My father had told me that Pop Pop had wanted Jesus to understand why my father ran Hell and the purpose of having two places for souls to go, but Dad said Jesus was a stick in the mud and always turned down all of his fun bonding ideas. Go figure.
I heard the guys’ grunt as they crashed to the ground, but I wasn't paying attention to them. I was sinking my hands into the fiery grains of sand beneath me, since my arms and body were no longer bound, as the job it meant to accomplish was complete. I looked up at the red Hell sky. I tilted my head at the design the clouds were making.Was that a dick in the sky?
It was bittersweet to be back. It was my home, where I was raised, where I learned how to live my life as a princess of Hell, but at the same time, it was my shackles, my responsibility, the place that was determined to make my choices for me.
As soon as I had that thought, I felt Hell’s call. The magic of the realm turned its head and looked at me, smiling. My hands and legs started to feel like they were sinking into quicksand, and I felt a rush of power coming for me, searching for me like a bloodhound. One minute I was sitting on the desert floor; the next, power rushed forward, claiming my body while it laughed and welcomed me home. My back snapped back, and I slammed onto the ground in pain. It felt like the fires of Hell had come for me, filling up my veins with liquid flames that would burn me from the inside out.
As that fire raced up and down my body, I felt it settle into my wrists, burning hotter. Then I smelled burning flesh. It would’ve made me gag if my mouth hadn’t already been open in a silent scream. I could vaguely hear the guys near me, also screaming, but I couldn't focus on that, not while the Hell power was searing my soul, branding it like I was cattle in its herd, and it didn't want me to get away again.
The magic of the Hellscape surrounded me in a whirl of fire and darkness like a tornado and I was at the eye of it, screaming as pain wracked over my body from the tips of my hair to the bottom of my toes. The pain was so intense and all-consuming, like nothing I have ever felt before, that I almost, almost, pleaded with it to stop. I wanted to ask for forgiveness for leaving if it would just let this pain cease to consume my body, but I didn't. I bit my lips together from the inside so hard that blood filled my mouth. The copper taste reminded me that this was just my flesh, that my soul was much stronger. I just needed to hold out.
Almost like the power could read my thoughts, it decided to let up, the pain stopped, the liquid fire that consumed each cell in my body eased from the intensity, and I was gently released with a sigh of contentment from the power. My eyes were still closed as my mind went from survival mode back to my regular thoughts. Then I felt a tug on my wrist. I focused on that tug and found three more tugs, each with their own type of pull and feel to them. What did Hell do to me?
The tugs didn't go away. In fact, they only got stronger. I cracked my eyelids open and looked down. My eyes flew wide open as I gazed at three-inch sized swirling marks on my wrists, two on each side, staring back at me. One was a skull with crossbones, black and inky against my skin like a tattoo, power swirling underneath my skin like it was alive. Next to that one was green justice scales, gently tipping back and forth.
On my other wrist, two red swords clashed against each other, almost like they were an evenly matched fight. The last one was a purple crown, rotating like it was showing off.
They felt vaguely familiar, like I’d seen something like this before… then I remembered my father’s wrist—the one that had the grayed-out finger against a pair of lips—and I went very still.
No. No. This wasn’t happening. I looked up and saw the guys starting to sit up, their hands on their heads, asking each other if they’d felt that burning sensation too. I zeroed in on War’s lifted wrist. It had a white lily flower on it that he hadn't had before.
This was not happening. This was not how it was supposed to go. My mind kept circling as I heard them call my name, asking me what had happened, but I was numb. I felt my world crashing around me. The one thing that I was running the hardest from. The one thing I thought I’d had time to try to figure out. Instead, the Hell magic recognized me and decided that I had picked and chosen them. No.
I made myself stand, my legs shaky and not from pain or exhaustion, but from pure shock.
“Lillian! What the fuck is happening?” Death's voice broke through my thoughts, and I snapped my eyes over to him with a feral snarl. He must’ve seen something in my gaze that scared him because he smoothed out the features on his face, lowering his voice as he asked again in a much nicer tone, “Lillian. What is going on?”
I opened and closed my mouth like a fucking fish out of water, not knowing how to tell these men what Hell just did to them was an eternal sentence. That I wouldn't even wish this on my worst of enemies. Then I heard a popping sound, and a familiar voice broke the silence.
“Hello, Lily Bear, give Papa a squeeze!”
I did a slow turn to face my father, the man who’d tasked these men to come to get me, the very father who wouldn't even go ask Pop Pop if he could get me out of this requirement the Hellscape had. The crazy fool thought he would have a joyous reunion with his daughter as his hands came out in a come-hug-me motion.
I snarled at him like an animal before I lunged at his neck, wanting to squeeze it until I felt better. As soon as I got close, he popped out from my grasp to the other side of me with a shocked look.
“Lily Bear, what gives? I thought you would be happy to see your papa.” He stuck out his lip in a pout, but he couldn't hide it from me. The look in his eyes that said I was right where he planned me to be. He was basking in the joy of winning.
I couldn’t help it. I snarled again. “How dare you! How dare you even talk to me, you overgrown, self-absorbed ingrate! I'm going to rip out your entrails and feed them to the hounds for a special snack!” My chest heaved, like I still wasn't done yet. From my peripherals, I noticed the guys’ faces wide with shock that I would talk to my father, the King of Hell, like that. I saw their fear for me settling on their faces and it would've made me laugh if I wasn't so pissed.
“Now, is that any way to talk to your father?” my dad said in the stern father-voice he’d used on me when I was a child.
But I wasn't a child anymore, so I flipped him off before I saw my wrist again and my anger flared.
“Did you know about this?” I pointed to my wrists before I threw them up, knowing the answer. “Of course you did!” My nostrils flared as seething anger poured out of me, and the only place I could focus it on was him. “This hasyouall written over it, but did you tell them what you were signing them up for?!” I yelled as I pointed to the guys, who were currently looking between me and my father, rubbing their chin or scratching their head as they were trying to catch up with our conversation.
Dad’s mouth fell open and he raised his hand to his non-existent heart. “What! Me!? Never! I didn't know that the Hell magic was going to do that.” He pointed to my wrists, and I stopped myself from trying to hide them.
When I narrowed my eyes at him, he blew out a breath of frustration. “I mean, I didn't know for suuuurrrre.” He dragged out the last word like a kindergartener at the playground before he straightened and faced me. “I mean, did I think that Hell would pick all of them? No. Did I think Hell would pick someone strong and capable who would match your personality? Yes.” He looked over at the guys before he grimaced and looked back at me, throwing his thumb at the lot of them. “But really? All four? What about just one of them?” Then he looked me up and down before he tilted his head to the sky as he cried to Hell in anguish, “Is this my fault?! Did I mess her up?”
That was it. I launched myself at my dad, and this time, I collided with him, taking him to the ground. I started to punch him, but he laughed and giggled as he dodged my fists.
“Oh, Lily Bear, you remembered our favorite game!”
After a few minutes I realized that he was having fun, and that was the opposite of what I wanted.
I slammed my hands down on the ground and jumped up into a standing position as I turned away, chastising myself for falling into the same old routine. I hadn't been down here or talked to him in so long that I’d forgotten how to deal with his insufferable ass. How did you combat the devil, you ask? Well, you ignore him and don't let him get to you.
“Will someone tell us what the fuck is going on? Why do my brothers and I now have a brand of a lily flower on our wrists? Why do I feel this…” Fame started to yell but ended up at a loss for words, looking down again at the brand on his wrist and looking back up at me with confusion in his eyes.
