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What even were they? I could see now that there were more of the creatures in the area like the one that was walking with us now. He had to be a demon, that was the only thing that made sense.
Baal’s talons dug into my arm and I gritted my teeth, just wishing I knew what lay in store for me. The ashy earth beneath my feet kicked up around us, making it appear as though we were walking through smoke. The sky was a deep scarlet, and I looked up at the eerie moon overhead. Why did it even have a moon? Was there a sun as well? After all, it had been daytime back at the Academy.
I shook my head, pushing aside all the random thoughts that I was having. My mind was just going a hundred miles a minute while I tried not to completely freak out.
I was most likely going to die here. There was no escaping this now.
“Tell me, Lily, do you know what you’re the key to?” Baal mused as he dragged me along behind him. The demon creature hopped along with us, grinning with glee as he gave me a wicked look.
“No, honestly, I just wish someone would tell me what the hell is going on. Why does everyone seem to want to kill me?” I whimpered as my vision blurred and my throat tightened once more. My heart hammered like mad, and I blinked away the tears before they could spill.
I needed to remain strong, to remember why I was doing this. I could be strong for the others. I had to be.
“I imagine it’s for the same reason. The angels want you dead for the same reason we want you here,” Baal stated, and I clenched my jaw as I stared hard at the back of his head.
“And what is that?” I ground out as my heart skipped a few beats.
“Well, you see, you were born from a Prince of Hell, as I’m sure you’re well aware of now. But because of this, because you’re only part demon, a special kind of demon, your being can be used as a key to unlock the gates. Of course, we had to wait for your powers to fully awaken, but we didn’t realize that your own father was going to try to hide you from us. He does not have the same goals as us anymore, which saddens me, truth be told,” Baal said with a heavy sigh.
“Unlock the gates?” I asked as I blinked stupidly. Surely, he didn’t mean…
“Yes, Lily. The gates of Hell. The power you hold within you is special. You see, the Princes of Hell are not meant to be able to reproduce. But your father, Asmodeus, somehow managed to. I still don’t understand why, not after he went to the surface to wreak havoc. But there are some things I’m just not meant to understand,” he said with a shrug.
I frowned at this. So that’s why my father had been on earth. But somehow, he’d ended up with my mother instead. I’d wondered how they’d met.
“The angels want you dead because you’re capable of opening the gates. And we want you here so that we can sacrifice you to open the gates. You’re the key to our release, the chance at freedom. After all, us demons are meant to wreak havoc on earth. We get great joy in it. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been allowed out of Hell. It took me a lot of power and pulling a lot of strings in order to come up and find you. I’ve been waiting for your powers to awaken for some time, and I still don’t quite understand what happened with Astaroth and your mother. He died that day when he learned of your existence, but we still managed to get word of Asmodeus’ offspring,” Baal said as he paused and turned back to me. “Do you know what happened that day?”
I was still processing everything else he’d said, but I shook my head. I still had no idea what had really happened that day, how my mother managed to take out that Prince of Hell. I was sure it was thanks to my father lending her his own power, but I wasn’t certain. That was just an assumption of mine.
But my mind was focused on one other thing.
He intended to sacrifice me. That terrified me to my very core, and I drew in a few shaky breaths as my legs started to buckle.
“Well, no matter. You’re here now,” Baal said as he continued on, jerking me after him and causing a spike of pain to shoot up my arm. I stumbled along, tears stinging my eyes as the realization started to dawn on me.
We walked in silence to the large red boulders, and as we got closer, I could see they resembled an ancient stone circle, just much more terrifying. Demons were standing around it, some jumping up and down as they made horrid sounds of delight, and a pit settled in my stomach.
This wasn’t good.
I swallowed back my fear, wracking my brain for any solution or any way out of this.
How would I even get away from here? If I were to somehow escape Baal, how would I escape Hell?
Could he make his shadow creatures return to the Academy with a click of his fingers? I had no idea. Was I really willing to risk that?
My shoulders slumped. No. Even if I was scared beyond belief, and the thought of being sacrificed terrified me to my core, I was not about to risk my friends or my hellhounds.
Everyone at the Academy—the teachers, students, my hellhound—they’d all given me a new lease on life.
I had to do this for them.
But at the same time, opening the gates of Hell? What would that entail? From what Baal said, it sounded like the demons would be unleashed upon earth. There were not enough demonics around to handle that. Would the angels step in?
Maybe I did have to escape. Risk the Academy and all my friends. It was either that or tarnish the entire world with demons. And from everything I’d read from the history books, that would be the full-blown apocalypse.
I did not want to be the reason for that, and I was sure the rest of the Academy would understand. It was our duty to protect humanity from demons. That was what we were taught, and it was why we were allowed to live.
As much as none of us wanted to die, we would in order to save the world.
