Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
Nina
As I stumbled into the Heart, my eyes snapped to Leander, waiting beside the large column of fire in the centre.
His blue eyes widened as he took me in, his sharp features tightening with something I couldn’t name.
Shock. Relief. Maybe regret.
“You have them all.” His voice was quiet but heavy.
I reached for the relics at my neck. “Yes. What are you doing here?”
He let out a breath, stepping towards me. “Nina, I wanted the throne,” he admitted. “I won’t lie to you about that. But I never wanted to chase it at the cost of you.”
A laugh slipped from me. “Oh, so you have limits?”
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue. “I never thought you’d get this far,” he murmured. “No Champion has ever collected every relic. You know I always wanted you to make a bargain with me.”
And then, the truth slipped from his lips.
“This is all my fault,” he whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“It was me, Nina.” His voice cracked. “It was my idea. Overthrowing Salazar was my plan. Then Hell had a plan of its own after that. None of us can enter another’s domain.
We knew that. But to take the throne, we needed relics from every demon willingly given.
And no demon would ever surrender power freely. ”
“Souls would compete, but the demons schemed. Every Champion has either bargained or been destroyed.” His voice softened.
Something curdled in my stomach.
How long had The Cycle gone on? A century? A millennium? Years had flown by while the damned played a game that could never be won.
Jules and Elise came running down the walkway from Temptation.
Leander’s face darkened. “What are you doing here?”
“Jules told me you were in trouble,” Elise panted.
Leander’s eyes flashed, confusion contorting his face. “I’m not—that’s not—”
“Enough,” Jules muttered. “I just needed a sacrifice.”
Jules had already moved, grabbing Elise by the arm and cutting off her finger.
I screamed, and shock pinned me in place.
It all happened in a few chaotic seconds.
One moment Leander was holding me, the next he was reaching for Elise.
But Jules, my friend, was holding a bloody fingers.
Glass smashed. A strange sigil appeared in a flash, molten lines etched in the ground between us – Jules and me standing close to the centre of Hell, and Leander and Elise on the other side of the sigil.
Leander’s voice dropped. “What are you doing Jules?”
Jules looked sad as he turned to me.
“I am so sorry, Nina. But Hell told me I had to push you to the end. But I know now that it isn’t safe for you. You don’t deserve this fate.”
I stepped back. “I don’t understand.”
“Hell only cares for power. And you are the answer . . . you were always meant to be more. But when you take a seat among the demons, you will never be the same.”
I looked at Leander. Shock was all over him.
Hell’s whispers shrieked in my mind. “Lure him to the fire. Kill him.”
“No,” I cried. “I can’t do that.”
The voices were shrieking in my mind, louder than anything else.
“Kill him.”
“I won’t do it,” I cried, my hands clasped on my ears. I fell to my knees, buckling against the pain of it. Tears streaked down my face, and Hell continued to scream.
“See,” Jules shouted. “That’s what it does. It controls you, and soon, you’ll lose yourself in madness. Just like I have.”
I looked helplessly to Leander. But he couldn’t help me. Fury had taken over his features – magic thrashed from his open palms. But the sigil burned bright and burned true. It was some kind of magic strong enough to keep Leander back.
Voices rose around us in the Heart, but I couldn’t see them through my blurred vision.
“Nina, Nina, Nina.” The whispers continued their onslaught.
I could have sworn my eardrum burst.
“STOP!” I screamed.
Then, suddenly, the whispered were silenced.
I blinked, scuttled back, gasping for breath. When I got my breath back, I found that the rest of the demons had arrived.
One by one, they circled us in the Heart of Hell. Their eyes were filled with suspicion and fury, just like Leander. And every single one of them threw their magic towards us in lashes of colour – trying to break Jules’ sigil.
But it would not break.
“Why Jules?” I whimpered.
My man I thought was my friend stood beside the sigil, reading from a tattered black book. I didn’t understand the language he spoke, but I could guess whatever he was doing was bad.
