Chapter 24
I’d been to Hell once already, but this endless meadow glistening with dew was not it.
“Where am I?” I asked the emptiness.
No response, not even the familiar hum of my mate-bond I’d grown so accustomed to.
My heart clenched when I realized I couldn’t feel any of my mates.
Had I actually died?
A silhouette broke the fog in the distance as massive bat-like wings spread in the darkness.
Cole approached me, naked and in his full glory as Hellfire ran delicate blue flames over his body. His muscular core flexed as he took deliberate steps, approaching me with such authority and confidence that I couldn’t do anything except watch him, mesmerized.
“I’m sorry,” he said, surprising me with a delicate touch across my jaw. His tail closed around my ankle, securing me as if he was afraid I might run. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
An apology from a rage demon?
Not sure what to make of him, I gave in to the urge to mimic his motions as I ran my fingers over the hard line of his jaw. Everything about him was otherworldly perfection. “Why did you kill Lancelot?” The ancient knight had briefly taken Merlin’s form, only to be so rudely decapitated.
Then… the Dean has done something to me, but I couldn’t quite remember it.
Cole frowned, lines marring his otherwise perfect face. “She pissed me off, so I killed the only thing she cared about.”
A simple explanation. Cole only knew anger and every decision was easy when driven by rage.
Confusion tormented him now, evident in his red gaze as he contemplated my face. His fingers continued to explore me, running over my cheek and across my lower lip. “I regret it, I think.”
“Can demons regret?” I asked.
“No,” he said flatly as his fingers trailed lower, caressing my collarbone before he closed his grip around my arm. “And yet, I do.”
“What do you regret? Did you know Lancelot?”
His gaze ran over me as if he wanted to memorize every curve. “I knew him, but I regret my actions causing your death.”
I went rigid.
“So I am dead,” I confirmed. My hands explored his body of their own accord as I tried to process the impossible information. His hard muscles flexed under my touch, especially when I moved lower…
I don’t feel dead.
“How did you bring me here, little angel?” he asked as his wings closed in around us. “Demons aren’t supposed to be allowed in Purgatory.”
“Just like demons aren’t supposed to regret,” I echoed as realization came over me. The Dean had killed me… ripped out my heart and now…
I was here.
But where is here?
I glanced around at the endless sky that rolled with red clouds. It reminded me of Hell, but it didn’t feel so eerie. Instead I found it peaceful, like I could stay here forever and be safe.
Except, my other Virtues were still out there.
My eyes opened wide when I remembered the urgency best forgotten when tossed into Purgatory. “She’s going to kill them all!”
Cole shushed me, wrapping his arms around me as he pulled me in close to his hard body. He felt so warm and all I wanted to do was to rest my cheek against him and close my eyes. “You opened up the gates of Hell before you died, little angel. I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Yeah, because Hell is such a picnic in the park.”
He chuckled as he ran his fingers through my hair. “We could go find them, if you like.”
The memory of Cole attacking us filtered into my broken mind, followed by the deal he’d made with Dante and the madness in his eyes when he’d lost his shit in the Arena. I pulled away from him, shaking my head against the compulsion driving me to trust him. “What’s in it for you?”
He chuckled. “Oh, you are strong, aren’t you, little angel?”
Why does he keep calling me that?
He released me, although it seemed reluctant as he backed away.
His tail was the last thing to let me go as he spread his wings and began to glow.
“Purgatory is a wonderful place for someone like me. There are so many lost, suffering souls here who are filled with rage.” He glanced up at the sky.
“I can hear them beyond this little safe bubble you’ve created.
The power is incredible.” He spread his wings and threw his head back, drinking in the red haze that I hadn’t noticed a moment before. “Fuck, it’s amazing.”
My stomach dropped as I realized that I’d royally screwed this up.
Yes, maybe the Dean was in Hell but had Dante managed to use the Angelstone on her?
I doubted it. And then I’d gone and gotten myself killed, but not before opening up the gates of Hell at my feet that drew all of my Virtues in, as well as an entire Blood Coven under Gwen’s rule.
Now I’d taken a demon of rage with me into Purgatory, the perfect place for him to gorge on the energy that made him a demon.
Except, he wasn’t just any demon.
He was my demon. I just had to learn how to tap into the connection that made him my Virtue.
I walked in a slow circle around him, testing the invisible strands between us.
Yes, it was there. I couldn’t feel any of my other Virtues here, which was precisely why I’d brought him with me.
If he’d gone to Hell with them, he’d have lost control.
But here, I could give him one last shot.
There was a reason I’d chosen him as my Virtue and all I had to do was figure it out.
I didn’t have to hold back or worry about hurting anyone—even myself. I was already dead.
“Do you like being a demon?” I asked.
He grinned as he soaked up the suffering all around us.
I felt it now that I knew what to look for.
He was right. Countless souls drifted on this endless plane.
Supernaturals who sought refuge and recently fallen angels.
I remembered when Silvia had brought me here under Edwin’s request, one of Renee’s mates.
Because of that, I’d already attuned to this plane and was able to seek refuge for myself when I needed it. The Fate Witch had seen it coming.
“I am what I am,” Cole responded, flexing his fingers as his talons extended.
He soaked in power by the second, growing larger and more beautiful.
His skin shimmered like wet metal and his wings expanded, sprouting with new talons along the arches.
“I don’t think too hard about it. I do what feels good.
” He grinned, his red gaze falling on me. “Do you want to feel good with me?”
“I want you to feel, Cole,” I said, wrapping my finger around our connection and pulling it tight. “Because I know I called you to my side for a reason. You don’t like this life, anymore, do you? Your brother has gone from one fruitless fight to the next and you’re tired of it.”
He frowned. “There’s no choice, so why bother with it?
I feed on rage. I have been trapped in Hell for hundreds of years tormenting lost souls because that’s what I do.
” He glanced down at my fingers as he touched the illuminated lines disappearing into his chest. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? ”
I smiled. “Tugging on your heart.” I yanked, hard, and he fell to one knee. The impact sent the ground trembling and he growled with warning.
“You saw what I did to the last person who tried to control me,” he said, his words like ice.
His gaze bled with murder, but I wasn’t scared of him, even if I should have been. I embraced what Cole was to me, a monster even more hopelessly lost than I was and I would see to it that he was redeemed. “Then why are you talking about it instead of chopping my head off?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Because a part of you cares about me,” I ventured. “Because a part of you wants to see if I’m right. If there’s more to life than rage. If it’s possible to feel, just like it’s possible for you to regret.”
He growled again, showing sharp teeth. I didn’t expect my demon to roll over right away. I’d given him a taste of the power I could offer him. A trip to Purgatory itself showed him what I was capable of, how I could bend the rules because of what I was—and allow him to bend the rules, too.
Being Champion of Calamity, as well as the Princess of Hell, came with some perks.
He didn’t say anything, and even if I had struck a nerve. He wasn’t ready to face the hard questions. He launched his wings, sending wind to whip around my face as he vanished into the mist. My stomach dropped a moment later when I felt him leave Purgatory with a violent boom.
All my smugness and conviction buckled when the last remaining connection to my Virtues vanished. Had I been wrong? Had I made a terrible mistake?
Something snapped in that moment as I embraced true hopelessness and suffering.
Fuel… to complete my transformation into my true form.
Agony worse than when I’d died raked through my body as two blades sliced across my shoulders and down my spine.
The world went dark as I screamed… and I fell.