39. Kujo
Iwas ready to charge in there and end this.
I didn’t see who was guarding the cage, but it didn’t matter.
Sydney might not have control over her magic yet, but Nero and I did.
Furies and incubi couldn’t be further apart on the hierarchy, but we were some of the strongest demons in Hell and both of us were built to take down an angel.
Lilith slammed an arm across my chest when I went to charge inside. Damn. She was strong.
“Not so fast, cowboy. My chateau wasn’t chosen for the location. There are powerful magicks woven into the foundation and walls. I’m shocked you even managed to see the street sign. I’ve been around a very long time, but so has whoever did this. I know my boobytraps, but I don’t know theirs.”
“How long does a magical boobytrap take?” Sydney asked.
“Because whoever did this had Lucifer in a dormant volcano. They moved him because they somehow found out about Kujo’s vision, but that wasn’t long ago at all.
My wings decided to start coming out at the volcano.
Kujo’s family showed up trying to take what was mine and I exploded.
You showed up right after that and helped Kujo with his visions.
The Princes crashed Lucifer’s house and Satan’s, so they were having to keep up appearances in Hell. Would they have time for that?”
I wasn’t technically hers yet when she defended me against my family. Fuck me. Who was I kidding? I was hers the minute she saw three demons in her bathroom and squirted shampoo in my eyes for staring at her tits.
And she was right. Some magical traps could be set in a day, but those were easy to diffuse.
The more complicated ones needed hours to weave.
It couldn’t be Satan. He was never gone that long, and he didn’t look exhausted like he was sneaking off in the dead of night.
When they were gathering their bitch pigeon circus to squawk at Sydney, they were all accounted for and they didn’t look like they’d lost any sleep either.
“In theory, no, but I also would have said kidnapping Lucifer and keeping him gone this long was impossible. Your father isn’t just a warrior. He’s cunning, and we explored all kinds of magic together. If he couldn’t magically free himself, he would have just manipulated his freedom.”
“Which was why whoever took him left him in the care of imps,” Nero said. “They don’t have the mental capacity to think about the future. Lucifer could have promised them anything, but all they cared about was what was currently being provided.”
“Well, there’s no property damage in the area, so there are no imps watching him now.
Anyone who’s met Lucifer wouldn’t leave him with anyone who isn’t used to him.
Whoever stole him will be caring for him themselves.
Sydney showing up would have thrown them off kilter, but having to deal with Lucifer personally would have thrown them off their game further.
If there are traps, they will be sloppy. ”
I still couldn’t say who was doing all of this. Some of them acted like their evil plot was coming unraveled, but according to people who knew them, that was just an average Tuesday. We’d just have to go in, get Lucifer, and ask him.
“What’s the plan,” Celix asked.
“So, I’ve realized a lot of my spells were hidden from my creations when I left.
I came up with ten trap spells. Lucifer was working on an additional two of them when Kir was murdered.
I don’t know if he ever got back into the right mental space to finish them.
Any of the other Fallen could have come up with one. How many are still taught?”
“Eleven,” Nero said. “Your original trap spells are still taught. One of Abaddon’s lovers came up with a new one and from what I was told, was working on all kinds of new spells. He was murdered before I was born, but they still teach his trap spell.”
Lilith frowned.
“Abaddon would have raged out and destroyed Hell if someone he loved died. I know that just as much as I know Lucifer would self-destruct” if anything happened to Sydney.”
“I mean, does he love us or are we just sentient antipsychotics for him?” Nero asked.
“Abaddon is capable of love, just like Lucifer and Satan are. I’m not sure what happened when his lover died.
But we don’t have time for theories. If you’re familiar with my traps, then you should be okay with unraveling most of them except the one in my bedroom.
A girl has to keep a few secrets and mystery about her.
Move through and disable any traps and let me handle the one in my bedroom. ”
I wanted Sydney with me, but Lilith claimed her so she could teach her that big secret spell. I suppose that was a good place for her. Lilith let us through the front door and I let my magic out. I couldn’t feel any angels or demons here, but I also knew Enochian magic could be hiding Lucifer.
I also didn’t feel any traps. I didn’t like it.
“Do you feel that?” I asked.
“Some asshole disabled my security system except the one in my bedroom,” Lilith growled.
“Is there a basement?” Sydney asked. “I’m feeling a pull to go down.”
“Yes, there’s a cellar. I’m also feeling something familiar and powerful down there. It feels like Lucifer, but muffled with Enochian magic.”
“Fuck,” Sydney whispered.
She wasn’t afraid of three demons who showed up after the roof blew off her bathroom. Sydney wasn’t scared of my family when they showed up. She also regularly mouthed off to Fallen angels who survived a war in Hell.
Sydney was actually terrified about meeting her father and it had nothing to do with him being Lucifer Morningstar. Nero, Celix, and I surrounded her because we knew.
“You can do this. We’ll be here.”
“I’ve been around angels the most out of everyone here.
I can’t do Enochian magic, but I understand it.
There’s a good bit of it coming from the cellar.
I get why you didn’t bring one of the Fallen with us, but I can’t unravel Enochian magic because I’m not an angel.
I’ll have to walk Sydney through it. I know you’re worried you’re going to blow something up, but I’m an excellent teacher. You can do this.”
“I know she can do this, but this is way too easy,” I pointed out. “There are no booby traps or guards. What, the person who managed to kidnap Lucifer and not get caught this long just left him in your cellar?”
