Chapter 5
A taunting cascade of laughs came from deep within the tunnels.
Azra curled his fists. Sam tensed, his jawline hardening to steel before he muttered, “Witches.”
My mind narrowed down to a single thought—Freya. The largest part of me wanted to tear off running into that tunnel, find that bitch and destroy her for what she’d helped Lucifer do to Olivia.
“Do you wish me to destroy them for you, beloved?” Azra asked.
“It would take too much energy,” Sam said. “It would put Lilith in danger.”
Azra frowned, but nodded.
The two brothers worked well together. Azra was the passion and the mischief, whereas Sam would always do what he thought was best, thought out his actions, and kept his brother out of as much trouble as he could.
When it came to me, they had the same goals in mind.
Protect.
Worship.
Adore.
Likely reading my thoughts, Samael brushed his wing against mine. “Would you like to fly with us, Lilith?”
“Now doesn’t seem like a great time for a lesson,” I countered as another laugh echoed from the cavern, this one closer.
“We can teach you about being an angel, but first we must get somewhere safe.”
Looking up where Hell and the Academy smashed together, I said, “Well, good luck. The only safe place anymore is at the Academy and I don’t know how to get there from here.”
Given the small little detail that Kaito had left me, he was the one with a Hell-shaped gyroscope up his ass. I had no idea where we were in relation to the Academy.
Azra’s lips curved in a smile and he took my hand.
Sam offered one and I gave my free one to him.
Magic spread over me, a warmth that filled me to the brim.
It was an incredible, freeing sensation, so incredible that for a moment, I didn’t realize my feet no longer touched the ground. Sucking in a breath, I glanced down.
Sam smiled.
Azra grinned at me, then laughed. “You said safety lies that way?”
“Yes,” I said, breathless with exhilaration.
“Wonderful.”
The twins spread their wings… and we flew.
Amazing…
Sam and Azra both looked at me as we shot through the air and the wild, exhilarated grins they flashed my way told me they knew exactly how I felt.
We were flying.
The wind teased my feathers, urging me to spread them open.
This wasn’t flight so much as our bodies becoming so light they simply floated—defying physics as Sam liked to remind Azra.
A small, warm weight nestled closer, tucking between my right wing and my upper back, the now-familiar presence reaching out to brush my mind.
Uni.
I smiled at the light mental touch, sensing her pleasure, but her exhaustion as well. She’d pushed herself hard for me today. Or for days…? How long had it been since we’d left Kaito waiting for us at the edge of Purgatory? I forgot that time ran differently in there.
I couldn’t begin to guess and although the question was a serious one, it slipped away as we floated up.
It seemed the natural direction to go, the angelic power seeking a place of light.
I felt weightless, the twins carrying me between them, their gazes focused on the expanse above us. We were moving so fast and some part of me wanted to tell them to slow down because I wanted this to last…
But even as I reveled in the wonder, another sensation penetrated.
Frost. It grazed my arms and legs, sending my hairs to stand on end.
Frost in Hell?
“Are you… cold?” I asked Azra.
He gave me a puzzled look. “No, beloved.”
“We’re almost there.”
Slanting my gaze toward Sam, I saw him narrowing his eyes, attention focused on the expanse above us—no. That wasn’t right. He was looking beyond that.
“Almost where?”
With a wry smile, he met my gaze. “I sense a large group of supernatural beings and we’re getting very close to them. Either it’s this school of yours… or it’s Lucifer and his army.”
The idea of a fight seemed to thrill him.
“How likely is that?” Terror gripped me as I asked him, but I had to know. Had I taken too long? Was it too late? No. It couldn’t be—
“Sam.” Azra gave his brother a dark look. “We’re in Hell, bro. You’re just sensing demons, but our little thorn has demons of her own she bosses around, am I right?” He kissed me on the brow as his wing brushed mine.
“Um, sure,” I said, although I doubted Cindy or Jess would allow me to boss around any of the allied Demonspawn.
“Impressive,” Sam said. “That explains the ice, then.”
The ice?
I flinched when a frosty flake hit my cheek, promptly melting.
Then another hit my lip, wetting my tongue as I flashed it out.
“Is it… snowing?” I asked, sure that I had gone crazy now.
“It’s because Lucifer’s gone,” Azra supplied with a frown. “That’s kind of one of the apocalyptic things they teach us in Angel Academy.”
