Chapter 18
I bolted into action, not caring what happened to me at that moment.
Logan’s shout of pain lingered like a nightmare inside my head. What concerned me most was the lack of his connection inside me now.
“Logan!” I cried as I followed the echo of his howl.
My Virtues shouted my name, but their voices were lost in the shadows, reaching me as nothing more than muted tones of worry. After the energy boost I’d received, none of them could keep up with me, not when one of my mates was in danger.
I burst from the thick shadows to find a roaring wall of Hellfire waiting for me.
The heat burned over me in a wave. My mother must have anticipated it, because my clothes remained unscathed.
The straps at my back, however, buckled underneath the strain.
My wings broke from their binds, painfully flaring behind me to help bring me to a full stop.
Power scourged over my skin and claws extended from my fingertips. My jaw ached as fangs formed and my gaze snapped around to find my wolf.
I spotted him on the other side of the flames, already in Lucifer’s territory in Hell.
While it relieved me to find the portal, this had been a trap like I’d suspected all along. Lucifer poised a winged talon over my wolf, a grin on his face.
He’d been waiting for us.
A familiar witch with pinned up blonde hair stood beside him like an elegant statue.
Freya.
Rage boiled in my veins.
Lucifer gestured for me to cross the barrier. The inferno roared, the sound blocking out any possibility of communication.
I didn’t think twice about it. I stepped through the barrier and my stomach dropped as I transitioned between worlds, leaving the Enchanted Forest behind and all of its stupid poisonous pixies and rainbow-haired unicorn shifters.
Let another Champion deal with that hot mess.
Scorching heat ran up my limbs and I sighed, relaxing into it. While this wasn’t familiar territory, I knew Hell and it knew me.
I was home.
Muffled shouts rang out behind me. I turned to find my mates had finally caught up with me—but they couldn’t follow. A sizzling wave of energy had closed the portal behind me, leaving them trapped in the forest, helpless as they beat their fists against the flames.
The ground changed, transforming from forest to the craggy rocks of the Underworld. The portal seemed unstable, a shortened tunnel between two worlds that were already merging.
Maybe it wasn’t a portal at all, I decided, but a gateway, one to keep newcomers in—or out.
Freya chuckled in response, the sickly sweet sound making me jerk my head back to Lucifer and his little pet.
“Thank you for carving a path through the forest,” Lucifer said, his lips curling in delight. “You achieved something I haven’t been able to do for thousands of years. For that, I’ll spare the lives of your mates.” He tilted his head. “Well, except maybe this one, unless you behave.”
A growl rumbled in my throat as I spread my wings. Their heavy weight would slow me down in a fight, but Lucifer expected me to be weak. My Virtues had empowered me through the worst of the forest’s drain, giving me an edge he wouldn’t see coming.
They would be furious that I had to face Lucifer alone, but this was my fight, and he’d made a mistake using my sweet wolf against me.
He’d pay for that.
Lucifer’s dark eyes narrowed on me. “We don’t need to be on opposite sides.”
“Really?” I snapped. “If your idea of working together is nearly getting me killed by traipsing through a forest realm, followed by holding my wolf hostage, then you need to work on your manners.”
Freya stiffened. “You’d be wise to watch how you speak to the King of the Underworld.”
I huffed a laugh. “Really? King? I don’t see a crown.”
Hendrik’s magic wound around me at the word, my own crown of Angelstone dust slipping onto my head.
It surged fresh power through me, grounding me in my rightful domain while lessening the weight of the wings on my back.
Hell’s power understood wings, even if it didn’t know what to do with the feathery plumage, it was enough of a boost to lighten my entire body.
I grinned.
Of course Hendrik hadn’t limited the crown to his own personal spell. He’d bound it to me, made it where I could summon it on my own without him by just uttering the word.
I’d properly thank him for that later.
The ground trembled, reminding me that Lucifer and Freya weren’t alone. Demonspawn and witch spirits bled through tunnels, spitting out onto the spanning piece of land where the Ruins of Calamity and Hell merged.
I glanced up, noting the craggy layers where Hell ventured upward, each one entertaining different realities.
I’d learned about that, too, at Fortune Academy, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight of this place that bled through them all with a golden pillar breaking through the center.
Purgatory itself acted like a spear, uniting all the layers of Hell into one.
Venturing into that place would be a nightmare, one I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
Wails lingered on the breeze and Lucifer snapped his fingers to get my attention. “Impressive, Lilith. I respect your claim to the throne. You boast a Hell Crown and those only accept rightful owners.”
He offered me a low bow, his wings folding against his back, the talons retracting away from Logan’s limp body. I had a feeling that his gesture was one of mockery, however, and I glowered.
“Is that why you don’t wear one?” I asked, lifting my chin with confidence. “You plan to take Hell’s throne by force because you couldn’t earn it for yourself?” I knew my mother was young in comparison. It must have royally pissed him off when she managed to do what he’d never been able to achieve.
A pattern I continued, carving a way through the Enchanted Forest when all before me had failed.
Little good that did me now. Lucifer planned to use my achievements as his own. Calamity gleamed with chaos and madness in his eyes. I knew rationalizing with him would be a finicky challenge at best, but I had to try. The longer I kept him talking, the longer I could keep Logan alive.
I took another step closer while Lucifer barked a laugh.
“I’ve ruled Hell without its approval before.
I can do it again.” He curled a sliver of darkness around his wrist, tugging it over his fingers like lace.
“I have the approval of the only force that matters—Calamity itself, the ruler and master of life and death.” He extended his finger to Logan, his grin widening. “Don’t venture any closer, Lilith.”
I halted my steps.
Glancing down at Logan, I stiffened. He’d been knocked unconscious not by force, but by a pressure of magic that closed off his airway. He struggled to suck in a breath as Freya stroked the Blood Stone at her chest.
