I grabbed the bones again, calling out to whatever could hear me. “Honey, I’m home!”
A woman stepped into the open doorway, then walked forward, placing her elongated fingers on the bones that made up the handrail. Her long, square, black nails curved around the banister, and they slid further down as she descended the steps made of leathered flesh.
“Cassia,” I said, greeting her coldly.
Cassia’s black hair was sectioned into rows; the thick, inverted braids pulled tight and secured at the nape of her neck with a gold ring, letting the rest of her hair fall over her bronze shoulder in a single ponytail. The strands were somehow shiny even though Hell was absent of light. Cassia wasn’t a Queen of Hell—being unable to bear children for my father—instead, she was his steward and had been since the early days of her Persian empire.
Cassia was a daughter of Zartosht, known to the Greeks as Zoroaster. His teachings were that their god alone—Ahura Mazda—should be the one and only god worshipped. As most religions, it took a lot of bloodshed to convince everyone of this, and Cassia was eager to please her father, becoming the most prolific converter in human history. Zoroaster developed Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic faith, but Cassia developed a taste for blood, and that new addiction didn’t just go away when the dissidents and even the outliers were silenced. That was when Cassia caught the attention of my father.
“Levi,” Cassia whispered in her smooth voice, sauntering from the bottom step to my cage. Her hand slid over the bones until her palm settled on the lock. She clicked her tongue. “This couldn’t have kept you caged. You needed a ride?”
I met her gaze as she looked up at me, seductive as ever. Most men would lose their minds with lust, but knowing she was once gleefully covered in the innocent blood of children helped me to see her for what she was.
“Is he here?” I asked.
She began to open her mouth, but one of the Underlings who had carried me squealed as it toppled down the ledge to the bottom. They were almost to the top; the long fall had injured him.
Cassia was unimpressed with his writhing. He’d interrupted her. She targeted him with her hazel eyes and then looked to the far cliff. With her eye movement, his body left the ground and slammed into the rock. He didn’t get up a second time.
She was satisfied, a grin relaxing her face.
“Good to see not much has changed,” I said.
She reached into the cage and pressed her palm flat to my chest, her fingernails grazing the base of my throat. “You’ve come back for her. She’s here.”
I could feel Eden stronger than I had since my father took her. She was sleeping, trapped deep beneath the surface in a dark dream.
I lowered my chin. Cassia was human, but she was one of the oldest beings in Hell. She would fight to avoid being punished for giving up Lucifer’s newest treasure. Despite being reassigned to Earth, in Hell I was older, and there was no stronger motivation than mine.
“You’re coming out to play?” she asked, amused.
“Not to play.”
She arched an eyebrow.
I grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. Her black painted lips popped apart. Suddenly, Cassia wasn’t amused anymore. The gold chain that connected the golden piercing of the hoop in her ear to the stud in her nostril shook as she struggled. She hissed, cutting my forearm with one of the nails on her free hand. I grabbed that wrist, too, holding them together on my side of the cage. “I don’t want to kill you, Cassia, but I will.”
“I suppose we’re at an impasse. Lucifer will kill me if I let you take her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’ve made mistakes before.”
“She’s the Keeper of the Balance, Leviathan. He’ll kill me a thousand times and never let me die.” She relaxed and smiled. “And he’ll do the same to you. I’m his precious. Only he can end me.”
“He has to know he can’t hold her. Her death was a sacrifice.”
Cassia thought about that for a moment, then her eyebrows pulled together. “Then why bring her here?”
“More importantly,” I said, struggling to hold her. “Why put you in charge of a prisoner he knows he can’t keep?”
She smiled with full teeth. “You can’t poison me against my Master, Levi.”
“I’m here to get her. Stay out of my way.”
“You’re outnumbered.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
She pulled away, slipping through my fingers, and then sprinted up the stairs, escaping inside.
I kicked open the flimsy cage door and stepped out onto the thin layer of ash. I coughed once, looking around. Eden was so close—calling to me. If I closed my eyes and concentrated long enough, I could’ve touched her.
The ground began to rumble, and I stumbled back. A fiery beast stood up from the lake of fire behind the temple, twenty stories high. Molten rock dripped from his horns, the lava below splashing at the shores.
I had to leap out of the way from the dozens of different super-heated elements.
When I got my footing, I attempted a wave and a smile. “Amaymon! How’s it going, brother?”
He was my older brother—a lot older. His mother was Hell itself. He was born from the fire that was her blood. He simply stared down at me, unimpressed. Amaymon was usually only summoned in times of great war, and he cared for no one.
I had four brothers: Amaymon of the southern realms, Egyn of the north, Orien of the east, and Paymon of the west. I was Leviathan, ruler of the Underworld, my father’s favorite because of my mother, Petra, the only queen who followed him from Heaven—and later his only human queen who he’d sent to be reborn on Earth to protect his favorite son. I was considered second only to my father, and my brothers hated me for it. I was like them once, filled with hate and fury until I fell in love with Eden. Decades learning from her light had softened my heart, and loving her opened my eyes. We were both punished for it, and again when we were sent to Earth on opposite sides of a new fight for power—this time for humans instead of Heaven.
From beginning to end our story was theatrical and angsty, just as my father preferred. My brothers weren’t so easily amused, and likely found their summoning to teach me a lesson somewhat satisfying if it weren’t picking at old wounds. I was the favorite, but I was also the least loyal—the family screwup. My brothers were the most fearsome demons in every plane in existence, and they were continually overlooked. Jealousy led to obsession, and obsession led to hate; all feelings that were commonly harbored in a place like Hell, but for an ancient demon descended directly from Lucifer, those thoughts were always acted upon.
My birth on an earthly plane gave my half-brothers even more reason to want me dead. Humans were the reason Lucifer acted against God, and aside from Underlings, they were considered the lowliest creatures. They were emotional and fragile, but they were also capable of extreme evil that could be used as an easy advantage for Hell. Cambions were rare and not regarded much higher. To add to their insult, my human mother was favored, the only human woman allowed to live after birthing a son of Satan. Egyn, Orien, and Paymon were all motherless. Amaymon was born of the pits of Hell, not exactly a maternal or even comforting place. All of them were pretty pissed about it and projected their anger onto me.