Chapter Twenty-Eight
RATHIEL
Hours after Lilydestroyed the crown, I moved through the palace with my injured wing bound tight against my back. It would heal, but without any blood to drink, it would take time. The only source of blood I was really interested in was Lily—and she was currently asleep in her room. It didn’t feel right leaving the palace to hunt while she slept. Not after everything. So for now, I’d just have to go without.
She’d never admit it, but I knew she hadn’t slept properly since we’d returned to Hell. Obliterating both the crown and throne hadn’t helped either. The amount of power it’d demanded had wrung her out both physically and emotionally. So, I’d carried her to her old room, helped her change into something more comfortable than fighting leathers, then left her to get some undisturbed sleep.
While she rested, I wandered the hallways with no real purpose, much like I had in the days before the first rebellion. Back when I’d realized I’d fallen in love with Lucifer’s daughter and hadn’t the faintest idea what to do about it.
Back then, the halls had been alive with patrols and servants—a constant murmur of hellspawn. Now the corridors were silent. Too silent. We hadn’t noticed it at first, mostly because we’d been so focused on Lily. But once the dust settled, I’d realized what was missing: all the hellspawn.
Calyx had flown back to the battlefield, then returned with an unhappy imp and a pissed-off cat in his arms and a hungry hellwyrm at his side.According to Vol, shortly after we’d left the battlefield, every single hellspawn—including Dragon—had simply vanished.
“It looked like the freaking rapture out there,” he’d said while I’d led him and Purrgy to Lily’s room. The imp had been eager to check on her—a secret he’d made me swear to take to my grave—while the cat merely followed out of interest, inspecting the new territory. Typical cat behaviour, or so Vol assured me.
After tucking them both in with Lily, I returned to Calyx, who assured me nothing remained on the battlefield but discarded weapons and armour.
Since then, the rest of us had fallen into a sort of awkward silence. We simply didn’t know what to do with ourselves. In the wake of everything, I felt almost lost, and could only imagine the others felt the same. We had no one to fight, no plans to scheme, no world to save. We’d accomplished it all. And now, I didn’t know what to do with myself other than wait for Lily to wake.
I passed Lucifer’s office and paused at the threshold. The door hung half-open, offering me a glimpse inside. I nudged it open and entered, marvelling at just howemptythe room felt. Almost dead. Any time I’d stood in the room in the past, I’d done so with Lucifer. I’d always stood on the other side of his desk, awaiting his orders. And those orders had always consisted of teaching Lilith a proper lesson. One that would prove tohimthat she was worth his time.
Well, she’d proven that, hadn’t she?
Even now, I couldn’t believe half the things I’d seen today. When I’d imagined Lily destroying her father, it’d always been with me at her side and an army at her back. Yes, she’d had both those things, but neither of us had been any help when it’d come to the final battle against her father. The image of her holding him aloft in the air, her darkness piercing his body over and over would stay with me for the rest of my damned existence.
But worse—farworse—than watching the darkness obliterate Lucifer was seeing what it did to Lily. It’d taken her over completely, practically consumed her. Her eyes had bled to pure black, and veins as dark as pitch had spread beneath her skin. The power had drained all the emotion from her and turned her into a soulless husk. She’d turned away from me with barely a flicker of recognition. In that instant, it’d felt as though someone had reached inside my chest and torn out my heart. It’d turned her into a complete stranger—amonster—who didn’t care about anyone and only craved more power.
But even that paled in comparison to everything that had gone down in the throne room. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined Sofiel would appear. Celestials were nothing like humans—I knew that better than any—but I’d never seen one return from the dead before. Her presence here had raised so many questions for me. Questions I doubted I would ever find the answers to. And standing around contemplating them wouldn’t help matters. Nor would standing around in Lucifer’s office, staring at what remained of his legacy.
I left the study to the dust and carried on. I wasn’t even sure of the directions I took until I turned a corner, glanced up, and halted.
Calyx and Eliza sat at the top of a small set of stairs that led past me and down to the fallen angels’ private quarters—all of whom were dead now, other than me and Calyx. They sat closeenough that their shoulders touched, and neither were armed. Come to think of it, neither was I, because there was no one left to fight. Such a strange feeling.
Eliza had unbound her hair, and the locks had slipped forward on her shoulders. She stared at the floor, unblinking, her lips pressed into a grim line. Calyx sat with one ankle hooked over the other and his hands linked loosely in his lap. His position looked relaxed, but the hard set of his jaw told me he wanted to crush something. He bent his head toward her as she spoke—too low for me to catch the words—and quietly responded to her.
I didn’t go to them. I wasn’t sure they wanted me to intrude on their moment. Eliza was another who had faced so much. Perhaps arguably more than Lily.
Lily had killed her father and given up an extreme amount of power. But she’d also received a once-in-a-lifetime gift—the chance to see and touch her mother. Someone Lucifer had robbed from her before she’d even begun to form memories.
Eliza, though, had lost something truly special. She’d believed herself falling in love with someone—an angel, no less. She’d given her heart and loyalty to him, only to learn he’d manipulated and betrayed her. I couldn’t imagine how that must have felt, learning not only was the one you’d fallen in love with dead, but a monster was masquerading as them. That she was willingly talking to Calyx told me all I needed to know about her current state of mind.
I turned, ready to return to Lily, but the moment I moved, Eliza called to me.
“Rathiel.”
Sighing, I turned back to them.
The two had moved apart a fraction of an inch, but Calyx’s body language still screamedprotector.
“How’s Lily?” Eliza asked.
Ah. A safe topic.
“She’s resting,” I said. “But she seems okay. I haven’t been able to ask her many questions, but she was awake long enough to assure me the darkness is gone. I think she’s more tired than anything.”
Eliza’s head bobbed, her eyes still wet and her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
“How areyou?” I asked.
