Chapter 3 #2
Saer hissed through gritted teeth. If Lucifer spoke the words to shame him, it only provoked the sin he’d been molded from instead.
With each wound healed, more of Saer’s blood spilt, and Lucifer didn’t waste any opportunity to pool the crimson fluid in Its cupped hands and drink. With each gulp, a glimmer of Lucifer’s luminescence resurged.
It was the last observation Saer had before consciousness fled.
The lights and darkness of Hell painted the backs of his eyelids differently from the surface. Flickering, rather than rising and falling. Flames, rather than…sun.
He’d not seen the sun past the overcast sky, but knew it lingered somewhere beyond.
What more hadn’t he seen?
Something gentle caressed his cheek, pulling him to full consciousness. Saer squinted his eyes open to find Neyu lying across from him, running graceful fingers along the lines of his face.
The tightness within his body loosened, a long breath leaving as he absorbed her touch.
Bliss.
Fire surrounded them on all sides, feeding him, closing the last of his wounds. He couldn’t see what chamber they rested in—couldn’t see anything beyond her, highlighted by the resplendent, flickering blazes of Hell…
…Lucifer hadn’t allowed them to be alone, together, for any length of time. The sudden and intrusive thought sped his heart.
Hellsfire, she was beautiful. So beautiful, it pained him to move away from her touch. Neyu stopped him with a hand on his jaw. “The quicker you’re up, the sooner we’re separated again.”
He stilled and met her gaze.
“Father sent Arek to the surface to gather more information after you returned.” Neyu’s displeasure sliced through her tone.
Father?
Saer’d never thought of the fallen angel as such. What changed? Was something ingrained in the others that hadn’t imprinted in him? Or did Lucifer ask for the title?
What’s more, Saer’s brow quirked as his tired mind fought to understand the rest of her revelation. Lucifer sent one of the Twins to the surface? Protective apprehension flushed through him.
“Is Arek—?” His voice scratched with disuse.
“He’s back. He’s fine. Without him, Alus was—” Neyu gave a short shake of her head, her gaze trailing down. “They were created together. I think it was a test, separating them.” She allowed the sentiment to trail off while a pensive frown took up the majority of her face.
A test or a punishment? Saer knew the methodology well. He also knew better than to question their maker.
The impulse to touch Neyu’s face and smooth the displeased lines there sputtered as she went on, “Arek didn’t let them see him, but he brought back more information for Father. He called them humans.”
Humans. Did Arek feel the same pull he had, that they might house the cure for their maker? He needed to talk to him—
Neyu’s tone warmed, her nails gliding along his mandible. “I didn’t know when I’d get you back.” Her infinite eyes would be the end of him—and he still didn’t know why.
If Lucifer separated the Twins as a test, It would certainly disapprove of Neyu’s proximity to him at that moment. Displeasure meant punishment.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Saer’s voice came rough with sleep.
Something defiant sparked in her gaze. “Father’s improved after ingesting some of your essence, but he hasn’t left the central chamber. He finishes another. A Fifth.”
Father. He. The words still struck as odd to him, though Saer couldn’t explain why, especially not when Neyu met his stare with both challenge and yearning.
She and her eyes would definitely be the end of him.
Saer lifted a hand to curl it on the back of hers. “Let’s not risk displeasing our maker further than I already have.” He squeezed Neyu’s palm and lowered it from his face.
The gleam from Neyu’s expression muted, and Pride almost took the words back. She nodded and rolled away to sit before he could.
“I’ll let him know you’re awake.” The demoness stood, all warmth from before gone, and made her way to the archway of the chamber they resided within. It must have been one of the alcoves gutted by the Twins, though he had no way of discerning which it was.
Neyu stopped at the doorway and addressed him over her shoulder. “You are Pride, but don’t let pride overtake you in everything you do.”
The First parted his lips to ask what she meant.
Neyu was already gone.
Saer exited the chamber he’d woken in, testing his joints and craning his neck as he looked around the labyrinthine hallways dotted with pools of Hellsfire. Rooms upon rooms off corridors upon corridors with no discernible purpose leered back at him.
Deep voices echoed from one direction, and his stiff legs limped their way.
Cracks of tumbling boulders resonated louder the further Saer went—until he rounded a corner and spotted the Twins carving out their latest passageway.
Though identical, Alus carried himself with lightness, a carefree aura which reflected in his ever-present, bestial grin.
