woman Lili had questioned hadn’t had that scar, which meant she was a demon pretending to be Melissa. And one with very convincing magic. Even Luc hadn’t realised she’d been glamoured.
“Guys,” Lili whispered urgently. “She could be dangerous, and we left her behind with Lucifer.”
“I’ve already updated him,” Cerny said, allaying her worries. “He’s on high alert.”
Lili frowned. Updated him how? She hadn’t seen him take out a phone or send a magic message of any kind. Cerny just gave her a look and tapped his head, and after a moment Lili realised what he meant. He and Lucifer had a psychic link. Lili bet Cerny had been keeping Luc updated the whole time they’d been on Earth. Breath rushed into her lungs in relief.
“Hold on, hold on!” Crystal shot off the bed. “You’re saying there’s someone pretending to be my sister, in Hell? What the everloving fuck?”
Lili just shook her head. It made no sense to her either. “Why?” she asked Cerny. “What do they get out of it?”
The brothers shared a look. “To send us here. It could be a trap,” Cerny said quietly.
“Or a distraction,” Russ added.
Bernard just went over to the window and glanced at the street again.
“So Crystal isn’t in danger? And we’re not taking her to safety?”
“She’s in danger of wearing my patience out,” Bernard muttered.
Lili ignored him, going over to Crystal. “If you and Melissa joined a cult, who else is in it? Who else can open these breaches?”
“Just me,” Crystal said, a proud tilt to her head. “I’ve got some angel or demon in my family apparently, and even though it skipped Melissa, I can do magic.”
Lili hadn’t known that could happen, but it did make sense. Angels and demons had been known to have affairs with humans.
“So you open the rifts and everyone else…”
“Provides for the demons when they come through. We get them set up in hostels and shit. Wait.” Crystal paused, scrutinising Lili. “Did you say you guys weren’t human? Are you demons too?”
Lili wasn’t sure how to answer, but none of the brothers provided a response so she said, “They are. I’m … half.”
Crystal made a face, gesturing with her hands. “So you get it. You know what it’s like, all that suffering in Hell, all the pain. They’re just coming here for a better life.”
“They lied to you,” Lili said seriously, not sure how many times she had to say it for the girl to understand. And Lili had thought she was naive. “They’re not here for a peaceful life, you must know that. Deep down.”
Crystal glanced away. “They said they’d help us. I just need enough to get through my exams.”
“Enough…”
“Dew drops.”
Lili wondered if that was meant to mean something to her.
“No trap so far,” Russ murmured over by the window with Bernard. “I still think we should move Crystal from here. Just to be safe.”
“Dew drops?” Lili asked, focussing on the girl. Crystal was looking more twitchy, more inclined to run, with every second.
“Drugs,” the girl replied, rolling her eyes. “They gave us a shitload, enough for me to get through my exams and for Mel to graduate college.”
“You … you sacrificed your world, your humanity, for drugs?” Lili was aghast. Someone had taken advantage of the sisters’ desperation, and Lili wanted to know who. She was sick and tired of people preying on weakness and naivety. She met Russ’s eyes. “I think we should take her to Hell, put her in the cell beside Melissa so she’s safe.” She amended, “Beside whoever’s pretending to be Melissa.”
“Two things before we leave,” Bernard grumbled, his eyes on Crystal. “I want a list of everyone involved in this cult. And I want to know where every damn breach is and how to shut them.”
Crystal’s face shadowed but Bernard stalked closer and she inhaled sharply, nodding. “Okay, okay. But you’re looking at this the wrong way. I could get you guys set up on Earth, get you a nice flat somewhere with electricity, running water, a steady food supply...”
Bernard’s expression changed to something so furious it chilled even Lili. He opened his mouth, no doubt to threaten her or say something truly vicious, but the flames on the candles, forgotten on the floor by the chalk star, flared suddenly and loudly.
Lili squeaked, jumping to her feet and stumbling back, bumping into Russ whose arms came around her middle. “What’s happening?” she breathed.
Crystal was suspiciously silent. It took Bernard rounding on her, Cerny intimidatingly silent at his side for her to blurt, “The closest breach, it’s becoming active again.”
“Which means…” Cerny prompted.
Crystal rolled her eyes, far too careless for Lili’s liking. “It means someone’s coming over from Hell.”
“You should’ve stayed in Hell,” Bernard muttered as the four of them hiked up an ash-covered hill, scorched trees and the burnt out husks of buildings on either side of them. The closer they got to the breach, the more apparent the signs of destruction became.
Crystal had been deposited in a cell under Lucifer’s palace, the devil promising he’d watch over her and get some answers out of her. Or try to at least; Crystal was remorseless, and seemed oblivious to how dangerous demons could be. But Lili hoped Luc had better luck than she and the brothers had.
