Chapter 18
I screamed.
A familiar weight settled on my head and I reached up, feeling my Hell Crown. Seemingly of their own volition, my wings opened and curved in, gathering the air in instead of trying to fly. My free fall slowed to a fast glide although the downward momentum continued.
Behind me, I heard two voices—Sam and Azra. I tried to call out to them, but before I had a chance, I was punching through the ground again and I finally realized what was happening.
I was taking the mother of all shortcuts through the realms and if the strong tug in my chest was any indicator, I knew where this road was going.
Another world ripped by me, then another and finally, I was in the Astral Realm and I could control my body again. Spreading my wings fully open, I pumped, hard, struggling to gain control before I tumbled to the ground in front of the demon far below.
I landed right on him, as if he’d drawn me here by his own power.
His hard, warm hands came around my waist.
Sucking in a breath as Cole caught me against him, I bit back my yelp of surprise as he took us the rest of the way down. Once he released me, I jerked away and turned around to glare at him.
“You’re free!” I shouted, then I noticed the large altar where he’d been when I last saw him. Chains dangled, broken and splintered on the ground. “How did you get free?”
One corner of his beautiful, cruel mouth twitched. “Is that why you sought me out, Lilith? To ask why I’m free?”
The twins landed a moment later, the shockwave sending my hair flying back from my face.
They faced Cole, their swords drawn and their wings glowing with a beautiful, dazzling inner light, and their landing sending a shockwave of power to radiate throughout this realm.
“Step away from her, demon,” Azra said.
Sam just went into a defensive crouch, sword at the ready.
This was not what I wanted.
“Stop!” I shouted.
I shoved between them, pausing by Sam long enough to grab his wrists and shove.
It was like trying to shove a brick wall out of the way, but he had the grace to acknowledge my presence at least. His lips tightened as he glanced at my Hell Crown, but he didn’t relax, every muscle ready to launch in battle.
“Why do you protect him?” Azra demanded. “He stole you. You could have been hurt.”
“Not likely.” I went to shove my hair back, but stopped as my fingers bumped into the cool, hard metal of my crown. “I think I brought myself here, Azra. I’m not sure how but as I was falling, I felt a tug and I just… followed it.”
I had been close to unlocking my angelic side, because even if Sam thought I could learn to fly while keeping up that barrier, I couldn’t.
Not yet.
That’s when my Hell Crown had appeared. When I had blasted through realms to go straight to my demon of rage.
Sam’s brows shot up to his hairline. “You just followed it. Here. To him?”
“I don’t care for the way you’re speaking to me,” I said softly, narrowing my eyes. Without waiting for a response, I turned to Cole.
He didn’t so much as glance at the twins, eyes locked on me. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Yeah?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at him. “Why? You have plans to try and trap me again? It didn’t work out so well last time and it won’t this time, either.”
He shrugged, the movement so effortlessly graceful, it was an art form. My mouth went dry looking at him. My palms itched to touch him and I had to curl my hands into fists to fight the urge to feel his skin.
Even with Orion’s help, I still wanted him.
“No,” he said, head cocked as he studied me thoughtfully. “It didn’t, did it?”
“Wow. A lot of sincere regret in that apology.”
“I’m a rage demon, Lilith. Regret isn’t something my kind have experience with.”
Yet there was a strange note in his voice, one that made me wonder if maybe it was a new emotion to him, but one he was definitely feeling.
Was it possible? Could Cole… regret?
“Emotions outside of our specialty aren’t encouraged among rage demons,” he said, as if he wanted to offer me an explanation.
“Rage is what drives us. But since you left, I’ve experienced a number of other emotions, and regret isn’t one I’ve enjoyed.
” Gaze turning inward, he muttered, “It’s an unpleasant emotion, this weight in your gut, this… remorse.”
“You feel remorse, then?” Nothing he said could have surprised me more.
“It’s a trick,” Azra muttered, inching closer.
“Don’t. I’m handing this,” I warned him. Turning my attention back to Cole, I tried to figure out exactly how to handle this. “Why do you feel remorse—and over what?”
