How could one lowly angel possibly escape something like that?
Ereshkigal circled me until she reached my front again. She trailed her fingers over my collar bone, down to the upside-down cross on my chest. “This mark ties you to his son. Yes?”
I kept still, afraid to speak. One of Ereshkigal’s claws jabbed the soft underside of my chin, forcing my face up.
“I asked you a question, lovely little bird.”
Looking into her eyes was like staring into a void like Azazel’s, but there were no stars. There was an infinite nothing inside her.
“Yes.” I rasped the word, almost choking on my tongue to get the word out.
Ereshkigal stroked my hair again, smoothing it like I was a doll. “You brought her for me, didn’t you, lover? It’s the least you could’ve given me after what I gave you.” As though sensing Satan’s reticence, she turned to look at him, her eyes glazing over a misty white as she became old again. “My own husband’s body. The body of a king.”
A muscle ticked in Satan’s jaw, but he kept his eyes on Ereshkigal. “I brought her for you,” he said, but the malice that burned behind his eyes wasn’t just for me anymore.
No matter what she gave him, he’d hate anyone who took what he wanted.
Ereshkigal’s hair suddenly became dark and glossy. Her wings, so similar to mine, brushed me gently as she passed.
“Let’s find this pretty bird a cage,” she called.
Perfectly on cue, several Irkallan demons rushed to obey her orders, cranking a pulley.
A cage descended from the ceiling as my stomach sank.
It was a perfect bird cage of ebonite, with thin wire bars I would just be able to wrap my hands around.
A cage to watch my life end from.
One of the demons descended and opened the cage door, looking at me expectantly.
I remembered Azazel telling me I was nothing but a bird, a frightened little sparrow. That I wasn’t worthy of being called an angel again.
My knees stiffened. I dug my heels into the floor, refusing to move. I wasn’t going into that cage of my own accord.
Ereshkigal sighed. “Just like her.”
Tendrils of pure shadow crept out from her skin, wrapping around me and squeezing so hard the breath was pushed out of my lungs.
All I could think of was keeping my shield around Sarai as she tightened her grip, the blood pressure pounding in my skull and threatening to burst.
The shadow tendrils tossed me into the cage. I threw out of my hands, preventing my face from being smashed against a bar and breaking my nose, but my shoulder made a crunching sound that was followed by a jabbing pain.
The demon threw the cage door shut behind me. I whirled around, red-faced and gasping for breath, and tried to shake it loose, but the demon just shook his head.
The door didn’t open. I had a feeling the ebonite had been made with the essence of being unbreakable.
With a jolt, the cage shuddered and rose several feet off the floor, ascending until I was level with Ereshkigal’s face.
Satan looked at me behind her back, envy gleaming in his eyes.
“I’ll keep your lover alive,” she told me gently. “I understand how it feels.”
The Queen of the Dead drifted back to Lucifer, her shadow tendrils scooping him off the floor and holding his unconscious body aloft.
She pressed a clawed hand over his chest, her fingers spread wide.
I watched with amazement and trepidation as the red streaks of blood poisoning receded and the wounds began to heal, leaving pale scars behind. She couldn’t be doing this out of the kindness of her heart.
I’d looked into her eyes, right into her soul. There was no kindness in that void.
The cage rose another few feet. I gripped the bars, trying to keep myself upright through the pain.
Where are you?
They had to feel me. Surely they felt me through the bond, and yet… there was nothing on the other end.
“There.” Ereshkigal took her hand away as faint color slowly bloomed on Lucifer’s bloodless skin. “He lives.”
She looked up at me as her shadows lowered him to the floor again. “I think he’ll make wonderful entertainment for us.” The Queen smiled at Satan adoringly. If there were any feelings inside her, it was only love for him and his evil. “He’ll fight for you, and that’s how you’ll know he loves you. If he lives.”
What kind of sick, twisted version of love was that?
I glanced at Inanna’s body again. Had she been forced to watch and fight for the poor ancient demon she’d come here for?
There were so many bodies on that wall. One of them looked vaguely familiar- enormous leathery wings pinned wide, but even in death, he was still covered with a haze of shadows, rippling off his corpse like veils of night.
The Queen followed my gaze. She stepped closer to Satan, raking her claws through his hair now. He set his jaw, snaking a hand around her waist as she withered again. Ereshkigal leaned her head against his shoulder, her wrinkled lips pouched outwards.
“Ah, my ungrateful son. You won’t disappoint me like he did, will you? He was such a lovely man, such beautiful darkness inside him… but he always wanted to fly free from his cage.”
I silently shook my head.
I was never going to leave this place. I felt it in my bones.
“Good little bird.” She looked down at Lucifer, whose eyelids were fluttering. “You’ll both bring me so much joy. Dis is a newborn child, nothing compared to the rituals of Kur.”
Ereshkigal held out a hand, gesturing to the wide window overlooking her city.
“My arenas are waiting for you, and you’ll sing for me while he bleeds and proves his love.”
Satan glared at me. I felt the heat of his gaze, the anger and rage, and it was nothing compared to the endless emptiness of the power inside the Queen.
Where are you? Where are you?
He silently promised me that I’d suffer for daring to defy him. For driving him out of his home.
I met his eyes squarely, summoning the last of my defiance. Before I died, I’d make sure I brought him with me.
“In fact…” Ereshkigal’s clawed feet rasped on the floor as she moved. Dry gray hair became thick and glossy again, spilling to the floor behind her. “I think I’d like to hear you sing now.”
Shadows rose from her, rising up to the cage overhead. They formed barbed tendrils that hooked into my skin, seeking out my wounds and drawing fresh blood.
The pain was everything. Blinding. I barely understood that I was screaming, begging her to stop.
And then there was the void of blessed unconsciousness, opening to swallow me whole.
Where are you?
The End