Chapter LIV
LIV.
We advance on each other. He slices at me, but I dodge his blow. I spin behind him and thrust with my sword. He ducks, and we continue to circle one another.
It takes me a few minutes to get used to the missing weight from my left shoulder, but I adapt soon enough, using the weight of my sword to create balance.
I strike again.
He moves away, but not far enough, and my blade slides across his skin below the rib cage. He lets out a blood-curdling shriek and dives at me again. He’s forgotten that my mother’s blade can’t hurt me, so it bounces off me when he stabs at my already bleeding shoulder.
For some reason, Nate’s fiddling with the damn bow again, and he manages to release an arrow that bounces off the ground and stabs Ferus in the leg.
“I got one!” Nate calls, his voice thick with pride.
Ferus rips the arrow out of his calf with a roar and stumbles toward Nate.
“Oh, shit.” Nate’s eyes widen, and he takes off across the bridge. He stumbles over one of the wooden boards and flies toward the edge.
It’s like everything turns into one of those slow-motion sequences in the movies he loves as I helplessly watch him fall.
My heart stalls in my chest, and I hear myself call his name from somewhere far away.
He manages to catch one of the boards with his fingers and stops himself from tumbling into the river below.
I exhale in relief, but Ferus is already on him, raising the dagger to slice off his fingers.
A growl builds low in my throat. Oh, absolutely not. He may have tried to take my fingers, but he will not get Nate’s.
“Hey, assface,” I call. “Why don’t you come fight an actual demon instead of picking on humans?”
His face contorts into something I’ve only seen in Nate’s horror movies. I take an involuntary step back as the hairs rise on the back of my neck. He lets out a scream that may be a word but isn’t anything I recognize in any language I know, and charges.
My full strength is returning, and I’m ready for him this time.
As he barrels toward me, I put all of my weight onto my back leg.
Then I thrust my other foot forward, heel first. The kung fu kick hits its target: the smoking wound in Ferus’s chest. He shrieks and drops to his knees, clutching his torso.
I land another blow to his head, and he falls at my feet, whimpering like a child.
Raising my sword, I glower down at him. Father’s wings tremble on his back, as though even they understand they don’t belong there.
My chest squeezes as I recall the times I found Father staring at them on his wall. Before learning about my mother, I was sure they were his only vulnerability. Now they’re tainted by Ferus and his ambition.
“Those aren’t yours, Ferus,” I say in a low voice. “I’m sick of you trying to take things that don’t belong to you.” I raise my sword over my head and bring it down on his back, severing the wings from his body.
They don’t fall to the ground like I anticipate. My jaw drops as they float on air for a moment before following my own feathers off the bridge and disappearing into the fires below. I swear I hear a faraway scream of pain as the flames overtake them, and a chill licks my spine. I swallow.
It’s not like Father was planning to come back for them or anything.
But guilt still tugs at my chest as my bare left shoulder pulses where my own wing once perched. If Father does come back, I’ll have to answer for this.
Ferus pushes onto his knees, clutching his chest, his back bleeding and oozing from the open sutures.
“See,” I sneer. “It’s not so hard to kneel for your queen.”
He snarls but says nothing.
“Are you okay, Your Majesty?” Attero hauls Nate onto the bridge, then runs over to me.
I keep my sword trained on Ferus. “I’m fine. But can you discard this trash? Lock him in the solitary dungeons. It will be punishment enough for him to have nothing but himself for company for the rest of eternity.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Attero bows before passing me to tend to Ferus.
I rush over to Nate and stand over him, my lips pressed together. He’s splayed on his back in the middle of the bridge, panting. He stares at me, his jaw hanging open.
“I have some questions for you,” I say, helping him to his feet. “The first being ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’”
“You executed the perfect front thrust kick. That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. And we’re standing in Hell.”
I hope the exertion from the fight hides my flush at the compliment.
“After you showed me those movies, I did some research on techniques. Even went to a couple of martial arts classes on the mornings you slept in—which was all of them, by the way. I figured one of us should know how to do kung fu properly.”
He wraps an arm around me, taking care to avoid my still-bleeding shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me you were doing that?”
I shrug. “’Cause you’d have wanted to come, and that would’ve been embarrassing for me.”
“Ah.” He cocks his head and thinks for a moment before nodding. “That’s fair.”
Attero leads a now cuffed Ferus past me and hands him off to waiting souldiers. He bows from the waist before me. “Your Majesty? I think it’s time. The throne is waiting for its rightful owner.”
“That’d be great and all.” I stare down the chasm of fire. “But Ferus threw my gem away.”
“I think I can help with that.” Nate holds out his pinky finger. On it is a dainty red ring, fashioned into a heart. I’d recognize the stone anywhere. It’s close to a ruby, but nothing on Earth burns as bright. You can almost see a flame flicker within it.
My breath catches in my throat. “Where did you get that?”
“Your mom.” Nate pries the ring off his finger and holds it out.
“Your father gave it to her before they broke up. She never knew what it could do until she saw yours, so it sat in a jewelry box for years. When I told her I couldn’t sit at home, she gave me her bow and told me to use the ring to get into Hell, then pass it on to you.