Bernard had once again used his demon magic to ‘sift’ them to Earth. The street they’d appeared on had been rougher than Crystal’s neighbourhood; a car had been burnt out and left smoking, a shop looted every now and then, but it had looked more or less normal. Normal for Earth, at least—there were fewer pristine parks and gilded domes than Wisteria, or even Iarlon. But the higher they climbed up this hill towards where the breach had once again become active, the less they saw intact houses. People moaned, crowded on pavements beneath blankets and sleeping bags. And cracks ran down the street, visible signs of demonic presence.
This was what alpha demons did—they found the worst parts of humanity and multiplied them. The bad parts were already there, like the good parts were too, but they became magnified under the influence of Hell. The same happened with angels and Heaven—they brought out the kind, generous, selfless aspects of humanity. Or Lili had always thought they did. After Gabriel, Raphael, and Ilaian, she didn’t know what to think.
Maybe the betrayal would always bu
rn, a splinter lodged in the fragile muscle of her heart, but it stung a tiny bit less than it had yesterday, and she hoped tomorrow it would sting less than it did today.
Lili inhaled a long breath of smoke-scented air and pushed past the ache. This place looked a lot more like Lili’s vision of Hell than Iarlon or Aarvul did, from the smoking buildings, the wailing sirens, the groans of people in pain, the roads cracked, and tarmac melted and warped.
Russ squeezed her hand as they climbed the steep road. Unlike the other two brothers, he was on a height with her, which was a relief to Lili’s ever-straining neck. “Are you okay?” he asked, using his free hand to adjust his glasses before they could slip off his nose.
Lili nodded, holding tight to him. As long as she was with him and Bernard and Cerny, she’d be fine. And even surrounded by noise and suffering, it was better than sitting alone in her room, waiting to hear that they’d returned safely, dreading that they wouldn’t. She felt a bit bad for Lucifer but he was used to it, surely. He hadn’t left Hell since the day he’d been cast from Heaven. Lili couldn’t imagine how long ago that was.
“There,” Cerny said, pointing as the steep road levelled out. Lili caught her breath at the sight of a rupture in the sky, the ends frayed and drifting in the wind exactly like the rift in Hell. Beneath it, like a scar upon the earth, was a crater. What it had been before the demons invaded, Lili couldn’t have said. A park? A school? Lili stared at the burnt wasteland and the crowd of people—demons—gathered upon it. For whatever reason, they converged directly beneath the breach.
Bernard ushered his brothers and Lili behind the nearest house. Her boots crunched discarded drinks cans and burnt, brown grass as she crouched down, peering around the edge of the brownstone. “There’s hundreds of them,” she breathed, trying to count the groups of demons, the fires burning in metal drums, some people roasting what Lili hoped was chicken over them.
Bernard huffed a laugh.
In that businesslike, commander’s voice, Cerny said, “Closer to fifty, Lili.”
Lili blushed but there did look more than fifty. “What are we going to do?”
“We?” Bernard gave her a stern look, his jaw clenched. “You are going to hide here until we’re done. You wanted to come with us, fine, but you’re not getting in the way.”
“What he means,” Russ said, squeezing her hand, “is we don’t want you to get hurt. There are a lot of demons over there, and if they’ve broken free of Hell, they’re the worst kind.”
“The most powerful,” Cerny agreed. His gaze went between Lili and the crater full of demons, calculations running behind his clever eyes as he tied back his hair with an elastic from his wrist. “I don’t like leaving you.”
“Yeah, well.” Lili hunched her shoulders, shivering at a gust of night wind. “I don’t really like you going off to fight fifty demons all on your own.”
“That,” Bernard said with a crooked grin, “is because you’ve never seen us fight, Angel.”
Lili shook her head, laughing to herself.
“What?” he grunted.
“You’re only ever happy when you’re drawing blood or blowing things up.”
Bernard blinked. “Yup. Got me there.”
Lili smirked but the smile slid off her face at the thought of sending them out there. “Just—be careful, alright?”
If she’d had her wings, maybe she’d have insisted on going with them, but her legs wouldn’t carry her quick enough to escape if something went wrong. As much as she didn’t like it, she knew waiting for them was the smart thing to do. And Lili was fed up with being stupid—it was about time she started being street smart and clever.
“We’ll be fine,” Russ assured her, pulling her into a hug. Russ’s hugs were pretty amazing, warm and a thousand times more comfortable than hugging Bernard would be; he was so muscular it would be like hugging a block of stone. Not that Bernard had hugged her—it was all based on her imagination. Not that she’d actually imagined hugging him. Oh stars.
“Lil?” Russ asked, scanning her face as he let go. “You look flushed, are you alright?”
“Fine.” She cleared her throat when her voice came out thick. She reached for Cerny next, holding onto him for a long time, her head resting on his shoulder as she breathed in his sandalwood scent. “Okay,” she said, letting him go and stepping back. They’d be fine. They were demons, and hellhound shifters, and more than that they were the three most powerful hellhounds to ever exist, a legend in their own right. “Be careful. I’ll wait right here.”
“I don’t get a hug?” Bernard rumbled, a glint in his eye.