Really fucking bad.
“I’m saving you, Nina,” he said. “This is the only way. You can’t be Hell’s pawn. You can’t survive it.”
In a white-hot flash, agony erupted throughout my body.
This wasn’t just any routine kind of pain.
I was familiar with the searing twinge in my hip. I’d lived with that pain for years.
No . . .
This was so much worse. It was more severe than the flames on Firstfire – somehow stronger and more horrific. Yellow light burst from my hands, scorching every fibre of my being like nothing I’d ever felt.
A heart-wrenching cry burst from my lips at the realisation this was the end. I would never return to Tobias. I was being ripped away from Leander . . . from Salazar.
I was about to die my second death.
“Nina, just hold on,” Jules shouted. “You’re going somewhere you deserve—”
BOOM.
In a snap, Salazar vanished into the Heart.
I blinked.
Crack.
Salazar’s hands were around his neck, then Jules fell to the ground in a heap.
He was no longer the monster of shadow I had first met, but the man I had freed. His golden eyes zipped around the space, taking in the gathered demons, the relics at my neck, and finally, me.
He pulled me to my feet, and pushed the sweaty strands out from my eyes.
“Nina, sweetheart,” he said. “It’s been ten minutes, and you’ve already found trouble.”
I chuckled.
Behind us, the demons were speechless.
Leander’s face went slack with shock. “How?”
Salazar smirked, amusement flashing across his features. “While you, my disciples, have been squabbling amongst yourselves, Nina was helping to free me.”
His hand moved to his belt, and my eyes caught on the objects that hung there – six items of varying colours and materials.
“How did she free you?” Cressida hissed.
“She disturbed your magic circle,” Salazar said.
Were they relics hanging from his belt?
Was Salazar ready to reclaim his throne?
Alexei sneered. “You can’t be serious. You think we’ll just—”
But before he could finish, Hell whispered.
Not to them. To me.
“There is another way.”
I shook my head, as if I could get rid of them, but their voices were sharp as ever.
“It is time for you to take a seat in the realm of demons. It is your destiny.”
“No,” I gasped.
But I’d figured out this was my end game. This was the moment I had been working towards. It was the only way to save my brother, and ensure our future in Hell was a good one – not one full of torment.
I turned to the demon at my side, my heart pounding. “Salazar,” I whispered.
His gaze snapped down to me, his lips parting. Then, I shoved him, pushing him over the sigil.
“I think Hell is ready for a new age.”
His expression darkened.
“This is the only way forward, to a better infernal realm,” I said.
“Don’t do it, Nina,” Salazar said. “You cannot survive it.”
I swallowed hard. “Just watch me try.”
Ever since I’d commanded the burning shadows, I realised that my connection to Hell was not random at all.
It was a connection that had been guiding me to this very moment. Because they had wanted me to rise, to take the throne, and transform this infernal realm into something new.
The relics hung around my neck. I pulled them free with a tug and joined them together with Salazar’s dagger.
Leander moved first. He lunged, his voice raw with desperation. “Nina, don’t—” He got thrown back by the sigil, and crashed to the floor.
Salazar’s smoke flung out from his outstretched hands, reaching for me.
But I wasn’t afraid, because Hell had protected me from the very start.
The fire erupted from the central chasm, crashing over me like a wave. It didn’t burn. It transformed me. The relics blazed red-hot in my grip. I let them go as flames swallowed me whole.
Heat tore through my body, but there was no agony, only a rebirth. I felt my soul split open. It stretched, fractured, and reformed.
The whispers rose in a chorus: “You are remade.”
The words seared into my soul as the flames pulled back, and I finally opened my eyes.
Everything was silent.
Then—
WHOOSH.
A new archway sprouted from the ground. It was made of golden flames.
It was a new domain.
I had finally taken my seat among the demons in Hell.
“I am the Demon of Lies,” I said, my voice booming across the cavern, watching the demons before me cower under my power. “And I’m your new queen.”