Prologue
December 10, 1425
Roxy
* * *
Gripping at the stone wall with bloody fingers, I slid and stumbled down the dimly lit hall, clutching the gaping wound across my side, and desperately tried to keep my insides from spilling out. Shrieks of rage and bloodcurdling roars echoed from the room behind me.
Oh gods.
Pressing the back of my bloody hand to my mouth, I retched violently. How could this be happening? My world had simply stopped turning.
I squeezed my eyes closed as images from that room, from what I just walked in on, flashed like a horror show through my mind. I clung to the wall, forcing myself to stay upright. I’d lost too much blood; my legs were on the verge of giving out. Somehow, I managed to claw myself toward the staircase, calling Lucifer’s name.
My veins burned hot as I collapsed on the floor, unable to stay upright any longer, but as my blood drained from the gaping wound at my side and onto the stone floor, only ice remained.
“Roxy?” Lucifer’s voice sounded distant. His arms surrounded me as he scooped me up, carrying me into another room, and kicked the door shut behind us.
He laid me on the bed, and I blinked up at him, at the shadows dancing across his face from the candlelight and crackling fire in the hearth. I opened my mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t speak them out loud. His gaze slid to my side, to the mess there, then back up. He didn’t ask me who had caused my injuries or what happened, he didn’t need to.
“Y-you sent me to that room,” I rasped. “You knew.”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “You needed to know the truth.”
His words pierced through my chest, and if I wasn’t busy holding my intestines inside my body, my hands would have been gripping my chest, because it hurt. It hurt more than being cut open with a blade made from blessed silver, burning and still eating at my flesh now.
A howl full of pain and rage echoed in the distance, and Lucifer’s yellow gaze met and held mine. For a moment, just a flicker of time, I thought I saw regret in their depths, but then it was gone.
The unmistakable sound of rustling wings had Lucifer spinning around, fury rolling off him. The angel stood just inside the room, holding a knife still dripping with my blood. The door slammed shut behind her. “Give her to me,” she demanded through clenched teeth.
“You can’t have her,” Lucifer said, his voice cold, deadly.
An earth-shattering roar exploded nearby, threatening to bring down this building. Seraphina was preventing Lothar from leaving her room, or trying to.
A smile curled Sera’s lips. “I’ll give you what you so badly want, Lucifer, even though you sent your hound to seduce, then steal it from me, and I will spare their lives, but I have conditions.”
“Spare their lives?” Lucifer vibrated with rage. “You think I’ll just stand by and allow you to harm them and do nothing? You overestimate your powers.”
She smirked. “Maybe, but if you succeed in killing me, you will make yourself a target. I may be a traitor, but unlike you, I am still one of them.” Her gaze sliced to me and she tilted her head to the side. “But very well, you can keep her. Death would be too easy anyway. Give me the hound’s head, and I’ll give you your trinket.”
“No,” I gasped, shaking so hard I had to clench my teeth. “Don’t hurt him. Don’t?—”
“Even after what he did? You still love him, don’t you?” Evil glee filled her eyes. “Fine. Here is my final offer. I will give you the gem, Lucifer, and you and your throne will be safe, at least for now. But only if you give me the biggest quadrant in Hell, make a place for me here, and?—”
“What more do you think you deserve, Sera?” he said, ice dripping from his voice.
“I deserve compensation for the way you treated me. You tried to manipulate me, steal from me.” She slid her thumb over her bloody lip. “You sent one of your precious little play things to attack me.”
“You already know you’ve lost. Providing you with refuge would be a kindness, one you do not deserve,” Lucifer said.
She shook her head. “Maybe, but it’s the only way I’ll hand over this…” A small, intricately carved wooden box appeared in her hand. “You can’t leave Hell to chase me all over the realms, Lucifer, and as long as I have this, you’ll be looking over your shoulder. All it would take is a whisper in the right ear, an enemy, a disgruntled demon willing to do my bidding?—”
Lucifer snarled.
“Give me my quadrant, and—” She smiled, her gaze darting to me and lighting with glee. “—make the hound forget he ever loved her. Make him forget who Roxana is to him. Let her suffer unrequited love for eternity, and the prize is yours.”
The roaring and snarls reached new levels. Lothar had busted out of Sera’s room and was at our door now, and the sound of his huge body colliding with it, over and over again, made me jolt and tense. The only reason he hadn’t gotten through was because Lucifer was preventing it.
