I exhaled out of my nose as I looked around to determine where exactly we were. I realized that I could, in theory, just wink myself home, one of the perks of having Hell power, but my damn angel conscience was telling me that would be wrong to do to my new mates. To just leave them here to travel the seven circles of Hell alone. They don't know the land and would easily get turned around, or worse, lost. Fucking Hell!
“Yes.” I turned and started to walk towards the first circle’s entrance, expecting them to follow me, but when I didn't hear footsteps, I looked around. They all were just standing, staring at me, and I motioned for them to follow.
Death opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to the punch, lifting my hand. “Look, I will explain everything to you while we go through the seven circles to the center to my dad’s… well I guess nowmymansion. Come on.”
I turned back around just as Fame asked, “Why do you have a red ring around your irises? Why do all four of us have this lilly brand on our arms? Why can't you just portal us back to the human plane?” His frustration at me and my dad was as plain as day on his face.
I cracked a cruel smile as I threw over my shoulder, still walking. “I can't because those marks on your wrists mean that you are to remain on the same plane of existence as your mate.” Their eyes got wide as I continued in a nasty tone, “And she just became the ruler of Hell. Which is what the red ring symbolizes.”
I turned away and stomped off as I heard a collective gasp in disbelief. As I kept walking, I heard them harshly whispering to each other, but ultimately, they ran to catch up to me. I couldn’t help but smirk to myself as I thought,That’s what you get for fucking with Lillian Darkstar.
Chapter 25
Iportaledtothemansion and started to collect all the things I needed for this journey. Some blessed weapons from my old days, the ever-changing map of Heaven, Hell, and the In-between: Purgatory. If God was hiding or had been taken, He would be in one of those places, but first, I had to make the trip to Heaven to interrogate some angels.
In Heaven there was a much more complicated system than in Hell. A lot of different levels of angels and jobs that they did. We were all made by God, just like everything, but there were a select few of us that were born first and together, those are the ones that are considered Archangels, God's closest confidants, and who I considered my siblings. They all had their own special jobs and powers, but we were all almost equal in power level, except when God asked me to rebel and run Hell. That gave me more of an edge in power over my equal siblings and they didn’t like that, especially Michael.
My mind drifted back to Lily and her mates. Those boys finally did their damn job. Man, they’d made me sweat it, though. About five years ago, when I had the idea that one of them could possibly be her mate based on their power levels, I’d ensured that the dark witch book had made it into one of the shops that Fame frequented, looking for answers to questions that only my father knew. My father had a penchant for that shit—leaving out important information just because of His “greater plan”. Where do you think I learned it from?
I chuckled to myself, because it was true. Most of my bad habits had been learned from Him. All of my good ones, I’d learned from my love, Raziel. My heart seized like it always did when I thought of her, my lovely angel mate, Lily’s mother.
She wasn’t an Archangel, but she was a part of the second batch of angels created, which meant that she was still very powerful, but luckily for me I didn't see her as a sister. She also had a special love for my father, and him for her. I was jealous of them and started to hang around her to try and figure out what made her so special to him, until I found out and started to fall for her too. Then one day I grew enough courage to kiss her. Our mate marks showed up and that was that. My nail trailed over the grayed out finger over lips symbol that was Raziel’s, the angel of secrets, mark.
The day we learned she was pregnant was the best day of my life. It should’ve been impossible, something that was forbidden, and we’d been told could never happen. When we found out, she demanded she go to Heaven to see my father to receive his blessing. When she returned, she’d been smiling and happy, so full of joy that I’d never noticed her shaking hands. How sometimes she looked at me extra-long but would just smile and kiss me, telling me how amazing she felt.
I hadn’t known until she was giving birth what my father had told her. What she’d decided without me. Between her contractions, she’d confessed that my father had told her that because we were eternals, having a child, especially one who’s connected to both sides of the spectrum, would require a sacrifice in order to maintain balance. That if we wanted a happy, healthy baby, an eternal would need to give up their life to make room for hers.