He flicked a look at the angels. “Suffice it to say I feel the need to redeem myself, Lilith. What can I do to fix things? How do I make things between us right? How can I… help?”
“You want to help?” Cocking my head, I met his eyes. “All right. We have to stop your brother, Cole. So if you really want to help, stop being an asshole—stop working against us.”
His gaze flicked again to the angels at my back and I saw the derision in the dark depths of his eyes before he masked it, saw how his mouth tightened. “While I will do what I must to prove myself to you, Lilith, you have to remember. I’m a demon of rage. I can’t be something I’m not.”
“I know.” Recalling the reasons I’d gone to see Kaito, I looked Cole over from head to toe. “Maybe what we need right now is some rage. Maybe you’re the secret weapon Lucifer will never expect.”
Cole’s eyes narrowed, hair sliding over his shoulders as he considered me. “What exactly do you plan to do, Lilith? My brother abandoned me to my fate. He expected me to rot away here, forever. What plans do you have?”
“I plan on winning. We need to get ahead of him. Find whatever weapons he has, any magical artifacts he might be saving for the big day, any fighters we might not know about—we have to get ahead of him somehow.”
“That’s not a very well-thought-out plan,” he chided, but he sounded almost… playful. And there was a smug look on his face, too.
Azra gripped his blade. I wasn’t even sure where it had come from. “What are you hiding, demon?”
Cole’s smug smile spread into a wide grin as he turned, angling his body to the altar where he’d once tormented so many of the souls that passed through Purgatory. “This is a piece of art, you know. It took a long time to craft it to my specifications. It’s perfect now, one of a kind.”
The words were almost reverent.
That made it all the more startling when he lifted his hands up overhead, joined them into a massive double fist, then slammed them down on the altar’s broad, flat surface.
I jumped, covering my startled gasp with my hand. I wasn’t as surprised when he struck a second time and this blow sent cracks all throughout the once smooth surface.
“You know, if you had told us you wanted one of your toys destroyed, we could have helped, demon,” Azra called out.
Sam remained silent, one hand resting on my spine just above the small of my back.
Cole ignored Azra as he grabbed a few of the larger stone fragments and hurled them casually to the side. Other pieces started to fall away then, as if those bigger bits had been anchoring them in place.
Sam glanced at me, then with a caution I decided was well warranted, he moved toward Cole, cutting a wide berth so the demon saw him coming.
“Shall I help?” Sam asked in a neutral tone.
Cole’s lips quirked and he glanced at me before offering Sam a short nod.
“I don’t want to help,” Azra muttered, remaining at my side. “Besides, one of us should remain with you for protection.”
“I think I’m safe here, Azra.”
The rage demon had his broad, clawed hands resting on the lip of what proved to be a hollowed out stone base. Only magic could have created such a space, the interior proving to be smooth as glass when I brushed it with my fingers.
“What is this?” I asked softly.
But Cole didn’t answer.
Looking up, I found him focused on Sam and the way the two were watching each other made my skin crawl. “Sam, go wait with your brother.”
He wanted to argue, but resisted.
Cole’s gaze followed Sam until he’d left the platform that had served to display the now-ruined altar. “The things I find myself willing to do for you, Lilith. It astounds me. There are angels free in my territory and I haven’t killed them.”
“I’ll congratulate you later. What’s in here?” I demanded, staring into the gaping hole that rested underneath the altar. All I could see was darkness.
Cole’s slow smile filled me with taut anticipation and I held my breath as he reached in. The backlash of a spell breaking had my hair blowing back. Squinting my eyes as the winds kicked up debris from the magical shattering, I spotted something glinting red.
Blood red.
“Are those…?”
Cole picked up one of the daggers, the blade gleaming, the edge so sharp I thought it might make me bleed by just looking at it. And the red stones…
“Are those what I think they are?” I asked.
Cole started to answer… right as the ground opened up beneath us. Then we were both falling.
Sam screamed my name, but it ended abruptly as the space above our heads sealed over.
Cole’s big, warm arms wrapped around me and he pressed his lips to my ear. “Close your wings. I have you.”