Chapter 24
SIMONE
Ican’t believe I was taken from everything I know again. Just as I started getting used to my life with Az, the whole thing imploded.
Asmodeus. Archdemon. Evil.
None of those words seem to fit the man I spent the last three years with.
He was my lover. The father of my unborn child.
I lean my head back, resting it against one of the bars trapping me.
If I were to look down, I’d see the eternal flames of damnation—something I never thought I’d see, something I never wished to see.
But it’s better than looking at the other cage.
For hours, Az was gripping the bars of his cage as if there wasn’t empty space between us. Then again, he can fly. As an archdemon, he’s probably capable of much more than that.
“Can you get us out of here?” I ask him with a voice that sounds hollow to my own ears, speaking to him for the first time since the Devil—the actual diable Satané—locked us in these cages.
Az shakes his head. I’ve never seen him look so defeated.
“I’m afraid not, little fairy,” he says just loud enough to carry over the infernal wailing. “These are no ordinary cages. There is only one way out of the Pits for us.”
My hands clench into fists. “Selling my soul to you? An archdemon?”
Az—Asmodeus—clicks his tongue. “It’s not a terrible idea, Simone. Regardless of Sataniel’s murky motivation. It ensures virtual immortality for both you and our child.”
I get angry all over again.
“And what were your motivations?” I hiss, moving closer on all fours. I want to feel like I’m screaming in his face. “Do you honestly even care about our baby? The… He said you have more than you can count already!
“Of course I care!” he growls, his green-gray eyes blazing at me. “Simone, you and our baby are everything to me now. I even stopped caring about my territory. I already left my court to fend for themselves.”
I scoff in disbelief. “Territory. Court. You’re nowhere close to who I thought you were. You lied about everything!”
“Not everything.” His eyes slide away from mine as if he can’t hold my gaze. “I am the son of a fallen angel. Samael was one of the first to fall. And that necklace you’re wearing. Lilith did give me that eons ago. Though I haven’t seen her for almost as long,” he adds bitterly.
Lilith. The Devil did mention she’s Az’s mother. All these creatures from myth, coming to life around me. Incroyable.
“And I didn’t lie about my feelings for you, little fairy.” He’s pleading with me now, his voice anguished, his eyebrows slanted with earnestness.
“If you truly cared, you would have told me sooner. You would have told me before I let you touch me.”
He actually flinches. I just made an ancient archdemon flinch.
“I wanted to tell you,” he says so quietly I can barely hear him. “I finally got your affection. I couldn’t stand to see it turn into disgust. I couldn’t bear to see you look at me the way you’re looking at me right now.”
My eyes fill with tears of anger and frustration. “The way I’m looking at you now has everything to do with the fact that you lied to me and got us into this position!”
Az tries to rattle the bars of his cage, but it’s like they’re made of titanium. “Then let’s get out of it.”
“How?” I wail. “I don’t want to lose my soul!”
He shakes his head. “You won’t lose your soul, little fairy. While it will belong to me as long as you’re alive, it won’t be separated from you.”
I frown at his choice of words. “As long as I’m alive? And when I’m not?”
I swear he blanches. “I’ll never let that happen, Simone. Never.”
“But if it does?” I insist.
Az sighs. “Then it will return here. Until the universe is no more.”
It’s a good thing I’m sitting down, or I might faint. As if being condemned to Purgatory wasn’t bad enough, I’d have to burn in these fires forever?
“And you? Where would you go?”
His lips curl into a grimace. “Celestials have no souls. We have no afterlife.”
“I’d rather have no afterlife than one like this,” I deadpan.
Lucifer’s seductive voice suddenly sounds over the screams of the damned.
“Funny. Your brother just made that deal for himself and his mortal, Asmodai.”
Az frowns, looking perplexed. “Ashtaroth? A mortal? What deal?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention?” the Devil asks. “Time passes differently here. It’s been months in the other realms. Your brother has found himself his own mortal. A spicy redhead.”
It’s my turn to frown. “Lana? With an archdemon? I don’t believe it.”
“Would I lie?” Lucifer chuckles. “Of course I would. But I’m not.”
“What deal?” Az asks again, a calculating look in his eyes.
Lucifer’s disembodied sigh winds its way through the molten cavern. “He came begging to destroy them both if the Nephalem perished. And humans say romance is dead.”
Az nods as if this all makes sense. Nothing makes sense, if you ask me.
“You said months have passed, My Prince. Then my subordinates have been left unattended for even longer than I thought. It will be chaos in my territory.”
“Oh, yes,” the Devil says gleefully. “Rifts opened. You were blamed. Ashtaroth’s mortal nearly perished. Belial’s scheming landed him in a neighboring pit.”
The archdemon who lied to me for three years blinks at the information. I only care about one thing. “Is Lana alright?”
“Yes, yes,” Lucifer says as if the question bores him. “She agreed to the soul binding easily enough.”
I can’t believe Lana fell in love with an archdemon. Or maybe I can. After all, I likely beat her to it, and she was always braver than I am.
“I… I need to talk to Az—” I choke on his name. “I need to talk to Asmodeus. Please.”
A moment of silence. “Very well.”
I don’t even notice how heavy the air is when Lucifer is around until he’s gone and I can breathe easier.
“This would truly help protect the baby?” I ask Az once we’re alone.
He’s watching me carefully. “Yes. Until he or she is born.”
“And when they’re born?” I ask for clarification.
“When they’re born, we will both protect them until they’re strong enough to come into their powers.”
Powers. What kind will the baby have? Will they be more like their father or more like me? I remember what Lucifer said back at the manor. About Asmodeus being the father of all sex demons. “Will they be an… incubus?”
Az purses his lips. “They will likely feed on desire and pleasure in some way, yes.”
Mon Dieu. I’m giving birth to a demon. An entity I always considered an enemy.
“If I do this, if we do this, it doesn’t mean I forgive you,” I state after a minute, my voice hard and cold. “I can’t just forgive your lies. But I don’t want this baby to be born here.”
He closes his eyes, one hand coming up to his chest. “At least tell me you’ll let me prove myself to you. Even if it takes the eternity we’ll be bound together to do so.”
I don’t answer him. I can’t. My mind is racing, exhausted from one bombshell after another.
“I need to think,” I tell him, closing my eyes so I don’t have to see the expression on his face. It’s raw in a way I never expected to see from my kidnapper. An archdemon. It hurts my heart, and I can’t let it make my decisions for me right now. I need to do what’s best for my baby.