Chapter 4 Discord
DISCORD
Cinder inched closer to me, her body tense as she slipped her palm into mine.
I squeezed her hand, hoping to send the silent message that if she planned to use our newfound truth magic on Lucifer, she would be sorely disappointed.
It had taken every ounce of vim I could muster to heal her broken ribs from such a distance.
Power rippled in Lucifer’s aura, punctuated with spikes of disdain and rage. The fine hairs on my arms and neck stood on end, reacting to his fury, and my muscles coiled, ready to defend the woman I loved at all costs.
Even if it meant obliterating the King of Hell.
Cinder cleared her throat. “We—”
“Silence.” Lucifer’s pupils thinned into slits, his malevolent gaze severing her words before the rest could cross her lips.
She flinched and tightened her grip on my hand, her body stiffening even more.
The king slid his gaze to me. “You fought by my side for millennia. For that, I will entertain whatever last words you wish to speak.”
I swallowed the sand-like sensation in my mouth and pried my cracked lips apart. “We found the goddess. Ruin and Seraphine had bound her in chains beneath the garden. We set her free.”
“You…” He faltered, his eye twitching, a dozen different emotions contorting his features before he recovered and lifted his chin. “I’ve had enough of your lies.”
Lucifer raised a hand, ready to strike us down, when the entire arena rumbled.
The ground beneath our feet heaved, a violent, sickening lurch that sent tremors up my legs and rattled the very fibers of Hell.
Dust rained from the walls, coating the obsidian floor in a fine gray mist. A massive fissure spiderwebbed up the side of the arena, splitting the throne platform down the center.
I pulled Cinder into my chest, shielding her from the falling debris. The air grew thin, charged with a static electricity that tasted of ozone and despair. I knew this feeling. It was not merely an earthquake; it was the scream of a dying reality.
The veil between the realms was not just thinning…it was shredding.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the shaking ceased. The silence that followed was heavier than the stone surrounding us, broken only by the settling of dust and the ragged sound of Cinder’s breathing against my shirt.
Lucifer lowered his hand, his gaze darting to the cracks in his arena. Uncertainty flickered in his eyes for the briefest of moments before his mask of rage slammed back into place. “Do you think to frighten me with parlor tricks? You cannot break this realm.”
“It isn’t us,” Cinder said, her voice trembling but gaining strength as she pulled away from my chest to face him. “And it isn’t a trick. The veil is collapsing because the balance is gone. We aren’t lying to you, Lucifer. We found the goddess, and she needs our help.”
He sneered, stepping over a fissure in the floor. “You found nothing but your own demise.”
“We freed Hecate,” Cinder shouted, the desperation in her tone echoing off the walls. “Ruin used chains forged with your dark magic to bind her, draining her power to fuel his tulpas. She wasn’t hiding from you. Not recently, anyway. She was a prisoner beneath your own garden.”
Lucifer stopped, his expression turning to stone. “Ruin was a worm. He did not possess the power to bind a goddess.”
“He possessed more power than he led people to believe.” I stepped forward, placing myself between the king and my witch. “He and the rest of your makeshift court trapped her, ensuring she would never return to your side. They planned to overthrow you.”
“Lies,” Lucifer hissed, though the fire in his eyes had dimmed to a smoldering coal. “They would not dare.”
“Oh, they dared, alright.” Cinder crossed her arms.
“Hecate abandoned me!” Lucifer roared, the sound loosening more dust from the walls. “She left me to rot in this kingdom of ash while she played with mortals! Do not speak her name to me again, or I will—”
A shimmer of silver light cut through the gloom of the arena, brighter than any hellfire, as pure and cold as starlight. The air shifted, the scent of night-blooming jasmine replacing the sulfurous stench of the Underworld, and Lucifer froze, his breath hitching in his chest.
From the shadows of the arena entrance, a figure emerged, gliding toward us, her feet barely brushing against the broken stone floor.
Her long silver hair flowed around her like a living cloak, and her skin glowed with a luminescence that made my eyes ache.
She looked weary, her divine form flickering slightly at the edges, but her presence was undeniable.
Hecate.
“I did not abandon you, Lucifer,” she said, her voice a melody that soothed the savage vibration of the realm.
Lucifer turned slowly, his movements rigid, as if he were afraid to break the illusion. When his gaze landed on her, the rage that had defined him for centuries evaporated, leaving behind a raw, gaping vulnerability that I had never witnessed in my king.
“Hecate?” he whispered, the name broken on his lips.
“I am here.” She stopped a few feet from him, reaching out a hand that trembled slightly.
Lucifer stared at her, his chest heaving.
He looked at her hand, then her eyes, moisture gathering in his own.
He took a stumbling step forward, then another, until he was close enough to touch her.
Reaching out, his fingers hovered over her cheek as if testing to see if she was real.
When his skin met hers, a shudder racked his body.
“You…you were gone,” he choked out, the King of Hell, Ruler of the Underworld, reduced to nothing more than a man reunited with his beating heart. “I thought you had forsaken me.”
“Never,” Hecate said softly, leaning into his touch. “I was angry, yes. Your hubris led you to wager our love on a dog fight.”
He shook his head. “Not our love. Never that.”
“The amulet is a symbol of our love. It holds our most sacred powers.” She stepped back, her eyes narrowing, her silver hair flowing in an imaginary wind. “How did you think I would react when you carelessly gave it away?”
Lucifer closed his eyes, a single tear tracking through the soot on his face. “I’m sorry.”
She reached for him, and he pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her neck, holding her with a desperation that mirrored the way I held Cinder.
The King of Hell had gotten his world back, but the ground rumbled again, a sharp, cracking sound that tore through their tender moment. A piece of the arena wall fell, shattering near the entrance.
Hecate pulled back, her expression grave. “We do not have time for reunions, Lucifer. The veil is shredding. The realms are bleeding into one another.”
Lucifer kept his hands on her arms, his gaze intense. “I will fix it. I will destroy anything that threatens you.”
“You cannot fix this alone.” She turned her silver eyes toward me. “And neither can I. My power is depleted, and yours is unbalanced. To mend the veil and save our worlds, we need the amulet.”
Lucifer stiffened. “The amulet is lost.”
“It’s not lost.” Cinder stepped forward. “It’s on Earth, and my sisters are searching for it. They’ll summon Discord as soon as they find it, and he’ll return it to you.”
Hecate stroked Lucifer’s cheek with the backs of her fingers. “You must release them, my love.”
Lucifer’s gaze flicked to me, his old hatred flaring for a second before Hecate squeezed his arms.
“Cinder and her sisters are the key,” she said. “They are the only ones who can find the amulet and mend the veil.”
“Perhaps.” Lucifer lifted his chin, looking down his nose at me. “But Discord betrayed us. He’s the reason the amulet is in the earthly realm.”
“The amulet you never should have given him,” Cinder said. “Sheesh. At least take a little responsibility for all this.”
I gave Cinder a sharp look, and she shrugged.
“He did betray us,” Hecate said. “I was livid when they freed me, ready to strike them both down, but Cinder is right. You are as much to blame as he is. Let them go. Let them save our worlds.”
Lucifer looked at me, then at Cinder. He took a deep breath, straightening his spine and regaining some of his regal composure, though his hand never left Hecate’s.
“Go,” he commanded, his voice rough. “The bounty on your heads is revoked. Find the amulet. Mend the veil. But know this, Discord. If you fail, if you let this world fall, there will be no realm left for you to hide in.”
“We will not fail.” I bowed my head to hide the uncertainty in my eyes.
The fate of the realms now lay in the sisters’ hands.