I snarled.
Lucifer’s bat-like wings flared with warning. “I understand words won’t convince you, therefore I came prepared. I only needed one of your mates to do the deed, but it seems they’re all vying to die for you.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find Kaito working his flame against the barrier, forming a widening oval as my Virtues successfully managed to slowly break through.
Cursing, I turned back to the demon. “If you harm him I’ll—”
Lucifer knelt, making me suck in a breath. He stroked Logan’s fur, swiping over the wolf’s ears before opening his maw. “I’m going to show you what Calamity can do,” he said with a grin, then he sent a sliver of darkness into Logan’s mouth.
“No!” I shouted, launching myself at Lucifer, but it was too late.
Freya whispered a spell, sending an invisible wall slamming into me as I flung across the ground.
Logan released a heart-wrenching howl just as my Virtues broke through, barreling into Hell to face Lucifer.
I stretched out a hand to stop them, but Freya swiped at me again, knocking my breath from my lungs.
Lucifer stretched out his wings, the world around us trembling and going dark.
Horror filled me as I lay pinned against the ground, Freya’s magic battering against me like the weight of an entire ocean. I fought against her, gaining purchase as I learned her magic, but I wasn’t learning fast enough.
The darkness slipped over the ground, emerging from Lucifer like a horrible cloud. It bypassed me, its cold tendrils of death seeking out its new targets.
Orion’s sunshine vanished as it slithered down his throat.
Kaito’s horns twisted and his silvery tattoo flickered out as the shadow did the same to him.
Hendrik swiped up a wall of his own darkness, hoping to blot it out, but I knew the efforts would be futile.
My Hunter lasted the longest, using his speed and agility to outrun the shadow, but not for long. It caught up to him and blotted out the metallic orange of his eyes as he squeezed them shut.
They all collapsed to the ground and my breath choked off when my connection to them sputtered and shrank.
I gasped for breath, unable to process what Lucifer had just done to me—what he’d just done to my mates. I was a Champion of Calamity, which meant by design the universe had chosen me to balance the scales. My connection to my Virtues was everything Calamity wasn’t.
My relationships represented completion, security, and growth as a family.
Chaos and death had no place in my world.
By infecting my mates with Calamity, Lucifer effectively choked off my connection to them, making me feel as if he’d ripped out my heart.
I’d literally had my heart ripped out before. This was so much worse.
“They’ll be fine,” Freya said, her annoying voice scratching over me like nails on a chalkboard. “If Lucifer wanted to kill them, he would have. He’s made them stronger.” She waved out her hands as if to demonstrate.
All of my Virtues struggled with the infection, choking and holding their throats as they staggered toward me.
Lucifer scowled. “The idiots are rejecting it.” He flashed a red-hazed glare at Freya. “Do something.”
She scoffed. “I told you just to kill them,” she grumbled, but lifted a hand and muttered a new spell, one that sent my mates crumpling to the ground.
I had no idea what she’d done. My connection to my Virtues waned to the point of vanishing entirely. Perhaps they were asleep. Perhaps she’d killed them.
Either way, I wasn’t going to tolerate it.
Dredging up all the power within me, calling upon the Angelstone dust to pump my wings hard, I launched from the ground for the first time, soaring through the air as I slashed at Freya with all of my might.
Blood streaked across her chest as I left a gash across her body, my strike true.
“Bitch!” she screeched as she sent one hand up, hurling me back with the force of a thousand explosions of Hellfire. Heat blasted my hair from my face and I went flying against the barrier, pinned against it as my skin threatened to blister and burn.
“Freya, enough,” Lucifer commanded. Then he glanced up at the sound of hoofbeats, and spat a curse.
Freya released me as they did something I didn’t expect.
They retreated.
I found out why a moment later when I hit the ground. A blessing of unicorns trampled the ground all around me, churning up broken red dirt as they flooded in from the Enchanted Forest into the Underworld Realm.
Uni led the charge, the unicorn bunny viciously chasing Lucifer from the grounds. Lucifer easily spread his wings, scooped up Freya and took to the sky, heading to one of the middle Hell layers.
His army closed in all around us, but they didn’t attack. Their drums beat in the distance as they filtered back into the tunnels.
Because their job was done.
Lucifer had already infected my Virtues, and now he intended to wait for me to come to him.
Raze shifted in a blast of glitter and sequined light, jogging up to me with concern painted on his face. “Lily, are you all right?”
I wasn’t fucking all right. All of my Virtues were dead, or worse.
“Logan?” I croaked out, tears steaming in my eyes, evaporating from Hell’s heat before they could draw a line down my face. “The others?”
Raze glanced back. The others of his kind lowered their horns and released a powerful glow of glittering magic around each of my mates, containing the worst of the shadow.
Raze knelt at my side as I began to tremble. “They’re infected, but they’ll survive,” he assured me. He rested a hand on my shoulder, but I flinched away. He curled his fingers into his palm. “My kind has contained Calamity in its various forms since the dawn of time. It’s what we do.”
“Contained,” I spat back, meeting his ruby eyes. “You mean you can’t get it out of them?”
His jaw flexed.
One of the unicorns neighed and stomped the ground. Uni squeaked in response and I jolted to my feet, taking note of which Virtue had them worked up.
Kaito.
He writhed and screamed as he clawed at his face. He dragged the darkness out by his fingernails, his flames erupting over his skin as he forced Calamity out of his pores.
“Your demon’s a strong one,” Raze said, his tone approving.
I shoved the rainbow-haired male aside and ran to my mate.
Helping him, I curled my fingers into the sticky blackness that oozed from his skin, clawing it away from him as best I could. “Kaito!” I cried as the connection between us flared with fresh life.
Please let him be okay, I prayed.
Let them all be okay.