“Angel… Academy,” I repeated.
“We have to bring him back,” Sam growled. “This is exactly why we never should have gone to Purgatory. There probably aren’t any angels left to enforce the realm agreement.”
He said that as if they’d had a choice.
And why wouldn’t there be any angels left?
A million questions ran through my mind as another shiver wracked me when a frosty breeze swept through my feathers.
“It’s a cold day in Hell, sweet cheeks,” Sam said, the words coming out in a honeyed seduction. His voice was so intoxicating, it took a moment to understand the meaning of his words.
A cold day in Hell.
Because Hell… had literally frozen over.
Azra gestured above us, pointing out the heavy layer of ice that formed between us and the next realm. “Without Lucifer, Hellfire is gone. Hell’s about to get pretty nippy.” He winked at me. “Good thing I like nips.”
Sam’s hand tightened on mine. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
They slowed to a hover and gave me a chance to look around. The molten trails that were so common in Hell that I’d stopped noticing them were now blackened and hard, streaking the earthen ground.
“Hell’s outer surface is freezing,” I said softly, remembering the day I’d landed with Dante.
Azra hummed with interest. “There’s a reason Lucifer was King of Hell, and why your mother kept him on as a General until he defected.
She has some Hellfire of her own, but not like Lucifer.
His Hellfire fuels the realm and warms it.
Without that warmth, most of this realm is desolate.
Lifeless. The demons who lived here while Lucifer reigned won’t last long in this climate without him.
They’ll die if they don’t leave—assuming they haven’t already. ”
“What about my mother’s territories?” I ventured, hopeful.
Both of them blinked, thick lashes drifting down over their eyes. They exchanged a lingering look before focusing back on me.
“She must have left as well, sweet cheeks. Otherwise the cold wouldn’t be so advanced.”
I reached up, touching the crown still on my head. “Is it something I could manage while they’re gone?” If I took over Hell while my mother and Lucifer battled in another realm, perhaps it would make the whole thing a moot point.
I could win without even facing him.
“No,” Sam said firmly. “You bear a Hell Crown, but you are only a Princess of Hell. You are permitted to utilize Hellfire, but you don’t create it, only Hell’s ruler takes on that burden.
” He brushed his lips across my brow. “You are too complex of a creature, little blossom. That role would consume you and burn you from the inside. You would have to destroy everything about you that didn’t belong in Hell. ”
His piercing gaze illuminated that problem with a glimmer of pain behind his irises.
I would have to destroy the angelic part of myself and leave him and his brother behind.
No, that’s something I could never do, even if I could survive the process.
My mother had taken the role as Hell’s ruler, one that I barely understood.
Hell was a frozen, inhabitable realm, one where undeserving souls were sent to linger.
Perhaps it had been intended as a mercy, a frozen wasteland where even a soul would freeze and sleep for all eternity.
Yet Hell had a ruler, and that ruler provided warmth. Where there was warmth, there was life.
Demons were a species I didn’t fully understand, even though I was a Demonspawn myself. I had been created through a Blood Stone, an artifact that perhaps held more complex mystery to it than I truly understood.
“Taking my mother’s place isn’t an option,” I said, confirming Sam’s unspoken question.
The twins relaxed.
“But I am a Princess of Hell,” I said, my tone hopeful. “Perhaps my presence will make sure my mother has a realm to return to.”
I didn’t even want to think of what would happen if Hell completely froze over while she was gone.
I understood enough about the realms that they each served a purpose, one that kept the universe in balance.
Renee was the Keymaster of the three major realms: Heaven, Hell, and Earth.
She’d worked hard to keep all three intact, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice the Academy that she helped build.
Azra angled his head, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he studied me. “Hmm, yes. I’m sure you could melt a few frozen hearts enough to keep Hell intact. You have a mouth made for sin.” Azra’s lids drooped until only a sliver of his irises showed.
Sam growled. “Think about something other than your cock, Azra. We need to focus.”
When Sam said focus, we started moving again, and… wow did we move.
It seemed like little more than a blink before they slowed again, this time at what seemed to be a ceiling, but I knew where we were—where the realms had slammed together.
This was where Hell ended and Fortune Academy Underworld began.
The tunnels that opened up before us in a bizarre, intricate patchwork had once looked very different.