It belongs more on your finger than hers. ”
The ring blurs as tears flood my eyes. It’s better than the one Ferus pitched into the Ignis River.
This ring represents the love my parents shared, no matter how brief.
The love that brought me here and makes me who I am.
I take it from Nate’s palm and slide it onto my finger.
It’s a perfect fit. “I can’t believe she kept it. ”
“She told me it reminded her of you, so she couldn’t get rid of it.” Nate places his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t blame her.”
I turn around so I can slip my arms around his waist. “Thank you. I didn’t need your help, but I’m glad you’re here.”
“If you think about it, I saved the day with that ring.” He grins. “I’m kind of the hero of this story.”
I punch him lightly in the stomach. “Excuse me? Who had to break you out of Hell first so that you even got a story?”
“Fine.” He pulls me closer. “You can be the hero. It suits you more, anyway. I’m better at being the sidekick. You know, with kissing privileges.”
“Speaking of…” Leaning in, I give him a long kiss. His lips are soft, and I pull him closer, savoring the ocean smell drifting from his hair and the taste of the vanilla ice cream he’d had after dinner.
When we break apart, he sputters for a moment. “Well, that kiss was worth going to Hell and back for. Literally.”
I roll my eyes and poke his chest. “You’re such a dork.”
“But I’m your dork.”
Attero loudly clears his throat. I’d forgotten he was there, and I shoot him an apologetic glance. “Can we get on with it, Your Majesty? The sooner we get you on the throne, the sooner we can start cleaning this place up.”
I peer up at Nate, reluctance pressing into my shoulders. The more he comes back, the harder it is to let him go. I press my lips together. “I have to go to work now.”
The smile drops from his lips. “I know.”
Cocking my head, I shoot Atty a questioning look. He rolls his eyes, then nods. “But you can come if you want.”
Nate’s eyes light up. “Really?”
“For now.” I pat his chest. “But you can’t stay. I refuse to let you make my mother wonder what happened to you. And you’re going to college like we planned. You have an entire life ahead of you I fought very hard for you to keep.”
“Works for me.”
I flutter my wings and cry out as pain shoots through my back.
I glance over my shoulder, and my stomach sinks.
All that remains on one side where I once had a slew of gorgeous feathers is a bleeding stump.
I have no way of knowing if it will grow back.
Father’s never did. Nor did my mother’s.
But I’m both of them and neither of them, so I’ll have to wait and see.
“I can’t fly,” I whisper.
Nate takes my hand and nods at the chariot, still askew across the bridge. He winks at me. “Yes you can.”
I grin at him as we slide into the golden chariot, me in the driver’s seat. The controls are a lot like the boat we took to Nix, and it’s not long before we’re in the air above Hell, soaring over the places that took us all that time on foot.
His breath catches as we pass the lake that used to be the ice castle. “Is that—?”
Taking his hand, I swallow and nod. “Ferus landed there, and I threw a fireball at him. It’s my fault. I’m sorry, Nate.”
His fingers tighten in mine. “It’s just a place, Devica. We’ll make lots of memories in many other places.”
“Promise?”
“To top Hell as a date spot? I can certainly try.”
He looks at me, and his lips spread into that familiar grin that makes my chest patter. I laugh. “The next one better be great.”
“You got it.”
We’re at Dominus too soon, and my smile drops.
This is really it. Nothing in the way of the throne but myself.
And I’ve gotten in my own way enough to last me a lifetime.
After landing beside the throne room, Nate hops out of the vehicle and offers to help me down. My legs shake, but I nudge him away and step onto the granite floors of my home.
Nate winces as we enter the throne room and he takes in the blue blood on the stairs and floor. Luckily, Diripo’s body has already been moved by the souldiers. I clench my stomach. I’m not sure I could bring myself to look at it again.
Nate gives a low whistle. “You said you were ready to fight for your place, and you meant it. You’ve earned this.”
The gem blinks under the lights as I slide it off my finger and take a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
He plants a kiss on my cheek. “Go get ’em, Dev.”
I drag the elastic from my hair and shake the locks free around my shoulders before heading up the aisle.
Since my blood hasn’t quite dried on the stairs yet, I stoop to coat the ring with it before standing beside the throne.
It only takes me a moment of inspecting the chair to find the small, empty, heart-shaped spot on the underside of the armrest. My mother’s ring slides in effortlessly. I stand back, unsure what will happen.
The throne hums and buzzes.
A light breaks from the center.
When it dissipates, the chair’s shrunk to my size.
It glitters the same colors as the ring when it had been coated in my blood.
The colors that make up who I am. Blue as the deepest seas that curve against the sand, red as a river of blood pulsing from a heart that beats for another, golden like the halo my mother once wore and gave up so I could live.
I face Nate, who nods before folding into a low bow. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes, and everything that’s brought me here washes over me like the ocean I’ve come to love instead of fear.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever see my father again, but I know I’ll see my mom soon.
And Nate, since he’s too stubborn to stay away too long. They’ll keep me humble and remind me of the person I want to be. They’ll be my salvation from all this damnation.
In the meantime, there’s work to be done and a broken system to repair. And I’m the being to fix it. I know that now.
I open my eyes, release my breath, and lower myself onto my throne.