Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Portals were different for everyone. Some were filled with people’s worst nightmares. Some were filled with people’s worst fears. Mine was filled with Raphaela.
Everywhere I looked, I saw her face on a white backdrop.
The white feathers of her wings closing in on me, suffocating me.
Her smile when we had been together, when we married.
Her begging on her knees for me to stop cursing her from my mind.
Me falling from Heaven, at the hands of their god for my pride.
All my pride was on display, yet so was my shame.
I walked through the portal with my head held high. These were memories of long ago, memories I shouldn’t care about.
Dani tugged on my hand, pulling me out of my thoughts and through the portal. Biast was already waiting on the other side—in the portal room in Wrath.
“If I didn’t think you should know, you wouldn’t be here. I have more important things to do, but Sathanus won’t tell you a fuckin’ thing.” Biast yanked open the door from the portal room and walked out, cutting in front of me.
I braced myself for the heat and humidity and stepped out. Fire burned all around the kingdom; black ash rained down upon the both of us. No wonder I never came here.
There was a single winding road to the kingdom itself. On both sides of the road, there were steep cliffs that led straight to the pools of lava, where Wraths liked to tortured humans. If you traveled down the river far enough, you would find Tartarus.
As we walked to the kingdom, the screams of humans echoed. I didn’t bother gazing down at the pits. I had seen it one too many times. I didn’t like torturing the bodies of humans that much. It wasn’t my thing.
I had a thing for the mind. The mind hung by a thin string and had so many layers to fuck with. Even humans had little control over themselves. And corrupting the mind, breaking someone’s will, was so much more fun.
Instead of leading us straight to the castle itself, he led us down a path to the torture pits. On top of dried lava, silver chains were hooked into the ground. Some humans were chained, begging to be let go. They were screaming. They were crying. They looked absolutely useless.
“He’s right over here.” Biast walked over to a tree made of charcoal.
An angel was lying against it, his white wings attached. All of his feathers were still there, except for a few that had been burned near the edges from the pure fire here. His lips were parted slightly, cracked. His left cheekbone had been scraped from the impact.
I was surprised he wasn’t more hurt. Falling hundreds of thousands of feet and only a mere scrape?
“Is this Belial’s prophecy?” I asked.
“Belial?” Dani asked, brows pulled together. She still had so much to learn.
“She prophesied about The Unholy Trinity. One angel with wings will fall in three of the seven kingdoms. The first angel fell in the Kingdom of Lust years ago. The second angel fell in Wrath.”
I gazed over at Biast, who had his arms crossed and was glaring at me.
“I sure as fuck don’t know.” Biast scowled at the angel. “But one more, and it begins.”
“The beginning of the end, I know.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, Sathanus wants him gone.”
“How is that bastard anyway?”
Biast growled, his black pits burning with yellow, red, and orange flames. His hands balled into fists. “You gonna take him or not?”
“What do you expect me to do with him?”
“Fuck would I know. You’re the one into angels and shit.”
I sighed. Sweat dripped down my back. “If you bring him to the portal, I will take him.”
I wanted someone to examine him and to tell me why exactly an angel with wings had fallen and died in Hell. Only angels without wings fell.
“Xialan,” Biast called.
Someone who had been torturing a human came over with blood all over his hands.
“Take him to the portal.”
After a couple of unkind words under his breath, the man picked him up and began walking ahead of us to the portal.
Biast stayed behind, and after Dani said a few words to him, she followed me. She gazed at the angel the whole time we walked to the portal, her eyes burning white—a strange feature of hers. Her frown deepened.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I just feel bad. Mom wouldn’t have wanted this.” She pushed a piece of hair from the angel’s face and smiled softly at him.
“Don’t feel bad about anything, Dani. Your mother wanted to take you to Heaven to try to protect you, but that ghoul wouldn’t let you stay.” I grabbed the angel from the guard and tossed him over my shoulder. “Don’t let your mother define your decisions.”
“But I loved her. She was good.”
I chuckled, and we entered the portal. “If she saw you lead your kingdom, she’d definitely be proud of you.”
A small smile made its way onto Dani’s face, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She pushed me. “Shut up.”
I smiled. “Well, it’d make your dad proud. I know that.”