Calamity had no concern for nature’s design or the natural order of things, like the way the realms had once stood apart, or the lives that had been thrown into a tailspin.
“Hold on,” Sam said and in a fluid movement, the twins angled closer to me, and then we were inside the mouth of the largest cavern.
Seconds later, Sam and Azra released me and the full weight of my wings and body returned, slamming into me so suddenly, I collapsed to my knees.
“Are you all right?” Sam asked.
I met his gaze and tried to smile as I struggled to my feet, but being hit with physics was a slap of reality.
My other mates were still out there, trapped by the dark force that was helping Lucifer win.
He’d abandoned Hell for a reason.
He thought he’d won, just like Kaito had said.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
“Of course you are,” Sam said agreeably, accepting the lie for what it was.
“And I’ll just walk next to you and hold your hand like this…
” He threaded his fingers through mine, the effect an instant one as my body lightened.
“It would make me quite the happy angel, little blossom. Is that all right with you?”
He was so adorably sweet. Unable to suppress my smile, I nodded. “Yes.”
“Me too!” Azra suggested, his wing brushing mine. When I blinked at him, he added, “You better get used to us, beloved.” He winked and grinned. “We have a lot of worship to catch up on.”
“Come on,” Sam said, fluttering his wings with irritation as he looked at Azra.
Some disagreement was going on between them I didn’t understand, something that had literally put me in the middle.
“I’ll provide us some light,” Sam offered, then his skin glowed with a shimmering gold and silver power that made him even more ethereal and beautiful.
“That way,” he said, angling his chin toward one of the tunnels.
Azra stroked his hand up my back between my wings, then down, the caress soothing.
“Is he okay?” I asked, lowering my voice as if Sam couldn’t hear me. Perhaps it was a silly question. There was no telling how long they had been isolated, or if they’d been tortured, or worse.
“Oh, he’s fine, little thorn.” Azra sounded unconcerned. “That’s his normal, charming self. Always serious and mad at me about something. Isn’t that right, brother of mine?”
“One of us needs to be responsible,” he growled. “The next stage of Calamity comes next. Don’t you remember the order of events, brother?”
Azra shrugged. “We’ve never gotten this far, so not really. I didn’t pay attention that day at Angel Academy.” He grinned at me as he lowered his voice. “Some Unicorn Shifters had ventured out of their territory. I love to fuck with those guys.”
Sam gazed heavenward, his jaw flexing. “If Lucifer succeeds in pushing this echo far enough, another will be on its way. One that targets deities.” He glanced at me, concern knitting his brow.
I stumbled, but didn’t fall. The angels held me on both sides and kept me aloft, literally.
My feet barely touched the ground. “There’s that word again,” I said, sweat breaking out along my hairline.
Kaito thought I might have another supernatural lineage to contend with, but being a deity?
I felt like I would know if I was a goddess.
“We don’t know what she is,” Azra said, sounding exasperated. “Worshipping her has the same effect as worshipping a deity, and she sure does fuck like a goddess,” he said grinning at me and making me blush, “but we tested her. The test was negative.”
There was a fucking deity test?
Sam grunted, sounding unconvinced as he released me and pushed ahead. “Regardless, preventing Calamity from expanding is the most prudent course of action. I will not put Lilith at risk just because you aren’t capable of planning ahead.”
Seeming done with the insults, Azra flicked his hand.
The air between us blurred and I sucked in a startled breath as Sam’s lovely feathers suddenly went frizzy, like the worst hair dresser ever had attempted to give the angel’s wings a bad perm.
Sam stopped. Without speaking, he turned and stared at his brother.
Azra heaved out a beleaguered sigh. “Really, Sam. We’ve had our freedom for a few moments and you’re already your normal, doom and gloom self. Aren’t you at least a little happy to be free?”
“We’re not exactly safe, Azrael,” Sam said in a cool voice. He glanced at me, the action reluctant, as if he didn’t want to, but couldn’t stop himself. “And we have a serious problem. If Lucifer isn’t here, then we need to figure out where he is.”
“Of course,” Azra said, the good-natured response indicating he’d had this sort of conversation with his brother before—often.
Sam’s flat stare faded away into what could only be described as weary resignation. He finally turned and resumed our trek back to Fortune Academy Underworld.