Epilogue
It takes months to clean up Ferus’s mess.
I barely sleep as I split my time between correcting judgments and visiting L.A.
Nate’s doing well as a film major in college, according to my mom, who also insists on handing me textbooks from her school I’ll never read. Down here, I use them for kindling when I’m out rebuilding Father’s ice castle.
I’ve finished my last judgment of the day and am ready to go back to my quarters to enjoy a bloodwine and another Sherlock Holmes book my mother gifted me when Attero barges in.
“Sorry, Devica,” he says, almost stooping to a bow before seeing my raised eyebrows and straightening himself. “I know it’s end of day, but you have one last visitor, and he seems kind of frantic. He almost crashed one of your chariots getting here.”
I stand and stretch my wings behind me. Well, one wing and one stump with a handful of feathers that only started growing recently. “Atty, I’m really tired. Can’t this reckless driver wait till tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Fine. Show him in. But this better be quick.” I slouch in my chair, already calculating how many pages I’m missing out on reading now.
I straighten when Nate charges into the room.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, glancing at the newly empty gem slot in my chair and the scar on my hand from slicing it open to coat the ruby in blood. “I told you that ring is only for emergencies. Don’t make me regret giving it to you.”
He runs up the aisle, panting. “This is an emergency, Dev. It’s… It’s not good.”
I stand and make my way down the stairs before taking his hands in mine. My heart thumps as I take in the worried look on his face. Nate’s not a worried-face kind of guy. “What happened?”
“It’s your mom.” His eyes are darker than usual, whirlpools of trouble in the ocean. His body visibly trembles, and his hands are damp in mine.
I take in a shaky breath. “Is she okay?”
“No.” He swallows, and his entire body visibly shakes. “She’s gone.”
The room spins around me, and my knees buckle. I sink into one of the chairs, and he drops beside me. My voice sounds like it comes from someone far away. “Gone? Nate, tell me everything.”
“I was sleeping, and I heard a noise. Like a banging in the hall. Then I heard your mom scream. I ran to her room and saw a man standing over her bed. He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see what he looked like.
I only know he was tall and big. And dressed all in black.
Then he spoke and his voice… Devica, it felt like my veins froze when I heard him. Suddenly, I couldn’t even move.”
My entire body goes numb as I realize who he’s talking about. There’s only one person I know who can do that to humans. “Father.”
Nate nods. “I tried to move, tried to help her. I swear. But it was like fear bolted my feet to the floor.”
“It’s one of the ways he exerts his power,” I whisper. Blood pounds against my ears, loud enough that it blocks out my own voice. “So people will listen. It’s probably why my mom didn’t run, either.” I lick my dry lips. “Then what happened?”
“Sata—your dad—said something about going home. About how she would be his key into Paris, or something like that. Then he picked her up and jumped out the window. I couldn’t stop him.”
He takes a breath. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe the devil has a hankering for a croissant and he wants your mom to come? You know? Get the romance back?”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Wait. Paris?” I furrow my brow before my stomach drops, all thoughts of baths and bloodwine seeping out of me. “Nate, did he maybe say ‘Paradise’?”
Nate looks at the floor. “Maybe. That would make more sense than my croissant theory. What do you think that means?”
The blood retreats to my feet, and my fingers turn to ice.
I jump out of the chair and pace the front of the room, my thoughts racing.
Father’s had one goal for as long as I’ve known him.
For as long as he’s ruled this place. But it seemed not only improbable, it was absolutely impossible.
A suicide mission for anyone—anyone except a demon who has nothing left to lose.
I knew I heard him scream when his wings hit the fire. It wasn’t my imagination. He felt it. He knew he’d lost them for good.
“Devica?” Nate peers up at me. “You’re paler than usual. What’s going on?”
“I can’t believe he’s going to do it,” I whisper. “But he is. Father’s going to use my mom to break back into Paradise. He’s always been pissed about them kicking him out, but he swore he’d go back someday. And he needs an angel to help him get there.”’
Nate furrows his brows. “But your mom’s not an angel anymore, right? She lost her wings.”
“She did.” I wrap my arms around myself, piecing together what few stories of her first home my mother told me. “But she’d still have angel blood, which might get her in undetected. And she’d know her way around.”
“Damn.” Nate leans back in his chair. “I swear I tried to stop him, Dev. It was a good half hour before I could move again. I grabbed the emergency ring and came right here.”
I kneel in front of him and take his hand. His fingers are ice-cold and as pale as my own. “You did the right thing,” I say. “You were trapped under Father’s power. It’s not your fault. But we can’t leave her with him. We have to help her.”
He stands and pulls me up with him, searching my face. “Okay, but how?”
I glance around the throne room. I’ve finally settled enough here for it to feel like home. Leave it to my father to rip that from me as well.
“I’m going after him.”
I call out for Attero, who’s waiting outside the door, as usual.
“Yes, Devica?” Atty asks.
I release Nate and rub my hands together to try to get some warmth back in them. Now’s not the time to let my body become paralyzed with fear. “I need you to take over for me a bit. I have somewhere I have to go.”
“Of course.” He bows, then sees the look on my face and frowns. “Is everything okay, Dev?”
“Not really.” I march up to my throne and grab the sword propped beside it. “Apparently, my father thought it would be a good idea to kidnap my mom and try to get back into Paradise. Can’t my family be normal for once?”
“What?” Attero’s face pales. “He can’t do that.”
“I know.” I jam my sword into the sheath at my side. “That’s why I’m going to stop him.”
Atty runs up the stairs and takes my hand. “No, Dev, you don’t get it. This isn’t just about your mom. Demons… We can’t be in heaven. If your dad tries to get back there, the entire universe is going to crumble.”
“What does that mean?”
“All of this.” Atty gestures to the room. “Us, Earth, Paradise… It all collapses. The devil can’t be in Paradise. The universe won’t like it.”
As if on cue, a crack peals through the throne room, and one of the glass walls implodes, sending shards of glass sailing toward us.
I jump in front of Nate and Atty and wince as the glass embeds itself into my skin. Shaking the rest of it from my hair, I examine my companions for cuts, but they’re unharmed.
“I can’t wait,” I say. “I have to go now.”
“Devica.” Nate grips my wrist. “Whatever your plan is, I’m coming with you—and I won’t take no for an answer. Your mom’s the first real mom I’ve had since I lost my own, and it’s killing me I couldn’t stop him from taking her.”
I consider his offer. Nate’s become a decent fighter since he joined the karate school I sometimes trained at. And I certainly wouldn’t mind the company.
“Fine.” I grab another sword from behind my chair and hold it out to him. “But this isn’t going to be easy. You thought breaking out of Hell was hard. And it wasn’t falling apart while we did it.”
His jaw tenses as he takes the weapon from me. “What is it we’re doing, exactly?”
I shrug and plant my hands on my hips. “We’re going to New Jersey.”
“What? What could you possibly want with the Garden State?”
Grabbing the new cape my mom sewed for me from the back of the throne, I swing it over my shoulders and knot it at my neck. “Remember when you asked me where the entrance to Paradise is?”
“Yes, and you said New Jersey and—” He freezes, his eyes wide. “Oh, you mean we’re going to…?”
I grip the hilt of my sword and nod. “Yes, Nate. We’re going to break into Heaven.”