Chapter 26 #2
Nothing made sense. I was confused and angry. She was giving me the distance I’d demanded. Still, I didn’t fucking like it. I wanted her to look at me. I thought I might actually needed it, as if her eyes on me had become some vital part of my survival.
Look at me. Turn around and look at me.
She didn’t, of course, she couldn’t read my mind. Thank fuck.
I forced myself to look away from her. Being mated meant nothing, not for us. She wasn’t truly mine.
And she never would be.
Roxy
We made it through Limbo without issue. Shame.
I’d been hoping Death would appear, grab Seraphina by the throat and squeeze until her head popped clean off.
Sadly, she was just as powerful as she boasted, and yes, far more powerful than she had been before her incarceration, which honestly didn’t make sense to me. If anything, she should be weaker.
We reached the end of Limbo’s skull path, and I cut my hand and opened the gateway that would take us to Roxburgh. I glanced back, my hopeful little heart still wanting Death to come barreling around the bend—Sera shoved me—but he obviously wasn’t coming.
“Let me out of this fucking cage,” Beelzebub barked as soon as we walked through to Oldwood Forrest and the gate shut behind us.
Sera nodded at Lothar, and he immediately did as she bid.
His eyes were glowing red, but it wasn’t the beast looking out of them, no, it was all Lothar, something Sera was too blind to see, and thank fuck for that.
“What now?” I asked, then motioned to Beelzebub, the giant, red asshole beside her. “We can’t very well walk into the city with him looking like that, and the moment he sets foot in Hell, Lucifer will be all over him.”
Sera kind of froze.
She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
The panic in her eyes made me happy, even if it was only short-lived.
Lothar turned to us, baring his fangs and rolling his shoulders. To anyone looking, it seemed like he was struggling with his control. He was faking it. I’d been up close and personal with the beast, and that wasn’t him.
“I know someone who’ll help us,” he said.
“Who? How?” Sera snapped out.
“Lucifer’s grandson.”
Holy shit. He had a plan.
Beelzebub growled. “His much beloved grandson? You’re fucking full of it, hound. Don’t fall for his tricks,” he said to Sera.
“How much time have you spent with Zenon?” Lothar growled at Beelzebub.
The big demon scowled. “I may not have spent time with him, but I know—”
“You don’t know shit. Zenon hates Lucifer. He blames him for his father’s downfall. He plays nice, but if he had a chance to make him pay for what he did to Diemos, he’d take it.”
Every word Lothar had just said was a complete lie.
Zenon had nothing but contempt for his father, a male who had descended so far into darkness, he was now locked up in Hell with no chance of ever getting out after the horrific shit he’d done.
Zenon and Lucifer were tight, it had taken time, yes, but they were family.
“Bullshit,” Beelzebub said.
Lothar’s red gaze sliced to me. “Tell them.”
“What the hell are you doing?” I fired at him, playing my part. Whatever Lothar had planned, I trusted him, but they’d never believe I’d betray Luci willingly.
“I don’t owe Lucifer shit after what he did to me,” Lothar snarled. “Sera can fucking have that asshole’s throne. I’m done with him.”
“Tell me what you know,” Sera fired at me.
Lothar’s red eyes bored into me. He knew as well as I did, I’d have to get them to force me to speak. Torture hadn’t worked, but a threat to Lothar, my mate, could. My stomach churned. I had to get them to hurt him to make this believable. “Fuck off,” I bit out. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Right on cue, Sera gave Lothar what he wanted. Fisting her hand, she aimed it at him. He gasped, dropping to his knees, clawing at his throat, and blood instantly slid down his chest.
“Stop!” I yelled, and I didn’t have to pretend to be distressed. Seeing him like that was killing me. “Leave him alone.”
“Talk or he loses his head.”
I dropped to the ground beside him. I also knew firsthand how much pain he was in. “Fine!” I yelled at her.
“And, Roxy, you will tell me how to take Lucifer’s throne,” she said, now that she knew my weakness. “Or he’s dead.”
“Whatever you want. Just stop hurting him.”
Sera released Lothar and he fell to the ground, gasping for air. I pulled this head into my lap, holding his red gaze, and instantly got pulled deeper. I brushed his hair back, my hand shaking uncontrollably. “Are you okay?”
He swallowed thickly, then hardened his eyes and nodded.
“Talk!” Sera yelled.
“It’s the truth, okay,” I fired at her. “Zenon hates Luci…he was a knight of Hell before he knew of their connection.”
Seraphina stilled. “I’m listening.”
The knights were half demon, half angel, created long ago to control the first demons who escaped Hell and invaded Earth.
“My granddaughters, they’re both mated to knights, they live in the same compound as Zenon, and they…
they told me the truth. Zenon has never stopped hating Lucifer.
I just never had the heart to tell Luci.
