If this was truly the beginning of the end, then Hell was about to rise from the ashes, and war with Mother was about to commence sooner than I hoped. We weren’t prepared, at least I wasn’t. Not when I wanted to kill the red-eyed woman and couldn’t control my urges for souls.
A rightful wave of guilt washed over me. I needed to find Eros, Dr. U, and Jasmine, because I had some explaining to do and a lot of shit to make up for. I nearly killed both Eros and Jasmine tonight, and Dr. U—the only family I really had left—had almost died because of me.
Placing a hand on my back, Lucifer guided me to the colosseum exit. Huddled in a circle, the commanders chatted quietly until we walked over. Envy crossed her arms across her chest and strummed her mint-colored acrylic nails on her elbow. While she had that usual envious look on her face, I could see the fear deep in her eyes and could smell a salty and sweaty stench drifting off her.
Greed stood beside her with one hand on her golden-clad hip, eyes trembling when she looked in my direction. She tugged on some pearl earrings and quickly looked back at Envy, as if she was unsure glancing at me would piss me off again.
Sathanus stood with his fists clenched by his side and his eyes completely red balls of fire, hatred and anger spewing from his sanguine-colored lips and—what looked to be—steam fuming from his ears.
And the good ‘ole Sloth and Gluttony commanders refused to make eye contact with me but both munched on some Fervor Crisps that were supposed to be for the after-party. Though it didn’t seem like any other demons wanted to party after now. The colosseum and castle had cleared out, demons running down the white stone paths to Chastion, the nearest town.
“Not at all what we expected from this crowning ceremony,” Envy stated boldly, the first commander to say a single word to me.
“I didn’t expect two Envies to nearly murder my family,” I said, grinding my fangs together. “And I certainly didn’t expect one of those Envies to have been friends with me, Commander. It all seemed a bit too… coincidental, don’t you think?”
Envy glared at me with emerald green eyes, similar to Kasey’s. Instead of cowering back in fear like I used to, I stared back at her twice as hard until she grumbled under her breath and looked away from me.
“Now is not the time to make accusations, Queen,” Greed said, straightening out her back and glancing at Lucifer. “We shall set a time to officially meet and talk about what happened, because killing innocent lives cannot be tolerated.”
“Innocent?” Lucifer laughed. “Dani was challenged, and she stepped up and proved herself. There is nothing intolerable about that. Unless, you believe that Dani has accumulated too much power, and for that, I kindly tell you to fuck off.”
Trying my best to suppress a smirk, I cleared my throat. “We will meet on Sunday morning when the Lust sun is highest in the air, but my crowning will not be the topic of conversation.” I paused, my stomach tightening again. “A war is approaching, a war with the angels.”
Sathanus barked out an empty laugh. “War with angels? Are you still going on about that prophecy, Lucifer? You know that shit isn’t real. It’s made-up shit that Mother whispered into Beliel’s ear before she fucking banished her.”
“Made-up like your religion?” Lucifer asked, arching a platinum blond brow and clasping his hands behind his back. “Didn’t you just make Satanism up, so your subjects blindly follow you? Or was that someone else?”
An unruly growl exited Sathanus’s mouth. “Fucking watch it, Lucifer.”
“Or what?” Lucifer challenged.
When Sathanus lunged in our direction, Lucifer grabbed his forearm, stopping him completely, and shoved him back. I stepped between them and stared pointedly at Sathanus. “Be here at noon on Sunday. Don’t be late.”
This wasn’t the time to fight, because fighting led to soul-sucking madness. And, God, if I started again, I didn’t think I’d be able to stop. I had killed so many demons and felt nothing but a nagging numbness and a deep, plaguing fear that something much worse was coming.
My mind might’ve now been haunted by thousands of demons, but the beginning of the end was here, and we had to be ready for the worst. It was our time to rise, our time to rule, and my time to kill Mother for betraying Mom and letting her die in the hands of the red-eyed woman.
2
Following the sweet scent of cinnamon up my white marble steps, I wandered down the halls and to one of the many spare rooms Eros and I had in the castle. On my way up here, I had come up with a thousand and one things I wanted to say to everyone I cared about. But now, standing in front of the closed door, I couldn’t seem to open my mouth.
Deciding that I’d wing it, I took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and gazed at a beaten and bruised Dr. U who laid in the canopy bed. Eros stood over her, brushing some strands of Dr. U’s graying blonde hair off her face. When I cleared my throat, Eros looked over his shoulder and blew out a deep breath, his piercing emerald eyes softening. “Thank the fucking heavens you’re okay.”
I closed the door behind me and gave him a small smile, knowing that now wasn’t the time to embrace him after everything I had done. While my hunger had been satisfied, I had just hurt and killed so many people. Part of me thought I didn’t deserve the pure adoration he gave me every waking moment.
But, despite my inclination to stay away, all I wanted to do was run into his arms, bury my face into his chest, and lie with him in our bed to forget it all and to thank him for helping me become stronger. If I hadn’t gotten stronger, we all would’ve died, and Maeve would’ve been ruling Lust by now.
Eros extended a hand out of me, his brown hair parted to the side. I smiled a bit wider at him and intertwined my fingers with his, finally allowing myself to relax beside him in his cinnamon aroma. I rested my head on his shoulder and looked over at Jasmine who sat by a large glass window, probably staring down at all the people hurrying out of Lust.
She didn’t look at me, and I didn’t blame her.
This was all my fault. I let this get out of hand, hurt people, scared people, endangered them even. If someone didn’t stop me, I could’ve devoured Jasmine and not have given a damn at the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jasmine wanted to go back to Earth and work at the Lounge again, instead of living with us.
What I feared the most was that Jasmine would never want to be friends again. She was the only other person besides Eros that I had down here, and I didn’t want her to leave too. But if she did, then I had nobody else to blame except myself. I drove her away, whether I meant to or not.
After forcing myself to pull my gaze away, I hesitantly walked over to Dr. U’s bedside and knelt next to her, taking her shredded hand between both of mine and silently praying that these injuries would heal and that she wouldn’t die on me.
It hadn’t been less than a couple hours since I last saw her, and she already looked worse. I wanted her to get better as soon as possible, so she could get back to what she loved doing—helping people figure out their lives and guiding young interns like I was onto a better path for the future.
If she was awake, she wouldn’t want to be in Hell with me.
“Has she woken up yet?” I asked, softly.