“What?” Azagoth snarled. “What can they do to me that they haven’t already done? I’m finished playing by their rules.”
She wrung her hands, unsettled by his recklessness. “They’ll destroy you!”
“They’ll bow to me.” His wings erupted, casting long shadows down into the valley of demons below. “Kill the first demon you see,” he shouted. “Any demon. I don’t care.”
“Father.” Idess snared his wrist, pleading with him. “No. Please. We have demon friends. My mate and son are demons.”
Azagoth snarled and turned back to them. “Evil demons only. Go! Reap!”
The Charnel Apostle thrust his fist into the air, and a blurry portal appeared against the face of a craggy cliff. The demons charged toward the opening, their bloodlust so thick in the air she could taste it on her tongue.
She shouldn’t say anything. She should keep her mouth shut. But that wasn’t how she was made. Azagoth was making a mistake, and someone was going to pay the price.
“Heaven isn’t going to let this stand,” she said softly. “It’s one thing to take out an enemy. It’s another to release a hundred thousand souls and allow them to kill a hundred thousand people.”
“Do you truly think I care?” He gazed out over the hell he’d created, his profile as harsh as his surroundings. “Without Lilliana, I am nothing. Nothing matters but getting her back.” He waved his hand in dismissal. “Get her out of here, Hades.”
She didn’t protest. Simply let Hades guide her back to Azagoth’s office, where Hawkyn was waiting. The moment Hades shut down the portal and disappeared, she filled her brother in on everything.
Hawkyn listened, his expression growing more concerned with every word. Finally, he closed his eyes and rubbed them with his palms.
“Fuck me, I know what I have to do,” he murmured. “Fuck!”
“Hawkyn?”
He didn’t appear to have heard her. “He’s going to see it as a betrayal.”
“See what as a betrayal?” She seized his biceps and forced him to look at her. “Hawk, what are you going to do?”
His gaze met hers, the gravity in his emerald eyes sending a chill of dread up her spine. “I’m going to rat him out to Reaver,” he said. “I’m going to turn him in to Heaven.”
Chapter 13
‘Sup, Lil?”
Lilliana blinked at the sound of the feminine voice as light flooded the chamber she’d been shackled inside for…a century, maybe? It was probably no more than a couple of days, but it felt longer. A lot longer.
“I brought something for you to eat.”
She groaned, expecting a bowl of curdled gore or a maggot-covered shank of mystery meat. But the fallen angel, a backstabbing female named Flail, put down a wooden trencher with a sad but not terribly disgusting-looking cheese sandwich and a bruised, shriveled apple.
Lilliana sat up, tugging at the scratchy, stained tunic she’d been given to wear. She tried to be nonchalant and dismissive of the food, but her stomach betrayed her with a growl that echoed inside the cramped chamber.
Still, she resisted the urge to fall on the food like a starving lion on a dead gazelle.
Flail closed the heavy chamber door and used her power to increase the glow of the single torch on the far wall. “I was actually kind of sad when I found out that Moloch had managed to abduct you,” she said. “You were always decent to me in Sheoul-gra.”
“That was back when I thought you were an ally.” Lilliana used her foot to shoo away a shoe-sized hell roach as it skittered toward the sandwich. “Now that I know you were the enemy all along, I wish I’d spit in your traitorous face.”
Flail smiled, a malevolent baring of fangs. “I’ll bet you do.” She stomped on the roach and nudged the plate of food closer. “I didn’t have to bring you this. Moloch said to let you starve.”
Lilliana gingerly propped herself against the spikes jutting out of the wall and said nothing. Flail was toying with her, waiting for her to ask the obvious question of “then why did you bring it?” Lilliana could toy right back.
When it became clear that Lilliana wasn’t going to budge, Flail stepped on the sandwich, squashing it beneath her spiked-heel boot like she had the bug.
“You ungrateful bitch.” She lifted her foot, the top slice of bread sticking to the sole of her boot. “I just thought you’d like to feed the baby.”
“The baby and I are fine. But thank you for caring,” she added, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Flail kicked the flattened bread across the tiny cell. “Eat it or don’t. I don’t fucking care. Maybe you like the idea of growing weaker and weaker until you’re a pathetic wisp that can’t die. I’ve seen it happen, you know. Immortals who are too stubborn to do the things they need to do to function. It’s sad. And stupid.” She shook her head, making her long, dark hair swing loosely around her biceps. “Oh, so stupid! Why would anyone choose to endure such endless torment?”
“The kind of endless torment I’m enduring right now?”
“You laugh, but don’t you think you should stay strong? For the kid?” Flail asked. This was ridiculous. Flail didn’t give a shit about the baby. “I didn’t poison the food. If I wanted you dead, I’d do it myself. Eat.”
Lilliana eyed the offerings. She really was hungry, and Flail was right. She needed to stay strong until Azagoth could rescue her.
And he would. Of that, she had no doubt. She also had no doubt that Moloch would come to regret kidnapping her and murdering Azagoth’s sons.
Casually, she reached for the apple. Studied it. Gave it a sniff. Flail watched, amused, as Lilliana finally took a tentative bite. It was mealy, dry, and sour, but it was the only thing she’d eaten since she’d gotten here, and the only thing she’d been offered that resembled food.
It was delicious. She had to force herself not to moan in ecstasy as she gobbled it down to the core.
“Now,” Flail said with a slight smirk. “Let’s talk business.”
There it was, Flail’s real reason for being here. Lilliana took a bite of the cheese-topped bread while the fallen angel pulled a phone out of her pocket.
Flail held out the cell. “I’ll let you talk to your mate if you promise to tell him to release Satan from his prison.”
She nearly choked on her sandwich at the continued absurdity of these people. “Releasing Satan will jump-start the Apocalypse. Azagoth will never do that.”
“Listen to me, Lilliana.” Flail’s voice held a note of urgency, her gaze dropping to Lilliana’s belly with such intensity that Lilliana wrapped her arms protectively around it. “If you can’t convince Azagoth to do this, you and your baby are going to suffer horrors you can’t even imagine.” She shoved the phone closer. “You have to try.”
Lilliana laughed, the acoustics in the room making her sound a little demented. “You almost sound like you care.”
Angry red splotches bloomed in Flail’s cheeks. “Let’s get one thing straight, you fat whore. I don’t give a shit about you or the little fuckstain in your belly. My only desire is to serve the Dark Lord and revel in the End of Days.” She jammed the phone back into her pocket. “And it would be best for everyone if Azagoth did things the easy way.” She spun gracefully toward the door, but before she stepped out, she looked back over her shoulder. “Think about it, but don’t take too long. Moloch gave Azagoth forty-eight hours to act, and he’s eager to take the next step. I promise you won’t like it. Get some sleep. You’re going to need it.”