” I let tears slide down my face, piling it on thick, though the tears came easily, like they’d been waiting for me to give in and let them fall for days.
“The knights despise demons, obviously, add in Lucifer’s, at times, careless attitude and self-serving decisions, well, it only managed to push them farther away.
Zenon formed a close relationship with the angel Silas and his brothers eventually did the same.
They chose where their allegiance lies. Lucifer just doesn’t want to see it. ”
“Silas lost his wings,” Sera said. “That angel certainly doesn’t align them with Heaven.”
“Exactly, it doesn’t, because they want no part of Heaven or Hell.
They came together due to their mutual distain of Lucifer, and to add insult, Silas lost his wings because of him,” I said, piling on the lies.
“Silas was in love with Ursula, one of my sisters, but she was only using him for information. Heaven found out he was consorting with the enemy, and he paid the price.” Half-truths worked best. Silas had most definitely been in love with Urs, but Lucifer had no part in their short-lived relationship.
And with Sera being on the outs with Heaven, there should be no way for her to confirm my story.
“Roxy’s going to tell me how to overthrow Lucifer, what do I need with his grandson?”
“I can tell you Lucifer’s weakness, but you’ll need more than that, you’ll need an army. He’s strongest in Hell. If you truly want to take his throne, you’ll need to get him aboveground, and this is the only way to do it.”
“What do you think?” she asked Beelzebub.
His cold gaze slid over me, then Lothar.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “If they’re telling the truth, we could have some powerful allies.
The knights have always wanted Hell and its demons under tighter control.
If you can reassure them that’s what you want, too, as well as taking down Lucifer, it could work.
But if Roxy’s lying? If Zenon is Lucifer’s devoted grandson”—his nostrils flared—“we’re dead. ”
“Roxana’s right, we’ll need an army,” Sera said. “We have demons willing to fight with us, but if we had the knights and the hounds as well? We’d have an excellent chance. Will your brothers join you, Lothar?”
His nostrils flared. “When I tell them what Lucifer did to me, yes. I know they will. We’re pack.
If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us,” he growled out.
“And just so you know, Sera, that includes you as well. Best you think about that the next time you threaten to take my fucking head.”
My stomach knotted. The hounds were all going to hate me as much as Lothar did once this was over. Relic would despise me for what I’d done to his sire. My heart broke a little more, and I quickly shoved down the pain. I couldn’t think about that now.
Sera’s gaze sharpened. “You suddenly seem a lot more in control, Lothar.”
He bared his fangs, his eyes still glowing red. “I can control myself just fine…now.” He thumped his chest.
“And who am I talking to? Lothar or his beast?” Sera asked, eyeing him shrewdly.
“Both,” he said. “We are in full accord when it comes to Lucifer.”
I grabbed his arm, doing what I had to, playing the part of wounded mate and loyal warrior to Lucifer. “Please, don’t do this.”
He jerked his away. “You don’t touch me unless I tell you to. The mating bond is what’s keeping you alive, and that’s the only thing, understand?” he snarled.
He was walking a fine line. He had to convince Sera that his drive for revenge outweighed his connection to me, despite his instinct to protect me, and in that moment, I didn’t know if he was acting anymore.
Sera’s gaze slid between us, her eyes sparkling with sadistic pleasure. She liked what she saw. “Why doesn’t Zenon take Hell for himself? Make it all he wants, control the demons from the inside?” Sera asked.
“Because the last time Zenon tried to enter Hell, it almost killed him. I saw it myself.” That was the truth. He had been as close to death as an immortal could get without decapitation.
She advanced on me. “Show me,” she demanded, then placed her hand on my head, her nails scraping my scalp.
I’d been locking her out all this time, and the idea of letting her into my head in any way made my skin crawl, but showing her this memory could be the only way to get her to go along with this.
I called the memory forward, showing her Zenon entering Hell, the panic from his brothers, the horror, then finally, him being tossed back out a while later, lifeless and on the verge of death. Sera tried to prod for more, but I slammed the doors on her, shutting her out.
She studied me for several moments. “I think it’s worth meeting with this Zenon and testing the waters,” Sera said to Beelzebub, then tossed me my phone.
“Set up the meeting, but do not tell him what it’s about.
And he must come alone. I want to see with my own eyes how he reacts to what I have to say. ”
“Where?” I said.
“I’ll sort it,” Beelzebub said. “Tell him you’ll get back to him with a location.”
I nodded and opened my family text chain with Eve and Kyler and quickly typed out a message.
Then handed it back. Sera looked down at it. “A surprise party for Lucifer?”
“Zenon hates him, but he plays the devoted grandson well. This way no one will be suspicious of me asking him to contact me directly.”
When my girls read that, they’d be instantly suspicious, which was what I was banking on.
Now all we had to do was wait.