Chapter 23
ARAN
The moment they vanish, the room goes still.
The light of the leyline still pulses, thin and wavering, but their presence has gone, swallowed by the tear in reality as if they were never there at all. And the guards… are still standing there.
For a heartbeat, no one moves. No one even breathes.
They were meant to follow. Meant to step through seconds behind Daisy and Maelkar.
Instead, they remain frozen at the edge of the circle, weapons half-raised, expressions caught somewhere between readiness and utter confusion.
One of them looks down at his own boots, as if expecting the floor to give way beneath him, belatedly. It doesn’t.
Velentha’s hand is still pressed to the stone flooring, her body visibly trembling as the last beads of blood drip into the cracks. “She’s through,” she whispers. “It worked.” But her voice wavers.
She notices them too. Her gaze lifts slowly from the circle to the unmoved formation of guards, disbelief washing over her features. “They… didn’t go,” she breathes.
I stare at the space where Daisy stood a breath ago, then at the guards, then back again. The ghost of her light fades from the air like smoke, leaving only cold emptiness behind. Something feels wrong.
Lucifer shifts where he’s leaning against the doorframe, eyes narrowing as he takes in the scene. “Well, that was anticlimactic. You’d think crossing three realms would make more noise or something.”
“Shut up,” I snap before I can stop myself. The words crack through the chamber, sharp with rising panic.
He lifts his hand in mock surrender, but the smirk on his face falters as the runes on the floor flicker.
Velentha suddenly pitches forwards, digging her fingers into the etched circle to steady herself.
Sweat beads along her temple, streaking through the faint dust on her skin, stands of onyx hair clinging damply to her cheek.
“No… no, no no. That’s not right.”
“What’s happening?” I move towards her instinctively, but she throws out a shaking arm to hold me back.
“The line isn’t closing properly on this side,” she mutters. “It’s fighting.”
The runes flare a deep, unnatural blue—jagged and unstable, like lightning trapped beneath ice. Cracks splinter between the symbols, spidering outwards across the stone floor.
Lucifer straightens fully, tension sharpening his posture. “That supposed to happen, V?”
“No.” Her eyes glow faintly as she presses her bleeding palm flat to the stone again. “Something’s interfered with the passage.” Her gaze flicks again to the guards, horror dawning. “They were meant to cross too,” she whispers. “The line rejected them.”
Corin shifts uneasily. “My lady… we stepped forwards. It was like hitting a wall. The air just—” He falters, clearly shaken. “—refused to let us pass.”
My stomach drops. “They went through without backup,” I murmur, the words tasting like ash.
A violent pulse shudders through the circle, rattling the floor beneath our feet.
Dust trickles from the crumbling ceiling.
Lucifer swears softly behind me. Panic coils tight in my chest as reality settles in deep.
No escort. No protection. Just Daisy and Maelkar dropped into a realm under divine attack.
“Try bringing her back,” I practically shout, my heart pounding furiously.
Velentha looks up, silver eyes wild. “If I reopen the line without a full anchor, it could rip the entire tower apart. I’d be dragging the leyline through the walls of Hell itself.”
“Then use me,” I snap. “Use my blood, my magic. Whatever it takes.”
“You don’t understand,” she says, voice trembling. “If she’s already crossed, it won’t pull her back. It’ll pull us through. And if the other side is closed—”
“—We’ll be stuck.”
“Or worse.”
The pulse of light flickers again, and I swear I hear it—an echo through the stone, faint and terrible. A heartbeat that isn’t Daisy’s.
Lucifer steps closer, eyes narrowing. “That’s not her frequency.”
Velentha nods stiffly. “No. That’s someone else.”
The pulse stutters, then goes still. The leyline seal burns out like a candle, leaving only smoke curling in the air. And then, there’s nothing. No hum of magic, no trace of her anywhere. Just the quiet hiss of extinguished power.
Velentha sinks to her knees, staring at the blackened sigils on the floor. “The leylines entirely gone.”
“She’s not dead,” I snap, too quickly. I can’t even let that thought take shape. “You said if the passage failed, she’d be flung into the gap. That means she’s somewhere.”
Velentha lifts her gaze to mine, her expression hollow. “Aran, the gap isn’t a place. It’s absence. It’s nothing.”
I shake my head violently. “No. You’re wrong.”
Lucifer exhales a long, slow breath, dragging his fingers through his hair. “Well. That went tits up fast.”
“Lucifer!” Velentha hisses.
