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Kai looks away, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I did, but I’m also sure the court will support it. He led hundreds of men to their death, Alice. They’re not exactly happy with him at the present moment. He needs to step down if his judgment is clouded.”
“His decision-making is fine. He’s justflawed.I warned you that he set up Asmodeus. He threw his son away the moment he stopped supporting his every whim. You labeled yourself his enemy. Do you truly think the blood in your veins is going to keep the peace? He’ll just start over and have another child. He’s done it once already. What makes you any different?”
Before I can finish the sentence, he’s up and crossing the room, eyes burning as if I’ve set him on fire. “I didn’t incinerate everyone within the castle. The only people out of the two hundred or so, guards, staff,visitors,you name it, who survived were my parents. I don’t care what my father did for Asmodeus to react that way, but almost all the people he killed that day were innocent. He could’ve found a different way. Our mother would’ve died had it not been for my father shielding her with his body. So tell me, oh greatPrincess of Hell. Do you still feel as if my brother is some wronged, abandoned puppy?”
Oddly enough, I do. Kai was never spellbound. He doesn’t understand. I’d be willing to bet that Asmodeus seeing his mother get hurt was enough to break the binding, just like it did for me. It’s a maddening feeling when it snaps, and it took Kai almost dying–or believing he had–for mine to break. I leveled an entire forest to ashes.
Still, to this day, I’ve never felt that out of control. I’ve never harnessed that much power in one go. I’ve tried duplicating it and it’s impossible. After seeing Asmodeus’ face in his mother’s memories, I don’t think he meant to hurt those people. That didn’t look like a murderer.
He scoffs, flipping his hands up in the air and letting them slap back to his sides as he backs away. “You still don’t see him as a villain, do you?”
“No. I don’t. I see someone who fought like hell to survive when everyone he cared about abandoned him. I believe him. I’ve seen what he’s talked about regarding your father with my own eyes. It’s a little hard to deny that.” My chest pulls tight as power rises to swarm within me. I’ve always hated goodbyes… This won’t be the exception, no matter how pissed I am at him.
“Then maybe the council is right. Maybe you have gone mad.”
“Damn… Don’t hold back on me now.” I roll my eyes. “You know, there was a time that would’ve hurt. Then I found out you knew where my parents have been this entire time. So, who is manipulating me again? You or your father? In time, you’ll see I’m doing this for us. Until then…”
Lifting the pocket watch in my hand, I hit the button.This better fucking work…Closing my eyes, I focus on the castle as a whole, not Kai. Lucifer might’ve had his plan, but mine is better. It protects the bastard I love from his own flesh and blood while allowing him time to convince the court he’s capable of being King. Hell, he’ll even have proof. It’s the best shot he has at earning their votes. It’s the best we have to save Finn, too. Even if it makes me the villain in the process.
A boom sounds as the castle shakes beneath my feet. Still, I focus. I put everything I have into making sure the whole thing gets sucked inside the prison world. With the lords and village masters spelled inside their rooms, they’ll go with it. The castle staff will be collateral damage, coming along for the ride, but the important part is all the proof Kai needs to convince the court is inside a glass coffin in the basement and Lucifer will be locked outside. He’ll remain in the real world, trapped inside my boundary along with the rest of Hell Hold.
I’m only capable of saving one person at a time, and right now Finn is the one in the hot seat. Lucifer wanted me to thrust Kai into the watch alone for a reason. He wanted me to do his dirty work for him and eliminate the threat to his position. I won’t be his chess piece. He’s a threat to Kai, and that makes him my enemy. I’ve just been too blind to see it.
“Alice! Stop!” Kai shouts, grabbing onto my shoulders are power swirls through the air, making it smell sickeningly sweet. “What are you doing!?”
“I’m making the best play with the cards I have,” I say as the rumbling shutters to a stop. Peeking open my eyes, I find everything cast in an eerie blue hue. The windows are there, but where we used to be able to see the town has been replaced by pure white. I did it…I think.
Not wasting a moment, I dart out the door, sprinting through the hall and down the steps until I hit the foyer floor. Everything is here. The people. The castle.Ifucking did it.
“Alice! What did you do?” Kai nearly growls out the words, making my skin prick as he steps up behind me. “I want an answernow,princess.”
Waving my hand, I break the enchantment on the guest rooms, setting the lords free. “I’d love to explain, but I need to run. Your father isn’t going to be happy with me, but I will leave you with this. All the evidence you need is with your mother downstairs. I’ll be back soon.”
Kai visibly shakes as he reaches for me, the darkness surging in his eyes. I don’t wait to find out what he plans next. I jolt backward, gripping the pocket watch and seeing myself out.
I suck in a sharp breath as my feet land in the real world, standing in what’s left of the garden. To my right is a massive gaping hole where the castle used to be.Fuck…it literally took the whole thing. I thought it would be a replica–as Lucifer said. When I altered the threads of the spell to take everyone inside versus one person, it must’ve changed its process, too.
“Luri. We gotta go.” I mutter, knowing she can hear me wherever she is inside the town. “We goota gonow.”I book it toward the boundary border behind where the castle used to be, snatching the knife out of the holster on my thigh and slicing my palm. I make quick work, forming the bubble as I spot Luri gallivanting across the edge of the town. The hole pops and I slide halfway through, ushering her to move faster.
Lucifer appears near where the steps of the castle once met the cobblestone. A missing castle is a pretty good sign that I played the Devil like a fiddle, and the moment his blood-red eyes find mine, I know he’s ready to shred souls from existence.
Double fuck…
“We gotta go!”Luri screams inside my head as she reaches the bubble, slipping out into the unknown with our bag clenched in her teeth. I busy my hands bringing down the hole, but as the barrier knits itself closed, Lucifer slams into the barrier. Sharp talons miss my skin by a sliver as the barrier sews itself shut. It connects with his arm, scorching it and sending the smell of seared flesh wafting through the air. He hisses and yanks backward, pulling his arm free as the barrier seals, becoming impenetrable.
“Little Alice… What have you done?” Goosebumps pebble the surface of my skin, and I take a step backward. “And here I thought of you like family.”
“Funny… Seeing what you did to yours, I’m not sure I want that honor.”
His chest swells as his clawed hands grab at the barrier. The cellophane surface bends in his grip but the moment he lets go, it pops back in place. That shit isn’t coming down foranyone.I made sure of it.
“Leave him. Let’s go. We’re late as shit and nothing he’ll have to say will be good.”
Luri has a point. Watching him pace with blood-red eyes, crimson-colored hands, and twisted horns, I follow her toward the edge of the forest of lost souls, scared to look away from the monster he’s become.
“I have a feeling I won’t be welcome back,” I say as we near the trees.
“We were never welcome to begin with. They tolerated us, Alice. Let’s play heroes, even if they see us as the bad guys. Let’s save Finn and worry about the rest later…“
