Chapter 18
Well hello, pet.
Have you come all the way to the afterlife just for us?
I’m pleased.
Let me wake Dante and tell him the good news.
Oh. And stay where you are, pet.
We’re on the way.
I opened my eyes, blinking up into the swirling, dark clouds that rained ash. The soft substance clung to every part of me, forming a soft blanket.
My fingers twitched, disturbing the perfectly formed layer.
The fine dust tumbled down my dress as I sat up. I was still wearing the same outfit I’d been wearing to dinner.
Frowning, I tried to place where I was and why I felt so… different.
Rolling back my shoulders, I attempted to gain my bearings. This was clearly a pocket realm. Magic swirled all around me, but I was definitely muted. I couldn’t feel it or touch it. I could only sense the heavy weight of it and taste the slight tang of blood in the air.
Usually magic settled into the center of my chest, but now it only ached and pulled, as if something was trying to yank out my heart.
Shrugging off the strange feeling, I tested my shoulders again. I realized that I felt much lighter than usual. Flexing, I tried to lift my wings.
Maybe they’re working again.
My eyes went wide when I realized I couldn’t feel them as if they weren’t there at all.
I reached a hand around my back and froze.
That’s because they weren’t there.
Trying not to panic, I shakily stood to my feet, wobbling as I grasped that my center of gravity had changed without my wings hanging on my back.
After I took one step, I failed to manage my balance and tumbled over right onto my face.
“Oof!” I said as dust puffed into the air.
A lump in the ash moved in response to my fall.
Horns emerged as Kaito brushed the ash off of his face. “Koneko-chan…” he said with the heavy grogginess of sleep. He blinked a few times, seeming to register me. “Your wings…”
I gave him a jerky nod that I knew.
My brain felt like scrambled mush, but the past events were catching up with me.
I’d made a deal with Balthazar. He had my magic now.
A side-effect of that seemed to include losing my wings and I had a horrible feeling in the center of my chest.
I wasn’t sure if that was where my magic had been ripped out, or where my wings had gone. I’d lost a wing before and it had been incredibly painful—and it had almost killed me.
This was different.
This felt like my wings had never existed at all.
Everything felt strange. I didn’t have that slight, constant ache of hunger from my succubus side.
I didn’t have that incessant cruel edge from the Demonspawn nature.
Even the angelic part of me had evidently been impacting my perception of the world, because both lightness and hope were missing.
Leaving me feeling empty as that pull at the center of my chest grew stronger.
Am I… human?
The thought hung in my mind as Logan and Asher emerged from the ash next.
Logan was naked after his shift from his wolf. Some of the ash clung to his cuts, and areas he brushed off revealed growing bruises.
Asher, on the other hand, seemed completely unharmed.
He gave me a sad smile as he swiped ash away from his sculpted abs.
His shirt had been torn off in the fray, but luckily his pants remained intact.
Minus a few claw marks, he was covered enough that I wasn’t entirely distracted by his incredible physique.
Still, I found myself staring at his gray-slate eyes that were now glowing. His dark hair hung loosely around his face in messy curls, framing it perfectly.
What was he?
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Now was not the time to be wondering about Asher’s history, or his perfect body, for that matter.
I needed to focus on where we’d wound up and how we were going to get to my mates.
I frowned, seeming to recall Hendrik talking to me in my head. But I didn’t have access to my mate-bond magic—or any of my magic, as it were.
So that meant he’d communicated to me through his own means.
Scanning the area, I tried to make sense of where we’d wound up. Balthazar had opened a portal for us, one that was supposed to lead to Hell’s Heart.
But this place felt so… lifeless.
“Where are we?” I asked, my voice sounding small and unsteady to my own ears. I rubbed at the ache in my chest.
Even my voice had changed after the loss of my magic, somehow turning quieter and weaker.
Kaito stood up fully now, brushing off the last of the ash from his body. “This is Hell’s Heart,” he said quietly as he frowned at the landscape. “But it’s a part I haven’t mapped yet. We must have been thrown off-course by something when Balthazar sent us down.”
Great.
“Are Dante and Hendrik here?” Logan asked, his voice taking on a wolfish growl. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. “I can scent them, but it’s faint.” His gaze settled on me. “Are we going to talk about what happened to your wings, Lily?”
Asher waved him away. “Keep up, wolf. She made a deal with Balthazar. Her end of the bargain gave him her magic. Her wings were part of her magic, so for now, those are gone.” He knelt and swiped the ash with his finger, then popped it into his mouth. “This is a new soul storm.”
“Soul storm?” Kaito and I asked simultaneously.
Asher rolled his eyes. “Seriously. The King keeps all of his rare books in the west wing and you still didn’t read the ones pertaining to Hell’s Heart?
He practically handed you everything you needed to know on a silver platter without outright breaking his agreement with Lucifer.
” He rolled back his shoulders and stood up.
“No matter. I guess it’s a good thing I’m involved now. ”
Logan glowered at him. “You’ve been shoving yourself in our business since we were handed over. Don’t act like you’re doing us a favor.” He eyed me. “You’ve wanted her from the moment you saw her. Am I wrong?”
Surprise made me speechless as I bounced my gaze between the two of them.
Kaito remained silent, indicating he knew more about what was going on than he was going to let on.
“What are soul storms?” I asked Asher, hoping to get everyone back on task.
“They happen at the outskirts of Hell’s Heart,” Asher replied. “They’re like remnants after a bunch of Death Lotus blooms have been uprooted, which means someone has been harvesting them.”
Hope flared, momentarily replacing the ache in my chest.
Someone like Dante, Hendrik, or Cole?
If we were in Hell’s Heart, then we had to be close to them.
We just needed to find them.
And a Death Lotus that would hopefully give me some magic back. At least enough to get us out of here. And by the sounds of it, there were plenty to go around.
My head was spinning as Asher drew in a breath to respond to me, but a new visitor cut him off.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The familiar voice held a deep, rumbling growl with a cruel edge.
I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
My face lit up when a wingless demon broke through the ashy atmosphere. He grinned as his bright ruby eyes immediately landed on me.
“Cole!” I screamed, bounding my way through the dusty landscape to throw my arms around his neck.
He laughed as he hauled me against his chest and buried his nose into my hair.
“Little angel,” he whispered as he kissed my head. “I knew you’d come back.”
He pulled me onto my tiptoes and pressed another kiss to my mouth, then frowned as if he finally noticed something different about me.
“Why are you… human?”