“What? We all thought it. I just had the courtesy to say it out loud.” His tone hardens under the flippancy. “If that line’s fully shut down, it means someone on the other side knew she was coming, and they’ve fucked her chance of returning.”
The thought hits like a blade to the gut. Kaelith. He must’ve known.
“She’s alive.” I crouch beside Velentha. “I know she’s alive. I’d feel it if she weren’t.”
Her lips part, but she doesn’t argue. Either because she knows better, or because she wants to believe it, too.
Lucifer moves towards the small window, peering out at the darkness of Zeriavoss beyond. “You really think he’d betray her?”
I’ll give Lucifer this—he’s very good at hiding what he feels.
But not flawless. Up close, the cracks are obvious.
The tight pulse jumping in his jaw where he’s grinding his teeth.
The way his hand keeps flexing at his side, fingers curling and uncurling as if he’s resisting the urge to grab something or break something.
His knuckles are bleached nearly white from the pressure, tendons standing out sharply beneath pale skin.
To anyone else, he probably looks bored.
Mildly irritated, at worst. I know better.
The air around him feels… volatile. Like standing too close to a storm that’s on the verge of breaking.
Because it isn’t just Daisy trapped out there.
It’s Maelkar too. His… whatever they are.
Partner? Problem? The one person in the realms who can needle him into actual emotions without immediately being incinerated for it?
“Kaelith?” I ask. “He’s been smiling through every meeting since the start. Too smooth. Daisy was right to distrust him.”
“Then we’ve walked her into a trap.” Velentha’s voice is a whisper, her voice shaking. “Gods forgive me. I sent her there.”
I grab her wrist, pulling her to her feet. “You didn’t know.”
“She trusted me,” she says, her voice cracking. “I told her it would be safe. I felt it would be safe. But when I reached for the future, there was static. Nothing but haze. I should’ve seen through it.”
I release her slowly. “We all should have.” The silence that follows feels suffocating.
Lucifer turns back, his cool, calm, and collected facade gone. “So, what now? We sit on our flaming arses and wait for another royal funeral?”
I straighten at his words. “We find a way through.”
Velentha looks up sharply, her mouth pressed in a firm line. “The line is gone, Aran. Whatever blocked it, wasn’t a natural failure. It was sealed on purpose.”
“Then we unseal it.”
“Aran—”
“No!” The shout tears from my throat before I can stop it. “I am not losing her too.”
Velentha’s gaze lingers on me for a moment before she nods, knowing exactly what I meant. “We’ll find a way.”
Lucifer snorts. “Sure. Maybe we just dig through the floor and crawl to Aurora’s Veil.”
Velentha’s head snaps towards him. “Actually…”
He blinks. “That was a joke.”
“The leylines run under Hell too,” she says, half to herself. “Buried deeper than even the caverns of Gehenna. If I could trace one, just one thread that hasn’t been tainted by the curse…”
“You think you could use it?” I question.
“I could try. It would take time, and power. More than I have alone.”
Lucifer’s grin returns, sharp enough to draw blood. It’s all polished cruelty and dangerous amusement. “Darling,” he says smoothly, “if there’s one thing I have in abundance, it’s power.” His words carry that familiar velvet menace, but there’s an edge beneath them now.
Velentha arches a brow, studying him carefully. I can tell she’s trying to determine whether this is genuine or just another performance. “You’d help?”
He gives a careless shrug. “I like the girl,” he replies lightly. “And if Kaelith’s behind this, I’d quite enjoy setting his precious aurora castle on fire.”
The images of his frozen empire burning under hellfire is almost enough to make me smile. “Nothing to do with that boyfriend of yours?” I smirk, unable to resist.
Lucifer’s blood-red eyes snap to mine, narrowing into thin, dangerous slits.
The temperature in the room rises several degrees in an instant.
Every instinct I have screams at me that I’ve just poked something very volatile.
I immediately look away, clearing my throat like that will somehow erase the last five seconds.
I am not in the mood to be punched in the face right now.
“Then we move fast,” I say quickly, stepping towards the circle again before he can decide to kick my ass. “We’ll trace the leylines beneath Hell. If Daisy’s alive, we’ll open the leyline on this side so we can bring her back.”
“Them back.” Lucifer growls.
I nod, grimacing at the way I just casually left Maelkar out of the rescue plan. It’s not intentional. It’s just… my thoughts are all on her. On the possbility that I could lose her. No. Not going there.
Velentha rises slowly, pushing herself to her feet with visible effort. Exhaustion drags at her posture, but she forces her shoulders back, spine straightening through sheer will alone. “Then we begin now. I’ll need my grimoire, and—”