Chapter 11
I spotted white wings back at Central Hall in the one room I hadn’t checked.
The Dean’s office, of course.
“You were in that cage far too long, you stupid boy,” the female said, her voice husky, deep, one that rang familiar on the other side of the Dean’s door.
I knew that voice. Until that very moment, as the words echoed in the chamber ahead of me, I hadn’t remembered it, but I knew that voice.
Fuck. I had a bad feeling things were about to go sideways.
Rushing into the chamber, I got ready to lunge between my new mates and my mother, Sonya.
The Queen of Hell.
Luckily, they had quite the audience, Sonya and her mates as well as other council members and the Dean were in full attendance, making the face-off between my mother and my mates difficult.
Sonya cut me a look as I came up short, her face betraying no sign of surprise, but the Queen of Hell would have to have a great poker face. It went with the job. Just like her demon form that was gorgeous, kick ass, and probably made Sam want to stab something.
Her presence here was a good thing. It meant that we could regroup, that maybe Hell wouldn’t entirely freeze over, that we could be saved.
As her gaze slid back to the two men in front of her, I managed to release the breath that had been trapped in my lungs.
“Azra. Sam.”
At the sound of my voice, they both looked at me. Sam inclined his head in acknowledgement while Azra flashed me with a brilliant, beautiful grin.
“Lily!” Azra started toward me. “We were wondering what was taking so long.”
I let him take my hand and we walked together to the middle of the large room. Once there, I tugged my hand from his and turned, taking in the motley group of people gathered around us, my gaze connecting with Sonya’s first.
The men flanking her offered polite nods of their heads as I acknowledged each in turn.
Xavier, the vampire, stood with Nate, while Luke, Sonya’s fallen angel mate, stood closer to my angels.
Jet, the sleek, dark-haired male who shifted into a dragon, barely glanced at me before turning his attention back to the angels.
Aaron, the Panther shifter from the Academy, stood with Starling and Petunia, all three of them were students I remembered from the Academy.
Aaron offered a half-smile while Petunia and Starling stared down their noses at me, despite the fact that both of them were shorter.
I ignored both of the girls—we’d never gotten along well.
Tension crawled through the atmosphere so I had to assume whatever brought them here along with everybody else was important, so I let them sneer at me. I didn’t give a shit.
The Demis were there, too. Ally, Zero, and Trevor. Seeing them without their leader, my powerful mate, Orion, hurt, but I kept that pain hidden, taking a cue from my mother.
Olivia stood with Trevor and out of everybody, she was the only one who looked genuinely happy to see me—Lily. Not the Princess of Hell, not the Champion, just me… her friend. Even my angels looked at me with expectations.
A Dark Mage stood next to the Dean, his eyes flicking to mine, being the only acknowledgement I received. The Dean inclined her head. “Lilith.”
Raze smiled before turning his gaze toward the angels.
“This is one hell of a party you have going on,” I said, finally looking to my mother and the Dean before turning to focus on my new mates—and the blades they’d drawn. “Although I don’t think the sharp, stabby things fit with the theme.”
Azra and Sam looked confused, glancing from me to their blades, the metal alight with a blaze of white fire instead of blue.
I didn’t know what was up with the fire, but through the connection we shared, I sensed their strength.
They already felt more… whole. Broken and jagged overall, yes, but they were stronger than they’d been when I’d left them waiting outside Kaito’s office.
“Sharp, stabby things,” Sam said slowly, his brows rising until they nearly disappeared under the silken fall of his hair.
He looked at his blade, then at me. “Only the Angels of Death may bear these blades and they burn with fire because our strength is returning. And you call them sharp, stabby things.” He flipped the blade and cleaned it with the silky fabric of his trousers. “They can hear you, you know.”
“Sam, don’t be tedious.” Azra shot him a scowl. “She may call them rusty spoons if that pleases her. We’re just happy she’s here, right?” He beamed at me. “We’re very happy you’re here, beloved. We’re not outnumbered now.”
I started counting the number of people in the room.
Sam sighed and shot a look at my mother before focusing on me. “If I put my… sharp, stabby thing away, am I going to be cut down where I stand?”
“No,” I said firmly, glancing at my mother. “In case you haven’t noticed, the two of you are the only ones brandishing swords.”
Sam put the sword away and a few seconds later, Azra followed suit.
He still had a happy smile and it didn’t dim even a fraction as Sam tossed him a scowl.
“There are thirteen others against us. We are three, four with Lily, if she sides with us. We remain outnumbered, with or without her support. I know math isn’t your strong suit, but I hope you’re not that far gone, brother. ”
“What do you mean if? Of course she’ll side with us. We’re her Virtues.” Azra heaved out an exasperated sigh. “Lily counts as a hundred of them. She’s not a fallen angel like us; she’s the real deal—an angel of Hell.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my skull as Azra looked at the other angel in the room—Luke, my mother’s mate. With an enthusiastic clap on the back, Azra said, “Us fallen angels gotta stick together, right, Luke? You’re one of us even though you weren’t able to keep your wings fully intact.”
Luke shrugged out from under Azra’s friendly, animated gesture, his own face dark. “Don’t count me as one of you. I’d never suggest what you’re proposing. You’re insane.”
“Purgatory tends to have that effect after a while.” Azra didn’t look offended by Luke’s words or actions, still smiling as he turned his attention back to me.
“Insane or not, it doesn’t mean we’re wrong.
Nothing you lot have done has proven to give you an edge over Calamity.
