Chapter 12
I stared at him, his words penetrating the fog of shock slowly. Very slowly.
Yuri was far slower to respond. With a snarl, she said, “Take this seriously, feather boy!”
He gave her a cocky smile. “I’m just making light of the situation. You all are far too serious.”
Aaron growled, his golden eyes flashing with the power of his inner panther. “Perhaps that’s because you don’t rely on humans to survive. The Panthers do not, either, yet I care about my allies on this campus. As should you, if you wish to have a place here.”
The Dean started to speak, but I gave her a hard look, then stepped forward, placing myself between Azra and Yuri, someone who had been a friend, who had risked a great deal for me, and for Olivia.
“That vampire is my friend,” I said coldly.
Pointing to Olivia, I added, “That Dark Mage? My best friend. The Demi next to her? Her lover. If she lost him, it would destroy her and anything that hurts her hurts me.” I pointed out others, ending with my mother.
“She’s the Queen of Hell—and my mother. Those are her mates.
These people have been holding the line against Lucifer and are willing to do so until we win or they fall in battle. ”
Azra’s chagrin melted away, replaced with a frown.
“You speak of things that have only happened recently,” he said, his voice quiet. “But for ten years, you were with us, beloved. We sacrificed—”
Sam flared his wings, cutting off his brother. “She’s not ready to remember,” he growled, then glanced at me. “Plus, she’s right, brother. This is her family, and whomever she calls brother, sister, mother or friend, I shall do the same.”
Azra looked into my eyes once more and bowed his head. “I apologize, Lily.”
“Don’t apologize to me.”
He stepped to the side and met Yuri’s gaze. “I apologize to you. To all of you.”
Nobody seemed to breathe for several long moments. Fed up with everything at the moment, I looked at the Dean. “What did you have to say?”
“None here want Calamity to convert mortals into supernaturals. Calamity seeks to sow discord and chaos into the world.” Fine lines bracketed her mouth as she looked from the angels to the others, lingering on Yuri.
“The parasitic races will become desperate and there will be war for what humans are left if Lucifer gets his way.”
“That’s why I must face him with what reserves Fortune Academy Underworld has left,” Sonya said, her voice flat.
She barely looked at me. “Lily cannot be anywhere near Lucifer right now, or any of her Virtues, or you’ll all become infected just like her mates.
I am immune. I am a Champion, and I can fight another Echo. I’ll succeed.”
“Succeed?” I blinked at her. “Like the last time, Mom? You had a chance then—you took Lucifer’s throne but you didn’t stop Hell from merging all the realms. Look at where we are.”
Her eyes rumbled with a storm as she stared at me. I could feel the weight of her power—not my mother’s, but that of the Queen of Hell.
I didn’t back down. She was the Queen of Hell, and a Champion.
But I was her daughter, the Princess of Hell—and I was also a Champion, one with a bigger mess on my plate because she’d messed up the job the first time.
Spreading my hands wide, I held her gaze.
“Fortune Academy Underworld never should have existed, but here we are, trying to survive constant barrages of demonic attacks and anything else Lucifer throws at us. He has Freya and her witches and who knows about any other supernaturals he’s lured to his side.
You think Lucifer is just going to leave us alone while he plays God up on Earth?
He’s going to come back, and when he does, he’ll be stronger than ever.
You. Will. Lose. And this time, it won’t just be your loss—it will be the end for all of us.
” When she tried to speak, I held up a hand.
“And what about Hell? I assume you only came back a few hours ago. Do you know how I know that? Hell froze over when both you and Lucifer left. When you returned, the ice began to thaw.”
Azra rolled his shoulder. “Is that what happened? Thanks for that.”
“If you go unprepared, you’ll fail just as I have,” she said, still speaking as the ruler she was. “You have your own failures, Lilith—all leaders know failure. You might be too young to understand that lesson, but I’m not.”
“I’m not a child,” I bit off. “Don’t speak to me like one.”
“I’m not. I’m speaking to you as one Champion to another,” she said, approaching me and resting her hands on my shoulders. “Your Virtues suffer because of your failure and you have yet to find a way to save them. I don’t blame you for it. But you are weaker without them. You know that.”
The words were a punch straight to the gut, because she was right.
“Let me fix this mess, my daughter. Let me save my crown and what is left of the human world.” She paused then, closing her eyes.
When she opened them, a deep, inner heat burned and her voice pulsed with the same fire as she said, “I’m from there.
The human world was once my home. I owe it to its people to fight. ”
Home. Her words tugged a chord deep inside me and I wished I had a place to call home.
But I did. Wherever my mates were, that was my home. It wasn’t a place, but those I had come to love.
Those I would die to protect.
“This isn’t your fight, is it?” I managed a weak smile. “You’ve faced an Echo once already. It’s my turn now.”
She closed her eyes.
“Lily.”
I looked at the Dean.
“You said you had a plan, Lily. Why don’t you share it with us?”
Swallowing the knot in my throat, I considered my mother. She inclined her head a fraction. I knew she wasn’t conceding. Not yet.
But she would listen.
As she returned to join her mates, I pulled the vial from the zippered pocket where I’d secured it. In it was the potion Kaito had given me. I held it up.
“You want unpredictable?” I held the Dean’s gaze before looking at my angel Virtues for a long moment.
Shifting my attention to my mother, I continued, “Lucifer doesn’t expect me to embrace my darkness, not when I’ve found my angel Virtues.
He thinks I’ll become like them, something he knows how to fight.
But I chose Cole as a Virtue for a reason.
I’m close—so close to breaking through to him.
Once I do, I’ll become something Lucifer never saw coming. ”
I felt the displeasure from my angels and wondered just how much they knew—about me, about my other Virtues.
I doubted they’d come to understand everything in the short time since we’d parted.
I didn’t understand everything and I was right in the middle of it.
Yet they both studied me before sharing a long, pensive stare.
Finally, Sam turned to Raze.
“What do you think, rainbow boy? You know Calamity better than anyone here. How much time do we have until the next Echo hits?”
Sam might have meant the rainbow boy comment to be insulting, but Raze merely smiled.
“It’ll come after the most recent Echo has reached its fruition, in whatever form that might be.
Which, sounds like should be the culmination of Lucifer gathering the humans on Earth, and if he succeeds, a period after as the rest of humanity is targeted.
The Queen of Hell has already done the recon for us regarding the first step.
” He glanced at my mother. “How long until the human gathering did you say it was? Four weeks?”
My mother nodded her confirmation.
Meeting Sonya’s gaze across the chamber, I tucked the vial back into its place in a snug inner pocket. “Three weeks, then, before we make any final decisions. That’s all I ask.”
Her sigh was soft and weary, but she nodded.
Everyone else in the room agreed as well.
“Three weeks, Lily,” my mother said, Hellfire bright in her gaze. “After that, me and my armies are storming Earth with or without you.”