“I don’t know. We weren’t exactly part of the inner circle. That is reserved for the angels alone. Sometimes, I thinktheydon’t even know what he plans.”
The craeton spoke the truth, I knew it. No matter how badly I wanted to make him suffer for his betrayal by cutting him into little pieces, I didn’t have time for it. If Lucifer hadn’t left Hell with River, I could think of only one place he would take her. However, if I was wrong, we would be far from here, and the gateway, should he try to reclaim the throne or decide to flee Hell.
I glanced at the hounds behind me as I came to my decision. “Let the hounds have him.”
“Wait…” The demon started to sputter. “I… no… I…” His protests turned into a scream as Verin and Morax released him and the hounds pounced on him. His screams ended when Crux tore his head from his body and tossed it to Phenex who gulped it down.
I turned to face the rest of the demons gathered within the throne room. “Half the troops will remain here to keep watch for Lucifer’s return. Morax, you will stay with them to let me know if Lucifer returns. The hounds will search through the tunnels and chambers of Hell for her. The rest of the demons will come with me.”
“Where?” Bale asked.
“We’ll be returning to the seals.”
CHAPTER 22
River
My head pounded like someone wearing boots jumped up and down on it, but the pounding was nothing compared to the chill permeating my bones. My teeth chattered and goose bumps covered my skin. My eyes were frozen shut. I attempted to huddle deeper into myself for warmth, but that small movement made it feel as if fissures erupted over my bones.
I tried to recall what had happened, where I was, but all I felt was the unending frost and the agony. A single tear slid free and froze almost instantly on my cheek.
“Someone is finally awake,” a voice murmured, and a finger brushed the tear away.
My scream caught in my throat as pins and needles fired across my skin where the finger touched. I would have welcomed fifty more stomping boots over this sensation.
“Why won’t she open her eyes?” a female voice demanded.
“Because, dear Onoskelis, she is in pain,” another voice purred.
“Nothing to be done about that,” the first replied. My head stopped pounding long enough for me to realize Lucifer was the first speaker.
Onoskelis had been the angel who tried to kill Hawk, or maybe she had succeeded in killing him. I hurt too badly to fully grasp the memories tumbling through my mind.
I didn’t know how it was possible to be this cold in Hell. I wouldn’t be surprised to open my eyes and find out we’d left Hell and they’d taken me to Antarctica where they’d placed me naked in the middle of an iceberg.
If I wasn’t in Hell anymore, how would I get away from them if they had taken me somewhere so remote that only a winged creature could make it there?
The way I felt now, it was impossible to draw on either fire or life to fight them off. If they’d removed me from Hell, and somehow stripped me of all my abilities, how would Kobal find me if I couldn’t reach out to him in a dream?
Breathe. Stay calm and think.Learn your surroundings.
Still unable to open my eyes, I picked up details about my environment from my other senses. The ground was hard and freezing, or was the freezing just me? Either way, it was hard and it was also smooth. On the air, I scented power, but also the coppery tang of blood and the stench of decay.
Would Antarctica smell like death? I had always pictured it smelling like crisp snow, but what did I know? Maybe penguins smelled as bad as they looked cute. I didn’t think that was the answer as beneath my fingers I tried to draw life from my surroundings, but no spark came.
Antarctica may be the land of ice, but it still teemed with life. The world felt as dead to me as I felt cold.
Panic crushed my shallow breaths from my lungs. Had Lucifer somehow managed to sever my tie to life? Even as I considered it, I knew I was wrong. I was frozen and miserable, but there would be something worse inside of me if my angelic connection to life had broken. There would be an emptiness so complete that I would be more like him than me.
Then what is going on?
I had to open my eyes to discover the answer to that. Bracing myself, I somehow managed to pull my lids apart enough to see a sliver of my surroundings. The floor before me was silver with maroon streaking across it. Something black twisted around me, blocking most of my view. The black moved too fast to make out what it was.
“Aw, there she is.” Lucifer’s face appeared before mine. His cheek rested on the floor so that we were eye level with each other when he grinned at me. His flesh no longer fell off him, but puckered scars marred his face, and his skin color resembled a lobster fresh from the pot.
The pinky of his hand nearly touched my nose as he gazed at me and batted the thick lashes of his rejuvenated eyelids. This close, I could see the insanity looming within the onyx eyes only inches from mine.
This fallen angel, the reason for my existence and my powers, was nuttier than squirrel shit.