“Nothing easy about it. You shouldn’t have even been able to see the street sign with my warding.
This place is impossible to find magically.
A lot of angels don’t like me, but they can at least respect my magical skills, even if they’d never say that to my face.
If a new seer has rising who can see through Enochian magic, hiding behind Enochian spells and mine shouldn’t need traps because no one should be able to find you. ”
Interesting. I was more grateful than ever Sydney took out my family because they would have kept me in a cage and only fed me if I gave them a vision they could use to their benefit.
I didn’t exactly know why I’d been given such a powerful gift.
I couldn’t change it, so I’d just have to deal with it.
Still, it would be nice to get another vision to tell me what was waiting for us in the cellar.
We moved through the foyer and I took in Lilith’s chateau.
Weird. She said she hadn’t been back since the French Revolution.
She would have had a lawyer paying staff to keep the place up for her guests and if she ever decided to come back.
I hadn’t been to all of her houses, but I’d been to the one she kept in Hell.
Lilith oozed power and sexuality. Her house in Hell seemed homey and designed for comfort.
The inside of this chateau looked like the inside of a nightclub where women had to worry about what was in the drinks that wealthy guy just bought them.
“What the actual fuck did someone do to my house? It looks like Christian Gray vomited all over my sitting room. I had several original Eugène Delacroix works of art in here.”
Yeah, Lilith needed to call her lawyer because someone was squatting in her house and we needed to find out who. But we needed to get Lucifer out before they got back. Even though they’d been here longer than we realized and didn’t leave any traps, they clearly came here a lot.
Lilith led us to the cellar lamenting about the décor changes and I didn’t blame her.
This was a centuries old French chateau and someone completely ruined the inside of it.
I didn’t know the first thing about architecture, interior design, or art outside of tattoos and I knew this was ugly as fuck.
“Um, is this a cellar or a sex dungeon?” Nero asked when he saw the door.
“Honestly, it’s a valid question,” Celix said.
Based on the décor in the rest of the house, it could have been a cellar when Lilith lived here and very much be some twisted fucked up version of a sex dungeon now.
“Well, I kept wine down there, but right now, there’s a powerful Enochian spell on the door, so I couldn’t tell you what’s down there now except probably the King of Hell. Sydney, this is you. I can walk you through it.”
Yeah, Sydney was just as scared of her magic as she was of meeting her father. She was so focused on the fact that the first time it came out, it killed my entire family and not the fact that even though she had zero control, she only killed the people who was trying to attack us.
We were going to have to work her through that, but we just didn’t have time. Lilith told her exactly what to do. Sydney put her hands on the door and the whole thing blew down the stairs harder than the time I ended up in a foster home with a meth lab in the basement and Swat showed up.
“Oops. I’ll buy you another door for your new sex dungeon. At least I didn’t destroy the entire house. The place doesn’t deserve to be obliterated because a tacky bitch pigeon redecorated.”
“Sydney, the spell is supposed to work like that. A lot of Enochian magic is explosive. I knew the door would do that when I told you how to disarm the spell. Let’s go get your father.”
We all shuffled into the cellar. I guess whoever decorated the rest of the house like they regularly held sex parties here opted not put a sex dungeon in the basement.
I could see where Lilith might have kept wine down here, but the only thing here was a giant cage with an angel that looked like the male version of Sydney.
He was filthy, underfed and crapping in a bucket from the looks of it. His eyes lifted when he realized someone was coming down the stairs. He didn’t look like he had the energy for much. Lucifer seemed relieved when he realized it was Lilith with demons, but then his gaze locked on Sydney.
Yeah, I’d seen paintings and old photos.
I was pretty sure Lucifer hadn’t had a proper shower or haircut the entire time he’d been missing and they were clearly keeping him weak by not feeding him enough.
But there was absolutely zero doubts looking at the two of them together that this was father and daughter.
Lucifer rushed to the cage and tried to wrap his hands around the bars. He got zapped and flung back. He groaned and sat up.
“You live?” he groaned.
“Uh, yeah. And you didn’t go out for cigarettes when you found out Mom was pregnant and leave the state.”
“I’d never do that to one of my children.”
“How do I get him out of the zappy cage?”
“Who did this?” Lilith asked.
“I don’t know. Every time he visited me, he wore Kir’s face to torment me.”
“How is that possible?” Sydney asked.
“Angels can shapeshift,” Lilith said. “Some of their usual forms are monstrous and terrifying. Some of the Fallen you’ve met are in their shapeshifted forms instead of their natural ones. They can appear how they like.”
“Well, that’s fucked up, but how do we get him out of that cage?”
“I don’t know. There are spells upon spells on this cage. I’m guessing the only person who can safely diffuse these spells are the one who cast them.”
Sydney had to be the most infuriating woman to ever exist. Before any of us could grab her and stop her, she marched over to the cage and just grabbed the bars. I literally just watched those bars knock the King of Hell on his ass. What was she thinking? Was she thinking at all?
A green light exploded from the cage and we all stumbled. Hellfire. She’d managed to call her Hellfire. The bars of the cage turned to ash around Lucifer. I managed to get to her before she collapsed and hit the ground. Celix and Nero helped Lucifer up and over to Sydney.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Did you really lose a fiddle contest to a hillbilly in Georgia? Because that’s super embarrassing,” Sydney slurred.
Lucifer wheezed out a laugh.
“I actually know that one. She’s definitely my spawn.”
And then she passed out.