She’d understood that by choosing to have Lillian, it would cost her existence. He’d offered her the choice: have a healthy baby and die, or He would take care of the baby within her womb, and she would still have her life. She’d told me it wasn’t even a thought or choice for her. She knew she would give up anything to have this baby born, happy and healthy.
He'd offered to let her come back to Hell to talk to me about it, but she’d known what I would say. That I would have had a hard time with the thought of her not being with me, so she’d made the choice for us. She’d kept the baby.
When she’d come back, she’d just wanted to enjoy the time she had left with me. She hadn't wanted to waste it fighting about what she had already decided and wouldn't go back on. So while my mate, the only being in existence who understood me, the one I would've torn the whole system down for, was in labor having our baby, my mind was trapped and tormented, trying to envision an eternity without her.
As soon as Lily had come into this world, shrieking like a banshee, I’d known I had two loves of my life. I’d placed our daughter in my mate’s arms, and her smile had spoken a thousand words. She was sad she couldn't be there for her, she felt regret that she would miss her growing up, but what shone the brightest was how incredibly, earth-shatteringly happy she was that she was here. That she would never regret her decision to give her life for this baby, our baby.
She’d started slipping away after a few minutes. She’d looked up at me with glassy eyes as she begged me to be a good father. To not let my grief take over, and to make our daughter’s life the best it could be.
Of course I told her yes. I would've promised her the impossible just to get that look of soul-crushing desperation out of her eyes. To clear the all-consuming worry she had for our baby. I was not going to let her last moments be encased in fear. I’d clutched her hand, making all the promises that she wanted, but as soon as she’d closed her eyes and her hand went limp, my heart cracked open as I looked down at the baby wailing for its mother in my arms.
I will be the first to admit I was not the best of dads. The first few years, I was still battling my grief. I had good days and bad ones, but luckily, I had Reginald, my butler, to pick up the slack. There was not a day that went by that I didn’t regret missing those early days, wishing that I kept my promise to Raziel. But I was trying now, and that had to count for something, right?
“So you accomplished phase one. When should I expect the mistress and her mate?” Reginald said behind me.
I jumped in surprise, my go-bag plopping onto the floor as I shrieked. That fucker had always been the only fucking being who could sneak up on me, and it freaked me out. No one should be able to surprise the devil, no one.
"Mates," I called out as I bent down and snatched the bag up, grabbing the last item on my bed and stuffing it inside as I whirled towards him. His expression flashed with surprise before it turned back into its stoic, forlorn expression as he watched me. His equally unimpressed and bored attitude had not changed in all the years he had been with me. He’d died in the eighteen-hundreds, and when I caught him wandering around Hell, not yet claimed by one of the princes and chastising a demon for having bad decorum, I knew that he needed to be my butler, if only for all the laughs.
I once thought he just needed cheering up to get that stick out of his butt, and for one solid century, I tried everything to get him to laugh or smile, even just a quiver of his lip, but it hadn't worked and I finally gave up, telling him I thought he was broken. After I’d said that, he’d smiled, the rat bastard. That was one of the handful of times I’d gotten him to smile, so I’d decided his attitude was a personality thing.
As he looked into my eyes, seeing the lack of red rings surrounding my pupils, his eyes and mouth widened, shocked for the first time in a very long time.
I wanted to giggle at his expression, poke fun at him, but I didn't have the time.
“The fact that she could've winked here but didn't means that her bleeding heart kept her with her new mates and she's showing them through the seven circles, so… about an hour or two, depending on how slow they go.”
I looked down at my wrist like I had a watch, but I didn't. It was all for show, but I tipped my head up. “Move the small hand over six places, then back over the big hand…and yes, I should be gone by then.”
His face slid back into his regular sad, depressing state as he nodded. “I'm looking forward to seeing the mistress.”