Maybe embracing crazy is what we need right now to win. ”
“I don’t think embracing insanity is good advice,” Starling said, her words quiet. Her gaze darted toward the angels.
“It’s more about being unpredictable,” Sam said, offering her a polite nod. “My brother doesn’t always explain things well. We need to catch Lucifer unaware, do something he’d never expect.”
They weren’t wrong. “On that note, guys… I’ve got an idea.”
My voice was lost under the explosion of voices that came from nearly everybody else—all at the same time.
“We make no decisions without Orion,” Trevor said, his voice strong and flat, eyes as cold as the deepest ocean. “This puts all of us at risk and he’s our leader. We need him here.”
The words hit home hard and I clenched my fingers into a fist, nails biting into my palm as I fought to keep my face expressionless. Across the stone floor, Raze met my gaze and I thought I saw sympathy in his eyes, understanding even.
“Logan should be here,” Starling said quietly. “He’s our alpha.”
Petunia nudged Aaron. He gave her a quelling look before speaking. “The Panthers can offer their vote today, but that’s just one vote.” She smirked, her gaze landing on me. “Our leader wasn’t stupid enough to sleep with the Champion.”
Aaron’s eyes darkened as he shot her a threatening look. A growl roughed his words as he said, “Silence, Petunia.”
She dipped her gaze and stepped back. But the moment Aaron lifted his head, she shot the angels—and me—a smug grin.
Aaron canted his head toward Sam and Azra. “I agree with the angel brothers. Crazy as the plan might be, it has a better chance of working than anything else.”
“What?” Petunia shrieked.
Aaron gave her another hard look, his gaze cutting into her. She fell back again, her eyes on the floor and this time, she didn’t look up.
“The Demis propose to postpone their vote,” Trevor said, his voice hard.
“The same goes for the Dark Mages,” the unfamiliar Dark Mage said, his gaze cutting through me like a blade of ice. “While Hendrik lives, he speaks for us.”
“What plan?” I demanded. “Don’t I get a vote?”
“Of course you do, dear,” Sonya said, her voice sweet, betraying her succubi origins. “We just… didn’t expect this little hiccup.”
“What hiccup?” I asked.
“Your new Virtues were supposed to be your flight instructors, nothing more.” The Dean glanced at them before nodding toward my mother. “Sonya expected their power to be diminished like Luke’s, but they’re actually…. Well, rather strong.”
“We’re right here. We can hear you, you know. Are you saying angels are bad?” Azra looked affronted, his smile actually fading for once.
Sam ruffled his wings. “Just shut up already, Azra. You’re not helping.”
“I’m still waiting for somebody to explain.” I was on the verge of screaming at this point.
“Darling.”
My mother’s husky voice cut through my anger.
“They’re proposing that they take you to the surface and reveal everything to the humans before Lucifer does, and thereby gain the inherent power that humans can offer to supernaturals.
” Sonya glanced at Sam and Azra before continuing.
“They’re right about one thing. He’s gone to Earth and if he wins humanity’s support, we will lose everything. ”
“Luc is on Earth?” I asked, surprised to hear it.
“Talk about fucking the contract in the ass,” Sam grumbled. “You say you were there, demon. So where are the angels then, hm? All of Purgatory was trained to fend off a violation like this.”
Sonya huffed a laugh. “You’re such a moron. He recruited them, you dimwit.”
Silence fell over the gathering.
Lucifer had brought a legion of fallen angels of death to his side?
That didn’t sound good.
“Lucifer is gathering humanity as we speak,” she continued, “and his plan is to infect as many of them with Calamity as possible, just as he has done to the angels of death.” Her gaze fell on me. “Just as he has done to my daughter’s mates.”
Except, my mates had fought the influence, instead going into a coma rather than serve my greatest enemy.
Luke moved to join my mother, stroking a hand down her arm before meeting my gaze. “He’s announced a gathering in New York in Times Square, four weeks from now. The Echo has already prepared mortals to convert into supernatural equivalents.”
Azra snapped his fingers. “Right! That’s what the Third wave did. Supernatural conversion and the extinction of the mortal race. Nasty stuff.”
Sam rubbed his temple.
Luke nodded. “If Luc succeeds, it’s all over. He’ll convert all who gathered and kill the rest. Without humanity, chaos will reign.”
My stomach dropped. Horror flooded me. “The families I saw in Fortune Academy’s dungeons. Those were the infected.”
“Yes.”
It was the Dean who spoke this time and I swung my head around in time to see her sag back against the elaborate table where the Council Members would have sat, had this been an ordinary meeting.
She rubbed her eyes and when she looked back at me, the guilt and grief I saw there struck deep.
“When I was the Conduit, the Echo wanted me to study them to see if the impact was working. It was, and now Lucifer is going to finish the job on a massive scale. What he’s doing is dangerous.
” She reached down and grabbed a glass from the table, taking a drink.
Her hand trembled slightly as she lowered it.
I’d never liked the Dean. But the courage it took for her to stand there after everything that had happened was staggering.
“What he is doing could wipe out the mortal race entirely,” she continued.
“It won’t just be Hell on Earth. It will be Hell on every realm out there.
Wars will break out across the realms as humanity disappears.
So many rely on mortals more than they realize.
” She counted them off on her fingers. “Vampires. Dark Mages. Incubi. Succubi. Even the Demis, the Gods…” She waved out her hands.
“Virtually every supernatural community will be impacted, and without humans, many of us will die out, too.”
A silence descended on the group as the gravity of the situation sank in.
Azra raised a finger to ask a question. “Does that mean there won’t be any more Youtube kitten videos?”