The male nymphs sometimes broke away to kneel between the legs of a woman or man. Their grunts were the only music the nymphs danced to, and the musky aroma of sex and the sweet scent of the prury fruit filled the air.
The candles on the tables and a small fire burning in one corner were the only sources of illumination in the room that was as warm as a late June day. Behind the fire, an open window set high in the wall let the smoke waft out.
I welcomed the warmth and safety of this place, but I was already impatient to leave. This whole place was a giant reminder of what I couldn’t have. My dreams of Wrath had awakened an insatiable hunger in me that would never be satisfied. That reminder caused my hands to fist. I couldn’t wait to kill Wrath so this could all end.
Focused on the show the nymphs performed, few of the demons acknowledged my passing before I slid into the darkened recesses of one of the booths. I shrugged out of my form-fitting, brown coat with its soft padding and warm hood.
My coat fell onto the seat behind me. We’d cleaned ourselves with snow before coming here, but the lingering spots of blood on my coat shone in the light. There was nothing I could do about those stains though.
I settled into the booth and focused on the glass holder in the center of the table. The dancing flame of the candle within cast shadows across the table, and while I was able to block out the spectacle around me, I wasn’t as successful with the sounds and smells.
Staring at that flame, I became mesmerized by the orange and yellow glow as it jumped and danced and twirled. Fire was a part of me. It lived and breathed inside me. Unlike my father, who could wield it at will, I couldn’t create a flame, but I could withstand it.
My mother, a visionary demon, passed on her ability to see things to me. Like my fire ability, my vision wasn’t as strong as it would have been if both my parents were visionary demons or if both were fire demons.
However, I possessed two gifts when most demons only had one. I’d never been sure if it was better to have two not as strong gifts or only one. Over the centuries, I’d come to realize I would never know the answer.
It had been years since I last received a vision, unless I counted the dreams about the darkness, which I didn’t. That wasn’t so much a vision but a consistent warning. When I received normal premonitions, I was awake, and they were often flashes of what was coming, but they never revealed everything.
When I received a vision about Lucifer having a living progeny, I wasn’t shown what the progeny looked like. But I did know to travel to a specific section of the wall and to look for someone with abilities.
I had no idea what those abilities were until the soldiers brought River to the wall. I didn’t know she was the progeny when she arrived, and I hadn’t expected her to be Kobal’s Chosen, but we found her because of my vision. And it was the last one I had.
Corson, Wren, Shax, Hawk, and Aisling settled into the booth with me. The three remaining humans went to the bar while the rest of the palitons paired off with some tree nymphs. Magnus and Amalia had wandered over to a table near the fire. They were talking to a pair of jinn.
The presence of the jinn caused my skin to prickle, but if they were talking to them, then they were probably fighting on our side now. However, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to the idea of relying on a jinni. We’d grown up with the knowledge they were tricksters who were locked behind a seal because they were untrustworthy and caused a lot of chaos in Hell.
The jinn, with their mystical abilities, were something to be wary of whether they were on our side or not. I’d prefer it if they were all dead, except for Amalia, of course. I liked her a lot more than Magnus.
However, there was no denying they were a happy couple as Amalia touched his arm and Magnus looked lovingly down at her. Despite the constant peril of death we faced, all the couples were happy, but then I’d never met a Chosen pair who weren’t happy together.
I’d never given much thought to meeting my Chosen even as my friends were pairing off. If it happened, it happened, and if it didn’t, then I was quite content in my life and with my casual relationships.
Discovering Wrath was my Chosen ruined that, but I wouldn’t let him turn me into something I despised by wallowing in the unfairness of it. I missed the me who existed before the revelation of my Chosen, but I’d lost and missed many things throughout my life.
If the loss of my parents and my little sister hadn’t broken me, the gain of my Chosen definitely wouldn’t.
A stab of sorrow pierced my heart as I recalled the day my parents died. We were fighting one of the many battles we waged against Lucifer without gaining any real ground against him. But then, staying alive and keeping our king safe were victories in themselves.
They killed my mother first. A fallen angel had broken through the ranks and swooped over us; it caught her hair and pulled her off the ground. Even after the many centuries since, I could still clearly recall her startled cry as she twisted in the monster’s grasp.
The angel held her by her hair, a deep shade of black, as he used one of the spikes on his wing to cut off her head. The clashing of swords and shouts of the dying drowned out my anguished cry when her body plummeted to the ground. However, from beside me, I did hear my sister Fiora’s distressed shout.
I didn’t see where my mother’s body landed. Demons scattered to avoid being hit by it as my father’s bellow rebounded off the walls until it resonated endlessly within the cavern. His suffering was so evident in his voice that I still felt it inside me.
Devastated by the loss of his Chosen, my father ran into the craetons blocking our escape from the cavern. I didn’t witness his death, but his sacrifice enabled us to get away. I returned later for his body; Kobal and Corson helped me and Fiora throw him and my mother into the fires of Hell.
If I survived the loss of those two demons who loved me so deeply and who I still loved so much, then I would not allow my fate of having to kill my Chosen beat me down. I’d gotten through the loss of my parents, and later I endured the loss of Fiora, I would get through this too.
Chapter Seven
Bale
“This isan interesting place the nymphs have created,” Shax murmured.
“It’s still strange to see demons in human settings,” Wren said. “Kids used to play basketball in this gym, and now they’rebangingon the free-throw line.”
“They used to play with the parachute here,” Aisling said.