Lili put her hands on her hips, narrowing a glare on him. “Only nice men get hugs.” She flushed again at the idea of being pressed close to him, hearing his heartbeat through his muscular chest, feeling those massive arms locked around her waist… Stop it, Lili. “Besides, I didn’t think you’d want to hug me.”
“I don’t.” He flicked her nose as he walked past, and Lili recoiled, rubbing the sting from her skin. “Just enjoy getting under your skin, Angel.”
“You—bastard,” Lili sputtered.
Bernard walked out from their hiding place with a grin, holding out a hand to his brothers.
“We’ll be as quick as we can,” Russ promised Lili, taking his brother’s hand.
“Don’t worry,” Cerny added, hooking an arm around her waist to pull her into a quick kiss.
Lili’s chest grew tight as she watched the three of them touch, red mist hanging in the air around them. She closed her eyes as wind kicked up, blowing grit into her face. Light flashed behind her closed eyelids and she peeled them open after a minute to see Cerberus, seven feet tall and drooling from three Bullmastiff heads.
The rightmost head, smaller than the others and with a blue-grey cast to his fur—Russ—bent down and left a long line of saliva on Lili’s face.
“Ugh,” she said, smiling as she wiped off the doggy drool with her sleeve. “Get gone, you three.”
She was smiling as they let out a howl of declaration to their enemies and launched into a sprint. Lili watched them race for the crater and the demons, the rift like a white slice in the night sky.
She only knew something was wrong because unease slid between her ribs, squeezing her heart. The demons in the crater hadn’t reacted to the howl at all, and they didn’t stop what they were doing at the sight of the enormous three-headed dog racing towards them.
Lili opened her mouth to shout a warning when Cerberus slammed into an invisible wall. The vision—the fires in the steel drums, the roasting meat, the groups of horned, tailed, and many-coloured demons—flickered and fell. A cry fell from Lili’s lips as she stumbled forward a step but it was too late. She felt the magic slam down around the brothers, hairs lifting on the back of her neck, and as the illusion rippled and faded, Lili pressed her hands to her mouth as a scream built in her throat.
Gabriel strolled towards them from the empty crater, his hands in the pockets of his expensive trousers, and a smirk on his face.
“Let them go,” Lili screamed, her knees weak as she sprinted down the road towards the crater that had once been a neighbourhood. At least the crater was real, and the horrific slice through the sky wasn’t fake. But every demon had been a lie. Yet another trick. Demon magic surged through Lili’s blood like a forest fire as she pumped her legs, arrowing for the place where the brothers were held immobile by an invisible shield, all three of their heads snarling. That wasn’t angelic magic—angel magic was healing and light, unseen and subtle, but this containment was severe, and judging by her friends’ bared teeth, it was painful.
Which meant it was demon magic. But Gabriel abhorred demons—why would he work with one? There was so much here that Lili didn’t understand, secrets she hadn’t begun to uncover.
“Let them go,” she shouted again, reaching the place where magic held them. There was a slight shimmer across the barrier, like moonlight on the surface of a pond, and Lili could feel the p
ower in it. As if it was a physical thing, not magic and ether. Little shocks jolted across her skin as she neared, lifting hairs from her arms. The power felt electric.
Gabriel had paused halfway across the crater, that smirk still on his cruelly beautiful face as he watched her, his hands in his pockets. His burnished wings were tipped in forged gold armour—a declaration and intention that he came here to battle—but he held no weapon. Other than the vicious words Lili was sure he’d lash her with, anyway. “I mean it, Gabriel. Release them.”
“You mean it,” he repeated, his voice cooly amused. “Does that mean you’ve come to care about these demons, Liliana? How pitiful. I knew one of the Morning Star’s demons would find you when you fell—I knew you’d be healed so you could remain useful to me and the gods—and it was my intention that the demons would feel sorry for your poor, broken body, but I didn’t imagine you’d develop feelings for them. Though it’s unsurprising. You did fall in love with the first man to show you a hint of affection, after all. Why not a monster, too?”
“You shut your mouth,” Lili seethed. Anger had silenced her fear of him, blinded her hurt and betrayal at least for the moment. He should never have hurt Cerberus. Every second their faces contorted with pain, every wince and snarl they stifled only made Lili angrier, only made her stronger. These were her friends, and if Gabriel thought he could hurt them, Lili was going to show him how mistaken he was.
And she could now. She didn’t have her wings, but she had this demon power, practically begging her to use it. And as furious as she was, he didn’t scare her or make her feel small. She wasn’t crippled by the hurt in this moment and Gabriel should have been wary of her.
She was seething with the same mindless rage as when she’d sunk her teeth into his throat. Even Lili wasn’t sure what she’d do, what exactly she was capable of right now.
Despite the electricity jolting from the invisible barrier, hairs sweeping on end all up her arms, Lili drew back her fist and slammed it into the magic containing her friends. A metallic taste filled her mouth but it wasn’t blood, more like steel and rust and silver. She refused to show discomfort, staring through the barrier at the men who had saved her, comforted her, and kept her safe.