Arek’s shoulders never loosened, his expression severe in a way Saer appreciated and related to.
Even if Alus’s smile made it difficult not to smile in return.
The Twins hushed when Saer’s hooves crunched behind them, spinning to take him in. Each clutched clawfuls of stones.
Saer stopped dead. Silence pressed in on all sides.
Arek stared, but Alus unleashed a celebratory whoop and dropped the boulders he held. “He’s awake!”
Closing the distance between their bodies, Alus snatched Saer’s clawed hand in his, and pulled him in for an embrace unlike anything Saer had ever experienced. “It’s good to finally meet you, Brother.”
Dizzied, Saer caught the other twin’s gaze. Arek’s mouth held in a grim line, but he didn’t stop them.
Neither pushing away nor returning the hug—for that’s what it was, wasn’t it?—Saer struggled to find words. “Can our maker hear—”
“We’re far from the central chamber. We can speak freely here.
” Arek answered this time, his hard-nosed tone everything Alus’s wasn’t, even if they wielded the same voice.
It sounded as though the Twins had already discussed this.
Were they separated before for speaking their minds?
Saer certainly had myriad thoughts he would never voice aloud to Lucifer.
Before Saer could ask, Arek continued, “Father’s too busy finishing the next in line. ”
Father, again. When had they begun referring to their maker as Father? Should he do the same?
Saer swallowed, and Alus finally released him, slapping his shoulder. “He’ll be glad to see you up and about.”
He couldn’t control the wry huff that escaped, though it did earn him a curious, narrowed glance from Arek.
Something about it rankled him. “Say what you will, Areknar.”
Arek made a show of tipping his head this way and that, like he weighed the wisdom in doing so.
A bark of impatience sat at the edge of Saer’s throat when Alus jabbed his twin in the gut. “You’re his favorite.”
“What?”
Arek glared at Alus, but Alus rewarded Saer with a subtle twist of his lips.
“He frets over you, compares the rest of us to you, and commanded us to look in on your recovery when he couldn’t make it down the corridors.
” Alus spoke without any tinge of jealousy, but simple statement of fact, punctuated by the glinting happiness in his silver eyes. “You’re First.”
“And favored,” Arek said, repeating Alus’s earlier observation, but with a drier inflection.
Saer frowned, unsure of how to answer. The words didn’t surprise him, though he wondered at the implications.
He should be glad, shouldn’t he?
Why was only half of him glad, the other half strangely cautious?
Arek pointed with his chin at the corridor entrance where Saer came from. “You shouldn’t keep him waiting.”
As warm as Alus was, Arek kept to business. Saer paused, then lifted his chin. “You went to the surface, Areknar.”
Greed’s lavender eyes tightened at the corners. “I did. Observation only. After my report, he dismissed me to continue our work until you woke.”
“What did you see?” Saer allowed some of his urgency to lace through the question.
Arek tapped his claws on the boulders he still held. “Men. Women. Children.”
“Children?”
“Boys and girls. They grow into men and women, but all start as helpless, pink things.”
Saer blinked and Arek’s lip corner pulled at one edge. “You’ll see.”
He wanted to ask more questions, but one rose above the rest. “Did you sense the cure in them? The humans?”
A flash of clever consideration passed through Arek’s gaze. “I didn’t get close enough. But something…” He ticked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “There’s something under the surface.”
So, Arek had sensed it as well.
When Saer asked nothing more, Arek inclined his head in acknowledgment and turned away.
His encounter with the Twins kept Saer’s mind off the dissipating ache in the rest of his muscles as he ambled towards—he hoped—the central chambers. True to Arek’s earlier statement, after he’d turned enough corners, all sounds of their ongoing banter disappeared.
The corridors widened after another stretch, and the familiar echo of Lucifer’s enraptured voice found his ears.
The sound both drew and chilled him, and Saer’s gait stuttered as he crossed the threshold into the familiar arena where he’d been made.
Neyu worked across the room, and while she offered him a sideways glimpse, she didn’t give him any other indication she’d noticed him.
The disregard panged low in his stomach.
As though sensing his presence, Lucifer stopped Its work long enough to offer Saer a sharp glance, neither pleased nor displeased. Some embedded instinct demanded he throw himself at the fallen angel’s feet, the need for approval distressing—and at war with innate pride.
The more time Saer spent away from Lucifer, the stronger the kaleidoscope of confounding impulses highlighted when he stood in Its presence.
Which side of his mind did he listen to?