Chapter 42 #2
“You pass those beautiful eyes to our daughter, and though she looks more like me, I have a feeling she is like you in every other way. Pragmatic. Patient. Protective.” Nick’s mouth again falls, and he starts blinking rapidly.
“Our son will have my impulsiveness, I know it,” I continue, noting the way his gaze turns glassy and his entire countenance softens.
“And your love for Rocky Road ice cream and chess,” Nick adds, and I let out something between a laugh and a sob.
He pulls me in for a hug, and when he draws back, his eyes are wide. “Rhi, how are you alive?”
“Once, you told me nothing from you can harm me, not your touch nor blade nor power. I remembered what you said and used it. You gifted me the blade I used to pierce my heart. It put me in a stasis, but it did not kill me.”
Nick swallows, eyes somehow growing wider as they take in the turmoil surrounding us. “What is this?”
“It’s your rage manifested,” I explain. “You have to stop this, Nick. You are destroying the entire realm of Hell, starting with the Throne room and everyone in it.”
Horror coats his expression. “Scar, the girls… Fuck.” He trembles within my arms. “I don’t…I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do!”
“Look at me,” I instruct, making sure his attention is nowhere else but my face. “I want you to close your eyes. Breathe. Think of nothing except you and me and the long life we have together. Think of the children we want and will have. Think of how happy we will be.”
Nick does exactly what I say, and I can feel his heartbeat slow and even out.
The onyx bubble slowly becomes transparent, the crimson lightning fading and the faces of the Demons and the girls coming into view.
They huddle by the door, surrounded by rubble, their faces covered in dust. Baal and Belial stand in front of them, their arms splayed wide, a hint of shimmering blue emanating from their fingertips.
Lucifer is right where I left him, inches from the barrier. Azrael is nowhere to be seen.
“Nick,” I whisper. “Open your eyes.”
Those golden eyes enlarge as he takes in the damage to the Throne room, to his father, who simply dusts dirt and rubble from his suit, as though the room nearly collapsing was a minor inconvenience, before he finally turns to glimpse Baal and Belial, who clearly created a protective barrier to shield our friends.
Nick chokes before falling to his knees.
“Impressive display of power, son,” Lucifer says. “Perhaps next time, keep your wrath focused on the true enemy, hm?”
Nick doesn’t take his attention from the girls, but I skewer Lucifer with a glare. “And where is said enemy?”
Lucifer grins. “I had a quick word with the Almighty; I had to inform him of the impending end of Earth and those mortals he loves so much. Azrael grossly overstepped, and will be punished accordingly.”
“So that’s where you disappeared to,” Belial says, approaching us as he dusts himself off. Baal follows close behind, reaching an arm out for Nick to grab and hoisting him up.
“Nick?” Scar’s trembling voice calls out.
Nick nods, taking slow steps towards his sister before she breaks out into a run and throws her arms around him.
Zo peers around their embrace and spots me. “Rhi?”
I smile and awkwardly wave. “Hi.”
She bounds towards me, Astrid and B close on her heels. They wrap me in a hug, and one more body joins the fray as Scarlett enters the group.
“How?” Astrid asks.
We finally pull back, and I sigh. “A long story. I will tell you when we get back.”
Lucifer clears his throat. “Which you must do now.”
“Don’t gotta tell me twice,” Zo quips, taking a startled B’s hand to drag her toward the door. She turns when she realizes no one else is following her. “The fuck you all waiting for?”
Nick wraps an arm around my waist as Astrid slings an arm around Scar’s shoulder, and we head toward the broken Throne room doors. He gives his father a slight nod, which Lucifer returns, and smiles at Baal before he addresses Belial.
“You’ll take care of her?” he asks, and I know without asking he refers to Isa.
“I will protect her. You have my word.”
They shake hands, and Nick and I follow the girls out of the Throne room, out of the castle, and towards the Black Woods to meet Hecate.
“It’s over,” he says as the night sky greets us, the brine-scented air bringing a surge of salt and safety.
The girls are a few feet ahead, laughing and talking amongst themselves.
“It is,” I agree, and for the first time, I believe it.
He presses a kiss to my temple, dipping his mouth so he nuzzles my ear. “You saw them, then? Our children?”
I turn to him, smiling. “I did. I saw them first in your memories when I bit you, and then our daughter came to me during the Trials. She told me I made the right decision in saving Isadora.”
“I wondered if you knew,” he says. Obsidian blankets the approaching horizon, and I know we are only steps from the Black Woods, to going home.
“When Isa returned from the Harrowing, she told me of the girl, and I knew immediately it was our daughter.” Nick smiles back before his grin turns a bit wicked. “And I can’t wait to practice making them.”
I laugh and push him playfully. “Well, we are going to be practicing for a long time yet, Nicholas.”
His answering laugh is music to my ears. “I can live with that.”
A lone figure stands at the entrance to the Black Woods, her red hair dancing like flames in the gentle breeze.
“Hello,” she greets musically.
“Nice to see you again, Hecate,” I say.
B rises on her toes to peer over Hecate’s shoulder. “Those vicious Beasts aren’t going to be another fucking problem, are they?”
Hecate chuckles and nods in my direction. “The Hell Beasts have taken a liking to your friend. They will not harm you as long as you walk with her.”
The girls let out a sigh of relief and exchange excited glances as they follow Hecate beyond the edge of the woods.
Nick squeezes my hand. “Let’s go home.”
I take the hand of my husband, my soulmate, the man I followed into Hell, and finally follow him home.