Lucifer struck, his movements fast enough to blur. Steel flashed. His sword came down and met mine with a blow thatrattled my bones and drove me two steps back. Power rode his attack, a shockwave that splintered the rock beneath us.
“I wasn’t lying when I said I was proud of all you’ve accomplished,” he said, voice a low rumble.
I shoved him back and slashed at his ribs. The tip of my blade nicked his tunic. Lucifer barely glanced down, a slow grin spreading across his face.
“Spare me the compliments,” I shot back, and lunged again.
He effortlessly parried my attack, and in the same breath, answered with a palm of black fire that I cut through with Inferno’s Kiss. Sparks of darkness hissed and died along my blade.
Another strike. Another parry. I darted out of reach of his next swing and came up beside him. I stabbed Inferno’s Kiss at his side, but he batted my blade away like it was merely a toy.
“But it’s true,” he said between strikes. “You’ve finally proven yourself useful.”
He came at me again, this time his wings striking at me like twin battering rams. The gusts hurled me sideways. I slammed into a rocky outcrop, stone biting my back. Pain flared, but I sprang away before his blade could pin me there.
His next thrust came low and fast. I blocked it with Inferno’s Kiss and countered with Dragonbane. The tip grazed his throat and drew a thin line of dark blood. He only grinned wider.
I frowned even as I took another step back.
“I see that darkness inside you. It’s inside me too,” he said under his breath, so low only I could hear. “Rule beside me. Imagine what we could accomplish together, little heir: every gate open, every soul kneeling at our feet.” His mouth curved, his smile sharp as a knife’s edge. “Who would dare challenge us then?” He let the question linger, and then, because he was Lucifer, he twisted the blade. “Do something worthy for once. Give your mother a reason to be proud.”
I knew the game he was playing and saw right through him. For the first time in my whole life, he saw me as useful. With my power at his disposal, he could open every gate without him having to spareanyof his power. But for that, he needed me alive—something he’d never cared about before.
I opened my mouth, about to shut him down, when the darkness inside me swelled, and a voice echoed through my head.This is what you were born for. Take it. Take it all.
The words slid along my nerves like a warm current, wrapping me in the promise of absolute power. My grip on my blades loosened before I realized it. An image flashed inside my head—my father and I standing together next to the throne, an endless army bowed at our feet, the gates thrown wide as our army marched through.
Lucifer leaned closer, his smile almost gentle. “Oh, youwantit. Don’t deny it, daughter. Say yes, and every realm, every soul, will belong to us.”
Yes. The power is yours.
My heart hammered, half terror, half aching want.
The darkness writhed at my feet, begging to be set free. It hungered for more than this realm. It ached for complete control. For absolute strength and power.
God help me, I almost said yes, even while knowing my father only wanted to use me.
My mouth parted, though I wasn’t sure what I intended to say. But then the voice in my head silenced me when it whispered,Or…The word stretched out, soft as velvet.
The vision in my head changed. My father flickered out of existence, his black wings dissolving like ash in the wind. I saw myself standing alone before the throne, draped in shadow, Hell’s crown heavy on my brow. My own wings—dark as the void and dripping with magic—spread wide behind me. Andbelow me, my hellspawn army, an endless sea of heads bowed in reverence.
Not to him.
To me.
Why share when you can have it all? the darkness purred. Why be a queen when you can be a god?
Heat bloomed in my chest. The ache for this possible future was almost unbearable. I wanted it so badly, I trembled.
“Just say yes,” Lucifer coaxed, his voice cutting through the vision. “And we can?—”
“Yes,” I breathed. Except, I wasn’t speaking to Lucifer. I was speaking to the darkness.
It shivered in delight, like it had been waiting for that single word all along, and whispered,At last.
It didn’t hesitate.
Something cold took me over, and a soundless shockwave punched out of me in a blast so violent it sent the grit beneath my boots flying in every direction. My arms spread open on their own, and shadows erupted from me in a column of black that rose high—higher—and clawed at the sky. A scream ripped free of my throat, one I couldn’t control, as the darkness expunged itself from me.
